"Pilot" is the pilot episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The pilot aired on September 10, 1993 on the Fox Network in the United States and Canada, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The story was written by executive producer Chris Carter, and directed by Robert Mandel. As the pilot, it would set up the mythology storyline for the series.
The pilot introduced the two main characters, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who were portrayed by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson respectively, and the recurring characters of the Cigarette Smoking Man, Scott Blevins, Billy Miles and Theresa Nemman. The Cigarette Smoking Man would go on to become the series signature antagonist, appearing in every season except the eighth. The episode follows FBI Special Agents Mulder and Scully on their first case together.
The episode earned a high Nielsen and syndication ratings in the United States compared to other X-Files episodes of the first season, and received meager attention in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The episode itself was generally well-received by fans and critics alike, which led to a growing cult following for the series before it hit the mainstream.
PLOT
An unidentified female flees through Collum National Forest, Oregon. A shadowy figure who gradually increases in luminosity approaches her. The next morning she is found dead with two small bumps on her back, and she is revealed to be Karen Swenson. At the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., FBI Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) meets with Division Chief Scott Blevins and two other men, one of whom is smoking a cigarette. Blevins assigns Scully to work with Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) on the X-Files in an attempt to debunk his work on the paranormal.
After Mulder shows Scully photographs of Karen Swenson's body, the two agents travel to Oregon where they exhume Ray Soames, one of four other victims. Upon opening the coffin, all they find is a deformed ape-like body. Scully performs an autopsy on the corpse, discovering a metal implant within its nasal cavity. The next day Mulder and Scully visit Raymon County State Psychiatric Hospital where they meet Billy Miles, who is in a vegetative state after a car accident. The two agents head to the woods where Karen Swenson's body was found and find some strange ash on the ground. A member of the county sheriff's department arrives and demands they leave. Upon returning to the motel, Mulder reveals to Scully that his sister Samantha vanished when he was twelve. He tells her how he discovered the X-Files and claims that access to classified data has been blocked by some higher level of power.
The agents leave the motel after being contacted by an anonymous caller about another victim. Returning to the motel, they find it on fire with all the evidence inside destroyed. Theresa Nemman contacts the two agents for help. She tells them that she has awakened in the middle of the woods several times. Theresa's father and Billy Miles's father, whom the agents met earlier in the woods, arrive and take her away.
Mulder and Scully return to the cemetery to exhume the other two graves only to find the graves already dug up and the coffins missing. Mulder realizes that Billy Miles is responsible for bringing the victims to the woods. Returning to the woods, they again encounter Detective Miles, but upon hearing a scream they find Billy Miles nearby with Theresa in his arms. A light appears and vanishes, and suddenly Billy Miles is back to normal with the marks on his back missing.
Under hypnosis, Miles explains that aliens abducted him and his classmates when they were in the woods celebrating their graduation. Meeting with Blevins afterward, Scully provides him with the only piece of evidence they have left, the metal implant from Ray Soames's corpse. Mulder later calls Scully to tell her that the case files on Miles are missing. In The Pentagon, the Cigarette Smoking Man who attended Scully's meetings with Blevins puts the implant away in a large room filled with evidence.
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