This two-part television film, based on the novella by Stephen King and directed by Tom Holland, presents a group of ten passengers who wake up on a plane and discover that everyone else – including the pilots – has vanished.
They land the plane – luckily, one of the passengers, Brian Engle (David Morse), is an airline pilot – at a small airport in Maine, but bizarre events puzzle them when they arrive.
Nobody is around, matches won’t light, food tastes off, beer is flat, the sun goes up and down too quickly, and sound doesn’t echo. And something big and noisy is heading their way.
What on earth is going on?
The Langoliers is rather like a long Twilight Zone episode, and while the premise is stretched almost to breaking point by the length, the mystery is enjoyable and strange enough to hold one’s interest.
It’s a bit much to swallow Dean Stockwell’s mystery writer character making these huge deductive leaps of imagination to work out what is going on, but there’s a decent cast on offer here with Patricia Wettig as a school teacher and Bronson Pinchot (pictured at left) as a yuppie businessman who cracks under the strain. Pinchot’s bonkers performance gets the film through a few lulls.
The special effects are rather poor at times (the Langoliers themselves are computer-generated sultanas which look like rejects from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) but not without their dated TV-budget charms.
The Langoliers is decent fun overall if you like strange mysteries and Stephen King stories.
Harker
Tom Holland Laurel Stevenson
Patricia Wettig Dinah Bellman
Kate Maberly Nick Hopewell
Mark Lindsay Chapman Aunt Vicki
Julie Arnold Lisnet Don Gaffney
Frankie Faison Rudy Warwick
Baxter Harris Richard Logan
Michael Louden Albert Kaussner
Christopher Collet Doris Heartman
Kymberly Dakin Bethany Simms
Kimber Riddle Brian Engle
David Morse Danny Keene
David Forrester Craig Toomy
Bronson Pinchot James Deegan
Chris Hendrie Gate Agent
Jennifer Nichole Porter Bob Jenkins
Dean Stockwell Roger Toomy
John Griesemer Craig (9 Years)
Christopher Cooke Tom Holby
Stephen King
They land the plane – luckily, one of the passengers, Brian Engle (David Morse), is an airline pilot – at a small airport in Maine, but bizarre events puzzle them when they arrive.
It’s a bit much to swallow Dean Stockwell’s mystery writer character making these huge deductive leaps of imagination to work out what is going on, but there’s a decent cast on offer here with Patricia Wettig as a school teacher and Bronson Pinchot (pictured at left) as a yuppie businessman who cracks under the strain. Pinchot’s bonkers performance gets the film through a few lulls.
