Over the weekend, I finally began watching The Lone Gunmen series on DVD. This was a short-lived spin-off of The X-Files that aired on Fox in 2001. It was a tongue-in-cheek show about three conspiracy geeks that parodied everything from the Mission Impossible film to James Bond flicks. I had forgotten, though, one of the main plots in the pilot episode.
Airing on March 4, 2001, the geeks learn there is a cabal in the US government looking for a way to keep the level of defense spending high with the end of the Cold War. Their solution? Crash a passenger plane into the World Trade Center so the government has a reason to go after tin-horn dictators. Viewed today, the special effects of the plane approaching and narrowly missing one of the towers are chilling.
What is either equally frightening or sadly humorous is the number of actual conspiracy theorists who believe the government was behind 9/11. So did The Lone Gunmen predict this or simply provide inspiration for it?
I can no longer sit back and allow . . . the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
“Gen. Jack D. Ripper,” Dr. Strangelove
