Product Details

• Directors: Richard Compton, James A. Contner, Allen Coulter, Tucker Gates, Ralph Hemecker
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: May 5, 1998
• Run Time: 45 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304907621
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,487 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This pair of stand-alone episodes from the third season spotlights the two sides of the series. "Pusher" (episode 17) is the gripping tale of a killer who uses his voice to control men's minds in this literal battle of wills between Mulder (David Duchovny) and the self-described "American Ronin" Robert Modell, who calls himself Pusher (Robert Wisden). Helmed by Rob Bowman, one of the series' strongest directors, this sleek, spooky thriller leaves the conspiracy aside for a tale that combines science and the supernatural in the form of an evil, amoral genius who uses his gift to terrorize and menace. "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" (episode 20), from the fevered mind of Darin Morgin, sparkles with imaginative wit and playful twists on convention. The story, of a possible alien abduction that may in reality be a cover-up for secret air force experiments, is told from the differing points of views of witnesses, all interview subjects of "reality book" author Jose Chung (Charles Nelson Reilly). Morgin takes the premise a step further, transforming the re-creation of events according to the teller of the tale: Rashomon with a satirical slant. With Bowman at the helm delivering Morgin's inventive screenplay with deadpan accuracy, this episode's dry wit and satirical skew has become a fan favorite. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bleepin' Must-See Episode for X-Files Fans!, July 10, 2001

By A Customer

First off, I'll mention the "other" episode on this tape, "Pusher", by saying that it's an above-average episode. It's the story of a man with a terminal brain tumor, and the tumor has given him the ability to force his will onto other people. He's using this power to get other people to injure or kill themselves, and Mulder and Scully are sent to stop him. The climax is a doozy, as the man forces Mulder to play a deadly game of Russian roullette. But the OTHER episode - "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" is my all-time favorite episode of the X-Files (and, as I've learned, it's often the favorite episode of other X-Files fans as well). The plot is rather complicated, but I'll try to simplify it: Charles Nelson Reilly (who some may remember was a regular on the classic "Match Game" game show in the seventies) is wonderful as Jose Chung, a famous writer who's out to make a quick buck by writing a "non-fiction science fiction" book about a supposed UFO abduction and series of UFO sightings in Klass County, Washington State. (In one of the episode's many small jokes, the fictional "Klass" County is a swipe at the real-life Phillip Klass, America's leading debunker and critic of UFO sightings - the real-life "Ciggarette-Smoking Man"). Mulder, fearing that Chung is only going to ridicule the witnesses and ruin the sighting's credibility, refuses to talk with him, but Scully - who's a great admirer of Chung's novels - does agree to tell her side of the story to him. Unfortunately for her, Chung has already gotten umpteen versions of the Klass County sightings from various people in the county. And, of course, their stories are all hilariously different. One version comes from a ... teenage couple who claim they were abducted by aliens who smoked ciggarettes, then admitted they had sex in the car, "only don't tell her dad, he'll kill me". Another version comes from a geeky high-school loser who's into Dungeons and Dragons and who combs the woods looking for UFOs at night. Lo and behold, he finally finds a dead alien, only to accuse Scully and Mulder (whom he thinks is an android) of roughing him up and covering up the evidence (which Scully, of course, says never happened). He then describes being beaten up by two sinister "men in black" (one being Jesse Ventura, the other is "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek)! Then we go to another loser - a power-company lineman who claims he saw the rumored UFO abduction and was then given an "important" cosmic message from a huge alien. This revelation leads him to write down his experiences in a book in his garage - until the aforementioned "men in black" burst into his garage and threaten him - Ventura: "Did you know that a former President of your country - James Earl Carter - claimed to have seen a UFO?" Man (clutching his book): "I'm a Republican"! And, there's also the constantly grouchy local policeman who cusses like a sailor (and since Scully's telling the story, she hilariously "bleeps" out his profanity) - policeman: "Yeah, that's a bleepin' dead alien all right"! Along the way there are some of the "X-Files" most famous scenes - one of the best are the conflicting stories of Mulder and a bewildered cook at a local diner - Mulder remembers sitting in the diner late at night and questioning the "human" pilot of the suspected UFO until the military comes and takes him. The cook doesn't remember any of that, but he does remember Mulder all alone in the diner, eating slice after slice of sweet potato pie and asking bizarre questions to the cook - "Have you ever been probed by aliens?". Unlike most "X-Files episodes which concentrate almost solely on horror or dark humor or surrealism, this single episode combines all three genres into a brilliant, if bizarre, fifty minutes of entertainment.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reality in Jeopardy, June 23, 2000

By	Jason - See all my reviews

Although the "Pusher" episode left little impression on me, I give this video recording five stars for the latter episode alone. Written by Darin Morgan, known for funny and intellectually subtle "X-Files" scripts (as well as for playing the infamous "Flukeman"), "Jose Chung's from Outer Space" ranks as one of the best episodes in the series. Charles Nelson Reilly portrays perfectly the eccentric Chung, who interviews Scully for a "non-fiction science fiction" book about an alien abuction and crash of an extraterrestrial craft that may or may not have occurred near a small town. Various characters give their own accounts of what occurred, including a teenage couple supposedly abducted by "grays"; an electrical worker threatened by a double-talking "man in black" (played by a pre-gubernatorial Jesse Ventura); and a loser obsessed with conspiracy theories and role-playing games who perceives Mulder and Scully as brutal co-conspirators trying to cover up the crash.

Comparisons to "Rashomon" seem quite obvious, but Morgan does not confine this episode to that evident allusion. In-jokes about the show and popular culture in general abound, including allusions to the infamous "Alien Autopsy" video. Also, Morgan gives a cyclopian alien the moniker "Lord Kinbote," alluding to the unreliable narrator of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire." I read somewhere that Morgan considers Nabokov one of his favorite writers. How appropriate, considering Nabokov's own penchant for unreliable narrators (like Humbert in "Lolita") who distort and misperceive reality, and for throwing a variety of allusions (obvious and arcane) into his novels. Whether you understand everything in this episode or not, Morgan's little gem provides a well-done change of pace from the usual "X-Files" episode.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best X-Files ever - needs a 6th star, December 15, 1999

By A Customer

Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" is my all-time favorite X-F episode, beating out War of the Copraphages and Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. Yes, I'm a Darin Morgan fan. JCFOS throws in everything but the kitchen sink but, as in a great novel, all begins to make sense upon repeated study. I can't believe anything this good ever made it onto network television! Thank you to everyone associated with its creation......