2. The Langoliers
Publication Date: 1990
Collected In: Four Past Midnight On a seemingly routine red eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers awaken to find that everybody else has vanished - everybody that wasn't sleeping when they ripped through some kind of space-time continuum wormhole. Brian Engle, an off-duty pilot, must take command of the passengers - an assorted collection of weirdos, eccentrics, those with hidden agendas, and even a psychic - to get themselves to safety. But it's not as simple as just landing the plane. Nothing is as it seems... and the past is catching up with them. Large cast of assorted characters? Check. Unexplained events force said characters into action? Check. Death and danger at every turn? Check. A sheer contender for most Stephen King-esque Stephen King novella,
The Langoliers might have taken its inspiration from a Richard Matherson story set similarly high in the friendly skies: the brilliant
Terror at 20,000 Feet. Unlike
Terror, though, King's story isn't about a monster clutching onto the wings of an airplane and scaring the passengers as it scurries around on top - instead, it's an odd little tale about the intricacies of time travel with nothing much on its plate but a will to entertain the heck out of you. It was actually made as a sub-par ABC mini-series in 1995 with awful special effects and bad acting, but we're not counting that.
Would it make a good feature film? Yes and no. With a large budget and attached to a director who can work with a small team of actors to get the best possible performances out of his cast, this could be a potentially great sci-fi film. But King's story skips on a detailed explanation of the story's events and could leave audiences at the movies feeling somewhat cheated.
Publication Date: 1990 Collected In: Four Past Midnight On a seemingly routine red eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers awaken to find that everybody else has vanished - everybody that wasn't sleeping when they ripped through some kind of space-time continuum wormhole. Brian Engle, an off-duty pilot, must take command of the passengers - an assorted collection of weirdos, eccentrics, those with hidden agendas, and even a psychic - to get themselves to safety. But it's not as simple as just landing the plane. Nothing is as it seems... and the past is catching up with them. Large cast of assorted characters? Check. Unexplained events force said characters into action? Check. Death and danger at every turn? Check. A sheer contender for most Stephen King-esque Stephen King novella, The Langoliers might have taken its inspiration from a Richard Matherson story set similarly high in the friendly skies: the brilliant Terror at 20,000 Feet. Unlike Terror, though, King's story isn't about a monster clutching onto the wings of an airplane and scaring the passengers as it scurries around on top - instead, it's an odd little tale about the intricacies of time travel with nothing much on its plate but a will to entertain the heck out of you. It was actually made as a sub-par ABC mini-series in 1995 with awful special effects and bad acting, but we're not counting that. Would it make a good feature film? Yes and no. With a large budget and attached to a director who can work with a small team of actors to get the best possible performances out of his cast, this could be a potentially great sci-fi film. But King's story skips on a detailed explanation of the story's events and could leave audiences at the movies feeling somewhat cheated.