The investigation takes Mulder from the back alleys of Washington D.C. to an isolated cornfield in the Texas desert and finally to a remote scientific station in Antarctica, where the lives of every person on the planet hangs in the balance. Even brightly lit daylight sequences in the film are filtered down to avoid a shocking contrast with the naturally darker scenes. Nighttime scenes look remarkably good on the DVD, with deep inky blacks and abundant shadow detail. Colors have relatively good saturation, but may appear a tad subdued when compared to other recently Hollywood films with a less atmospheric look. Flesh tones appear very natural, except for in sequences where they are intended to look otherwise.
Film grain is noticeable in places, but it never becomes bothersome.
Digital compression artifacts remain well concealed, thanks to first rate authoring. The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack was a winner the first time the film was released on DVD and it remains a winner even now. This soundtrack makes aggressive use of the discrete channels to produce a wide forward soundstage that is well integrated with the rear channels. Sound effects pan effortlessly in a highly effective manner, plus the sound designers have made aggressive use of the surround channels for the implementation of interesting split effects. Dialogue reproduction is fully intelligible during the louder passages and quite natural sounding when the actor's voices predominate.