The Langoliers 

Most of the passengers on an airplane disappear, and the remainder land the plane in a mysteriously barren airport.

Stars:

Patricia Wettig, Dean Stockwell, Tom Holland

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Tom Holland	...	Harker 2 episodes, 1995
Patricia Wettig	...	Laurel Stevenson 2 episodes, 1995
Kate Maberly	...	Dinah Bellman 2 episodes, 1995
Mark Lindsay Chapman	...	Nick Hopewell 2 episodes, 1995
Julie Arnold Lisnet	...	Aunt Vicki 2 episodes, 1995
Frankie Faison	...	Don Gaffney 2 episodes, 1995
Baxter Harris	...	Rudy Warwick 2 episodes, 1995
Michael Louden	...	Richard Logan 2 episodes, 1995
Christopher Collet	...	Albert Kaussner 2 episodes, 1995
Kymberly Dakin	...	Doris Heartman 2 episodes, 1995
Kimber Riddle	...	Bethany Simms 2 episodes, 1995
David Morse	...	Brian Engle 2 episodes, 1995
David Forrester	...	Danny Keene 2 episodes, 1995
Bronson Pinchot	...	Craig Toomy 2 episodes, 1995
Chris Hendrie	...	James Deegan 2 episodes, 1995
Jennifer Nichole Porter	...	Gate Agent 2 episodes, 1995
Dean Stockwell	...	Bob Jenkins 2 episodes, 1995
John Griesemer	...	Roger Toomy 2 episodes, 1995
Christopher Cooke	...	Craig (9 Years) 2 episodes, 1995
Stephen King	...	Tom Holby 2 episodes, 1995
David Kelly	...	Little Boy 2 episodes, 1995
Stephanie Dunham	...	Little Girl 2 episodes, 1995
John Winthrop Philbrick	...	Father 2 episodes, 1995

Storyline

On a red eye flight to Boston from LA 10 people wake up to a shock. All the passengers and crew have vanished. When they try to contact the ground they make no connections. They land the plane only to discover that things haven't changed. But its like the world is dead. No one is there, the air is still, sound doesn't echo, the food is tasteless. And a distant sound is heard coming closer. A race of monstrous beings bent on their destruction is heading for them, eating everything in sight.

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Plot Keywords:

boston massachusetts | psychic | gifted child | englishman abroad | 1990s | 

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Taglines:

Prepare yourself for the flight of your life!

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sci-fi terror

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stephen King's The Langoliers

Filming Locations:

Bangor International Airport - 287 Godfrey Boulevard, Bangor, Maine, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Laurel Entertainment Inc., Spelling Films International, Worldvision

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min 60 min (3 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First of three Stephen King adaptations David Morse has done followed by The Green Mile (1999) and Hearts in Atlantis (2001).

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Goofs

As the aircraft is departing from Bangor, a message appears on the cockpit flight data display which reads "Minimum Takeoff Speed: 150 MPH". In aviation, aircraft speeds are always measured in knots, never in miles per hour.

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Quotes

Nick Hopewell: [They're in the air after the world below has disappeared after the langoliers have eaten it. The sun is setting] It's going faster now, isn't it?
Captain Brian Engle: Yeah. After awhile I think the days and nights will be going faster than a camera shutter can click. We're all going to Boston for different reasons. What about you, Nick? Fess up, the hour groweth late.
Nick Hopewell: Well, why not? What does a Most Secret classification mean when you've just seen a bunch of killer hairballs rolling up the world?

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Crazy Credits

Cloud cover (presumably the view of the sky from a cockpit window) forms the backdrop for the opening credits.

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Connections

Spoofed in The Chubbchubbs! (2002)

User Reviews

Bizarre King story falters from poor execution

It's hard to rate this movie. The movie has moments of creative genius, others with banal stupidity. Some passengers on an overnight red eye flight awaken to discover most of their fellow passengers inexplicably missing, as if whisked away in some sort of biblical rapture.

This is a delightfully creepy mystery, as is the abandoned airport where the plane lands, but the film bogs down in its irrationally slow reveal of the facts. The director compacts a 90-minute script into hours and hours of excessive subplots. Some of these are necessary for character development, (since the movie focuses on how these different personalities react to the situation), but the script burdens itself with a lot of clutter. Some of the actors overact, others underact. I blame the weak direction, as even David Morse seems awkward at times.

Worst is the inconsistency of the menacing attackers. It takes them a zillion years to cut through some fields--you see objects collapse in the distance, but you see this same "approaching unseen monster" shot again and again. Then, when the things do emerge, they race around at a hundred miles an hour. The nature of how they go about annihilating their targets follows no logical pattern. The things are so bizarre looking they are both funny and scary, so you don't know whether you're supposed to laugh or not. The "corruptions of the time stream" are not consistent, either. It's as if the script made up rules how this would work, and then changed those rules whenever it felt like it.

Even though some of the effects are confusing, others are downright cool. I love the portal; it was ethereal yet sinister at the same time. It evokes the intended curiosity: what lies beyond it? Overall, the movie is so weird that it holds your interest, but don't expect any sane continuity. If you look for sound thought in this one, you'll wind up as nuts as the movie is.