 The similarity to Carpenter 's version of The Thing was due in part to new production designer Graeme Murray , who worked on Carpenter 's film and created the complex in which the episode took place . Although " Ice " was intended as a bottle episode which would save money by being shot in a single location , it went over budget . According to Carter , The X @-@ Files typically worked from a small budget and " every dollar we spend ends up on the screen " . As a bottle episode , " Ice " used a small cast and its interiors were filmed on a set constructed at an old Molson brewery site . The episode 's few exterior shots were filmed at Delta Air Park in Vancouver , whose hangars and flat terrain simulated an Arctic location . Carter said that he would have preferred to set the episode at the North Pole , but he believed that this was unfeasible at the time . 
