Is there anyway to get back the bitcoins in a locked wallet if I have the file?

I think bitcoin didn't as it was expected to.

Two months after we wrote this, bitcoin more than doubled to $500 before retracing some of its recent gains, and has resumed its rise again.

Why? This time the answer is Argentina, where as we reported two days ago, the new president admitted that "there are no more dollars in rhe central bank" which means that the days of the country's capital controls are numbered, and because as Citi said president-elect Macri wants to unify the official and parallel exchange rates (~9.60 and 15.50 ARS/USD, respectively) that will entail a substantial devaluation. Just how overvalued is the peso, you ask? "Grossly."

In other words, another major currency collapse is in store for Argentina, its fourth major one in recent decades.

It also means that as yet another country is about to take currency warfare to the next level, bitcoin is posed for another sharp move higher (even as Chinese demand for the fiat alternative continues to grow).

This.

You mean losing most of your money is a small price to pay for learning how to lose most of your money?

Who mined the first block?

Hearn confirmed to Bitcoin Magazine that he will do the minimum required to keep Bitcoin XT running, but won't actively develop or advocate the implementation any longer.

Lessee... You've lost ~2/3 of your money by hodling for two years.
Yup. Money in the bank fared a bit better :-

As a HODLER and a believer in the Bitcoin ecosystem...I have continuously bought a couple coins here and there if and only if it brought my average down. This has proven to be a profitable strategy.

Nobody really knows what the price will do in the short or long term

Consider their gains since the middle of 2012, around the time they launched their current run:

    Facebook: +401%
    Amazon: +186%
    Netflix: +1503%
    Google: +133%