Actress Elizabeth Debicki's in 'The Kettering Incident'
The unexplainable is the main draw of The X-Files, and any fans of the show can likely attest that they have been drawn to the strange and unusual ongoings of the world. The things that others turn a blind eye to, they put under a microscope.
The things others call nothing but folklore and ghost stories, they call intrigue. That fascination only feels more timely now, with Ryan Coogler’s Hulu reboot moving forward and Himesh Patel newly set to star alongside Danielle Deadwyler in the pilot. Yes, the series led by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as agents Mulder and Scully, respectively, has always embraced the world of conspiracy and encouraged audiences to do the same. So, if you've found yourself craving more of the spookiness that The X-Files supplied in plenty, look no further than the Elizabeth Debicki-led series The Kettering Incident. ‘The Kettering Incident’ Follows a Similar Conceit as ‘The X-Files’ Both The Kettering Incident and The X-Files are supernatural mysteries, but that’s not the only thing that makes them such good companion pieces. Anna Macy, the main character in The Kettering Incident, actually has a very similar backstory to Mulder. When she was just 14 years old, her best friend inexplicably disappeared. Her disappearance came soon after the pair saw strange lights in the sky, hinting at a potential alien abduction. Similarly, Mulder was 12 years old when he witnessed his 8-year-old sister Samantha’s extraterrestrial abduction.Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 10INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10THREAT 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10SKILL 04 Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly. AHacking, pattern recognition, finding the exploit in any system — digital or human. BMechanical skill — I can strip an engine, rig a weapon, or fix anything with whatever's around. CReading people — knowing when someone's lying, hiding something, or about to run. DDiscipline and endurance — mental and physical. I outlast things rather than overpower them. EPiloting, navigation, knowing how to get from A to B when every route is dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10AUTHORITY 05 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10ENVIRONMENT 06 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10ALLIANCE 07 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10TRUTH 08 A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both. AThe truth, no matter the cost. I'd rather live in a brutal reality than a beautiful cage. BNeither — truth and lies are luxuries. What matters is surviving the next hour. CI've learned to live with ambiguity. Some truths don't have clean answers. DThe truth — but deployed strategically. Knowing something others don't is power. EThe truth. Even when it means confronting something in yourself you'd rather leave buried. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10MORALITY 09 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10PURPOSE 10 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. Read all five — your result is the one that resonates most deeply. YOUR WORLD The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things, the places where the official version doesn't quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. YOUR WORLD Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. YOUR WORLD Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. YOUR WORLD Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely. YOUR WORLD Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You're someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ As adults, both Anna and Mulder are determined to uncover the secrets behind the respective disappearances. The Kettering Incident's Anna returns to town just as another local girl goes missing, which prompts her to delve headfirst into the mystery that has plagued her for 15 years, as well as uncover the seedy underbelly of the town of Kettering. For Mulder, Samantha’s disappearance kicked off his lifelong obsession with proving extraterrestrial life exists, as well as his general belief in most conspiracies. Everything Is Not As It Seems in Both 'The X-Files' and 'Kettering Incident' One of the most fascinating aspects of The X-Files was how often the show left things just as unexplained as they were at the start. Sure, Scully and Mulder would do some investigation, but sometimes there just wasn’t a conclusion to be found, which just proved Mulder’s theory of the supernatural all the more. The mystery aspect also plays into Mulder’s history and his sister’s disappearance, as no matter how hard he searches, he never quite uncovers the answers he so desperately craves. The Kettering Incident is similar in this. As previously mentioned, it also begins with an unsolved and unexplained disappearance. But when Anna returns to the town of Kettering, she slowly begins to uncover more unfathomable secrets she must get to the bottom of to protect others from a similar unknown fate. Related From 'The X-Files' to 'Supernatural': 9 Best Duos in Supernatural TV Shows These duos are all human...or human-like. Posts By Madilyn Ivey These mysteries and their ever-unraveling spiderweb haunt our respective characters throughout their shows, and the psychological effects follow them throughout. We don’t get nearly as much time with Anna as we do with Mulder, since The Kettering Incident, unfortunately, only had one season. But we do dig deep into her as a character and how her past affects her, as the town’s strange ongoings force her to confront long-suppressed memories. Memories reveal that Anna’s world may not be what it seems after all, leaving her to question what’s real, and who to trust — something that Mulder often found himself struggling with. Elizabeth Debicki Is Exceptional in ‘The Kettering Incident’ If you’re even remotely skeptical about The Kettering Incident, watch it if only for Elizabeth Debicki’s standout performance in it. Her portrayal of Anna Macy is so layered and nuanced that it immediately draws you in. Anna is a deeply wounded character; she’s traumatized by her friend’s seemingly inexplicable disappearance years ago, and so far, there’s been no way of finding out what happened to her. We see her grapple with her guilt and grief over the situation, the things she could have done differently, the things she saw, and the things she thinks she saw, all the while trying to stop the very same thing from happening to other people. Debicki makes Anna an easy character to root for and showcases her strength in even her most vulnerable moments, which is never an easy feat. Subscribe for newsletter picks and deep dives into spooky TV Subscribing to the newsletter delivers focused coverage of spooky TV and mystery dramas—recommendations, scene- and character-focused breakdowns, and curated hidden gems to expand your supernatural watchlist. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. The X-Files and The Kettering Incident have their differences, of course, but if you’re looking for a series that gives a similar feeling and explores the spooky and strange, then The Kettering Incident is worth watching. And given that it’s only one season, it’s a quick watch that delivers all the supernatural thrills you can ask for, complete with top-tier performances and a dark, moody mystery to keep your attention hooked as it slowly unravels. The Kettering Incident Like TV-MA Mystery Drama Thriller Release Date 2016 - 2016-00-00 Network showcase Directors Rowan Woods Writers Andrew Knight, Cate Shortland, Louise Fox Cast See All Seasons 1 Powered by Expand Collapse
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