The Lone
Gunmen Episode 1: Pilot
In which the intrepid conspiracy theorists, led by Byers not-so-dead
father,
stop the events of 9-11 six months before they happen...
X-Files/Lone Gunmen Star Dean Haglund On The Alex Jones Show - Interview excerpt
Dean Haglund - Complete Interview with Black Vault Radio News
(25mb, 53 min. mp3 file)
Intro
Byers: [voiceover] "My name is John Fitzgerald Byers. I was named after our 35th president, and I keep having this beautiful dream. In my dream, the events of November 22nd, 1963, never happened. In it, my namesake was never assassinated. Other things are different, too, in my dream. My country is hopeful and innocent; young again. Young in spirit. My fellow citizens trust their elected officials, never once having been betrayed by them. My government is truly 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. All my hopes for my country, for myself... all are fulfilled. I have everything a person could want; home and family... and love. Everything that counts for anything in life... I have it. But the dream ends the same way every time. I lose it all." [Byers is left standing alone in the desert holding a wedding ring]
Mythology
Chris Carter says: "Every show I do I seem to introduce a "myth arc." It kind of comes about on its own.... Something I learned with HR [Harsh Realms] is not to introduce it too soon. Give people a chance to get to know the characters and setup.... before you get into the heavy stuff."
Lone Gunmen Episode 1 - Pilot
Byers launches a model rocket believed to contain his father's ashes
at the conclusion of his funeral: a surreal moment of deadpan solemnity.1AEB79 Pilot
Rating: 13 million
Air Date: March 4, 2001
Written By: Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz
Directed By: Rob Bowman
A father-son reunion and chat about scenario 12-D
Byers is surprised by his father as he goes through his house looking for clues to his disappearance. His father is less than happy to be found, knowing that Overlord will use his son to find him. Confronting his father with his suspicions that Scenario 12-D is connected to his disappearance, Byers learns of an impending staged terrorist action, the bombing of a domestic airliner.
An unscheduled stop at the corner of Liberty and Washington...
Boarding the plane expecting to find a bomb, they learn that the plane is the bomb, and is being flown by remote control. Hacking into the plane's navigational computer, Langley and Frohike learn its true destination.
Flying by wireless - Byers' father breaks into the cockpit and turns off the autopilot to convince the pilot that he is not in control of the plane. Back in Tacoma Park Langly struggles to decrypt the control signal but "my CPU's are pegged!"
Final Approach - The plane is closing rapidly on the WTC North Tower. The pilots struggle vainly to override the remote control signal, while Langly struggles to decrypt it. Frohike has gone to plead with Yves, who has the "Octium" chip stolen at the opening of the episode. After he threatens to divulge her true identity (her full name is an anagram of "Lee Harvey Oswald", though it is never clear what this implies) she agrees to patch in with her superchip and help them decrypt the signal. Somehow magically joining forces with Langley in the few seconds remaining (Maryland must have really good DSL connections) remote control is defeated in a predictable but nicely-done CGI near miss.
Dénouement - some final words of encouragement. Bert explains to his son why he does not intend to go public with what he knows about Overlord, and why they should both accept getting out alive as the best achievable outcome.
Download: A short synopsis (3mb WMV)
Some final thoughts
Is this just a case of life imitating art, or did Carter and his associates know something about the upcoming attacks? Was this an attempt to use the highly visible platform of the first episode of a new series (and a spin-off from the very popular X-Files) to make enough people aware of the scenario that it would become too risky to implement? Or was it just one of those ideas that was "in the air" at the time, an expression of the zeitgeist?
Great and traumatic events always seem to be preceded by certain foreshadowings, like the upstream standing waves that form behind a rock in the streambed. Perhaps this is just another in the endless string of odd synchronicities surrounding the events of 9-11, peculiar juxtapositions of events that must eventually strain the credulity of even the most devoted coincidence theorist, though no single one rises to the level of a smoking gun.
Some prescient conspiracy theorizing by the late Bill Hicks, circa 1993:
December 16, 1961 - February 26, 1994
A final comment on conspiracy theory from Yves Adele Harlow
The creator of the Lone Gunmen:
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