The Langoliers (1995)
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Ten airline passengers find themselves stranded in a lifeless past after their plane passes through a time rip.
The story
During a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, several passengers awaken to find that the rest have disappeared, leaving behind personal belongings and even surgical implants. The remaining group, including a pilot, an MI6 assassin, and a schoolteacher, discovers the airport they land in is deserted and without power. They soon realize the environment is dull and lifeless, with food having no taste and sounds lacking echo. A mystery author deduces they have passed through a time rip into a past moment empty of energy. As tensions rise among the passengers, they must find a way to escape before the source of a strange crackling noise arrives.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
During a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers find themselves alone after others vanish. The group, including pilot Brian Engle and MI6 assassin Nick Hopewell, lands at a deserted, lifeless Bangor airport. They discover they have entered a time rip where the world is drained of energy. A telepathic blind girl, Dinah, hears a crackling noise, while a mystery author, Bob, deduces their situation. A bond trader, Craig, suffers a psychotic breakdown, eventually taking a teenager hostage and killing a worker before being restrained. Albert, a violinist, realizes that objects from the 'present' retain their properties briefly. To escape, they plan to refuel the plane with fuel that will regain potency. Dinah creates a vision to lure Craig outside, where he is eventually eaten by the Langoliers—saw-toothed monsters that devour the past. The remaining passengers board the plane and fly toward the time rip. Nick volunteers to stay behind to restore cabin pressure, vanishing as they pass through. They land in Los Angeles, finding the airport vibrant but empty, concluding they have arrived minutes into the future.
- First release year
- 1995
- Runtime (minutes)
- 180
- Production countries
- United States
- Directors
- Tom Holland
- Writers
- Tom Holland · writer
- Cast and characters
- Patricia Wettig · Laurel Stevenson; Dean Stockwell · Bob Jenkins; David Morse · Captain Brian Engle; Mark Lindsay Chapman · Nick Hopewell; Frankie Faison · Don Gaffney; Baxter Harris · Rudy Warwick; Kimber Riddle · Bethany Simms; Christopher Collet · Albert "Ace" Kaussner
- Genres
- Horror; Mystery; Thriller
- Themes
- Time Travel; Survival; Isolation
- Tone and mood
- Horror; Mysterious
- Premise and plot tags
- Time Travel; Monster; Disaster; Mystery
- Source material / true-story basis
- The novella by Stephen King from the four-part anthology book Four Past Midnight.
- Reception
- The series did very well for ABC, finishing among the top five in the weekly ratings. However, critical reception was mixed, with some critics finding it tedious or criticizing the special effects.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 59 · scale: 100 · review count: 15
- Production trivia
- The production team acquired a retired Lockheed L-1011 TriStar aircraft from Japan and cut it up to be re-assembled for the set.; The Langoliers were designed as CGI 'whirling balls of death and destruction' to avoid looking like Pac-Man.; The miniseries was filmed almost entirely in and around the Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine, the hometown of author Stephen King.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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