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The Lone Gunmen Aren't Dead? 227

Posted by Hemos from the people-with-way-too-much-time dept.
A reader writes: "With the series finale of The X-Files rapidly approaching, the official site has recently been updated with a brief description and a few images from the final episode. Normally, this would not be a notable occurance - except for the fact that one of the images, which are said to be from the final episode, is of The Lone Gunmen!"
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The Lone Gunmen Aren't Dead? More

The Lone Gunmen Aren't Dead?

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  • If they're not dead, then they could bring the series back! I hope they do, that was one of the best shows on TV. They could give it the X-Files' timeslot too.
    • It doesn't matter if they are dead or not, they're not real. It's fiction.

      Seriously, the series could take place before they died or just say polymorphic transexual hyperbolic aliens impersonated the Lone Gunman during their deaths.

    • Re:Lone Gunman Series (Score:3, Interesting)

      by geoswan ( 316494 )
      I agree. I found "The Lone Gunmen" to be one of the most intelligent shows on TV. I thought it was as good as or better than the best X-files episodes.

      I particularly liked that the super-intelligent chimps were housed at the "Boulle Primate Research Center". Pierre Boulle, was the author of the novel that was eventually made into the movie Planet of the Apes. [imdb.com] He wrote the novel that was made into Bridge over the River Kwai [imdb.com] as well.

    • If they're not dead, then they could bring the series back!
      Even if they are 'dead', all they have to do is have Scully wake up

      and find them in the shower with Patrick Duffy or something.

  • It's not over yet? (Score:4, Funny)

    by saintlupus ( 227599 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:34PM (#3543408)
    With the series finale of The X-Files rapidly approaching

    Christ, is that _still_ on?

    --saint
    • "Christ, is that _still_ on?" - it's comments and attitudes like that that led to the falling viewing figures that led to its demise. It hasn't been the same since David Duchovny started appearing for about thirty seconds in each episode though. However good Scully and the actor who played T-3000 in Terminator 2 are - it just isn't the same.
      • "it's comments and attitudes like that that led to the falling viewing figures that led to its demise."

        no, that would be the significant drop in quality of the shows episodes.
        • Too true.

          The X-Files was a great show up until around the end of season 2. After then things went downhill - and fast.

          X-Files should have never tried to run for more than a couple of series - there are only so many times the main charecters can almost see something eerie, but not quite, maintaining that skeptic vs believer thing. Once Scully believed Mulder, the show was over IMO.

  • I think I remember reading that this episode will be Mulder on trial. As such, it's likely they'll appear in some flashbacks. This doesn't mean they aren't dead.

  • Not again!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by displague ( 4438 ) <slashdot.displague@com> on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:38PM (#3543426) Homepage Journal
    Well, You really "The Lone-Gunmen are dead"ed that one, didn't you???!!!

    Shall I even watch the last episode? Why don't you just post it's contents in slashdot subjects over the next 29.25 hours?

  • Frankly do we care? (Score:1, Informative)

    by happyhippy ( 526970 )
    This is not a troll.

    But does anyone really care enough about X-Files past season 4-5? I dont.

    It should have died then. And I expect Carter & Co to bring out a cheesy finale where Mulder discovers he is an alien himself and charged with enslaving mankind.

  • from what i've read, several dead characters are goign to be itn eh last episode, though they are only mulders memories or delusions

    bart
  • Not that I have cared about the X-files for a few years now.. But the fact that there is a picture of them in the last episoed means nothing.. There could just be a flashback that contains them or maybe they bill pull a Voyager and go back in time using an alien ship to make sure they don't die.. For most, I think the show jumped the shark when the movie was made.

  • posthumous appearences (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Saint Nobody ( 21391 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:40PM (#3543434) Homepage Journal

    keep in mind that both deep throat and mulder's father appeared posthumously in dream sequences in the third season, and scully's father appeared posthumously in a dream sequence in the second season. there's probably more, but it's been too long since i've watched the show, and i don't remember others. there's also been some occurences of people appearing in flashback sequences after they've died. that's how deep throat got into the fourth season. not to mention shapeshifters taking the forms of dead people. that happened a few times. most notably at the beginning of season 4.

    then again, "killing" characters only to have them turn out to still be alive has happend more that its share of times. mulder, krycek and the smoking man have all died and come back a few times.

  • "Yes, it's true," he told me, "We're not really dead. Tell everyone not to worry. See, we're just actors. All that stuff you see on the TV show? It's not real. It's just make-believe. You know, stories?"

    Honestly, even if they were killed off in the series, they could always be brought back in flashbacks, time-warps, cloning experiments, dream sequences, etc. etc.

    You don't have to un-write what was written or disrupt continuity in order to have dead characters come back...
    • Just tell everyone "This all happend before they died".
    • Dude, this is the X-Files, they don't need any reason to bring dead characters back.

      The only thing good about that is that you get to see your least favourite characters die repeatedly. I'm always big on that.

      --Dan
      • Dude, this is the X-Files, they don't need any reason to bring dead characters back.
        True, since the Final Ep has already shown in the US we now know that they were some of the 'dead' characters to come back in a halucination/waking dream to Mulder to give him advice. But the final Ep several times reminds us that super soldiers can't really be killed except with magnatite from certain meteors. And that Mulder's sister was cloned multiple times allowing for multiple deaths during the series of his sister, though we are told she actually dies in the 80's.

        The only thing good about that is that you get to see your least favourite characters die repeatedly.
        Of course we also know they did bring back CSM from the 'presumed dead' to actually and pretty much beyond doubt kill him since they show him melting in a bomb blast, and since he is in a cave where super-soldiers can't enter, we know they can't use that excuse for bringing him back. But it still leaves cloning.

        I hope they bring TLG [thelonegunmen.net] back for the second film [amazon.com], it just would be the X-Files without them. As for CSM, let's hope that he is well and truly dead this time, though I hope to see the actor appear in other venues since he was a very good bad guy without being campy.

        • As for CSM, let's hope that he is well and truly dead this time, though I hope to see the actor appear in other venues since he was a very good bad guy without being campy.

          He (the actor, William B. Davis) was also a very good speaker when he came to the University of Lethbridge. Spoke on a variety of interesting subjects, most of them X-Files related somehow or another, was quite amusing, I took one of the arrow posters off the wall and had him sign it. Probably in the landfill now, but he was still pretty cool.

          Factoid: He's actually an ex-smoker. When he appeared on the first episode of the X-Files, the producers asked him if he wanted real cigarettes or the fake herbal ones. He figured he was cured of his addiction, and went for the real ones. After finding himself getting itchy for them when he got home, he decided that it was no more real ones for him, despite the fact that the herbal ones are truly putrid.

          --Dan
  • If you are a geek with cool toys, you can never die.

  • Another Possibility (Score:5, Interesting)

    by erasmus_ ( 119185 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:42PM (#3543447)
    Not to be sarcastic, but is the submitter of the original story not familiar with a narrative device called a flashback? Just because they're in a picture of the episode, does not mean they're still alive.

    If they died to begin with, that is - I really have no idea, I have stopped watching a few seasons ago when it just got too convoluted. But I was disappointed to hear that they potentially bit the dust when that was reported, I always liked them, so hopefully that they are indeed alive. I'm definitely going to see the next XFiles movie, and they'd make a good addition to it.
    • Not to be sarcastic, but is the submitter of the original story not familiar with a narrative device called a flashback? Just because they're in a picture of the episode, does not mean they're still alive.

      Read the original post. I do not believe the "submitter" said anything about them being alive...
    • Not to be sarcastic, but is the submitter of the original story not familiar with a narrative device called a flashback?
      Hang on - what's sarcasm?

  • News, not Rumours (Score:4, Insightful)

    by KoopaTroopa ( 549540 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:43PM (#3543449) Homepage
    Are rumours of what characters appear on the XFiles what Slashdot is all about? I mean, "News for Nerds" and all, but if I want analysis of publicity pictures of a television show I can go to any number of other rumour sites. I come here for some nifty Science, Computing, and Social news, along with some often interesting talking on the boards.

    Oh well, it's just my two cents.
  • I really don't think they are still alive, they were buried in the ground at the end of the episode they died in. In all likely hood it will be flash backs of Mulder where we see them. Just my opinion.

  • Imagine that! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Evro ( 18923 )
    Imagine how hard it would be to include an image of the Lone Gunmen from a previous X-Files episode! Since that's so difficult, clearly it must mean that they're bringing them back to life!

  • But does anyone care? (Score:5, Informative)

    by carlhirsch ( 87880 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:45PM (#3543458) Homepage
    This article on Salon talks about how bad a job Chris Carter's done in wrapping up loose ends. [salon.com]

    I'm inclined to agree. Out of these last few episodes, there hasn't been nearly so much exposition on the "mythology" as I would have liked or expected.

    -carl
    • For all the bad mouthing he Salon article provides, the author says at the end that that he'll be in front of the TV watching the final show.

      That's all Chris Carter really wants. What are you going to do if it sucks, or Chris Carter just stands there for 2 hours and says, "Gotcha!" and then they proceed to have a "best of" episode? Are you going to ask your TV for your money back? Perhaps bang your head against the wall and then write a half-way sane letter to the FBI about how you're "onto" them?

      Yeah, go for it.

      Maybe it's just me, but when I said I'd stop watching, I actually stopped... I'd say after the movie that was the end of it -- when the first new TV episode after the movie didn't even recognize what happened in the movie... well it was over for me.
    • I doubt too many care. Too many people have stopped watching the show myself included. Who cares? The show did get too out-of-control. I think that stuff seemed to happen almost at random. Beyond the level of believability for that universe.
  • Are they dead? Aren't they?

    Should I be wailing in misery for being spoiled? Have I been spoiled?

    Is chrisd really a mole for /. sent by Chris Carter?

    And will the Truth be revealed as something to do with CowboyNeal?

  • Captain Kirk (Score:3, Funny)

    by mathematician ( 14765 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:49PM (#3543467) Homepage
    Spoiler Warning:

    Captain Kirk is killed on Star Trek 6 (The Undiscovered Country) - I saw it on the previews.

    • Re:Captain Kirk (Score:5, Funny)

      by CleverNickName ( 129189 ) <.ten.notaehwliw. .ta. .liw.> on Saturday May 18, 2002 @08:31PM (#3544318) Homepage Journal
      Spoiler Warning:

      Captain Kirk is killed on Star Trek 6 (The Undiscovered Country) - I saw it on the previews.

      You know, I've often wished that they killed me off of TNG, because that would have guranteed my return, multiple times, across numerous series and movies.

      Instead, I got to take off with the Galactic Pedophile.

      Dang.
      • Wil, aren't you supposed to be in Nemesis?

        So the Traveler was a Galactic Pedophile??? Interesting!

  • Did it AGAIN! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Trickster Coyote ( 34740 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:50PM (#3543470) Homepage
    Geeze. First you guys spoil it for everyone by blabbling about the Lone Gunmen are dead before half the people here get a chance to see the episode, and now you are doing it again, blabbing about how the Lone Gunmen _aren't_ before the show is even on the air.

    If Slashdot keeps on blaring all these spoilers on the front page, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy watching the X-Files again.
    • Maybe this makes the first spoiler less notable. if they aren't really dead, noone can complain about the first spoiler anymore, since they being dead is a) not true, und b) only to introduce some certain tention into the series which /. just increased by the spoiler.
    • If Slashdot keeps on blaring all these spoilers on the front page, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy watching the X-Files again.

      Well, I guess you're in luck, seeing as this is the final episode and all. Oh wait, did I spoil that for you too?

    • Re:Did it AGAIN! (Score:3, Funny)

      by zCyl ( 14362 )
      If Slashdot keeps on blaring all these spoilers on the front page, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy watching the X-Files again.

      Trust no one...

  • Spoiler Math (Score:2, Funny)

    by WEFUNK ( 471506 )
    Is it:

    (Lone Gunmen Are Dead) + (Lone Gunmen Aren't Dead)

    Which nets out to be zero.

    Or should it be:

    (Lone Gunmen Are Dead) + ABS(Lone Gunmen Aren't Dead)

    Which equals 2*(Lone Gunmen are Dead) = twice spoiled.

    And then, what happens if this spoiler is wrong?
  • Nice try, chrisd. Sure we all see that the story appears to be posted by Hemos, but I smell a conspiracy... ;)

  • But... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ziggy_zero ( 462010 )
    This could very well be a dream or a flashback sequence. Or they could be clones! (sorry, still in Star Wars mode)

  • Okay, this is beyond a joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by seldolivaw ( 179178 ) <me@NOsPaM.seldo.com> on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:55PM (#3543492) Homepage
    *First* Slashdot ruins the show for loads of people by saying the Lone Gunmen are dead. *Then*, after all the backlash, Slashdot ruins the show *again* by revealing that they aren't!

    Geez... you think they'd learn!
  • First you spoil the surprise of them dying, and now you spoil the surprise of them coming back?!

    Thank you, Slashdot.

    btw, ironically, you just Lone-Gunmanned the Lone Gunmen...AGAIN!
  • ..as long as you're in reruns.
  • If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably a vision or flashback of somesort.
  • Dead people have appeared before.
    Flashbacks, hallucinaions, imagination, video, flashbacks...

  • Deaths -- Hoax? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Trickster Coyote ( 34740 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @03:05PM (#3543518) Homepage
    Keep in mind we never saw them dead. All we saw were some closed coffins being buried. They probably just went underground and the funeral was a cover. The guys have probably been hanging out with Mulder, eating pizza and watching porn videos.

    Hey, it's TV. No ever actually dies on a TV show, especially on a science fiction one...

    Trickster Coyote
    It must be true - I saw it on TV.
  • Remember this [slashdot.org]?
  • I'm just wondering here, has anyone considered the possibility that this is a flashback yes, but a flashback to something that got cut by the final airing so it seems new to eyes. I know that this has happened with countless clip shows in the past, where people are very confused as to which episode it came from, because it was cut.

    Nothing to be alarmed about here, folks.

  • the real explanation (Score:4, Funny)

    by emkman ( 467368 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @03:15PM (#3543548)
    The Lone Gunman aren't dead, their publication was just temporarily shut down due to DMCA violations.
  • OMG!!! This time Darth Neal will finish them off.

  • No making up for past sins... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Colz Grigor ( 126123 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @03:19PM (#3543560) Homepage
    Hemos, try as you may, you can't use this story to make up for Slashdot's (or chrisd's) horrible "The Lone Gunmen Are Dead" headline. Because your typically-intellectual readers are well aware of the possibilities of flashbacks, dream sequences, and other such plot devices, there are other explanations than what seems to be your "See... chrisd wasn't correct in saying the Lone Gunmen are dead! California needn't be pissed off at us anymore!"

    Maybe the best possible solution would be for Slashdot to stick to computer-related stuff and avoid the "Entertainment" subject altogether? Though I must say I'm pretty pleased with simply exlcuding every story posted by chrisd [slashdot.org].

    ::Colz Grigor // It was appropriate that in his review of Attack of the Clones, Taco used "lone gunmen" as a verb... Long live CmdrTaco!

  • "The Lone Gunman Are Dead"

    * * *

    "The Lone Gunmen Aren't Dead"

    Gee people....if yer gonna spoil episodes, at least get your facts straight. :-)

  • From TVGuide.com (Score:3, Informative)

    by tweakt ( 325224 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @03:19PM (#3543564) Homepage
    This seminal series about the paranormal and an FBI agent's obsession with an alien invasion closes its files. And after nearly a decade of teasing, "the truth" is finally revealed.

    Or is it? Executive producer Frank Spotnitz says the two-hour finale "puts all the pieces together in as straightforward a manner as possible. We give a very definite answer about what's going to happen to the world. But then we pose the question: Can fate be changed? That's the heart of the [episode]." Appropriately, David Duchovny returns to the role of Fox Mulder, who reappears after a yearlong absence and reunites with Scully (Gillian Anderson). Mulder is charged with murder, and Spotnitz says that the resulting military tribunal "creates the framework that allows us to explain what Mulder's been doing for the last nine years." Expect a lot of flashbacks, as well as the reemergence of some infamous characters.

    A second X-Files movie is contemplated after the series ends. "It's not like [the characters'] lives come to an end at the end of the TV series," Spotnitz says. "But I think they've all taken a journey and ended up at a place that feels like completion." Gen. Suveg: William Devane. Toothpick Man: Alan Dale. Skinner: Mitch Pileggi.

    • Re:From TVGuide.com (Score:2, Insightful)

      by X-ViRGE ( 44659 )
      Sounds to me a lot like the last episode(s) of Seinfeld, where they got to go through a bunch of repeat footage as they explained what the characters were doing the past few years.
    • "This seminal series about the paranormal and an FBI agent's obsession with an alien invasion closes its files. And after nearly a decade of teasing, "the truth" is finally revealed."

      If this is true, then they had BETTER finally get a cameo from Elvis in the final show.

  • Well, there goes that surprise from tomorrow's show.
  • Hey! Thanks for ruining the ending of the episode... AGAIN! How many spoilers about the Lone Gunmen are we going to have, anyway?
  • Check out the info on the xfiles page, tvguide.com, tv.yahoo.com, just about anything and you will learn Mulder comes up before a military tribunal to defend himself and his work. Now, would that make an interesting series finale, two hours of interview, or do you think they will spread that out with FLASHBACKS and RECOLLECTIONS of what Mulder has found? Just a thought.

  • Are the editors on crack? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EvilNTUser ( 573674 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @03:30PM (#3543587)
    You've apparently learned nothing from the last time you revealed something about the X-Files in advance.

    And don't try to explain yourselves by saying it's not a spoiler, just a rumor. For some people, rumors are too much.

    I stopped visiting Star Trek boards because some people just couldn't keep themselves from accidentally revealing small details about the next movie. Those small details weren't clearly spoilers either, but eventually details pile up to form a bigger picture... One I don't want to have yet!!

    Will I have to stop visiting Slashdot too? Hope not...
    • It was suggested that the lone gunmen aren't dead because they appeared in a teaser for the next episode. That's not a spoiler, unless people refuse to watch the teaser. Trasporting ourselves back in time, to say, 1982. How many Star Wars fanatics refused to watch the trailer for Return of the Jedi because it might show some spoilers? What's that you say? Three people? Well those three people apparently post to /. and I don't care about them, and neither do most others.

  • why'd you have to go lone gunmen that episode for us.

  • I'm sure that they're going to show up....but only in flashbacks.

    What a shame too. Those guys were great.

  • Its called a flashback. You know, one of those sequences showing something that has occurred at a previous point in time.

  • Vancouver actor (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Screaming Lunatic ( 526975 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @03:47PM (#3543641) Homepage
    I'm not an X-Files fan. But one of the dudes that plays the lone gunmen is a vancouver actor. He was on a local show by the name of Urban Rush [shawtv.com]. And he said that he would be in the final episode.
  • Chris Carter mentions something in TV Guide about a lot of characters "coming back" for Mulder's trial, which is the plot of the last episode. It sounds like quite a few characters are going to turn out to be alive. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if we end up finding out that guys like X and The Cigarette Smoking Man are back, and I know that some characters that were definitely dead just a few episodes a go will be alive for the last episode.

    And I don't mean flashbacks or anything like that, either. Some of these characters have just been alive all along and either faked their deaths or were resurrected somehow.

    • Re:They Might Come Back (Score:4, Funny)

      by Servo5678 ( 468237 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @05:23PM (#3543880)
      Chris Carter mentions something in TV Guide about a lot of characters "coming back" for Mulder's trial, which is the plot of the last episode

      I heard about this one. Apparently Mulder is put on trial for breaking the Good Samaritan law after watching an overweight man get mugged and not acting to help. A lot of characters from past episodes show up in court to testify against him as character witnesses.

      Not that there's anything wrong with that.

  • Im getting really tired of Slashdot spoiling it in the headlines.

  • For Pete's Sake (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sentry21 ( 8183 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @04:19PM (#3543730) Journal
    First you go and give away that they're dead before I get a chance to see it, and then you give away that they're still alive before I get a chance to see it. You guys really hate me, don't you?

    --Dan

  • Astute viewers would have noticed.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anemophilous Coward ( 312040 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @04:59PM (#3543829)
    Careful viewers would have noticed in the preview after last weeks episode that they had a quick image of Alex Krychek.

    He was killed quite dead last season with a bullet to the head in an FBI garage. I don't think they allowed him to crawl away like the Smoking Man did after only being shot in the chest (and hence allowed for his return at the end of season 5).

    So most likely these are flashback images from Mulder or other cast members.

    - A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
    - AC

  • Not really dead. (Score:2, Informative)

    by ruiner13 ( 527499 )
    I remember reading a quote from Chris Carter a few years back. He stated, "No one ever really dies on the X-files." If that photo is accurate, then Chris was telling the truth. Come on, everyone on that show has died at least once.
  • Kevin Spacey is Kayser Soze and the narrator IS Tyler Durden...

    You guys are doing a good track record for the "Let's not ruin the ending of the bloody series for everybody" bit... especially since some people have been waiting all season for this...

    (Honestly, if I were paying attention to this show, I wouldn't go anywhere NEAR the show's website for fear of ruining it... thanks, /.)
  • Isn't that an oxymoron? Or are the creators of the X-files grammatically challenged just like the Slashdot editors?

    [For the dense, I'm refering to the use of the adjective lone in connection with the plural word gunmen]
  • After having watched the last episode, the Line Gunmen are dead, it was just visions Mulder was having, or perhaps the dead visiting him. Wasn't really sure which. Knowing the X-Files, probably the latter!
  • Okay, the last episode kind of sucked, but does that mean we aren't interested in dissecting it?

    It had this explanation for the black oil. Life on Earth was seeded by meteorites from Mars. Well, this is an old idea [space.com], called Panspermia [genarts.com]. You don't have to be a conspiracy nut to give it consideration.

    The Mars inoculation of life on Earth came with an "Alien Virus". Excuse me? If the inoculant for all life on Earth came from from Mars, and the virus is also from Mars, how is it any more alien than any other life on Earth?

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