THE X-FILES "FANGUS" (Unproduced Episode) Teleplay by: YOUR NAME & ChatGPT Draft date : 12 May 2025 Runtime : 45 min (Network Hour) =============================================================== CREATURE DOSSIER – "MYCEPHALUS GLACIALIS" Origin : Cryophilic parasitic fungus discovered only in Arctic permafrost cores; engineered by unknown party to enter human olfactory bulb. Lifecycle: Infects host → compels host to bury self in permafrost 3–4 yrs → resumes motor control → spreads spores in population centers. Weakness : Severe heat (>42 °C) disrupts hyphal syncytium, but risks killing host. =============================================================== TEASER EXT. NORTH SLOPE, ALASKA – WINTER NIGHT A lone arctic-researcher, DR. ERIKA VOSS, radios camp—static. She steps into a self‑dug pit, burying herself alive. Close on her eye: a FILAMENTOUS THREAD wriggles. SMASH TO: MAIN TITLES =============================================================== ACT ONE INT. X‑FILES OFFICE – MORNING Mulder briefs Scully on four Nome residents missing for three years who walked back into town hypothermic but alive. A CDC physician who examined them is now dead. Skinner deploys them. EXT. NOME MAIN STREET – DAY A welcome parade. The returnees move stiffly; breath clouding thick. A nearby CHILD coughs—white motes drift in sunlight. =============================================================== ACT TWO INT. NOME CLINIC – AUTOPSY ROOM – NIGHT Scully opens the CDC doctor’s skull: BRAIN LACED WITH LUMINOUS MYCELIUM. A probe touch and the corpse’s arm *jerks*. EXT. PERMAFROST RIDGE – SAME Mulder and a geologist use ground‑radar: dozens of HUMAN‑SHAPED VOIDS beneath the ice. =============================================================== ACT THREE EXT. NOME AIRFIELD – DAWN CH‑47 lands. COLONEL REEVES and Bio‑Hazard platoon impose 48‑hour quarantine—burn everything if no cure. INT. SCHOOL GYM – MAKESHIFT LAB Scully discovers the fungus carries edited telomerase genes— crafted for longevity. She races to synthesize an antibody that snips the “immortality switch.” Meanwhile, RETURNED HOSTS attend a school assembly; HVAC blows spores through vents—children collapse. =============================================================== ACT FOUR – COUNTDOWN 00:04:00 – Reeves orders napalm line. Mulder warns about methane pockets; ignored. 00:02:00 – Scully injects EXPERIMENTAL ANTIBODY into infected boy. Flatline… then normal EEG. It works. 00:00:30 – Reeves raises detonator; Pentagon aborts strike on Mulder’s proof of cure. =============================================================== ACT FIVE INT. CARGO HELICOPTER – DAWN Bio‑Hazard troopers load frozen hosts into crates—destination CLASSIFIED. Mulder snaps photo; memory card instantly corrupts. INT. X‑FILES OFFICE – NIGHT Printer spits page: STATUS: NULL. Scully pockets leftover vial. TAG EXT. PERMAFROST RIDGE – MOONLIT NIGHT Ice beneath drift pulses dim BLUE. Camera descends to a dormant VOID; faint HEARTBEAT echoes. CUT TO BLACK. =============================================================== END OF EPISODE