I want to believe,” a core sentiment of the show and its viewers, is a phrase that comes from an iconic item on the show: the UFOposter that hangs above the desk of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, everyone’s favorite socially isolated, orally fixated, paranoid insomniac alien chaser. When The X-Files became a hit in the mid-’90s, this poster was found on the bedroom wall of every self-respecting X-Phile. It was a special link to the show and Mulder’s hopeful yet tortured conviction that the truth was out there, shrouded in conspiracy, waiting to be uncovered.

The "I Want to Believe" poster is the name given to a series of posters that share a similar layout and could often be found on the wall of Fox Mulder's offices. ( The X-Files, The X-Files: I Want to Believe). Mulder and Scully doing their banter-y thing in the season five episode “Bad Blood.” (Screenshot by Ella Morton) In 2016, a fifth version of the poster can yet again be seen on the wall of Mulder's office in Virginia. ( TXF: " My Struggle") This version has the same layout to all 4 prior, though the UFO is instead positioned above a group of red trees. In the same year, yet another poster was later seen in Mulder and Scully's office at the FBI. This poster appeared to be completely identical to the third version but unlike the others, Scully says that this one was her poster instead of Mulder's. This poster had multiple holes in it from Mulder throwing his pencils at it, similar to his old pass time of throwing pencils at the ceiling. ( TXF: " Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster) Nouvelle déco pour mon nouveau bureau. #xfiles #iwanttobelieve #foxmulder #thetruthisoutthere #office #officedecor

Mulder’s main quest–his all-consuming obsession–is to find out what happened to his sister Samantha, who was, as he recalls, abducted from the family home by aliens when he was 12 and Samantha was eight. Over the course of the show, Mulder and his FBI partner/soulmate/medical doctor/mother-of-his-child-but-that’s-a-whole-complicated-story Dana Scully uncover bits and pieces of evidence that point toward a grand conspiracy: that the U.S. government has been collaborating with extraterrestrials in an alien-human hybrid program. Among other things. However, Mulder acquired a replacement poster once more stating " I WANT TO BELIEVE". This Second poster was almost identical in set up to his previous one and he attached it to the same wall as its predecessor. This copy of the poster however had a fatter UFO positioned slightly differently to the original version as being located above a different set of trees. ( TXF: " Alpha") This poster was later swapped out with a third version that was identical to the second but included a UFO which more closely resembled the first poster. Scully, the rationally-minded skeptic, does not want to believe in anything outside the realm of science–except God. This highly selectiveapproach to belief is one of the more intriguing parts of the show, and adds a layer of “huh” to the mystery-wrapped enigma that is Dana Scully. It also invites questions about the role of religion, the role of science, and whether the two ought to be regarded as opposing forces or parts of a whole. Faced with this uncertainty, Mulder wants to believe in everything. Aliens, the conspiracy, human-sized parasitic worms: all of it. He yearns for something greater and more meaningful than what’s immediately around him.He wants to believe there is a clear and supernatural explanation for Samantha’s disappearance, an event that gets reframed and distorted and muddled by conflicting discoveries and increasingly unreliable memories as every year passes. A separate copy of this poster was also displayed in Blaine Faulkner's bedroom. It was presented there while Faulkner was interviewed by José Chung. ( TXF: " José Chung's 'From Outer Space'")

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