Musings of A Cigarette Smoking Man - Plot

Plot

The Smoking Man, armed with a sniper rifle and surveillance equipment, spies on a meeting between Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and the Lone Gunmen. Frohike claims to have discovered information about the Smoking Man's mysterious past, stating that his father was an executed communist spy and that his mother died of lung cancer, causing him to be raised in various Midwest orphanages.

The narrative changes to 1962. The Smoking Man is an Army captain stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He talks to a friend and fellow soldier, Bill Mulder, who shows him a photo of his infant son, Fox. The Smoking Man is summoned to attend a meeting with a general and several strange men in suits. They assign him to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, posing as a "Mr. Hunt", the Smoking Man frames Lee Harvey Oswald and shoots Kennedy.

Five years later, the Smoking Man writes a novel entitled Take a Chance: A Jack Colquitt Adventure, using the pen name "Raul Bloodworth". After hearing Martin Luther King, Jr. give a speech criticizing America's attitude towards the distribution of wealth at home and social revolutions abroad, the Smoking Man meets with a group of men, including J. Edgar Hoover. The Smoking Man convinces the group to have King assassinated and volunteers to perform the task. Shortly thereafter, a publishing company rejects his novel.

In 1991, the Smoking Man meets with subordinates, discussing his orchestration of the Anita Hill controversy and the Rodney King trial. He orders that the Buffalo Bills not win the Super Bowl. He further reveals his drugging of a Soviet goalkeeper to ensure the outcome of the "Miracle on Ice" hockey match. One of the Smoking Man's subordinates invites him for a family dinner. Although flattered, the Smoking Man declines the invitation and states that he is scheduled to visit family. He is next seen walking past Fox Mulder's office.

Later, while at home, the Smoking Man receives an urgent phone call from Deep Throat, who meets him near the site of a UFO wreck. An alien from the UFO is alive. Deep Throat and Smoking Man reminisce about the multiple times they changed the course of history. They flip a coin over who is tasked to kill the alien survivor. Deep Throat loses, and thus reluctantly shoots the alien.

A few months later, in March 1992, the Smoking Man attends the meeting where Scully is assigned to the X-Files and eavesdrops on the agents' first meeting. In 1996, he receives a letter telling him that his novel will be serialized in the magazine Roman a Clef. He types up a resignation letter, and excitedly finds the magazine at a newsstand. However, he finds that the ending has been changed. Bitter, the Smoking Man sits on a bench with a homeless man, giving a monologue on how "life is like a box of chocolates". He tears up his resignation letter and leaves the magazine at the bench.

Back in the present, Frohike tells Mulder and Scully that what he's told them is based on a story he found in a magazine he subscribes to. He leaves to verify the story. As he leaves, the Smoking Man has a clear shot. However, he decides not to kill him and quotes the last line from his unpublished novel: "I can kill you whenever I please, but not today".