Mitch Pileggi Movies

Season five of the science fiction series Stargate Atlantis kicks off with a boom as an off-world explosion leaves countless innocents in harm's way, and Carter spearheads a rescue mission to save the survivors. The season also includes such twists as awakened clones, scientists developing "digital" ascension, and debilitating illness with the ability to destroy the minds of the most powerful men. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Greg Kinnear stars in director Marc Abraham's man-against-the-system docudrama Flash of Genius as inventor Robert Kearns, the visionary who developed the modern intermittent windshield wiper. Kearns submitted the invention to each of the big three auto companies, each of which promptly rejected it; the companies then turned around and put the device to use. The enraged inventor spent several decades attempting to collect on his patent, and mounting lawsuits that traveled all the way to the Supreme Court; he eventually collected over 30 million dollars for his obsession. Abraham co-authored the script with Scott Frank and Phillip Railsback, adapting an article by John Seabrook that originally appeared in The New Yorker. Dermot Mulroney plays Kinnear's best friend, with Lauren Graham rounding out the supporting cast. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In Season 4 (2007-8), Stargate: SG-1 star Amanda Tapping crosses over as the new leader, joining the Atlantis cast as television's favorite astrophysicist, Commander Samantha Carter. Also returning is Jewel Staite, reprising her role of Dr. Keller, a physician who joins the Atlantis expedition. The fourth season also continues to chronicle the voyage of the Atlantis team: Lt. Col. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), Teyla Emmagan (Rachel Luttrell), Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett), Ronon Dex (Jason Momoa), and Col. Steven Caldwell (Mitch Pileggi). The Season 4 set of this hit SciFi Channel series includes 20 episodes on five discs, and features cast and crew commentaries, deleted scenes, photo galleries, the first Atlantis blooper reel, and more.

The surrealistic ABC cop drama Day Break was aptly characterized by most observers as "24 Meets Groundhog Day." Taye Diggs starred as police detective Brett Hopper, whom when first we met him had just endured the worst day of his life, culminating in his arrest for the murder of Assistant District Attorney Alberto Garza. Although he had an airtight alibi, Hopper was unable to convince anyone of his innocence, suggesting that his arrest was part of a conspiratorial frame-up. While being aggressively grilled by homicide detectives Spivak (Mitch Pileggi) and Choi (Ian Anthony Dale), Hopper suddenly lost consciousness, awakening in an other-worldly hideaway presided over by a sinister shadowy figure (Jonathan Banks) -- who "entertained" the protagonist by showing a tape in which Hopper's girlfriend Rita Shelten (Moon Bloodgood) died horribly.

At this point, Hopper was whisked back in time to the morning of his "worst day," only to find that he was condemned to live that same day over and over again until he was able to change its outcome. Alas, no matter how hard he tried to alter events, the day ended inexorably with his being arrested for murder and his witnessing of Rita's demise. Moreover, when the day started over again, Hopper found that the decisions he made during his previous "reliving" had had profound and disturbing consequences. In each episode, Hopper (the only person who knew that he and everyone around was trapped within the same ever-repeating time arc) was armed with knowledge he hadn't previously possessed, along with vital clues as to why all this was happening to him. Other players in this déjà vu nightmare were Hopper's partner, Andrea Battle (Victoria Pratt), who may or may not have been in on the conspiracy; his ex-partner (and Rita's ex-husband) Chad Shelten (Adam Baldwin), head of Internal Affairs and apparently a man with more than his share of dark secrets; Hopper's sister, Jennifer (Meta Golding), whose miserable domestic life weighed heavily on the plotline; and alleged gang leader Damien Ortiz (Ramon Rodriguez), who turned out to be even more a victim of circumstance than the hero. Created by Paul Zbyszewski, Day Break first aired on November 15, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The scene is San Francisco, where a diabolically crafty serial killer is preying on newlywed couples, killing the groom before the bride and then removing both wedding rings. Assigned to track down this maniac is homicide inspector Lindsay Boxer (Tracy Pollan), who, despite the usual quota of false clues and red herrings, seems more than prepared for the biggest challenge of her career. But Lindsay is not prepared for facing her own mortality: She has been diagnosed with a blood disease that nearly always proves fatal and may not live long enough to bring the honeymoon killer to justice. Based on a novel by James Patterson (as indicated by the film's "official" title), First to Die debuted February 23, 2003, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a 21-year absence, the classic speculative documentary series In Search Of returns with more fascinating stories of the strange, the unusual, and the phenomenal. Replacing the original series' host/narrator Leonard Nimoy is actor Mitch Pileggi, who, as a former regular on The X-Files, is no stranger to the paranormal. Unlike the earlier series, which focused on one topic per episode, the new In Search Of features three different topics in each of its eight episodes -- many of which are "animated" with dramatic reenactments rather than with vintage photographs or archival footage. Also, whereas the earlier series was syndicated, this version was seen on cable's Sci-Fi Channel. Among the subjects explored in the 2002 edition of In Search Of are hell, vampires, Nikola Tesla's alleged "death ray," witchcraft, maneaters, ghosts, werewolves, mummies, reincarnation, stigmata, zombies, great lovers, possession, robots, sacred shrouds, aliens, catacombs, bigfoot, the Devil, and Doomsday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action-laced comedy, a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown finds love at the least convenient time. Charlie Mayo (Liam Neeson) is an undercover agent with the DEA who was nearly killed when a sting set up to nail a gang of drug dealers went horribly wrong. The accident left Charlie shaken, and he's gone into therapy to hold himself together as he struggles through one final case before retiring. Charlie's superior (Mitch Pileggi) has set him up on another undercover assignment as he tries to bring in two Colombian drug kingpins and a low-level Mafiosi with delusions of grandeur (Oliver Platt). As Charlie makes his way through therapy, he's referred to a nurse (Sandra Bullock) interested in New Age healing techniques; now he has love on his mind as he tries to keep himself out of harm's way under increasingly dangerous circumstances. Gun Shy marked the feature directorial debut of television veteran Eric Blakeney. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The X-Files: Season Six marked an important moment in the evolution of the series in several ways -- for one, the show's production was moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles, but more importantly, the sixth season followed The X-Files: Fight the Future (i.e. the X-Files feature film). Armed with firsthand experience of the bee-carried alien virus and knowledge of the existence of the most classified government research facility yet, FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are closer to the heart of the conspiracy than they have ever been. After some of the series' signature lighter fare -- in this case, a body-swapping scenario between Mulder and bored Agent Morris Fletcher (Michael McKean) in "Dreamland" and a tale of a baseball player who may have left his home planet due to love of the game ("The Unnatural") -- the season comes to a head when Scully travels to Africa to find the cause and cure for Mulder's neurological deterioration and finds the long-buried remains of an alien spacecraft. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Just when it seemed as though the conspiracy couldn't get any weirder, The X-Files: Season Four brought FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) even more nefarious government escapades with which to contend. In addition to the discovery of the Consortium, an elite international shadow government that includes the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) among its membership, the bureau investigators are now privy to highly dangerous Alien Bounty Hunters, virus-carrying bees, and a cruel Russian experiment involving the extraterrestrial black oil. While Mulder is infected with the oil, Scully finds herself with her own potentially fatal affliction when the neck implant she had removed after her abduction appears to have caused the onset a rare form of cancer; several other alleged abductees, all female, are in the same deadly predicament. Meanwhile, the already small group of people Mulder and Scully trust outside one another continues to dwindle in size -- even the motives of steadfast Assistant Director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and Mulder's own mother are in question. In the midst of the cover-up, Mulder and Scully are still faced with their other assignments, which include a strange case of human inbreeding, past lives, shape shifting, and the ability to make oneself invisible. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

The conspiracy spiraled even further in the third season of The X-Files, which picks up with FBI Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) on a desperate search for her missing partner, Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). Though Mulder was left for dead after having suffered serious bodily harm in a train explosion, a group of Navajo Indians nursed him back to health and offered what help they could to the agents' quest to find the ever-elusive truth. Considered one of the strongest seasons of The X-Files, the 24 episodes in the third season contain some of the most complex and integral aspects of the series' far-reaching mythology, including a heavily encrypted digital tape which may hold the key to government knowledge of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and perhaps even insight into Scully's own abduction. Alien life does, indeed, make an appearance on this season, though not in the form of a little green man. Rather, an insidious, ancient, and alien black oil is unearthed, leaving Mulder and Scully to question its potential impact on humankind, and what the government may already know. Of course, The X-Files wouldn't be complete without its stand-alone, or "monster-of-the-week," episodes, and this season is no exception -- from evil spirits to astral murder and killer cockroaches, The X-Files: Season Three has more than its fair share of earthly, if bizarre, occurrences to its name. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide