The Langoliers/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Toomey. His death is just tragic and terrifying, made even more tragic that the moment he got on that plane, (Or, perhaps the moment he was forced into the job by his father's demands, or one could argue the moment he was born) he was doomed.
  • Freud Was Right: At least in the miniseries, that time warp looks rather... like something else.

"It's the place where...all life begins!"
"It's so beautiful!"

  • 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 Toomey!
  • Jerkass Woobie: Toomey could have been a Complete Monster but he does have a very good Freudian Excuse for his behavior.
  • 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?!"
    • Also, Dean Stockwell's entire performance.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The Langoliers, questionable SFX aside, are just terrifying. They're Clock Roaches that devour the previous time continuum in order to extend eternity, but there's if that's the case, they would've attacked everything including the rest of the main cast instead of hounding down Toomey. According to him, they're this universe's equivalent to working class Boogie Man who chase after all the "lazy bums who lay down the job"; and it was hammered into this man's head by his father who did not take his son getting an A- well creating a paranoid obsession with success, causing him to one day miss an appointment because his father wanted him to succeed in a job he hates forced onto him by his overbearing dad. When he finally admits his failures, the Langoliers finally arrive at his "father's" beckoning in order to eat him alive as he screams "DADDY! MAKE THEM GO AWAY!!" Langoliers are sadistic creeps aren't they.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Kate Maberly (Dinah) would go on to play Glumdalclitch in the Gulliver's Travels miniseries and Wendy in Finding Neverland.
  • Special Effect Failure: There is no other term that can possibly describe the presentation of the Langoliers in the mini-series. And the time rip is pretty hokey as well.
    • Well, in the novella the Langoliers were only a form they were 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 CGI plane used for in-flight scenes was startling fake as well.
  • Tear Jerker: Nick's death. That his actor playing him makes him so darn likable (despite being a hired killer and all) really makes it sad when he goes.