Død Kalm
Encyclopedia
"Død Kalm" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of The X-Files
science fiction
television series
created by Chris Carter
. It aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company
on March 10, 1995.
, chaos erupts on board the U.S.S. Ardent, an American naval
destroyer
. Due mysterious-yet-unspecified events, half of the Ardents crew board lifeboats and abandon ship. Eighteen hours later, they are spotted by a Canadian
fishing vessel; however, in that short span of time, the young crew members have undergone rapid aging.
When the Ardent is reported missing, Agent Dana Scully
is summoned to the Bethesda Naval Hospital
by her partner, Fox Mulder
. Mulder has Scully visit the ship's sole surviving crew member, Lt. Harper, who has been quarantined in the hospital's ICU. She finds that Harper, despite being in his twenties, has aged to the point of being unrecognizable. Mulder tells Scully that the Ardent vanished at the 65th parallel
, a location of with a history of ship disappearances. Mulder believes that a "wrinkle in time" exists there, and that the Ardent was the subject of government experimentation related to the Philadelphia Experiment
of World War II
.
Upon arriving in Norway
, Mulder and Scully try to find any sailors willing to take them near the Ardents last known location. Only an American Naval trawler
captain, Henry Trondheim, agrees to help. At sea, Trondheim's boat encounters heavy fog and crashes into the Ardent. Mulder, Scully, Trondheim, and his first mate, Halverson, board the apparent ghost ship and find signs of advanced corrosion
, even though the Ardent is only a few years old. Below decks, the mummified remains of other crew members are discovered. Suddenly, Trondheim's boat is stolen, stranding the party aboard the ship.
The agents find that the ship's engines and communications systems are corroded beyond repair. Mulder theorizes that the purported experimentation has led to time "speeding up", causing both the Ardent and the corpses to decay rapidly. The party hears a commotion below decks, where Halverson is found dead and the Ardents commanding officer, Captain Barclay, is discovered alive. The agents question the wizened Barclay, who claims that his crew had seen a "glowing light" in the ocean and that "time got lost". Mulder and Scully agree that the frail Barclay couldn't have murdered Halverson, and that someone else is aboard the ship.
While casting Halverson's body out to sea, Trondheim is attacked by a Norweigian pirate whaler named Olafsson; it is revealed that Olafsson killed Halverson and that his crew commandeered Trondheim's boat. Mulder and Trondheim subdue Olafsson, who hasn't aged despite being on the ship for the past two days. After Barclay dies, a crystalline material begins to form on his body. Mulder, Scully, and Trondheim eventually begin to show signs of unnatural aging just as the Ardents crew had. Scully develops a theory that the Ardent is sailing near a metallic object beneath the ocean, and that it has caused free radicals
to rapidly oxidize their bodies and environment, leading to the hastened aging effect.
Mulder notices that only one ceiling pipe has not corroded through. Both he and Scully follow the pipe to the ship's sewage hold, where Olafsson and his crew were previously holed up. The agents realize that something from the ocean contaminated the Ardents portable water and led to the metamorphosis of the ship and her crew, while Olafsson's men remained unaffected due to their consumption of recycled water from the sewage system. They further realize that there isn't much drinkable water left to keep them alive. Meanwhile, Trondheim learns about the water from Olafsson. Desperate to survive, Trondheim kills Olafsson and sets out to keep the water for himself.
Scully learns from blood tests that the contaminated water causes rapid cellular damage and dramatically increases sodium chloride
in the body, leading to their condition; consumption of the untainted water has slowed down the aging in Scully and Trondheim, but Mulder's condition continues to worsen. Trondheim attempts to convince Scully to do away with Mulder, but she dismisses him. She tries to ration the water amongst the three, but eventually discovers Trondheim attempting to hoard
what little drinkable water that remains. The crazed Trondheim locks Scully out of the sewage hold, forcing her to use minuscule supplies from a snow globe
and a sardine
can to keep Mulder alive. The Ardents ongoing corrosion eventually eats through the ship's hull, flooding the sewage hold and drowning Trondheim.
Scully collects what little water she has found, and puts it in a jar she gives to Mulder; Mulder, believing that Scully has a better chance of survival, tries to return the jar instead. However, when the Ardent begins taking on water, the resulting convulsions in the ship cause the jar to shatter. Mulder and Scully are left to face their seemingly imminent demise; Mulder laments their predicament, but Scully attempts to assure him that an afterlife
exists beyond death. The agents both lose consciousness shortly before Navy rescuers arrive on the Ardent to save them.
Scully comes to at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where both she and Mulder are being treated. She is told that her written observations on the case have helped naval doctors reverse their aging and save Mulder from near-certain death. Scully tries to speak to a naval liaison about salvaging the Ardent, but is told that the ship has sunk. The episode ends with a camera shot of fog on the water, leaving the viewer clueless to what the real anomaly is.
Mackenzie
, a decommissioned Canadian Forces
destroyer, was used for interior and exterior shots as the U.S.S. Ardent. The ship had previously been used to shoot interior scenes for the climax of the episode "End Game
". The Mackenzie, once the lead ship
of its class
, was stripped and scuttled shortly after filming ended.
dialogue of the script, which has been compared to the Icelandic language
. The title "Død Kalm" is implied to be Norwegian but is really nonsensical, as the word "kalm" doesn't exist in the language; the title is an apparent reference to the 1989 Australian
film Dead Calm
. Furthermore, "Tildeskan", the fishing port Mulder and Scullt visit, is fictitious.
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
created by Chris Carter
Chris Carter (screenwriter)
Christopher Carl Carter is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He is the creator of The X-Files and Millennium.- Ten Thirteen Productions :...
. It aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on March 10, 1995.
Plot
In the Norwegian SeaNorwegian Sea
The Norwegian Sea is a marginal sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway. It is located between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea and adjoins the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a...
, chaos erupts on board the U.S.S. Ardent, an American naval
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
. Due mysterious-yet-unspecified events, half of the Ardents crew board lifeboats and abandon ship. Eighteen hours later, they are spotted by a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
fishing vessel; however, in that short span of time, the young crew members have undergone rapid aging.
When the Ardent is reported missing, Agent Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
is summoned to the Bethesda Naval Hospital
National Naval Medical Center
The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, USA — commonly known as the Bethesda Naval Hospital — was for decades the flagship of the United States Navy's system of medical centers. A federal institution, it conducted medical and dental research as well as providing health care for...
by her partner, Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
. Mulder has Scully visit the ship's sole surviving crew member, Lt. Harper, who has been quarantined in the hospital's ICU. She finds that Harper, despite being in his twenties, has aged to the point of being unrecognizable. Mulder tells Scully that the Ardent vanished at the 65th parallel
65th parallel north
The 65th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 65 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia and North America....
, a location of with a history of ship disappearances. Mulder believes that a "wrinkle in time" exists there, and that the Ardent was the subject of government experimentation related to the Philadelphia Experiment
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is the name of an alleged naval military experiment said to have been carried out at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA sometime around October 28, 1943. It is alleged that the U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered...
of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Upon arriving in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Mulder and Scully try to find any sailors willing to take them near the Ardents last known location. Only an American Naval trawler
Naval trawler
A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...
captain, Henry Trondheim, agrees to help. At sea, Trondheim's boat encounters heavy fog and crashes into the Ardent. Mulder, Scully, Trondheim, and his first mate, Halverson, board the apparent ghost ship and find signs of advanced corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
, even though the Ardent is only a few years old. Below decks, the mummified remains of other crew members are discovered. Suddenly, Trondheim's boat is stolen, stranding the party aboard the ship.
The agents find that the ship's engines and communications systems are corroded beyond repair. Mulder theorizes that the purported experimentation has led to time "speeding up", causing both the Ardent and the corpses to decay rapidly. The party hears a commotion below decks, where Halverson is found dead and the Ardents commanding officer, Captain Barclay, is discovered alive. The agents question the wizened Barclay, who claims that his crew had seen a "glowing light" in the ocean and that "time got lost". Mulder and Scully agree that the frail Barclay couldn't have murdered Halverson, and that someone else is aboard the ship.
While casting Halverson's body out to sea, Trondheim is attacked by a Norweigian pirate whaler named Olafsson; it is revealed that Olafsson killed Halverson and that his crew commandeered Trondheim's boat. Mulder and Trondheim subdue Olafsson, who hasn't aged despite being on the ship for the past two days. After Barclay dies, a crystalline material begins to form on his body. Mulder, Scully, and Trondheim eventually begin to show signs of unnatural aging just as the Ardents crew had. Scully develops a theory that the Ardent is sailing near a metallic object beneath the ocean, and that it has caused free radicals
Radical (chemistry)
Radicals are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons on an open shell configuration. Free radicals may have positive, negative, or zero charge...
to rapidly oxidize their bodies and environment, leading to the hastened aging effect.
Mulder notices that only one ceiling pipe has not corroded through. Both he and Scully follow the pipe to the ship's sewage hold, where Olafsson and his crew were previously holed up. The agents realize that something from the ocean contaminated the Ardents portable water and led to the metamorphosis of the ship and her crew, while Olafsson's men remained unaffected due to their consumption of recycled water from the sewage system. They further realize that there isn't much drinkable water left to keep them alive. Meanwhile, Trondheim learns about the water from Olafsson. Desperate to survive, Trondheim kills Olafsson and sets out to keep the water for himself.
Scully learns from blood tests that the contaminated water causes rapid cellular damage and dramatically increases sodium chloride
Sodium chloride
Sodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt or halite, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of the ocean and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms...
in the body, leading to their condition; consumption of the untainted water has slowed down the aging in Scully and Trondheim, but Mulder's condition continues to worsen. Trondheim attempts to convince Scully to do away with Mulder, but she dismisses him. She tries to ration the water amongst the three, but eventually discovers Trondheim attempting to hoard
Hoard
In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
what little drinkable water that remains. The crazed Trondheim locks Scully out of the sewage hold, forcing her to use minuscule supplies from a snow globe
Snow globe
A snow globe is a transparent sphere, usually made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a landscape. The sphere also encloses the water in the globe; the water serves as the medium through which the "snow" falls. To activate the snow, the globe is...
and a sardine
Sardine
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines are named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which they were once abundant....
can to keep Mulder alive. The Ardents ongoing corrosion eventually eats through the ship's hull, flooding the sewage hold and drowning Trondheim.
Scully collects what little water she has found, and puts it in a jar she gives to Mulder; Mulder, believing that Scully has a better chance of survival, tries to return the jar instead. However, when the Ardent begins taking on water, the resulting convulsions in the ship cause the jar to shatter. Mulder and Scully are left to face their seemingly imminent demise; Mulder laments their predicament, but Scully attempts to assure him that an afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
exists beyond death. The agents both lose consciousness shortly before Navy rescuers arrive on the Ardent to save them.
Scully comes to at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where both she and Mulder are being treated. She is told that her written observations on the case have helped naval doctors reverse their aging and save Mulder from near-certain death. Scully tries to speak to a naval liaison about salvaging the Ardent, but is told that the ship has sunk. The episode ends with a camera shot of fog on the water, leaving the viewer clueless to what the real anomaly is.
Filming
HMCSHer Majesty's Canadian Ship
The designation Her Majesty's Canadian Ship , is applied as a prefix to any Canadian Forces warship. In the reign of a king, the designation changes to His Majesty's Canadian Ship; the French version of the title remains unchanged in this instance...
Mackenzie
HMCS Mackenzie (DDE 261)
HMCS Mackenzie was a that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces.She was the lead ship of her class and is the first Canadian naval unit to carry this name....
, a decommissioned Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
destroyer, was used for interior and exterior shots as the U.S.S. Ardent. The ship had previously been used to shoot interior scenes for the climax of the episode "End Game
End Game (The X-Files)
"End Game" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. "End Game" continues from the previous episode "Colony", and includes Mulder's pursuit and confrontation with the Alien Bounty Hunter who has captured Scully.- Plot :USS Allegiance, a...
". The Mackenzie, once the lead ship
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
of its class
Mackenzie class destroyer
The Mackenzie-class destroyer was a class of warship used by the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Forces from the 1960s-1990s. Six such ships were envisioned, of which four were completed to this specification...
, was stripped and scuttled shortly after filming ended.
Controversy in Norway
"Død Kalm" has been met with ridicule in Norway over the inaccurate NorwegianNorwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
dialogue of the script, which has been compared to the Icelandic language
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
. The title "Død Kalm" is implied to be Norwegian but is really nonsensical, as the word "kalm" doesn't exist in the language; the title is an apparent reference to the 1989 Australian
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
film Dead Calm
Dead Calm
Dead Calm is a 1963 novel by Charles F. Williams, which was the basis for the unreleased film The Deep and the later film Dead Calm .- Plot :...
. Furthermore, "Tildeskan", the fishing port Mulder and Scullt visit, is fictitious.