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Xposé #21 - April 1998
Terminator Too
Brian Thompson's mighty morphing alien assassin has been a recurring threat to Mulder and Scully. By James E Brooks.
He first appeared as a silent and unstoppable force, sent to track down and destroy the alien-human hybrid clones that held answers to some of the mysteries driving Special Agent Fox Mulder.
An imposing figure with cold, emotionless features, the alien assassin has appeared in six episodes of
The X-Files, becoming as much a fixture in the shows legend as the Cigarette Smoking Man. The Terminator movies have Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The X-Files has Brian Thompson.
The Washington state native began acting in high-school, playing the role of the Russian ballet instructor named Boris in
You Can't Take It With You. He continued performing in college, taking parts in more plays, as well as musicals and even operas, before getting a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine. On graduating, he got a paying job performing in the Conan the Barbarian show at Universal studios.
Thompson's roles have run a wide gamut, with a number of them set in the science fiction or fantasy genre. From
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine to the feature
Dragonheart, his distinctive features and imposing physique have helped bring life to several fantastical characters. Oh, and getting back to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Thompson was one of those punks who handed his clothes over to Arnold at the beginning of
The Terminator.
Thompson's Star Trek connection came into play when first auditioning for
The X-Files, an audition marked by its very informal nature. "I had just returned from doing
Dragonheart," Thompson remembers, "and my agent said there was a part in this really good science fiction show. At the time, I didn't really know anything about
The X-Files because I hadn't seen it. But my agent said that it was very good. So I went in and met with Chris Carter and Rob Bowman, who directed the episode. I had worked with Rob before on an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation [A Matter of Honor] which turned out to be one of the landmark episodes of that show and turned out really good. There are baseball cards and stuff from it that you see at
Star Trek conventions now.
"There was no material for the audition, so it was just an interview, which I tend to enjoy more because the pressure is off. In that kind of setting you can also ask them as many questions as they ask you. We just chatted, the three of us. I talked about wind-surfing with Chris Carter - he's a surfer - and we chatted about
Dragonheart. And they offered me a job just from meeting me in the interview. I guess they trusted that I would be able to speak as well," he says laughing.
One recurring characteristic of
The X-Files production machine is its devotion to secrecy in order to deliver episodes that consistently surprise and delight the audience. Unfortunately, that attention to security can sometimes leave the actors in the dark. As a consequence Thompson was given very little to draw on for his first appearance.
"No," he says, "They weren't able to tell me anything about the character's background then, just that when he was first seen they wanted him to look like a Russion pilot. That was the look they were going for. Honestly, I doubt that they know what planet he is from or what his origins actually are. They have just decided that this character is obviously in
cahoots with the people in the United States government who know about the alien
presence. He is also working for an alien governing body that wants to keep these other aliens off of Earth. Basically, it's my character's job to be the alien police."
Kind of a Man in Black?
"Yeah," he laughs, "I'm an alien MIB. Of course," he continues, "the character has the dimension of being the healer in
Herrenvolk when he cured Mulder's mother."
In spite of this new facet of the alien assassin, he is still known for his swift and more final actions. That relentless direction was something key to Thompson's concept of the character, a creature unencumbered by emotion. "It was clear from the first episode that all I was doing was chasing down aliens and terminating them. it was also clear to me from the first script that I saw that the assassin was doing this as a job. He wasn't a psycho-killer who acted out of some kind of mental defect. He was doing it because it was his job and with hus unique alien abilities he was better equipped to perform the duty than any human being.
"So my take was to be very efficient, to be quick and expedient and matter of fact. The assassin has no fear because he and his kind are impervious to bullets and most weapons on this planet. I don't think any of the hybrids he's after have a particle beam weapon, so there's not much that can stop him," Thompson laughs.
The prospect of simply tracking people down and killing them, however, didn't appeal to Thompson if it would be the entire limit of he character. "When I got hold of the second script and the only thing the character was doing was the same tracking and killing, I was actually upset because I had been told that there would be a lot more for him to do in the second script
[End Game]. I don't know if it was my getting upset and putting my foot down, but they added something more for the character to do. Before they did, I actually said, 'I would like you to morph me into somebody else and send me home. Because i don't want to be someone's prop for violence. I thought I was going to get some acting in this job and I was told there was a lot more for this character to do and there is not.'
"I think it's the only time that I've actually done something like that," he says, "you know, created some kind of statement in the storyline, helped to bring about a significant change in the script. Anyway, that afternoon I
received some faxed new script pages which had the monologue I had at the end of
End Game where I talk to Mulder about his sister. I think it's because
of that one block of dialogue that I got tied into the mythology of the show. And that is why I got to do more episodes and why they are talking about me doing more episodes this season."
End Game not only offered Thompson
greeter challenges as an actor, but also memorable experiences on set. In on of
The X-Files' first forays into larger budget productions, Colony and
End Game took the show away from more conventional settings into the Arctic Circle. Structured with a 'framing' device, the story begins and ends in the icy reaches near the North Pole. Where an alien spacecraft has landed. It is an American nuclear submarine which makes first contact with the pilot of the spaceship, a fatal first contact for all aboard as the alien assassin begins to
reveal his true nature. After his mission is completed, the assassin makes his way back to his craft, followed closely by Mulder.
The scenes outside and aboard the abandoned sub between Mulder and the assassin are some of the most visually striking in the two episodes. What is not widely known is that the inside of the sub was actually a decommissioned Canadian battleship which was later used again for filming in the episode
Dod Kalm. "I've always been intrigued by working on decommissioned
ships," Thompson says. "It was a huge ship. Three hundred feet long - a big mama. The producers had heard about it and had the thing towed upriver so they could use it."
The sub's exterior was a different matter. With no other way to realistically create the setting, Chris Carter's production design people pulled out all the stops. A full-size conning tower was built on the soundstage, equipped with hydraulic jacks to raise and lower it. To accurately simulate the arctic
environment, the entire stage was covered with snow and ice. "It was unbelievable," Thompson says, "they froze the set and there was that huge conning tower. I couldn't believe I was doing a television show, it was so expensive. But I'm sure that there has been twice that much money spent on the show we just finished."
The episode Thompson refers to is the first part of another two-parter,
Patient X. Filmed at the same time as this interview, there was not much specific Thompson was able to say. "I can tell you that I'm in it," he says with a laugh. "There are a lot of surprises, I can tell you that. And they spent a lot of money on it. They shoot like there's no budget any more. They keep filming until they say, 'Okay, I think we have enough.' This one was filmed in front of a dam.
"It took two hours to get to the location and I thought, 'God, this had better be a nice location, something special.' Well, it was. It's a dam across the Fraiser river, a huge hydro-electric dam. In front of it, about a third of the way up and a hundred yards in front, is an iron trestle bridge that goes across the rive. That was our location. And then they said, 'Bring on the water!' They were controlling the floodgates of the dam. There were two helicopters, a hundred extras, and all kinds of special effects. I seriously thought, 'Okay, we're doing 'Patriot Games 3' here.' Just huge. And that was a night of second unit shooting, not first unit."
While it certainly doesn't measure up to the epic scale of a huge dam, one set piece prop that has
consistently been associated with the alien assassin is his distinctive stiletto weapon. Here, too,
The X-Files' popularity and success has wrought a change in filmmaking.
"The original one required three guys to operate it," Thompson says. "They worked it pneumatically by running hoses up my pants' leg, up my shirt, and down my sleeve. I would always have to run the handle up the cuff of my shirt so that the air line wouldn't be visible.
"We have a new one, now, though. It's self-contained, a spring-loaded weapon that actually works. It's a little bit larger than the original weapon and it's got a seam running up the inside. The blade is surgical steel and when you press the button, it can go through a quarter-inch piece of wood. If it got you in the stomach, it would go right through. I'm sure it's illegal," he laughs.
Working on The X-Files is an experience that
constantly delights Thompson. "I remember I had been working in Vancouver for a week and flew back to LA with David Duchovny and at the airport a woman says to me, 'Congratulations.' 'For what?' I said. 'Well, you all won the Golden Globe for best dramatic series.' And I said, 'What? I'm in the best show on TV? Oh, my God!'" Looking towards the actor muses, "You know, the sky's the limit with this character. He could do anything. He could be asking Gillian for a date in the next couple of weeks. At least, I've suggested that, but you know,
I haven't heard anything yet," he says laughing again.
And who's to say it could never happen. The assassin, after all, is the picture of persistence...
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