Long Take from The X-Files S6E3 - "Triangle" (1998)
Series Title: The X-Files - Season 6, Episode 3: "Triangle"
Year: 1998
Director / Screenwriter: Chris Carter
Country: United States (Fox)
Director of Photography: Bill Roe (ASC)
Visual Effects Producer: Bill Millar
Set Design: Corey Kaplan
Edited by Heather MacDougall
Episode length: ~44 minutes
Structure: 4 acts + 1 final act in split-screen—each act appears to be a single continuous shot lasting ~11 minutes
Actual number of cuts: 34+ (confirmed by Carter in the DVD audio commentary)
Method: long takes edited together—hidden cuts within panoramic shots, scenes set in darkness, and crowd movements. Transitions between the two time periods using side wipes.
Filming location: RMS Queen Mary—a 1936 ocean liner anchored in Long Beach, California (converted into a luxury hotel). Carter had much of the interior redecorated to reflect the 1930s.
Typical budget per episode: ~$2.5 million (Fox was concerned about going over budget)
Stated inspiration: *Rope* (Hitchcock, 1948) + *The Wizard of Oz* (1939)
Split-screen: inspired by the music video for "Closing Time" by Semisonic (MTV, 1998)
Bermuda Triangle. 1998. Mulder (David Duchovny) is rescued by the crew of the Queen Anne, a British luxury liner that mysteriously reappeared after vanishing in 1939. Except that, as far as the crew is concerned, it’s 1939. Nazi soldiers are in control of the ship, searching for a scientist nicknamed “Thor’s Hammer.” Mulder makes his way through the ship—ballrooms, narrow hallways, passageways, and engine rooms—and the camera follows him without cutting. For eleven minutes. Then the shot shifts acts, transitioning with a lateral pan, and we’re in 1998. Scully (Gillian Anderson) runs through the hallways of the FBI in Washington, desperately trying to locate Mulder. The camera follows her without cutting. Another eleven minutes. Four acts, four seemingly continuous shots of eleven minutes each, spanning two time periods, two locations, and two realities; and in the fifth act, the two converge in a split screen when the 1939 Scully and the 1998 Scully cross paths in the same hallway of the same ship.
Why This Scene Is a Cult Classic
Matt Zoller Seitz wrote in *The Star-Ledger* in 1998: “There has never been an hour of television that looks or moves like *Triangle*.” In 1998, that was literally true. No one had ever done that on television—four apparent continuous takes, each eleven minutes long, in a single episode of a weekly series, on a network series budget. Hitchcock’s Rope (1948) had done it in film, but that was an 80-minute movie with a single set and five actors. Carter did it on television, with two time periods, dozens of actors, a 300-meter ocean liner and an FBI building, Nazis, shootouts, a ballroom scene, and a chase through the hallways. Everyone thought he was crazy.
Emily St. James, writing for The A.V. Club, gave the episode an A and noted that the long takes give “the whole thing a sense of urgency that propels scenes that shouldn’t work.” That’s exactly it—the long take turns hallway scenes into races against the clock. When Scully sprints through the FBI headquarters in 1998—opening doors, pleading with colleagues, running up stairs—the camera follows her relentlessly, and you’re just as out of breath as she is. Shearman noted that Scully’s run through the FBI is “the best of them all”—better than the scenes on the ship—because it relies solely on Anderson running and the camera following her.
And then there's the split screen. The 1939 Scully and the 1998 Scully are walking down the same hallway, in the same direction, filmed from nearly identical angles, and when they pass each other, they move from one side of the split screen to the other. Bill Millar, the VFX producer, said it was “the work he’s most proud of from the entire season.” Carter was inspired by the music video for Semisonic’s “Closing Time.” St. James called it “one of my favorite moments from the entire series.”
How They Filmed It
Chris Carter came up with the idea during the production of Season 5: to shoot an entire episode in one continuous take, like Hitchcock's *Rope*. Fox, the network, was worried: an episode that complex would blow the $2.5 million budget. But when Carter mentioned Hitchcock, Fox gave the green light.
The 1939 ocean liner isn't a studio set. It's the RMS Queen Mary, a real transatlantic liner from 1936, anchored in Long Beach, California, and converted into a luxury hotel. Carter had much of the interior redecorated to reflect the 1930s. The ship’s main corridor runs almost the entire length of the vessel; it curves upward at both ends because the ship was designed to flex on the ocean.
The episode appears to consist of four 11-minute continuous shots, but Carter revealed in the DVD audio commentary that there are actually 34 or more cuts, hidden within the rapid pans, the scenes set in darkness, and the moments when extras cross the frame. It’s the same principle as in *Rope*—the illusion of a single take, not an actual single take.
The elevator scene—the same one featured in John Woo’s *Hard Target* (1992) and Flanagan’s *The Haunting of Hill House* (2018). When Scully steps into the FBI elevator, the doors close. The elevator doesn’t move. During the few seconds that Scully is trapped inside, the crew frantically changes the set on the other side of the doors—furniture, extras, props, lighting. When the doors open, you’re on a “different floor.” Carter recounted that sometimes the doors would open too early, revealing technicians running around with frames and props in their hands.
Gillian Anderson almost fell during the running scene in *The FBI*. As she rushed out of Fowley and Spender's office toward the elevator, she slipped and reached out with her arm to steady herself. It's visible in the episode, but since the entire scene was shot in one continuous take, cutting it out would have meant reshooting the 11 minutes from the beginning. The take was kept.
The final split-screen shot was the most technically complex shot. Millar had to calibrate the two halves of the screen so that the camera angles were nearly identical, then animate the transition when the two Scullys cross paths and “move” from one side of the split screen to the other. He also digitally replaced the green screen visible from the deck of the Queen Mary with the Atlantic Ocean.
What to Look For When Watching It Again
The 34 Hidden Cuts (~the entire episode) Carter says there are 34 or more. Look for whip pans, moments of total darkness (scenes inside the ship's bowels), and extras crossing the frame. Each cut is hidden by a movement that distracts your attention.
Anderson's Slip (~Act 3, the FBI chase) When Scully runs out of Spender's office, Gillian Anderson slips and catches herself with her arm. It was a real accident that was left in the take because reshooting it would have taken 11 minutes.
The split-screen scene (~Act 5) The two Scullys are walking down the same hallway and pass each other. Watch the exact moment when they switch sides of the frame—that’s Millar’s work, and he said it was “the shot he’s most proud of from the entire season.” Carter came up with the idea while watching the music video for “Closing Time” by Semisonic.
Did you know?
"Triangle" is as much a tribute to *The Wizard of Oz* as it is to Hitchcock. The 1939 storyline is a "dream" in which Mulder encounters familiar faces in different roles, just like Dorothy in the Land of Oz. The Smoking Man is the Nazi leader, Spender is his “lackey,” Skinner is a double agent, Kersh is an unexpected ally, and Scully is herself in 1939 but doesn’t recognize herself. Mulder’s ship is called “Lady Garland,” after Judy Garland. The dance on the ship is hosted by “Elmira Gulch and the Lollipop Guild,” two direct references to Oz. And the final scene, where Mulder tries to convince his friends that he really was there, is modeled after Dorothy’s awakening: “You were there! And so were you!”
This episode is the forerunner of everything this collection covers in terms of television. Mr. Robot S3E5 (2017), The Haunting of Hill House S1E6 (2018), Adolescence (2025), Severance S2E1 (2025)—they all trace their roots back to "Triangle." In 1998, Chris Carter proved that you could do Hitchcock-style storytelling on network television, with a series budget, in a weekly episode. The elevator scene? Flanagan reused it for *Hill House*. The 11-minute takes? Barantini extended them to 60 minutes for *Adolescence*. The hidden cuts in the tracking shots? Stiller replaced them with a robotic Bolt X for *Severance*. It all starts here, in the corridors of a 1936 ocean liner docked in Long Beach, with Chris Carter and an idea that everyone thought was crazy.
Sources
Chris Carter - DVD audio commentary for "Triangle" (cited in X-Files Wiki, IMDb, Wikipedia)
Bill Millar, VFX Producer - Cleigh6/CTP, "Today's Cherished Episode: Triangle"
Matt Zoller Seitz - The Star-Ledger, original review (November 1998)
Emily St. James - The A.V. Club, A-grade review
Robert Shearman - 5 stars (cited in Wikipedia)
CBR - "This 27-Year-Old X-Files Episode Has a Secret Connection to an Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece" (June 2025)
X-Files Wiki - "Triangle" (technical details, elevator, split screen, Semisonic music video)
IMDb Trivia - "Triangle" S6E3
201 Days of the X-Files Blog - Episode Analysis (December 2015)
Wikipedia - Triangle (The X-Files)
