Doctor Alvin Kurtzweil was an Ob/Gyn and member of the Syndicate who grew disillusioned with the group and wrote at least two apocalyptic books. He acted, for a short time in 1998, as an informant to FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, to whom he revealed secrets about the Syndicate, but his treachery was soon discovered and he was promptly eliminated. (The X-Files Movie)
History[]
Friendship with William Mulder[]
A young Kurtzweil with William and Teena Mulder
Kurtzweil was a friend to William Mulder and, when they both were young men in the military, the two were recruited for a Project that they were told was biological warfare – specifically, a virus. In the State Department, the two men were "fellow travelers" (usually a phrase referring to Communist non-party sympathizers – see Travelers – although Kurtzweil may have used the term metaphorically to refer to any shared cause) and both became disillusioned but William Mulder's disenchantment outlasted Kurtzweil's similar frustration. On one occasion, Kurtzweil was photographed having a picnic with seven other individuals, including William Mulder, his two children, Fox and Samantha Mulder, and his wife, Teena Mulder.
Researching Fox Mulder & First Meeting Him[]
Kurtzweil began to watch Fox Mulder's career even before he was a promising, young agent.
Shortly after Mulder was involved in the bombing of a Federal Building in Dallas, Texas in 1998, Kurtzweil, having learned that Mulder frequented Casey’s Bar & Grill, figured that he would be visiting there at night for a much needed drink and consequently ventured there himself. He sat across the bar from Mulder, watching the FBI agent, who noticed him while having a conversation with the barmaid. Kurtzweil soon left his seat and Mulder also mentally noted his absence.
Kurtzweil approaches Fox Mulder in an alley, while the FBI agent is urinating against a wall.
Outside, Kurtzweil quietly approached Mulder as the FBI agent was urinating against a wall and alerted Mulder to his presence by rhetorically asking him if what he was doing was official FBI business. Kurtzweil commented to Mulder that the FBI was probably accusing him of the same thing in Dallas — standing around, holding "his yank", while bombs were exploding. When Mulder wondered if he knew the man who had just approached him, Kurtzweil revealed that he had been following Mulder's career for a good while and, when Mulder then asked if the man had come there for a purpose, Kurtzweil confirmed that he had, opening his zipper to urinate on the same wall where Mulder had been urinating. While Mulder headed towards the back entrance to the bar and Kurtzweil walked up to the wall, he introduced himself to Mulder at length, describing himself as an "old friend" of Mulder's father.
He then followed Mulder back inside where, as the FBI agent took a suit jacket from a coat stand near the front door and put on the clothing, Kurtzweil revealed how he had managed to find Mulder, that night. Even though Kurtzweil had already introduced himself as a doctor, he corrected Mulder when the FBI agent asked if he was a reporter, specifying that he was an OB-GYN. Despite Mulder realizing that Kurtzweil intended to tell him something, the doctor was hurried by Mulder to speak about whatever that was.
He continued to pursue the FBI agent outside, where, as Mulder tried to hail a cab, Kurtzweil tried to convince Mulder of the incredible truth that Special Agent in Charge Darius Michaud, one of Mulder's superiors in the FBI hierarchy, had neither tried nor intended to defuse the bomb in Dallas and had been loyal to the Syndicate which, according to Kurtzweil, had bombed the building in an effort to hide the already deceased bodies of three fireman and a young boy. Even though Mulder and the FBI were aware that Michaud, the firemen and the young boy had been in the bombed building at the time of the explosion, Kurtzweil's allegations regarding Michaud and the doctor's claim that the bodies of the firemen and the young boy had already been dead before the detonation were new to Mulder who, at this time, refused to accept them as truth. As Mulder was about to leave in a cab he had managed to hail, the FBI agent insultingly doubted Kurtzweil, who laughed at the comment before watching Mulder leave.
When Mulder subsequently made an unauthorized visit to Bethesda Naval Hospital with his partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, at about 4:04 a.m., the FBI agents analyzed the body of one of the three Dallas firemen, discovering that the man's cause of death was much more strange and mysterious than the false cause of death that had been reported. Scully remarked to Mulder, while they were in the Navy facility, that he had known, before they had arrived there, that the fireman had not died at the bomb site and Mulder confirmed that he had been told as much, implying that he was remembering his encounter with Kurtzweil.
Target of an Extensive Search & Second Encounter with Mulder[]
By 4:50 a.m., Kurtzweil's apartment, in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. was being searched by police officers, including a Detective and another officer. After Mulder arrived there, having uncertainly directed a cab to the apartment, he examined journals that confirmed that Kurtzweil's medical specialties were what he had claimed they were. When the Detective approached Mulder, the FBI agent admitted that he himself was looking for Kurtzweil. According to the Detective, Kurtzweil had been found to have been selling naked pictures of little kids on his computer. Mulder looked at books written by Kurtzweil, named The Four Horsemen of the Global Domination Conspiracy and Countdown to the Apocalypse, and Mulder jokingly suggested that the reason he was searching for Kurtzweil was because he had a pelvic examination. Even though the Detective offered to call Mulder if the police located Kurtzweil, Mulder told him not to bother, before leaving the room.
Kurtzweil was outside, near his apartment, and attracted Mulder's attention, wordlessly leading him down an alley, where the two men spoke. Kurtzweil worried that the presence of the police meant that someone knew he was providing information to Mulder and implied that the untruthful efforts to discredit him, including a previous accusation that he was guilty of "kiddie porn", were common, because he was considered by the Syndicate to be a dangerous man, due to their evaluation that he knew too much about the truth. Mulder asked if, by "the truth", Kurtzweil was referring to his books, calling them "end-of-the-world, apocalyptic garbage". Instead of taking offense at Mulder insulting his books, Kurtzweil eagerly wondered if the FBI agent knew his work, a reaction that Mulder derisively snorted at without answering Kurtzweil's question. As Mulder then started to head away, Kurtzweil tentatively reminded the FBI agent that he had been correct in his claims about the bomb in Dallas. Mulder turned back around, demanding to know how Kurtzweil had been right.
The doctor ensured that Mulder already knew of the deadly Hantavirus before recounting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had reportedly been called out to manage a small viral outbreak of that particular virus, in suburban Texas. Mentioning that FEMA was immensely powerful, Kurtzweil questioned the organization's involvement in managing the small viral outbreak. He clarified that he was not, as Mulder at first thought, suggesting the viral outbreak had not been as small as reported but that he was of the belief that the virus had not been the Hanta virus. Kurtzweil hurried away from a passing police car at the end of the alley as Mulder queried him on what the virus had actually been.
Kurtzweil tells Mulder about his anomalous military service
After both men walked further into the alley, Kurtzweil recalled how he and Agent Mulder's father had been recruited, out of the military, for a Project they had been told was a virus, implying that they had worked to develop the same virus whose outbreak had been reported as one of the Hanta virus. Obliquely, Kurtzweil passionately emphasized the danger of the virus, revealing it had also killed the firemen and referring to it as "a silent weapon for a quiet war." Kurtzweil also related to Mulder that the virus had been secretly being developed over the past fifty years by the same men who had negotiated alien colonization, an upcoming event that Kurtzweil detailed for Mulder. Even though Mulder indirectly referred to Kurtzweil as being even more paranoid than himself, Kurtzweil urged Mulder to return to Dallas and continue investigating there, before it was too late.
Third Meeting with Mulder & Elimination[]
Mulder followed Kurtzweil's advice and the Cigarette Smoking Man notified the Well-Manicured Man of this development, at a subsequent Syndicate meeting in London. The Well-Manicured Man expressed his opinions that no-one believed Kurtzweil or his books and that the writer was both a toiler and a crank. After the First Elder reminded the others that Mulder believed, the Cigarette Smoking Man declared that Kurtzweil consequently had to be removed.
Kurtzweil and Mulder meet in a booth inside Casey’s Bar & Grill
Upon a return visit to Casey’s Bar & Grill, Kurtzweil sat in a booth near the back of the bar and met with Mulder there, both men speaking quietly to each other. Kurtzweil immediately asked Mulder if he had found something and soon learned from him that he had discovered some kind of experiment on the Texas border, involving something that had been brought there by tanker trucks after having been excavated by the Syndicate and that Mulder now believed was a virus. Kurtzweil reacted to this news with a stunned expression.
He then queried Mulder on whether he had seen the aforementioned experiment and Kurtzweil's question was answered with a positive reply from Mulder, who added that he and Scully had been chased off. Kurtzweil interestingly asked what the experiment had looked like and Mulder described it as involving bees and corn crops, a description that was apparently shocking news to Kurtzweil.
When Mulder subsequently asked what the two features he had witnessed actually were, Kurtzweil paused as he was unaware of the answer but asked Mulder what he thought. After the FBI agent voiced his suspicion that the bees and corn crops were a transportation system, with the crops being genetically modified to carry the virus, Kurtzweil agreed that the same conclusion would be his own guess and quickly left the booth. His response, however, frustrated Mulder who stopped him near the back exit of the bar, accusingly recounting that Kurtzweil had claimed to have had answers. Kurtzweil confirmed that he did have answers, only not all of them. After Mulder accused Kurtzweil of having lied about his relationship with Mulder's father and of using Mulder to gather information for his own books, Kurtzweil raced outside, fearful of the attention that might be caused by Mulder having raised his voice.
Once Mulder chased him out, they continued their argument in the alley outside. A frustrated Kurtzweil asserted that, without him, Mulder would be "shit out of luck", reminding Mulder that the reason he had seen what he had seen was because the writer had led him to it. Kurtzweil also maintained that he was "putting [his] ass on the line" for Mulder, but the FBI agent loudly refuted this, implying that he believed he, not Kurtzweil, was the one in danger and shouting about his recent experience of having been chased through Texas by two black helicopters. Kurtzweil patronizingly explained to Mulder that his current existence was no mistake and then strode away from the FBI agent and the bar, pacing down the alley in the opposite direction. His departure was observed by a Black-Haired Man, who was seen by Mulder as the man, watching the FBI agent, walked off an overheard fire escape and out of sight.
When Mulder returned to his own apartment, he looked in a family photograph album in which he saw the picture of Kurtzweil with a group of picnickers, including Mulder's own family, evidencing Kurtzweil's claim that he had been a friend of Mulder's father.
Kurtzweil is confronted by the Well-Manicured Man
At night, Kurtzweil cautiously walked along the alley behind Casey’s Bar & Grill, seemingly jumpy and with his senses alert to any approaching footsteps. He opened the back entrance to the bar and was shocked to be confronted by the Well-Manicured Man, standing on the other side of the door. Kurtzweil ignored the Well-Manicured Man's query as to whether his name was Kurtzweil and instead backed away from the man, turned around and hurriedly walked back down the alley in the direction he had come. A black Town Car pulled into the other end of the alley, effectively trapping Kurtzweil, and accelerated fast down the narrow corridor, braking near him. As the driver exited the vehicle, Kurtzweil fearfully turned to look back towards the Well-Manicured Man then peered concernedly at the driver, squinting into the headlights.
Panicking, Mulder searched through the bar for Kurtzweil, moments later, but did not find him and saw that the booth where they had met earlier was now empty. After exiting through the back door, Mulder saw the Well-Manicured Man and his driver, slamming closed the trunk of their car which had, by now, been turned around. Mulder asked the Well-Manicured Man what had happened to Kurtzweil and the Well-Manicured Man cryptically, merely replied, "He's come and gone." While Mulder subsequently traveled in the car, the Well-Manicured Man divulged many details about the Syndicate and their Project to Mulder but, when again asked by the FBI agent about Kurtzweil's fate, he ignored the question so Mulder insisted that the car be stopped. Once the driver halted the car in another alley, the Well-Manicured Man finally revealed that he had been ordered to kill Kurtzweil. (The X-Files Movie)
Background Information[]
Filming the scene in which Kurtzweil tells Mulder about his anomalous military career and the dangers of the alien virus
Alvin Kurtzweil was played by veteran actor Martin Landau in all filmed appearances of the character, including the photographic appearance of the young Kurtzweil.