YMMV / The Langoliers

• Cult Classic: As can perhaps be evidenced by the disproportionate size of the main page here in relation to the modest length and relative obscurity of the novella, this story is sort of a low-key favorite in the King mythos, with many fans to this day calling for a higher-quality screen adaptation. Even then, the miniseries is also remembered pretty fondly, in spite (or perhaps because) of being cornier than Nebraska.
• Ending Fatigue: A common criticism of the miniseries is the fact that after what seems like the logical climax of the story — the Langoliers showing up to eat everything — there's still 40 minutes left to go.
• Epileptic Trees: For a while there was a somewhat retroactive fan theory that Nick Hopewell was actually an alternate version of Nick Hardaway, one who managed to escape the house, with even the Wikipedia page for Rose Red makes mention of how similar the two characters are.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Ends with the main characters running towards the camera and leaping into the foreground laughing and smiling — just in case you were in any doubt that this is meant to be a happy ending. Don't think too hard however about the innocent blind girl who was stabbed to death (whose body is aboard the plane), the black guy who was also stabbed to death (whose body was left behind in the past), Mr. Toomy (who was eaten alive), and the guy who just heroically vaporized himself to save all of your lives. In addition, none of you will be able to explain what happened to the hundreds of other people on this flight who disappeared into thin air when the police start to investigate. At best, the authorities will think they are mad, and at worst, they will be tried for hijacking, kidnapping and/or multiple counts of murder.
  • It may not be as bad as that. Bob Jenkins mulls over the fact that every plane following Flight 29's flight path will have had the same thing happen to them. Factor in the dozens of planes that went through, and factor in that none of them were as lucky to have a dead-heading Brian Engle on board, and the story that the survivors of Flight 29 will tell becomes a bit less hard to swallow, although it's likelier the the aftermath will slide more into "massive coverup" territory. At the end of the day though, there is likely going to be more than one plane that mysteriously disappeared, and more people than just those on Flight 29 unaccounted for.
• Ham and Cheese:
  • Bronson Pinchot knows exactly what kind of miniseries this is, and acts accordingly. Believe it or not, Balki is actually subtle next to Toomy.
  • Dean Stockwell contributes a performance that closely resembles a cross between William Shatner and Sir David Attenborough.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • At one point, the mystery writer attempts to explain how time travel works and why it would be impossible to change or stop events, using the JFK assassination as an example. Years later, Stephen King writes 11/22/63, a novel about a time traveler attempting to do just that.
  • Doubles as an Actor Allusion: "One can't simply go back to November twenty-second, nighteen-sixty-three and stop the Kennedy assassination..." Shares his character's belief in the appropriate Quantum Leap episode where Sam tries to do just that (and fails).
  • The setting of the story, being a vast empty facility existing beyond our plane of reality that can only be accessed via accidental means, is amusingly and eerily similar to what would eventually become The Backrooms.
• Inferred Holocaust:
  • No one ever seems to make a big deal out of the fact that 90% of the people on the plane were apparently vaporized at the beginning of the story. Justifiable, considering that there are bigger issues to deal with. And they DO wonder, they just, at that time, can't believe that 90% of the passengers simply disappeared, and are trying to come up with a solution their minds can comprehend, I.E., somehow everyone else was offloaded. Alternatively, as they were awake at the time, they may simply not have gone through the time rip with everyone else... and the plane. Oops...
  • Contemplated early in the novella by Brian the pilot, and later Jossed by the (third-person omniscient) narrator during the second transit: "Nick Hopewell ceased to exist." So did the people who were awake during the first transit.
• Jerkass Woobie: Toomy is unstable and murderous but he does have a very good Freudian Excuse for his behavior.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Just before the Langoliers show up in the miniseries, Toomey briefly confronts the image of his father and tells him he isn’t scared of him anymore, reasoning that the Langoliers don’t even exist. Even though he was proved wrong, it was still a brave moment on his part.
  • There's an earlier moment in both the book and series, where, when he wakes up the first time after Albert has knocked him out, in tremendous pain from the damage the toaster has done to his head, he at first thinks he's hearing his father's voice, to which he responds "Go away. I hate you. Go away."
  • On two separate occasions, perfectly normal, mundane music student Albert comes to literal blows with an armed, increasingly insane Toomey, both times using a completely outmatched Improvised Weapon. The first time, Albert oneshots Toomey with one good hit on the head. The second time, Albert annihilates him, unwittingly beating him nearly to death and roundly neutralizing him as a threat. Both times, Albert emerges traumatized, but otherwise completely unscathed.
• Moral Event Horizon: As sad a character as Mr. Toomey is, what does he do to Dinah, the one person to show him compassion and attempt to help him? He kills her. It's little wonder Dinah then decides to get him killed too, though she is sorry about it.
• Narm Charm:
  • "SCARING THE LITTLE GIRL?!" It's the voice-crack in the middle of "GIRL?!" that makes it so delightfully narmy. Not helped by the fact that he starts his next sentence with a very Jerry Lewis-esque "LADY..."
  • During that scene, when the camera cuts to one of the women on board trying to comfort Dinah, you can see Craig making funny hand movements.
  • Also, Dean Stockwell's entire performance.
  • What does the horrifying noise of the approaching Langoliers sound like? "Rice Krispies after the milk has been poured in", apparently. Made even weirder after it's called a "horrible cereal noise".
  • The miniseries as a whole, really. It's spectacularly low-quality by the standards of a King adaptation, but not at all unenjoyable.
• Retroactive Recognition: Kate Maberly (Dinah) would go on to play Glumdalclitch in the Gulliver's Travels miniseries and Wendy in Finding Neverland. She also appeared as Mary Lennox in the 1993 film adaptation of The Secret Garden.
  • Not to mention, David Morse, whose film career really became extensive after this film, even appearing in two other adaptations of King's works as different characters.
• So Bad, It's Good: The miniseries runs on Narm Charm and some Ham and Cheese acting. Other members of the cast, like David Morse and Mark Lindsay Chapman elevate the film with their performances, because they Took the Bad Film Seriously.
• Special Effect Failure: It's a 1990s made-for-TV series, and didn't age well.
  • There is no other term that can possibly describe the presentation of the Langoliers in the mini-series. Even factoring in the novella's explanation (the Langoliers were only A Form You Are Comfortable With: they saw incomprehensible shapes almost like machinery until they thought of the motion of bouncing balls, at which point that's what was there), the visual end result looks utterly ridiculous, and boasts rather low-budget CGI to boot.
  • The time rip and CGI plane used for in-flight scenes range anywhere from "pretty hokey" to "startlingly fake".
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: David Morse and Mark Lindsay Chapman as a somewhat expy of James Bond definitely deliver the most nuanced performances in the film.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: With her short hair and gender-neutral clothing, it's hard to tell Dinah isn't male.

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