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Fox Mulder

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Fox Mulder
Affiliated with FBI
First appearance Pilot
Last appearance The Truth
Portrayed by David Duchovny

Fox William "Spooky" Mulder (born October 13, 1961) is a fictional character played by David Duchovny on the 1993-2002 television series, The X-Files. FBI Special Agent Mulder believes in UFOs and a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of their existence. With his FBI partner Dana Scully, the two formed the X-Files office, which was concerned with cases called "X-Files," cases with particularly mysterious or possibly supernatural circumstances that were left unsolved and shelved by the FBI. Mulder considers the X-Files the main purpose of his life.

Contents

Biography

Early life and family

Fox Mulder was born to Bill Mulder and Teena Mulder (maiden name Kuipers) on October 13, 1961, presumably in Massachusetts. He has a younger sister, Samantha Mulder, who was born in 1965.

His first words were "JFK", when Mulder was 11 months old, and he grew up in Chilmark, Massachusetts. In his childhood, he used to play a lot with Samantha - they played baseball (Fox usually played right-field), rode bikes, played Stratego and spent much of their time together. The Mulder family had a summer house in Quonochontaug, RI, where Fox and Samantha would play during summer vacations. Fox also enjoyed tree climbing and once came face to face with a praying mantis in a tree. He screamed and was shocked at the thought that something this horrible could exist. Mulder has had an intense dislike for insects ever since. Mulder apparently enjoyed science fiction in his early years. He dressed as Mr. Spock from Star Trek in childhood, and watched "The Magician." In his teenage years, Mulder was also very excited about space. Although he says he never wanted to be an astronaut, he was extremely delighted to meet an ex-astronaut during one of his investigations and admitted that watching a shuttle launch fulfilled one of his boyhood dreams.

On November 27, 1973, Samantha mysteriously disappeared from the Mulder family home in Chilmark, an event which had a severe impact on the Mulder family, especially Fox. Mulder remembers that it was nighttime, and their parents were at the neighbours, while Samantha and he were playing board games and arguing about what TV channel to watch. Without notice, the power in the house went out, flashing lights flooded the room, and Fox saw Samantha rise in the air unconscious and float away to a bright light outside. Fox tried to get his father's gun but was unable to do so, and was paralysed (most likely due to psychologic shock, not actual paralysis) when he saw an alien-like figure stand in the doorway. The subsequent investigation into her disappearance turned up no evidence. Soon after, Mulder's parents divorced.

Education and pre-X-Files career

The abduction of his sister and his search for her soon after became the main consuming drive of his life. Mulder probably graduated from high school - where his foreign language of choice was French (731 (3x11)) - in Spring 1979/1980, unless he skipped ahead or was kept behind a year. It is not known what he did between 1980 and 1983. In 1983, Mulder entered Oxford University to study psychology. He graduated summa cum laude in 1986.

Later that year, Mulder joined the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. It is known that Mulder "joined the FBI" on October 24th, 1986, but it is unclear whether that is the date when he started his Quantico academy course or finished it. On graduating the academy, Mulder started his work in the Behavioral Science Unit (psychological profiling of suspects) under agent Patterson, whom he respected but did not follow like a "dutiful son." Around this time he wrote a monograph on serial killers and the occult, which helped catch serial killer Monty Props in 1988, and made Mulder something of an inter-bureau legend.

At some point, Mulder started working as a field agent of the violent crimes division under agent Reggie Purdue. It is possible that Mulder did, for a short time, work both as a profiler and a field agent. During Mulder's first case in the role of a field agent, one of the other FBI agents died, and Mulder later blamed himself for sticking to the FBI rules and instructions, which he felt didn't let him prevent the agent's death. His partner in violent crimes was Jerry Lamana, whose incompetence and self-serving agenda led to him misplacing evidence which resulted in the maiming of a federal judge (Ghost in the Machine (1x07)). In his later FBI career Mulder has always shown varying degrees of disregard for rules.

Fox Mulder appears to be a very talented man and a remarkable agent. His Oxford degree was obtained summa cum laude, which is the highest honor level (blooper here: degrees in the UK are classified as 'First Class,' 'Second Upper,' 'Second Lower,' 'Third,' etc., not Latin honors as in the United States), he graduated top of his class from the FBI academy, and has received an Award for Public Service from the Department of Justice. It has been said that Mulder had "commendations out the yin yang" (Unusual Suspects (5x03)). In Pilot (1x01), Scully says she's heard of Mulder by reputation, and that he is "brilliant". Mulder had been talked about at the FBI even while still in the academy, as agent Purdue later told Mulder that he was amazed at how Mulder was always "three jumps ahead" of others (Young at Heart (1x16)). During his FBI training, he came to be called "Spooky" by other agents, because of his beliefs in the paranormal, though perhaps also because of his talents.

Opening the X-Files

In May 1989, Mulder was sprayed with an experimental drug that causes hallucinations and paranoia. Mulder started talking about aliens and conspiracies, although his previous interest in such things was not as active, albeit present. The following month, Mulder underwent regressive hypnosis in attempt to remember what happened when Samantha disappeared. After that, Mulder started displaying a fanatical interest about the paranormal.

Mulder continued to work in the Violent Crimes department, pursuing his paranormal interests in his spare time. In 1990, he learned a great deal about the X-Files from former FBI agent Arther Dales (Travelers). In late 1991, Mulder "discovered" the X-Files, and re-opened them with Agent Diana Fowley. Agent Fowley transferred away shortly thereafter, leaving Mulder the only agent to work on the X-Files. A few months later, in March 1992, Dana Scully was assigned to the X-Files as a partner to Mulder, with the assignment to use her background in hard science to apply scientific reasoning and expertise to evaluating Mulder's work with the X-Files.

Work on the X-Files

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mulder's basement office (which used to be a copy machine room) is decorated with photographs, newspaper articles and other materials pertaining to conspiracy theories, extraterrestrial life, and other supernatural phenomena. Among the collection is a picture of Deloys monkey, a newspaper article about Duane Barry, Max Fenig's NICAP hat, and, the most famous, is a poster with a flying saucer on it and the words "I want to believe". Mulder's drawer chest is full of old and recent X-Files reports, and he is able to find the report he needs remarkably quickly based on some tiny detail he remembers. Mulder often came into conflict with his superiors, most notably, his direct superior, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, who was for a long time skeptical of Mulder's work. Fellow FBI agents often ridiculed Mulder, for using his badge and gun to go "hunting [for] little green men." Mulder's spearheading of X-Files investigations led many of his superiors to disdain Mulder, regarding him as a once promising FBI agent who threw away his career.

Mulder investigates various cases of paranormal or strange nature with Agent Scully, who is initially a skeptic. While Mulder is quick to accept the possibility of, for example, a poltergeist causing the death of a person, Scully seeks scientific explanations. Mulder's ultimate goal is to uncover what he believes to be a government conspiracy to hide the truth about alien life, as well as find out what happened to his sister.

Mulder's paranoia reflected the American public's suspicion of the government, characteristic of the 1990s
Enlarge
Mulder's paranoia reflected the American public's suspicion of the government, characteristic of the 1990s

Mulder conducts some of his investigations with blatant disregard for rules and regulations, sometimes even breaking the law. He has accused FBI management of hiding the truth, and has infiltrated restricted US Air Force bases and other secret facilities, leading to reprimands of his behavior, suspensions, and apprehension on more than one occasion. Most officials within the FBI tried on more than one occasion to have him fired. However, Mulder was often able to keep his job through the help of various benefactors.

Mulder has had multiple informants. Of his most significant high-level government informants, Deep Throat was first, followed by X, and later Marita Covarrubias. Each of them has provided Mulder with valuable information, even saving Mulder's life on more than one occasion. Little is usually known about the background of these characters. Mulder also has had on his side an important Senator, Richard Matheson.

After Scully is abducted and returned in the fall 1994 (season two), Mulder is hopeful that she might start believing in aliens and a government conspiracy, but Scully is still highly skeptical. At one point, Mulder was convinced that no alien conspiracy exists and that he is being toyed with, however, Scully managed to convince Mulder that he is playing into their enemies hands by believing that. The two agents would often provide a foil to the other during their cases.

Progressively through the series, Scully's scientific methodology, and Mulder's strong beliefs, started to rub off on one another. The two FBI partners began to greatly respect and trust each other thanks to their shared experiences during their investigations. They maintained a strong platonic relationship for many years, and there are clues that it developed into a physical relationship by the end of the series. It's also noteworthy that Mulder and Scully almost always call each other by their surnames - Mulder hates when anyone calls him by his first name, but Scully has no such aversion. Their use of surnames is possibly because it functions to keep everything tied to the work of the X-Files, which is Mulder's main drive in his life.

Throughout his work, Mulder is antagonized by the Cigarette Smoking Man and the Syndicate. Various conspirators have provided Mulder with some information, but they are never entirely truthful and open, and Mulder never forgets (though sometimes only after doubtful objections raised by Scully) to question their motives and the possibility that these people are trying to mislead him. Mulder also develops an intense enmity of Alex Krycek, a conspiracy agent who briefly worked with Mulder in the FBI as infiltrator, and has since then almost gotten Mulder killed on more than one occasion.

When in need of extra assistance, Mulder would go to various friends/contacts with expertise in different areas. The Lone Gunmen, three conspiracy theorists/computer hackers/tabloid newspaper publishers, were his most trusted friends, after Scully. The trio were generally sought after when Mulder and/or Scully needed more techno-savy assistance. The Lone Gunmen in turn, also had their own contacts when a situation was beyond their abilities. Dr. Charles "Chuck" Burks was another character who helped Mulder when even Mulder's own knowledge of the paranormal was not enough to crack a case.

Mulder has a rather strained relationship with his parents, not in the least thanks to the X-Files. He initially had no idea his father was involved in the conspiracy. Bill Mulder, who became disenchanted with the shadow government and his own role in the conspiracy, eventually approached Fox about his past deeds, but is shot dead by a Syndicate assassin before he could reveal any great amount of information (Anasazi (2x25)). Over the next few years, Mulder gets into several conflicts with his mother when trying to find out what his father was involved with, and whether his mother has any knowledge she's hiding. Teena Mulder dies later, after an apparent suicide, when the stress of Samantha's abduction finally becomes too painful (Sein und Zeit (7x11)).

During the 7th season, Mulder eventually discovers the truth about his sister. Samantha was apparently abducted (whether by extraterrestrials or by the human conspirators is unclear), and various tests were performed on her. The Episode "Closure" reveals that, unable to bear the testing any longer, Samantha ran away from her home in California and was eventually admitted to a nearby hospital. Years later, the admitting nurse from the hospital recounts to Mulder about the young girl and that when a group of men (one of whom seems to be the Cigarette Smoking Man) track her down, she disappeared from her locked hospital room. It is revealed that Samantha was taken by "spiritual intervention" by beings called "Walk-ins." Mulder is briefly reunited with Samantha's spirit. Later, Scully asks if he is all right, to which Mulder replies, "I'm fine. I'm free." There are, however, some plot holes relating to Samantha's apparent passing. See article, Samantha Mulder.

During the last years of his work on the X-Files, Mulder is even forced to doubt that Bill Mulder is his true father. He considers the possibility that his mother had an affair with the Cigarette Smoking Man (strong evidence is provided in "Talitha Cumi"), who might be Mulder's true father. The fact is hinted at later in the series, and Jeffrey Spender, who certainly is the Smoking Man's son, has said that Mulder is his half-brother (Jeffrey was also shown to be living with Samantha at the same house in California after she was abducted, indicating that Samantha may also be an illegitimate child of Cigarette Smoking Man). In the 9th season, the episode "William" explains that Spender and Mulder have very similar DNA, providing strong evidence that they do have the same father.

Mulder also gets abducted by the aliens himself in 2000 (Requiem (7x23)), and returned to Earth, almost dead, a few months later. He had been infected by an alien virus (for the second time), but Scully finds a way to rescue him (Deadalive (8x15)). He returns to work for a brief period of time, but is eventually fired by the newly promoted Deputy Director Kersh (Vienen (8x18)). After Scully gives birth to (supposedly) Mulder's son, William (in vitro fertilization might be possible) Mulder goes into hiding in New Mexico.

After about a year in hiding, Mulder receives information from an anonymous source on how to infiltrate a secret facility containing information about the conspiracy (The Truth (9x19)). Mulder does that, obtains some crucial information but is apprehended by the base security after a fight with Knowle Rohrer, a man who is in fact an alien agent and impossible to kill by regular means. Nonetheless, Mulder managed to electrocute Rohrer, which apparently killed him, and brings Mulder in front of a military tribunal, accused of murdering Rohrer. Despite a defense organized by Skinner with numerous witnesses, the judges (who it is hinted are at least partially working for the conspiracy) sentence Mulder to the death penalty. Mulder breaks out of prison with help from several people (including a reformed Kersh) and escapes with Scully, still refusing to divulge what he found at the military facility. Finally, the agents meet the anonymous source who first tipped off Mulder. It is the Cigarette Smoking Man, who had been presumed dead for the past 2 years. He says what Mulder was afraid to reveal - that on December 22, 2012, an alien colonization of Earth will start and humanity will be wiped out. Cigarette Smoking Man was finally killed soon after by the conspiracy, with Mulder and Scully narrowly escaping. As of the series finale, Mulder and Scully are on the run from the Colonists.

Another X-Files film has been in the works for several years, and will reportedly focus on an individual case rather than delving into the series mythology or the upcoming alien invasion.

Spoilers end here.

Personality

Fox Mulder is somewhat pyrophobic (fears fire) and has had nightmares about being trapped in a burning building. This fear originates from a childhood incident of when Mulder's best friend's house burnt down and he had to spend the night in the rubble to help protect it from looting. Mulder also has a fear of insects, which he on one occasion mistakenly revealed make him scream like a girl.

Mulder is almost never seen sleeping in a bed. The bedroom in his apartment is used for storage purposes and is filled to the brim with all kinds of junk. Mulder sleeps on a couch instead, often falling asleep while watching television. Mulder frequently stays up all night or sleeps just a couple of hours while working on a case that interests him, a similarity to another classic detective figure, Sherlock Holmes, who was known to go through manic periods when following a case. At such times, he becomes rather hyperactive and doesn't seem to require much sleep, although he has also sometimes complained of being unable to sleep due to some gruesome images in his mind. For a few months, Mulder sleeps on a waterbed in his apartment (purchased by an agent of the conspiracy who had briefly traded bodies with Mulder), but after it springs a leak, he went back to sleeping on a couch.

Mulder apparently has a bit of a porn habit, alluded to in several episodes. In the episode "Small Potatoes" we learn that he has, in the past, called phone sex lines. In the third season episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," the psychic Bruckman (played by Peter Boyle, who won an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy for the part) implies that Mulder will die from an act of autoerotic asphyxiation.

Mulder has a remarkable memory, and once mentions that he is "cursed with a photographic memory." When he hears about some strange events, he can instantly remember if he had heard something similar before, and often he can immediately name a case that took place many years ago. Even such obscure phrases as "hiding in the light" trigger Mulder's memory of some previous events. He has been able to recognize people from photographs that he just glanced at hours ago, quote passages from Scully's thesis verbatim, and once Mulder gained the trust of an informant (Arthur Dales, the cop) by reciting how many home runs Mickey Mantle had hit (from each side of the plate) in his career.

He is somewhat athletic and has an interest in sports, mostly baseball and basketball. He once pretended to be searching for newspaper reports of UFO sightings in the FBI archives, while in reality he was reading baseball scores (The Unnatural). He has been shown to be pretty good at basketball ("Paper Hearts" and "Two Fathers"), and often goes jogging when he has too much on his mind. He likes the New York Yankees and the New York Knicks.

He lists his "holy trinity" heroes, as he puts it, as Willie Mays, Frank Serpico, and Micah Hoffman. (Hoffman is a fictional character created for an episode.) He seems to be familiar with, and perhaps has an interest, in 60's counterculture. (Hollywood A.D.)

His ethnicity and religious affiliation are never directly disclosed, but there are several hints that he is supposed to be Jewish, as in the episode "Kaddish." Also, in "Drive," while taken hostage, Mulder is asked, with some contempt, if his last name is Jewish, to which he answers, "It's Mr. Mulder to you, you peanut-picking bastard." There is also a box of passover matzo on top of the fridge in his home. David Duchovny has said that he considers Mulder to be Jewish. Despite believing in a variety of paranormal phenomenon, Mulder seems to have no religion in the conventional sense of the word. He seems to have little patience for religious fundamentalists, and he is sometimes very skeptical of "traditional" religious belief. ("Revelations," "All Souls") In the series finale, however, Mulder talks hopefully about the afterlife and touches Scully's crucifix with some reverence, suggesting that just as Scully has modified her skepticism and accepted some of Mulder's beliefs in the paranormal, so has Mulder opened his mind to the possibility of God.

Mulder is very attached to his cell phone, so much so that Scully once said; "Mulder, if you had to go without your cell phone for five minutes you'd lapse in to catatonic schizophrenia." He always carries his cell phone with him, and consequently, has lost and/or broken his phone more than once. (It must be noted that Mulder and Scully enjoy truly spectacular cell phone reception and are even able to reach each other from underground bunkers.)

Mulder rarely drinks alcohol, and in the few cases he does, he is so drunk that he behaves out of character, suggesting a low tolerance level. Instead, Mulder prefers iced tea or orange juice. As for food, he likes sunflower seeds a lot. Other than that, Mulder's food preferences aren't really clear, although he seems happy to eat whatever he can get his hands on when hungry.

Mulder is single. The two most important women he has known before the X-Files are agent Diana Fowley and inspector Phoebe Green. Phoebe Green was a fellow student at Oxford, and the two had a brief relationship. Mulder met Diana Fowley at the FBI academy, and the two became attracted to each other, and it's possible that they were married in the past. Mulder is seen wearing a wedding ring in a flashback scene of Episode 5x15 "Travelers," which is set in 1990. Although a highly suspicious character, Mulder is reluctant to believe that Fowley might be working against him (which she actually is) when she surprisingly reappears in 1997, and brushes off Scully's mistrust against Fowley as jealousy. The two later lose trust in each other until Fowley helps Mulder escape a dangerous situation, which ends up costing Fowley her life.

Also, Mulder has a rather poor sense of direction - he sometimes goes through the wrong corridors in a building and can't use a map very well. Likewise, Mulder isn't comfortable when in the country and somewhat doesn't really like nature, although in "Home," he tells Scully that he would like to live in a rural community when he retires.

Mulder famously has a sardonic sense of humor even in the face of the most bizarre and dangerous phenomena, and judging by a various comments his politics apparently skew left. ("This is America, boys," he told The Lone Gunmen shortly after the 2000 election. "Just because you have the most votes, that doesn't mean you win the election.") Mulder is also apparently a Howard Stern fan, or at least he once spent a long stake-out listening to Stern's radio show.

Mulder disapproves the use of drugs when treating psychological disorders and says that he's not a Freudian.

Mulder has the ability to use humor in the most doomed situations. For example, in "The Truth: Part One", Mulder is in a prison and being accused of murder and he makes a humorous reference to The Silence of the Lambs.

The person Mulder despises most in the world is probably either Alex Krycek, or Cigarette Smoking Man.

Trivia

External links

 

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