page_title: Rush (The X-Files)
section_title: Special effects
hierarchical_section_title: Rush (The X-Files) / Production / Special effects
context_page_description: "Rush" is the fifth episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files, and the 144th episode overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 5, 1999. It was written by David Amann and directed by Robert Lieberman. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Rush" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.9, being watched by 12.71 million viewers in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly mixed-to-negative reviews from television critics.
  The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate a high school student who is the prime suspect in the bizarre murder of a police officer. They discover that the boy and a couple of friends have been playing with the ability to accelerate their movements to a frequency the human eye cannot perceive.
  The idea for "Rush" had been proposed as far back as the sixth season of The X-Files.
context_section_description: While the episode relied heavily on special effects, director Robert Lieberman was able to create many of the necessary scenes simply using different camera speeds. In order to get the proper feel for the rush effects, test footage of assistant director Xochi Blymyer was filmed at 24, 12 FPS, 6 FPS, and 3 frames per second (FPS). After filming, a digital "blur effect" was then added to give the shot an unfocused look. During the scene where the teenagers stumble into the light and receive the speed power, the special effects crew shot two separate shots: one of the teens' bodies and one of the teens' heads rapidly flailing. The special effects crew then "pull[ed] the head[s] off" of the shots featuring the teens moving rapidly, and used them to replace the heads on the shots of the teens' motionless bodies. This method kept their bodies in focus but allowed their heads to rapidly move.
  The crew used several different styles for the "bullet time" scene. In order to create the shot, a matte of the bullet wound on Max's chest was combined with smoke and "phony CGI bullets", according to producer Paul Rabwin. The crew tried different tracking devices for the bullet, including a pronounced blur effect, which was later removed in favor of a more realistic "smoke" pathway. The production crew had a difficult time deciding whether or not the bullet should remain at Chastity's speed as she walked towards it, or whether she should pass the bullet; the group eventually went with the latter.
  Stunt coordinator Danny Wesiles helped arrange the more frantic shots, such as the scene in which a lunch table kills a teacher. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz later called the scene, "probably one of the most horrific things we've ever done." Due to the violent nature of the episode—and the table scene in particular—Fox's Standards and Practices department had an issue with the series showing "the impact between the table and the man". In order to comply, the impact was removed, but the rest of the scene stayed intact. Spotnitz later noted that, "when you take out the impact, the audience's imagination is ten times worse."
  As a comical homage at the beginning of the closing credits, one can hear the sound effect that coincided with Steve Austin's feats of strength as the Bionic Man (from the Six-Million Dollar Man TV series).
caption: The high speed effects were made by using different frame rates during filming.