How Should I Know?

X-Files (1995): Clyde Bruckman: How Should I Know - This is the Spot

CAR :

(Scully's driving, [SCULLY NEVER DRIVES (Her little feet can't reach the peddles)] Bruckman's in the front seat, Mulder's in the back. Mulder leans forward to talk to Bruckman.)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

We're almost there.

MULDER: 

How are you receiving this information about the body's location?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

How should I know?

MULDER: 

I mean, are you seeing it in a vision or is it a... sensation? 

How do you know where to go?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

I just know.

MULDER: 

But how do you know?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

I don't know!

(Mulder slinks back in his seat. Bruckman half-looks at him.)

Look, it's just up ahead. You know, there are worse ways to go, 

but I can't think of a more undignified way than autoerotic asphyxiation.

(Mulder leans forward.)

MULDER :

Why are you telling me that?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN :

[smirks]

Look, forget I mentioned it. 

It's none of my business.

(He looks ahead, smirking.)

Oops, pull over here.

(Scully stops the car.)

Stop.

(Bruckman gets out and looks around.)

This is the spot.

(They start walking through the forest, looking for the body.)

I guess you run into a lot of dead bodies in your line of work.

SCULLY :

You get used to it.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

I never have. 

I'm not sure you're supposed to.

MULDER: 

Do you remember the first time you foresaw someone's death?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

1959.

MULDER: 

What happened in 1959?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

Buddy Holly's plane crashed.

SCULLY: 

You prognosticated Buddy Holly's death?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

Oh, God, no. 

Why would I want to do that? 

But I did have a ticket to see him perform the next night. 

Actually, I was a bigger fan of the Big Bopper than Buddy Holly. 

"Chantilly Lace," 

that was the song.

MULDER: 

I'm not following.

(Bruckman sighs. They stop walking.)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN : 

There's... The Big Bopper was not supposed 

to be on the plane with Buddy Holly. 

He won the seat from Somebody Else 

by flipping a coin for it.

MULDER :

I'm still not following.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN : 

Imagine all the things that had to occur, 

not only in his life, but in Everybody Else's, 

to arrange it so on that particular night, 

The Big Bopper would be in a position to Live or Die depending on a flipping coin. 

I became so obsessed with that idea 

that I gradually became capable of seeing the specifics of 

everybody's death.

SCULLY :

Well, Mister Bruckman, 

I'm not one who readily believes in that kind of thing 

and if I was, I still wouldn't believe that story.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN :

I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it's True --

I was a bigger fan of the Big Bopper than Buddy Holly.

(She looks at him, annoyed.)

SCULLY :

Where's the body?

MULDER :

Yeah, Mister Bruckman, I don't understand how you can know that 

this is the exact area, but you can't pinpoint the exact spot.

(Bruckman looks around.)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN :

I guess I can't see the forest for the trees.

(Back at their car, Bruckman and Mulder prepare to push the car out of the mud when Scully pushes the gas.)

MULDER :

Okay, now.

(The wheels spin, splattering Mulder's pants with mud. Bruckman looks down at the tire in front of him, apparently smiling.)

I'm glad I could bring a little smile into your life, Mister Bruckman.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN :

I'm not smiling, I'm wincing.

(Mulder looks down at his tire to see a hand sticking out of the mud under the tire.)