The X Files: Fight the Future (1998)

The X Files' jump to the big screen had its special makeup effects realized by Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis' Amalgamated Dynamics, who were tasked with realizing the 'long-clawed aliens'. According to Woodruff, 'The initial concept was that the creature would be reminiscent of the classic Gray alien - the little bald guy with the big, almond-shaped eyes and the little slits for nose and mouth - but that we could push it in a new direction. The idea was to come up with something that, if sighted, might lead someone to describe it as the typical Gray alien. So, even though we had some freedom and leeway in how we designed this thing, we had to keep the Gray's basic features in mind.'

The long-clawed aliens went through many designs in concept art by Jordu Schell, Andy Schoneberg and David Perteet. It was originally intended for the long-clawed aliens to have two variants - one for the sequence set in prehistoric times, and an 'evolved' version for the present-day scenes - but this cut due to time constraints. The production of Fight the Future was some of the shortest ADI ever had, thanks to the film being rushed into production to release before the show's next season and not helped that ADI were working on Alien Resurrection at roughly the same time.

When the concept art was approved, Schell then sculpted a ten-inch high maquette for the sculptors to use as reference. The early maquette had the long-clawed faces have smaller, slightly more human-sized eyes on their faces.

However, the design was then altered to have larger eyes, closer to those of the classic Greys.

The final long-clawed alien was realized as a performer (none other than Woodruff himself) in a sculpted bodysuit, with animatronics fitted on the hands and head to achieve the alien's finger movements and snarling. To keep with the idea of there being an 'old' and 'young' version of the alien, it was decided to alter the suit between takes with different paintjobs in order to get around sculpting a new suit.

According to Gillis, 'Our thinking was that the modern aliens were also newborns, since you see them in the movie shortly after they have burst from host bodies. As newborns, their skin would naturally be softer and less wrinkled. But the primitive alien has supposedly been around for a while by the time we see him fight the primitives. He has been living and hunting and killing in the harsh environment of the ice fields, so he would look more weathered and worn'.