MovieChat Forums > The X Files (1998) Discussion > Major errors in geography.

Major errors in geography.

posted 9 years ago by TheSonomaDude_Returns
8 replies | jump to latest

How can a major company with billions of dollars and recourses like Hollywood get a simple search wrong?

Dallas is not in, or is nowhere near, a desert. Dallas, as is most of Texas, is very green and hilly. The only dry, sandy, cacti-filled, "Hollywoodified" parts of Texas are in the far west region and only take up about 10% of the entire state. Here are some pictures of the real area surrounding Dallas, as means to educate some of you.

http://www.oscarmail.net/houstonfreeways/images/i45_houston_dallas/i45_n_of%20_buffalo_with_sign_7_2004-11-28_2000.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MwD3f9uV8Ls/TVvk5gqDOTI/AAAAAAAABx0/ZD3zie3qEkM/s1600/South+of+Camp+Wood-600.jpg
http://unbranded-blog-media.s3.amazonaws.com/unbranded-blog-media/2014/04/formwork_driving.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Xvixionx_29_April_2006_Dallas_Skyline.jpg
http://live4travel.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/32.jpg

Someone from Hollywood could've gone out to Dallas and seen this sort of greenery. Surely they saw this stuff when they actually did go out to film in Dallas, right? I'm not sure where they got the shots of dry sand, cacti, tumbleweeds, and mountains like they did in the movie, but they had to fly a minimum of 2000 miles west to find them, because none of that is anywhere near the Dallas area. The film is clearly showing Dallas as being in a desert. If they really wanted to use a desert, they should've gone with El Paso, or just gone into a different state like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, or even California, all of which have much more desert than Texas.

On top of that, Mulder and Scully apparently drive from Dallas to DC in a single night, which anyone looking at a map could see is impossible. Dallas to DC would take nearly a full day. I've driven from Maine to Oklahoma and that proved to be a 32 hour drive. I could be wrong about this, but Mulder does ask to be taken to Arlington and Grapevine, both of which are big locations in the Dallas metropolitan area.

Mulder later says that the secret facility was near the Texas/Mexico border, from which they drove from Dallas. Dallas is nowhere near the Mexico border and is actually on the exact opposite side of the state. The movie seems like they drove maybe 2 hours at the most, but it would at least 12 hours to any point of the Mexican border from Dallas. Texas is a massive state, the largest in the continental US.

[–] granitodiaz 9 years ago

Get a life

The stupid have one thing in common.They alter the facts to fit their views not the other way

[–] TheSonomaDude_Returns 9 years ago

You're the same guy who said all of Texas was in the desert. Maybe if you'd pay attention in class you would've known that. I'm so sorry you're this offended by the fact that you're wrong.

[–] Vibradiant 9 years ago

At first it seemed possible that the large sand lot in which the kids find the cave might've simply been a bit of land cleared for development, but still awaiting construction, but then when M&S go looking for the tanker trucks, they are clearly driving for an extended period through what has to be the California desert.

I'd guess that despite those billions of dollars in Hollywood, they are still a business limited by such budgetary constraints that made it problematic to actually film such limited scenes far from the production bases in California, and so they made the gamble that most viewers (including myself) wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

A far more egregious error which would fully invalidate events of the film is the ability to reach Antarctica in July, and actually function outside, much less survive after they were left stranded and physically compromised. Nonetheless, after putting on my suspension of disbelief goggles, I still enjoy the story.

Regarding the travel time from DC to Texas via automobile, in the scene where Mulder calls Scully while she is hiding in the morgue, he clearly mentions booking a flight to Dallas and getting her a ticket.

"I like to watch."  Chauncey Gardiner, 'Being There'

[–] CromeRose 8 years ago

Yep, and when Mulder & Scully are on the roof of the building in "Dallas" if you look at other buildings in the background it's clearly Los Angeles - so Hollywood stages many places to be many other places for budget and scheduling reasons - more than half of the movie-watching world will never know or care.

[–] aliholly-62819 8 years ago

Your ground breaking discovery totally destroys an legitimacy the movie may have had

[–] Volley (3433) 4 years ago

It was only a distant portion of the Dallas outskirts, and we see downtown Dallas pretty far away. Perhaps in the X-Files universe it hadn't rained there in ages, so there was no more grass growing, and strong winds moved sands around the area.

Muldur and Scully's car was likely a rental car from the airport, which they use quite frequently in the regular monster of the week episodes.

They also don't really reveal how long Muldur and Scully were driving, it seems to be the early morning hours, 3 or 4am by the time they get to the Bumblebee Farm.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

It's fictional geography. Just roll with it.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

They drive to airplanes and fly the rest.