The Jersey Devil/Transcript

===SCENE 1===
NEW JERSEY, 1947
(It is a dark night. A single car is driving along a wooded road. Crickets chirp. Within the car, a family sings.)
FAMILY: ...was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o. There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o. 
(The car drives under a street sign: "ATLANTIC CITY - 3 MI.")
...There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, B—
(As the children clap, a sudden bang sounds outside the car.)
SON: Dad, what was that? 
DAUGHTER: What's happening?
DAD: It's okay, it's okay, I just had a flat.
MOM: Oh, no.
DAD: No problem here, honey.
(A flashlight lies on the ground, illuminating the car as the man removes paneling to get to the flat tire. He picks up a lug wrench, and in doing so knocks the flashlight down a hill at the side of the road.)
Aaooh. Darn it.
(He throws down the wrench and goes after the flashlight. We see the man retrieve the flashlight and go back up the hill from the viewpoint of someone or something in the bushes watching him. He returns to the car; the kids are sleeping in the backseat. The man taps on the passenger-side window, against which his wife is resting her head.)
DAD: Honey, would you mind holding the light for a secaaaaaah....
(The man is suddenly yanked straight backwards out of sight. The woman gets out of the car.)
MOM: Paul?! Paul. PAUL.
(The woman picks up the discarded flashlight and shines it down the hill into the woods.)
MOM: Where are you? Paul! What happened?! Paul!
(We see the woman standing at the top of the hill holding the flashlight from the same viewpoint of something in the bushes. Next, the the legs of the man as he is dragged into the woods.)
----
===SCENE 2===
(It is dawn and the police are out in the woods with other men and their tracker dogs. The police officers and some of the men are carrying rifles. The dogs are sniffing on a scent when a voice calls out.)
VOICE: Over here! I've found something.
(The men all run downhill towards the voice. The dogs strain forwards.)
MAN WITH DOGS: Easy, easy.
(At the base of the hill, the dead body of the man is lying on the ground. The men look at each other.)
POLICE OFFICER: His leg's been eaten off.
(Another voice calls out.)
OFFICER 2: HEEYY, UP HERE. I need some help. 
(The men clamor back up the hill. Several policemen are standing, pointing their rifles into a cave.)
OFFICER 2: It's in here. It's as tall as a house. 
OFFICER 3: We can smoke him out.
POLICE OFFICER: And then what?
(From within the cave, we see the men all pointing their rifles into the cave, waiting)
OFFICER 2: I SEE IT.
POLICE OFFICER: He's coming at us.
(All the men begin shooting again and again. Fade to black.)
===SCENE 3===
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON D.C.
(Scully walks briskly through the bullpen. It's busy; phones ring, people type.)
MAN (on phone, as she passes): Special Investigations, Agent Finley speaking.
(In his silent basement office, Mulder sits staring at a centerfold in a magazine called "Hanky Panky." Seeing it, Scully pauses in the doorway and sets down her briefcase.)
SCULLY: Working hard, Mulder?
(Mulder turns the magazine around to give her a better view. She takes a long look.)
MULDER: This woman claims to have been taken aboard a spaceship and held in an anti-gravity chamber without food and water for three days.
SCULLY: Anti-gravity is right. 
(Mulder smiles and tosses the magazine onto the desk.) 
SCULLY: Sorry to interrupt your serious investigation, but I just heard a story that'd just about take your knees out.
MULDER: What's that?
SCULLY: They found a body in the New Jersey woods yesterday, missing its right arm and shoulder. They think they may have been eaten off, by a human.
MULDER: Where in New Jersey?
SCULLY: Just outside Atlantic City.
MULDER: Not an uncommon place to lose a body part. They think it's the mob?
SCULLY: Mmm, it was a homeless man. There doesn't seem to be a motive.
(Mulder rises to get his coat.)
MULDER: You feelin' lucky, Scully?
SCULLY: Relative to whom? (Mulder is looking in a filing cabinet.) It's not our case, Mulder. The local police are handling it. (He pulls out a file.) An X-File?
MULDER (handing her the file): Ever hear of something called The Jersey Devil?
SCULLY: Yeah. It's a beast that's supposed to come out of the woods and attack cars, right? Kind of like an East Coast Bigfoot?
MULDER: Read the file about the case in 1947.
(Mulder leaves the office. Scully closes the file, grabs her case and follows.)
SCULLY: Save me the trouble.
(Mulder and Scully walk back through the busy office)
MULDER: 1947, family watches Dad get dragged off into the woods, cops find Dad with a few appendages gnawed off. Cops corner a large naked man in the woods and gun `im down. (They stop at a desk.) Autopsy shows human flesh and bones in the man's large intestine. A beast-man. 
MULDER (to receptionist): Requisition for a car, please.
SCULLY (talking over Mulder): Is the autopsy report in here?
(Mulder begins filling out the form.)
MULDER: No, the original disappeared from the Patterson PD's files a few years after the incident. But there is a statement from the attending pathologist.
SCULLY: Mulder, it's the same story I've heard since I was a kid. It's a folk tale, a myth.
MULDER: I heard the same story when I was a kid, too. Funny thing is, I believed it. (He hands the form back to the receptionist and is given a set of keys.) Thanks, Doreen. (Mulder turns to face Scully.) Fact is, we got a cannibalized body in New Jersey. Someone or something out there is hungry.
(Mulder walks off. Scully turns to watch him, sighing deeply.)
===SCENE 4===
ATLANTIC CITY MORGUE
(Cars pass under a sign reading "WELCOME TO ATLANTIC CITY.")
(Mulder and Scully are in the morgue looking at the body of the victim. The coroner holds up a sheet, revealing the body.)
GLENNA: Er, they say animals can develop an appetite for human flesh, but this is no animal. You see the teeth marks, just below the clavicle? They're human.
(Glenna walks off, removing her surgical gloves.)
MULDER: Who found the body?
GLENNA: Park Ranger.
(Scully examines the body while Mulder walks to the foot of the slab.)
SCULLY: Was he alive when it happened?
GLENNA: Well, it's hard to tell.
(Mulder looks at the toe-tag. It reads:
CORONER'S DEPARTMENT
NAME CROCKETT ROGER | CASE NO. 2272 | DATE AUG 29 / 93 | WHERE TAKEN FROM: N.J. STATE PARK)
GLENNA: There's a scull fracture but no sign of a struggle. His blood alcohol level was up... probably never knew what hit him.
MULDER: Any ideas about that?
GLENNA: The size of that bite mark, I'd say.......
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: I want this on the QT.
(A man walks around a corner into view, and approaches the three of them.)
GLENNA: .......large adult male.
MAN: I'll do my best.
GLENNA: Er, Detective Thompson is handling the case.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Glenna?
(Scully shows Thompson her ID.)
SCULLY: Hi, I'm Special Agent Dana Scully and this is Agent Fox Mulder.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: I don't remember anybody calling the, FBI in on this.
MULDER: Well we're not here on an official capacity. Agent Scully's a medical doctor—we heard about your victim and she thought she might take a look.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: I'm sorry, I'm gonna ask you to leave. We have an investigation.
GLENNA: For God's sakes, Tommy, this is no time to get pissy.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: We have jurisdiction here.
MULDER: Any suspects yet, Detective?
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: I don't work for you, sir, and unless you hear different from the Attorney General, er, this case is a local matter.
SCULLY: Agent Mulder, we should go.
MULDER: There's no need to get bent outta shape. I mean, I just...
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: On the contrary, I think I've been exceedingly polite.
(Mulder and Thompson stand there staring at each other for a few moments before Mulder leaves.)
===SCENE 5===
OUTSIDE
(Mulder and Scully walk along a street to their car.)
MULDER: So what's eating that guy?
SCULLY: He was perfectly in his rights. The FBI has no overriding jurisdiction in a murder case. Anyway, you'd feel the same way if someone was horning in on your work.
MULDER: Yeah, chances are he's without a clue. He'll probably be scratching his head when they bring the next body in.
SCULLY: You missed your opening, Mulder—you could've really humiliated him and, uh, told him who the perpetrator was: the Jersey Devil. 
(Mulder laughs good-naturedly. They reach the car, and he and Scully stand outside talking across the roof.)
MULDER: Hey what do you say we grab a hotel, take in a floor show, drop a few quarters in the slot, do a little digging on this case?
SCULLY: You're kidding, right?
MULDER: Okay, we can skip the floor show.
SCULLY: Mulder, I have to be back in D.C.
MULDER: What, you got a date?
SCULLY: No. I have my godson's birthday party at 6:30. (Mulder throws the keys across the top of the car. Scully catches them.) What are you doing?
MULDER: A little poking around, Maybe make a weekend out of it.
(He walks off.)
SCULLY: Mulder, it's a three-hour drive back by myself... (Mulder waves goodbye from across the street.) In Friday night traffic... ooowh.
===SCENE 6===
CASINO
(We see people playing slots machines, playing at the crap tables. Mulder is standing beside a telephone, looking through a telephone directory. He runs his finger down a page until he finds what he is looking for:
PARKS SERVICES - STATE OF NEW JERSEY Parks Information - General Inquiries ....555 - 9573
Mulder lifts the phone.)
===SCENE 7===
NEW JERSEY STATE PARK
(Mulder and a park ranger get out of a Parks Service pickup truck.)
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Found the body just over there, lying face down on the rocks. Thirty-two years with the Parks Service, I've come across some weird stuff. But I tell ye, never anything like this.
MULDER: Victim was a homeless man. You get many of them wandering around out here?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Well, occasionally I'll see some, but most are scared of the woods.
MULDER: Scared? Of what?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: I don't know. The devil?
MULDER: People say that's just a myth.
RANGER PETER BOULAY (laughing tightly): Depends on who you talk to.
MULDER: What do you think?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Well, like I said, now thirty-two years, I see a lot of weird stuff. Like one time, little over four years ago, I saw what I thought was a, large man come out of a, copse of birch trees, not, not a stitch of clothing. And he was about, sixty yards away. And he starts, sniffing the air, you know, like a dog? And then he looks straight at me, and I swear he smelled me because he took off into the woods so fast, you'd swear he wasn't human.
MULDER: Really? 
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Yeah.
MULDER: You never saw him again?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: No, but I feel him. And, I've found things. Some scat, half-buried, like a cat's... only more human. Found a half-eaten rabbit with what looked like a human cuspid tooth in it. And some deer bones, looked like they'd been sharpened into tools.
MULDER: You think it might be what's responsible for the body you found?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Well... (He laughs uncomfortably.) I got a pension coming up in a few years. You know, you say the wrong thing...
MULDER: Yeah.
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Er, I'll tell you one thing, I don't ever come out here without my weapon anymore.
MULDER: How far is it into town from here?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: `Bout a mile, mile and a half.
MULDER: I'm staying at the Galaxy Gateway for the next couple days. If you think of anything, will you call me?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Sure.
(Mulder walks off down a path in the woods.)
===SCENE 8===
SCULLY'S GODSON'S BIRTHDAY PARTY, D.C.
(Party horns keen as a child wearing a gorilla mask runs around a corner.)
CHILD (OS): Ha-ha! Look at this gorilla mask!
(Another child, also in a gorilla mask and holding a plastic baseball bat, runs out.)
CHILD: I can't see! Where am I? I can't see!
(He runs face-first into a wall, upon which a sign reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" hangs. He starts crying. Scully hurries past the other gorilla to help him up, pulling off his mask and kissing his forehead.)
SCULLY: C'mon. it's okay, it's alright. What happened, did you bump your head? Hhmmm.
(In the dining room sits a birthday cake reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRENT!". A dog licks it happily as the kids cheer. To their dismay, Ellen shoos the dog to the floor.)
ELLEN: Cruiser! Stop that! 
(The children disperse.)
ELLEN (laughing): Go on. 
(Scully comes in holding the child who hit his head.) 
ELLEN: What, what happened?
SCULLY: Jungle warfare.
ELLEN: Aaar, I'm gonna kill that dog.
SCULLY: If the hit squad doesn't get to him before you do.
(Scully and Ellen laugh. Ellen puts an arm around her.)
ELLEN: I'm so glad you're here, Dana.
CHILD (OS): Hey, get off me! Cruiser! Get off!
(From the other room, the sound of broken glass. Ellen goes to investigate.)
ELLEN: Cruiser, get down.
(Eight rowdy children sit around the table eating cake and blowing party horns. Scully lifts an empty plate and retreats to the kitchen, where Ellen is washing dishes.)
SCULLY: Ohh! You're amazing.
ELLEN (laughing): What?
SCULLY: You're just such a natural at all this, I don't know how you keep it all together.
ELLEN: Mommy radar.
SCULLY: Mmm. I don't think I'm cut out for this, El.
ELLEN: Dana, you went through the FBI academy—what better training could there be for motherhood? (Opening a plastic container, Scully smiles over at her.) Seriously. You're great with kids! What are you talking about?
SCULLY: When am I supposed to find the time?
ELLEN: Well, first you have to get a life.
SCULLY: Ohhh.
ELLEN: And, of course, it helps if you can find a man.
SCULLY: Know of any?
ELLEN: Yeah, they're disappearing faster than the Brazilian rain forest. What about that guy you work with?
SCULLY: Mulder?
ELLEN: Yeah, I thought you said he was cute.
SCULLY: He's a jerk. He's not a jerk. He's, erm... (She struggles to find the right words.) He's obsessed with his work.
===SCENE 9===
(Mulder is walking along the path. We see Mulder from the viewpoint of someone or something watching him through the trees. Mulder continues his walk, unaware he's being watched.)
(We're back at the birthday party, where the boys are now hitting each other with balloons. The doorbell rings and Scully answers it.)
ROB: Hi.
SCULLY: Hi.
ROB: I'm Rob, I'm Scott's dad.
SCULLY: Oh, come in!
ROB: Thanks. 
ROB (to Scott): Hey, tiger. How you doing? You having a good time?
(Scully watches Rob crouch to talk to Scott. Ellen, on the phone in the hallway, clears her throat and puts a hand over the receiver as she shout-whispers to Scully.)
ELLEN: Divorced.
(Scully looks back at Rob, who looks up at her and smiles. She dips her head coyly and looks away.)
===SCENE 10===
OUTSKIRTS OF ATLANTIC CITY
6:47 P.M.
(Mulder, having made it out of the forest, walks along a street where a number of homeless people are milling about. The street is littered with boxes and cars stripped of anything valuable.)
MULDER: Did anybody here know Roger Crockett? (No one acknowledges Mulder.) He was murdered two days ago. (Mulder tries to talk to a woman as she walks past, and is ignored.) Ma'am, can I...
VAGRANT WOMAN: Hey honey, have you got any change to spare?
MULDER: Roger Crockett? Anybody?
(A man gets up and approaches Mulder.)
JACK: What d'you wanna know?
MULDER: Did you know Roger Crockett? (He nods.) Did you hear how he died?
JACK: Yeah.
MULDER: Any ideas who might've done it?
JACK: You a cop?
MULDER: No, I'm FBI.
JACK: I'll show you something.
MULDER: Okay.
(Jack leads Mulder through a door and into and alleyway.)
JACK: I need some money.
(Mulder takes some money out of his wallet and gives it to Jack. In a sheltered area, Jack rummages through a trash bag to find a small plastic bag, from which he pulls a piece of paper. He unfolds it and shows it to Mulder. It's a childlike drawing of a humanlike figure—naked, with long hair and arms outstretched.)
MULDER: What is this?
JACK: Stuck in the pocket of a jacket I found.
MULDER: Does it mean anything to you?
JACK: I've seen it.
MULDER: Where?
JACK: Right here, digging in the trash—
MULDER: Here? Are you hustling me?
JACK: Swear to God.
MULDER: Who do you think it is?
JACK: I don't know. Scared the hell out of me.
MULDER: Has anybody else seen it?
JACK: Oh, yeah, everybody's pretty freaked.
MULDER: Anybody told the cops?
JACK: You think they don't know?
MULDER: Where are you sleeping tonight?
JACK: You're standing in my bedroom.
MULDER: You know the er, The Galaxy Gateway? (Mulder gives Jack his room key.) Room 756. Go ahead.
JACK: Hey, they got HBO?
(Mulder laughs.)
MULDER: Yeah, they do.
(As Jack walks off, Mulder stares down at the drawing.)
===SCENE 11===
ALLEYWAY
(Night. Mulder is sitting in Jack's bedroom with a blanket wrapped around him. As he begins to nod off he hears a dog barking and a loud clattering. At first glance he can't see anything, but he gets up and
quietly looks around)
(He notices a figure at the end of the alleyway searching in the trash. Mulder slowly advances to get a better look at the figure. Suddenly it starts sniffing the air, but Mulder ducks down and it resumes its search. The figure then climbs over a fence and out of sight. Mulder runs to jump the fence and sees the figure running along a catwalk.)
(Mulder rushes out of the alleyway and into the street. As the figure runs along the roof of a building, he whistles at it. It pauses to stand looking over the edge of the building at him. From behind Mulder, a siren trills. A police car and police van are approaching; he looks away and the figure moves on. Mulder winces as he's blinded by the headlights.)
POLICE OFFICER: Sir.
(Mulder points up to the roof.)
MULDER: You got a man up on that roof.
POLICE OFFICER: Nothing to be afraid of. We're gonna give you a warm place to sleep it off.
(The police officer grabs Mulder by the arm but Mulder shakes it off.)
MULDER: Hey, back off.
POLICE OFFICER: Alright, calm down.
MULDER: I'm telling you, there's a man up on that roof!
POLICE OFFICER: Get in the car, now.
===SCENE 12===
ATLANTIC CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
(Mulder is sitting in a small interrogation room. Through a window in the door, Detective Thompson peers through before entering.)
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: What the hell do you think you're doing?
MULDER: Enjoying the night life here in beautiful Atlantic City.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: I'll go right to the D.A.'s office if I have to. Obstructing an investigation, misconduct.
MULDER: That's good, let's go see her together. And while we're at it, why don't we add withholding evidence to the list?
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: What are you talking about?
MULDER: Statements given to you describing something stalking the backstreets of Atlantic City.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: This is the fishing trip they get me up at three-o-clock in the morning for? Unbelievable.
MULDER: Why else would you be sweeping the streets tonight? You know it's out there.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: I got a perpetrator out there. Whether it's Hannibal the Cannibal or Elmer Fudd, I've got a job: to protect people.
MULDER: Oh, is that your job? Or is it to keep the dice rolling, keep the tour buses rolling in? You can't fill those casinos, this town disappears like a quarter down the slot. (He pauses.) I've seen it.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Seen what?
(Mulder reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the drawing of the creature. He unfolds it and shows it to Detective Thompson, who looks at it and laughs.)
You've been spending too much time in supermarket check-out lines.
(Detective Thompson folds the paper up again and throws it onto the table.)
This story's as old as the hills.
MULDER: Who's going to be responsible when you lose your first tourist, Detective? You are.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: No, you are, sir. Because you're wasting my time and impeding the solution of this case. (Thompson opens the door and pauses with a hand on it.) You wanna go on a safari, go to Africa. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend.
(He leaves, closing the door behind him.)
===SCENE 13===
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON D.C.
(Scully walks through the bullpen again. From a desk, another agent calls out to her.)
AGENT: Agent Scully! Agent Mulder, line three.
(Scully picks up the phone on the desk beside her and answers.)
SCULLY: Where are you?
MULDER: Not far from where you left me.
SCULLY: You're still in Atlantic City?
MULDER: Er, Scully... you got anything happening this morning?
SCULLY: What's that noise in the background?
(Mulder is calling from a payphone outside a jail cell. In the cell, a man is bent over.)
MULDER: That's a guy getting sick.
SCULLY: Mulder, where are you? (Cut back to Scully; a pause) The drunk tank?!
(She said this too loudly; another agent is staring at her. She turns away and continues to listen to Mulder.)
===SCENE 14===
ATLANTIC CITY
(Mulder and Scully are walking along a street. Mulder is unshaven and his clothes are dirty.)
SCULLY: Well, it's not hard to see why they mistook you for a vagrant.
MULDER: Are you gonna rag on me or are you gonna take me to get something to eat?
SCULLY: Am I buying? Or did you manage to panhandle some spare change while you were at it?
===SCENE 15===
A RESTAURANT IN ATLANTIC CITY
(Mulder and Scully are sitting at adjacent sides of a diner table. Mulder is eating a meal. He appears to be very hungry, talking at times with food in his mouth. Scully is drinking coffee.)
MULDER: It moved like a cat, quick and graceful. There's no way a human could've got up on the roof that fast.
SCULLY: Mulder...
MULDER: What?
SCULLY: What's gonna happen when word of this gets back to the Bureau?
MULDER: They dropped the charges. That guy Thompson, he ran me through the system just to spite me.
SCULLY: I'm talking about this Jersey Devil thing.
MULDER: I saw it, it's exactly the way the ranger described—the way it moved, the way it sniffed the air. It's come out of the woods, probably in search of food.
SCULLY: Yeah, I'll say.
MULDER: It was peeking through the garbage, Scully. If it was a man-eater, why didn't it come after me? Probably felt threatened in some way—
SCULLY: Mulder, listen to yourself. You're already ascribing it a motive and an alibi. This thing chewed somebody's arm off... it's not exactly a defensive posture.
MULDER: But you do believe that I saw something, don't you?
SCULLY: You saw something, I'll give you that. But I'm not about to go in and sell it. Not when it's nothing more than a sighting in a dark alley.
MULDER: I still got a hotel room I'm paying for.
SCULLY: Well, I have got to get back to Washington by 7:30, so, uh...
MULDER: Got another birthday party?
SCULLY: No. I have a date.
(Mulder looks at Scully.)
MULDER: Can you cancel?
SCULLY: Unlike you, Mulder... I would like to have a life.
MULDER: I have a life!
(She laughs and shakes her head.)
SCULLY: C'mon, I have somebody I want you to meet, on the way home. (He lifts his fork.) C'mon.
(Mulder grunts through a mouthful of food and holds up a hand as if to say "Hold on." He wants to finish his meal.)
===SCENE 16===
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
(Mulder pours himself a cup of coffee. Scully is standing, arms crossed, beside another man.)
DR. DIAMOND: Just about every culture has one. Yetis, Sasquatch, Russian Almas, Dsonoqua.
MULDER: Why is that?
DR. DIAMOND: Oh, it's a kind of universal wild-man myth. A symbolic fear of our dual natures as humans, as creators of life and destroyers of it.
MULDER: What's this chart?
(Dr. Diamond walks towards Mulder and the chart.)
DR. DIAMOND: It shows the historic entry of man onto each continent and the effect it had on other animal species, which—as you see—has been disastrous.
MULDER: Why?
(Mulder sits next to Scully.)
DR. DIAMOND: Well, we humans have retained hereditary traits through evolution that have proven to be extremely destructive. We tend to be tribal and aggressively territorial, oriented by selfish sexual and reproductive drives that make cooperation beyond the family or tribe extremely hard for us.
MULDER: So we kill other species in order to survive?
SCULLY: Yeah, humans are top carnivores. We sit at the top of the food chain and we reduce other species' chance of survival.
DR. DIAMOND: Nice to know Dana left here with more than a degree.
MULDER: But what if something entered the food chain above us?
(Dr. Diamond pours himself a cup of coffee.)
DR. DIAMOND: It won't happen. See, our intelligence virtually ensures that—barring the introduction of some alien life-form—we will live out our days as rulers of the world.
MULDER: But... but what if through some fluke of nature, a human was born who reverted to its most animal instincts? A kind of carnivorous neanderthal. Wouldn't he occupy a space above us on the food chain?
DR. DIAMOND: Oh, sure. All he'd have to do is wait outside any fast-food restaurant and eat us on the way in.
MULDER: Right, yeah, and... and haven't there been cases were men have been raised in the wilderness by animals who have no language and hunt like predators?
DR. DIAMOND: Oh, yes, several. But cannibalism is rare, even among the lower mammals.
MULDER: But even when faced with extinction?
DR. DIAMOND: Well, maybe in the jungles of New Guinea, or... (He laughs.) It's just highly unlikely that what you're suggesting could've survived civilization or evolution out in the woods of New Jersey.
MULDER: Yeah, highly unlikely, but not outside the realm of extreme possibility?
DR. DIAMOND: Well, it would be an amazing discovery.
(Mulder looks back at Scully, who raises her eyebrows and turns away.)
===SCENE 17===
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON D.C.
X-FILES OFFICE
(Mulder is sitting at his desk, looking through a stack of photos: abnormally large footprints, then a drawing of... female Bigfoot.)
===SCENE 18===
(We pan out from behind a potted monstera to see Scully and Rob sitting across the table from one another other at fancy restaurant, each of them with a drink in their hand. Scully is wearing a lacy white top, reminiscent of a wedding dress.)
ROB: Well, the hard thing was, when my wife remarried I suddenly I felt very competitive for my
son's attention. It was weird.
SCULLY (tightly): I'm sure.
ROB: I became a superdad on the weekends with Scott. I, had this unconscious fear of being
replaced. I actually had dreams where I was running over his stepfather with my car. Well,
you'll understand when you have kids. Having kids changes everything.
SCULLY: That's what they say.
ROB: Maybe some weekend, if you're up for it, we could er, take the kids out to the beach for the
day.
(A waiter arrives with their meals.)
SCULLY: Yeah!
ROB: Great. 
ROB (to waiter): Thank you. (The waiter leaves.) So, can I ask about the case you're on, or can't you say?
SCULLY: W—
(Across the table, she sees Rob cutting into a pork chop. She stops herself from answering.)
SCULLY: I don't think it's a case we should discuss over dinner.
ROB: I don't suppose you'd wanna hear about the finer points of the state planning and taxation?
(Scully smiles and dips her head. She continues to eat her meal.)
(In his office, Mulder takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes, he looks at a clock on the wall—it is 7:55 p.m. The phone rings.)
MULDER: Mulder.
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Agent Mulder, this is Peter Boulay of the Jersey Parks Department.
MULDER: Oh yeah, hi.
(Boulay is calling from his ranger's truck, in what appears to be part of the park.)
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Hi. I found a body out in the woods today. It looks like it's been dead about six to eight months. A long-haired male, missing the same tooth I found in that rabbit a while back. It could be your Devil.
MULDER: Where's the body now?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: I turned it over to the coroner's office.
MULDER: You're sure it was a male?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Well, it had all the plumbing.
(Cut to the restaurant, where they've finished their meal. Scully checks her watch as Rob reaches across the table for a cream pitcher.)
ROB: Excuse me.
SCULLY: Mm-hm. (Scully's beeper goes off.) I'm sorry. (She opens her handbag and checks the message. Seeing it, she closes her bag again and gets up from the table.) Excuse me.
ROB: Certainly.
(The phone in Mulder's office rings again.)
MULDER: Scully.
SCULLY: Mulder.
MULDER: Sorry to interrupt your evening.
(Scully is using a phone in the restaurant.)
SCULLY: That's okay. What's up?
MULDER: I just had an amazing thought. Maybe it isn't a beast-man we're looking for after all.
(Mulder is looking down at the drawing of Bigfoot.)
===SCENE 19===
ATLANTIC CITY MORGUE
(Glenna is looking through a filing cabinet, and pulls out a file. She walks back towards Scully and the ranger, Mulder peering over her shoulder.)
GLENNA: Well, if they picked it up, nobody logged the body on the chart. I sure haven't seen it.
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Well, I don't understand. What else would they have done with it?
SCULLY (to Dr. Diamond): I'm afraid we may have called you down here for nothing.
MULDER: They're going to try and sweep this whole thing under the carpet.
DR. DIAMOND: Why?
MULDER: Any publicity, and you're got the streets crawling with the kind of people who aren't here to play the crap tables. Word gets out there's something still on the loose, forget it.
DR. DIAMOND: You said it was a female?
MULDER: The body they found was a male—there's a fifty-fifty chance there was a mate. We may never know unless we find out ourselves.
DR. DIAMOND: If it's true, what are the chances of catching it alive?
===SCENE 20===
ALLEYWAY
(Mulder is cutting the wire attaching a wire fence to a metal post with a small pair of wire-cutters.)
DR. DIAMOND: If it is a primate, it would have a natural fear of heights. It would also want to stay close to its food source.
(Mulder steps through the fence and holds it back so that Scully, Diamond and Boulay can get through. The ranger is carrying a rifle.)
MULDER: This thing has no fear of heights. We'll stay together and start with the lower floors. How much time will that dart give us?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: It'll put down a five-hundred-pound bear for an hour... if I hit it.
(They all enter the decrepit building where Mulder saw the creature days prior. It's dark inside. There are bars on the doors and windows, and the windows have been smashed.)
(Out on the street, a patrol car stops next to the Parks Service truck.)
POLICE OFFICER 1: What the hell's a park-ranger vehicle doing here?
POLICE OFFICER 2: I don't know.
POLICE OFFICER 1: Check it out.
(Both officers get out of the car. The first walks off while the second one lifts the radio.)
POLICE OFFICER 2: Run a check for me on a...
(Back inside the building, Scully pokes around. Dr. Diamond crouches to pick up a piece of cloth from a pile of trash, and smells it.)
DR. DIAMOND: There's something here! (Everyone runs to him. He hands the cloth to Scully.) It's blood. She could be bringing her killing here. She could be injured.
(Outside the building, a S.W.A.T. team member turns to look at his surroundings. He is holding a machine gun and wearing a headpiece.)
S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: Roger. Zebra Team in position.
(More S.W.A.T. team men gather outside an entrance to the building, with one man pointing out directions for the others.)
(Inside, everyone is still quietly searching, now upstairs. Thin beams of light reveal exposed pipes, a rusted chain hoist. Mulder peers over a railing as Scully wanders behind him.)
MULDER: What if it is a female, Scully? (He leaves the railing to follow her.) How close is she to you or me? Does she feel emotion? Or are her days just spent looking for food?
SCULLY: Maybe, she spends her day shopping.
MULDER: Eight million years out of Africa, I don't think we're all that different.
(The S.W.A.T. team is running quietly through the bottom floor of the building.)
SCULLY: Mulder, we've put men into space. We've built computers that work faster than the human mind.
MULDER: While we overpopulate the world and create new technologies to kill each other with? Maybe we're just beasts with big brains. (Scully stops pacing, stares off into the darkness.) What?
SCULLY: No, I was just... thinking about my godson's birthday party. Eight little six-year-old boys running around? Talk about primitive behavior.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Now look, his name is Mulder and he's a federal agent, you ever hear of him?
(Mulder peers over the railing again. Thompson, flanked by two of his men, is standing downstairs talking to Diamond.)
DR. DIAMOND: No.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: You know him?
DR. DIAMOND: No.
(Mulder puts his finger to his mouth, Scully turns to look down over the railing as well.)
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Well, what are you doing here?
DR. DIAMOND: I'm a professor of Anthropology.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Mulder, does that sound familiar to you? Look, I know he's here somewhere. Would you check you upstairs, Andrew? Go check upstairs. I want this place searched...
(Mulder and Scully continue their search of the higher levels of the building. Outside, two S.W.A.T. members appear on a bridge.)
S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: Move! Move!
(Mulder, looking through a room, stops as he hears a noise. He turns to see a figure run past a window, and chases after it. Scully, close by, hears the him running. Mulder rounds a corner and slows down, creeping along a corridor.)
SCULLY (softly): Mulder? Mulder, where are you?
(Through a window, Mulder sees the beast-woman running across the top off an adjacent building. He jumps onto the roof of the other building. He lands with a roll and scrambles forward under metal beams on his hands and knees. From inside, Scully sees him duck and weave across the roof.)
(The S.W.A.T team is quickly making their way up through the building.)
(Having also jumped onto the roof of the other building, Scully rolls forward and jumps up, gun in hand. Apelike, she squats sideways to make it under the beams.)
(Mulder is crawling silently on his hands and feet. Above him, the barefooted creature hurries across a boarded walkway. As she passes, he gets up to chase her.)
(He pursues her to a dark basement, where a spinning fan splinters sunlight into rotating beams. Standing in front of it, he is jumped by the beast and they both fall. Mulder lands on his back and the beast appears from the darkness to sit on his legs. Mulder lies back, breathing heavily, waiting.)
(Scully has made her way to the top of the steps, and descends slowly with her gun trained in front of her. Downstairs, the beast lets up on Mulder and he tries to sit up, but as he does so the beast swipes at him, knocking him back to the ground and hitting his head.)
SCULLY: Mulder?
(Growling, the beast runs off. Scully runs quickly down the last few steps.)
MULDER: Scully!
(Mulder is sitting up. Scully holsters her gun and reaches for Mulder's side, where his shirt is ripped.)
SCULLY: Lay back. Oh. Mulder, you're hurt.
MULDER: You should've seen her... she was beautiful.
SCULLY: Yeah, well, she just about ripped your lungs out. (whispered) Come on. 
===SCENE 21===
OUTSIDE BUILDING
(Mulder is sitting in the back of an ambulance, next to Dr. Diamond. As a medic dresses his wound, he leans out, reaching for Scully, who is plugging her ear and pacing as she makes a phone call.)
MULDER: She could've torn my head off, Scully, but she didn't—she sensed that I wasn't a threat—
MEDIC: You've gotta hold still.
MULDER: Ow!
SCULLY (to phone): Yeah, I need to talk somebody who can get me federal jurisdiction on this case! (to Mulder:) Mulder.
MULDER: What?
DR. DIAMOND: How old would you say she was?
(Sirens wail. Scully and Dr. Diamond are both talking to Mulder at the same time, but he turns his attention to Scully.)
MULDER: What?
SCULLY: The US assistant D.A.'s on the phone with the Bureau right now. He wants to know what the hell is going on up here in Atlantic City.
MULDER: Well tell him he's got a real live neanderthal on the loose. (to Diamond) She was young, I, I, I don't know...It's hard to say exactly what, what—
SCULLY: The Atlantic City major crime unit has filed a complaint that we're "endangering a murder investigation."
MULDER: That is such crap, you can—
RANGER PETER BOULAY: Agent Mulder, they've got her cornered in a building.
MULDER: Let's go.
(The S.W.A.T. team have followed the beast-woman into another room.
One officer is talking on a HT.)
DETECTIVE THOMPSON (from outside, to HT): Can you see it?
S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: It crawled into the walls.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Can you get a man in there?
S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: That's affirmative.
DETECTIVE THOMPSON (to police): And keep these people outta here.
MULDER: You could take her alive.
(Two police officers restrain Mulder as he tries to get past. He cries out as one of them touches the wound in his side.)
(From the building, the sound of breaking glass.)
DETECTIVE THOMPSON (to HT): What's going on in there?
S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: I got a man down. We got a naked woman just jumped from a second-story window. (He looks out a window.) Suspect is headed south into the woods on foot.
===SCENE 22===
NEW JERSEY STATE PARK
(Police officers with tracker dogs approach the woods. Mulder, Scully, Dr. Diamond and the ranger all travel to the woods in the ranger's truck. They come to a stop at the woods and they all get out
of the truck.)
RANGER PETER BOULAY: I know these woods. If she's going for cover, she'll be down by the rocks.
(They make their way into the woods. Mulder winces as he hikes; blood is seeping through his T-shirt. Meanwhile, the police are tracking through the forest slowly. As the others make their way to the top of a rock face, the ranger notices the beast-woman and points her out.)
Look.
MULDER: Can you reach her from here?
RANGER PETER BOULAY: I can try.
(Peter aims at the beast-woman and fires, hitting her in the back of her right shoulder. She pulls the dart out and continues on her way. Holding his side, Mulder leads the others down the side of the rock face and across a bridge. Down by the river, with the bridge still in sight, Detective Thompson comes into view. As the others come to the end of the bridge, they hear gunshots and run towards them.)
VOICES, OVERLAPPING: I got it. Up ahead. I got it. It tried to take my arm off. Watch it, right there.
(The cops are gathered around a man who sits on the forest floor holding a bloody arm. Mulder kneels. Next to him, the body of the beast-woman lies sprawled out, dirty and covered in leaves.)
Right there. Looks like she was trying to bury herself.
(Mulder moves a hand over the beast's eyes, shutting them. He pauses for a moment before rising to stare up at Detective Thompson. In the background, Scully stands between the two, watching.)
MULDER: Why did you have to kill her?
DETECTIVE THOMPSON: Same reason you kill a rabid animal.
(Scully steps down and leads Mulder away. Peter Boulay looks from the detective to the body)
===SCENE 23===
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON D.C.
X-FILES OFFICE
ONE WEEK LATER
(Mulder flips through photos of the beast's body, then puts them in a filing cabinet. Scully enters, holding a file.)
SCULLY: Hi. This just came through—it's the posthumous medical exam on the woman's body. (Standing behind him, she leans close.) They found fragments of human bones still in her digestive tract. They estimated her age to be twenty-five to thirty years. Now, they allowed Dr. Diamond to do a medical exam of the body, but he found nothing that suggested prehistoric bone structure or physiology. Now, the ACPD has her listed as a Jane Doe. And a search for her identity in state psychiatric records has begun in earnest.
MULDER: Good luck.
(Scully gives Mulder the file and leans over his shoulder.)
SCULLY: They have also released the medical exam from the male body that they found. His age is estimated to be about forty years.
MULDER: There would have been offspring.
SCULLY (crossing her arms): The medical exam of the women's uterus does seem to indicate that she may have given birth.
MULDER (rising to get his coat): She was just protecting her children, Scully... it all makes sense! The male dies, and she comes out of the woods in search of food.
SCULLY: Mulder, will you do me a favor? Will you just go out and have a beer? Will you take the day off? I'll cover for you, will you just... take some time for yourself?
MULDER: Thanks for the offer, but I've got an appointment at the Smithsonian with.. (The phone rings) ...an ethnobiologist. I can't wait to tell him about this. (He picks up the phone.) Mulder. Yeah, just a second. It's for you.
(Scully takes the phone as Mulder rushes out of the office.)
SCULLY (perturbed): Hello?
ROB: Hi Dana, it's Rob.
SCULLY: Oh, hi!
(Rob is sitting behind a large desk in an office or a study. Books line the shelves behind him.)
ROB: Sorry to call you at work, it's just I have Scott for the night and we have two extra tickets for Cirque De Soleil... we thought maybe you'd like to ask Ellen if you could take Trent and join us.
(Walking through the bullpen, Mulder approaches the receptionist.)
MULDER: Requisition for a car please, Fran. Thank you. (Mulder is filling out the form when Scully arrives.) Who was that on the phone?
SCULLY: A guy.
MULDER: A guy. Same guy as the guy you had dinner with the other night?
SCULLY: Same guy.
MULDER: You gonna have dinner with him again?
SCULLY: I don't think so.
MULDER (sliding the form back over the desk): No interest?
SCULLY: Not at this time.
MULDER: Thanks Fran. (Taking the car keys, Mulder walks away from the desk and towards a door. Scully walks with him.) What are you doing?
SCULLY: I'm going with you to the Smithsonian.
MULDER: Don't you have a life, Scully?
SCULLY: Keep that up, Mulder, and I'll hurt you like that beast-woman.
(Scully stops at the door, her hand on the handle.)
MULDER: Eight million years out of Africa.
(Scully holds open the door.)
SCULLY: Look who's holding the door.
(Mulder walks past through the doorway. Scully follows. As the door closes, the bustle of the office continues behind them; phones ring, people call out orders.)
===SCENE 24===
NEW JERSEY STATE PARK
(A man and a boy are walking through the woods, wearing backpacks.)
BOY: Dad, did you just see something down there?
DAD: Where?
(The boy points off into the woods.)
BOY: Over there.
DAD: Nah, I'm sure it was nothing.
BOY: No, I saw something.
DAD: Hey, did you ever hear the story of the Jersey Devil? You know when I was a kid, my dad
used to tell this story about a creature who lived out there the woods. It was half-man, half-animal. And I used to believe that stuff. You know, all the kids did...
(As the father and son walk off, the camera pans to the ground. From a hollow below the trail, a bedraggled young girl watches them.)
[THE END]
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Category:The X-Files Season 1 transcripts