The X-Files' Lone Gunmen Spin-Off Show May Have Predicted 9/11
Things changed forever on September 11, 2001, both in real life and in the world of entertainment. There's a clear line drawn through history; a pre-and-post 9/11 line. The most obvious example of this line is when you watch a film or TV show set in New York. If it was shot prior to 9/11, there's a good chance you'll see an establishing shot of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center somewhere in there.
If you lived through the events, even seeing the Twin Towers in an older film or TV show can be a momentarily jarring experience. After the terrorist attacks, a trailer for Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" showing a helicopter caught in a web strung between the towers became a kind of time capsule. Posters for the film that showed the World Trade Center reflected in Spidey's eye were pulled. And some films that came out shortly after the attacks had images of the towers digitally erased, lest their very presence serve as a horrible distraction.
And then there was "The Lone Gunmen" pilot episode, which eerily predicted a similar attack just six months before the terrible event itself.
The Lone Gunmen
In the 1990s, "The X-Files" was the ultimate cult hit. A weird, wonderful show about the supernatural, paranormal, and all-things-conspiratorial, the series introduced the world to FBI Agents Mulder and Scully, who worked out of the basement of the FBI building. Their thankless job involved looking into the unexplained, with Mulder longing to believe in the preternatural while Scully remained skeptical.
As the popularity of the show grew, so too did the popularity of not just Mulder and Scully but an entire gaggle of supporting characters. There was the infamous Cigarette Smoking Man; there was the mysterious Deep Throat; there was everyone's favorite boss, Walter Skinner. The list grew with each season, with some characters becoming heavy fan favorites. Among those characters rested the Lone Gunmen — Melvin Frohike, the oldest member of the group who clearly has a crush on Scully; John Fitzgerald Byers, prone to wearing a suit; and Richard Langly, the grunge-enhanced member of the trio. These three weirdos were friends of Mulder, operating their own conspiracy magazine and glomming onto theories that even Mulder would find outlandish. If Mulder was a nerd, these three were dorks.
The trio was fun in small doses, which makes it kind of odd that they were eventually given their own (short-lived) spin-off series. And that's where things get weird.
The 9/11 connection
"The Lone Gunmen" spinoff was meant to be a more humorous cousin to "The X-Files," with the three weirdo leads getting into their own crazy misadventures. But the pilot episode would end up being far too close to real events. In that episode, a terrorist hacker hijacks an airliner with plans to crash the plane into the World Trade Center. The hacker hopes the attack will be embraced by other anti-American terrorist groups and will then lead to a new, profitable war.
The plot comes dangerously close to succeeding, complete with images of the plane hurtling towards the Twin Towers (unlike the real attacks, the Lone Gunmen scene takes place at night). Thankfully, our heroes the Lone Gunmen are able to stop the attack at the last minute, with the plane pulling up and narrowly missing the Trade Center. The episode aired exactly six months and one week prior to the real 9/11 attacks. "I woke up on September 11 and saw it on TV and the first thing I thought of was The Lone Gunmen," said the show's executive producer and episode co-writer, Frank Spotnitz.
However, by then, the show had already been canceled, and not many people made the connection. "[I]n the weeks and months that followed, almost no one noticed the connection," Spotnitz said. "What's disturbing about it to me is, you think as a fiction writer that if you can imagine this scenario, then the people in power in the government who are there to imagine disaster scenarios can imagine it, too."
Of course, this was all a strange and unfortunate coincidence. Still, the fact that the "Lone Gunmen" episode came so close to the real attacks definitely raises an eyebrow or two. As for the Lone Gunmen themselves, they were eventually killed off on "The X-Files," only to return again in comic book form. You just can't keep those guys down.