Gotta admit to bypassing x-Files, but there are millions out there who remember the 1993—2001 television series with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as one of the finest film odysseys ever made. Of 201 episodes, 117 were shot in Vancouver.
Vancouver Sun television critic Alex Strachan says that a key to the success of the series involving the paranormal, and a factor in its demise after it finally relocated to Los Angeles, was the Vancouver setting: “The mist, the rain, the soft, pale light and cold, damp air that created its own eerie special effect of people being able to see their breath as they spoke . .
Several years after its cancellation, x-Files continues to run worldwide; Strachan hints at cult status. Boyd McConnell’s Pendrell Estates (1419 Pendrell Street, West End, 604-609-2770, www.x.tours.com), the pretty brick complex where Anderson (aka Special Agent Dana Scully) holed up in the series, continues to attract attention. “People love Hollywood,” reminds McConnell, whose apartment building has since been the subject of features for Cathay Pacific Airways’ inflight program and the BBC. And movie-makers and tourists continue to book into the none-too-cheap apartment-hotel. Roughly thirty movies have been made in the building, and McDonnell knows the scene. Not only does he provide tours of his own set, he shows people to this and other movie locations around the city.
However, if you’d rather suss out X-Files locations on your own, here’s some of the others: Fox Mulder (Duchovny) lived in a stalwart brick building called The Wellington (1630 York Avenue, Kitsilano) and Mulder’s father lived at 6476 Blenheim Street on the Westside. The uninspiring BC Hydro building (333 Dunsmuir Street, Downtown) served as the lobby for the FBI, as did the home of our two major daily newspapers, Granville Square (200 Granville Street, Downtown). The Robson Square Conference Centre, a partly underground complex now used as a satellite campus by UBC, functioned as NASA mission control. The Plaza of Nations, at 770 Pacific Boulevard, somehow passed muster as Miami International Airport (minus the runways). Poor old 1190 Homer Street was assigned to play the Texas Book Depository, and Pacific Central Station (1150 Station Street, Central Vancouver) played the role of Bronx Station, New York.
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