History Literature / TheLangoliers

Adapted into a two-part 1995 MiniSeries on Creator/{{ABC}}, directed by Tom Holland (the one of ''Film/{{Fright Night|1985}}'' and ''Film/ChildsPlay'' fame, not [[Creator/TomHolland the one of MCU Spider-Man fame]]) and starring Creator/PatriciaWettig, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/DavidMorse, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Creator/FrankieFaison, Baxter Harris, Kimber Riddle, Christopher Collet, with Kate Maberly, and Creator/BronsonPinchot. Creator/StephenKing also has a cameo.

* RecycledInSpace: This miniseries is essentially "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E54TheOdysseyOfFlight33 The Odyssey of Flight 33]]" under a Stephen King filter (which emphasizes the TimeyWimeyBall nature of the whole ordeal).

** The film has a similar moment. [[spoiler: Instead of remembering the book title, Bob is looking at all of the piles of left behind items, then seeing and hearing the sleeping Jenkins and Bob realizes they were all asleep.]]

* BadassBookworm: Albert is just a music student, bespectacled, and generally isn't much to look at. He can also do a fair [[JustForPun whack]] of damage with a toaster. [[spoiler: And he wins both of the confrontations he has with Craig Toomy.]]

* ActorAllusion: Few people are better qualified to [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E80AQualityOfMercy exposit about]] [[Series/QuantumLeap time travel]] than Creator/DeanStockwell.

* ClothingDamage: [[spoiler: Craig Toomy's expensive suit gets pretty soiled before his death. Although, he oddly keeps the tie sinched tight and the jacket buttoned correctly for the entirety of his appearance, and doesn't remove the jacket or loosen the tie like Brian Engle and Rudy Warwick do.]]

** Toomy also mimics Nick's English accent after [[:spoiler: he's tied up by Nick.]]

* EducationMama: Toomy's father was a male version.

* EldritchLocation: The Airport in Maine.

* GlassesPull: In the mini-series, and done by a ''blind'' character, at that!
* HamToHamCombat: The scene between Toomy and the hallucination of his father in the movie.
* HateSink: Pretty much the point of Toomy; without him, we wouldn't really have an antagonist.

* KillTheCutie: Poor Dinah.

* LockedRoomMystery: Bob Jenkins initially treats the disappearance of their fellow passengers as this.

* MrExposition: Bob Jenkins. This isn't the first time his actor has played MrExposition, either.

* TimeyWimeyBall: Admittedly, up until the Langoliers show up, this story had an interesting take on time travel.
* TotallyRadical: Approximately 60% of Bethany Simms's dialogue is this.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Toomy. Again. (Yes, he is both TheBGrade ''and'' the WellDoneSonGuy. Scary, isn't it?)

* YeahShot
** The novella ended with a literary version.
** The end of the TV movie.

%%* EldritchLocation: The Airport in Maine.

* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Played with. [[spoiler: To stop Toomy's ranting after finding the plane empty. Nick puts Toomy in a brutal nose hold that gets him under control. Later on in the novella, when Toomy starts having a fresh outburst. Nick holds up his fingers in the same position they were when he gave Toomy his initial nose hold, and Toomy immediately shuts back up.]]

* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Played with. [[spoiler: To stop Toomy's ranting after finding the plane empty. Nick puts Toomy in a brutal nose hold that gets him under control. Later on in the novella, when Toomy starts having a fresh outburst. Nick holds up his fingers in the same position they were when he gave Toomy his initial nose hold, and Toomy immediately shuts back up.

** We don't see the dream (or nightmare) Engle has [[:spoiler: shortly before Dinah's terrified screams wake him up, of Engle's deceased ex-wife putting her hand over a break in the cabin to keep the plane from losing pressure, or the vividly graphic detail of her hand being sucked out through the split.]]

* AdaptationalHairStyleChange: Laurel has dark hair in the novella, but is played by the blonde Patricia Wettig in the film. Also, Bethany is described as having short Dark hair in the novella, while Kimber Riddle's hair is much longer in the adtapation.
* AdaptationDeviation: A rare case where pretty much all of the plot of a King novella is transfered into the film adapation. Most of the dialogue is lifted verbatim from the source novel. That said, there are a few changes:

** Due to the nature of the network setting, virtually all of the cursing is omitted. Also, [[spoiler: Albert virtually destroys Craig Toomey's face with the toaster in their fight, to the point that Nick internally realizes that Toomey is eventually going to die from the injuries when he examines him. It's toned down to a heavilty-bleeding scalp wound in the television film. The sequence with Dinah's stabbing and Nick's removal of the broken blade plays out fairly closely to how it does in the novella, but is slightly toned down for the network setting.]]
** Also, [[spoiler: In the novella, the Langoliers bite off Toomey's feet as he's running, but the super-heated mouths of the Langoliers cauterize the wounds so fast that Toomey loses three inches or so of height, but KEEPS RUNNING ON THE STUMPS of his ankles. He only falls after they bite his legs off at the knees. The telefilm tones this down considerably, and he's eaten off-screen.]]
** In the novella, [[spoiler: Nick says he's not going to kill his target when talking with Brian. However, after Dinah dies, in his next conversation with Brian, he seems to be back on the fence about killing the target, as the person it would affect has similarities with the deceased Craig Toomey. He later relents again before his sacrifice. The television film includes Nick's first conversation with Brian, where he says he's not going through with it, and omits the sequence where he's reconsidering, solidifying him as TheAtoner and eliminating any questions the readers of the novella may have had about whether or not he was truly serious when he told Laurel he was giving up the hitman life.]]

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Without the benefit of a third-person omniscient narrator, the film can't do a very good job of describing the interplay between Dinah and Toomey or the nature of the Langoliers, and the resulting story makes a lot less sense than its source material.
* AdaptedOut: The film eliminates at least two small characters from the novel. The first is Craig Toomey's mother, who is an alcoholic and is just as nasty to Craig as his father was. The second is one additional leftover passenger from the trip through the rip. He's blackout drunk, only waking up and interacting with the rest of the characters once, [[spoiler: as they are fleeing the Bangor Airport.]]

* AlasPoorVillain: Toomey. [[spoiler: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. Even though Toomey stabbed her, Dinah still feels pity for him when she sends him to his death.]]
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Toomey calls the Langoliers "purpose personified".
* AndStarring: With Kate Maberly, And Creator/BronsonPinchot as Craig Toomey.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Toomey. Yes, he had an absolutely horrible childhood. But he still mortally wounded a teenage girl, murdered Don Gaffney, and tried to murder Albert when all the latter two were doing was trying to find a stretcher to move Dinah to the plane.]]

* AxCrazy: By the time Toomey finally snaps and goes mad, he's trying to murder everyone else, assuming they are Langoliers. Best exemplified in the miniseries where he's grinning in delirium.
* BadassBookworm: Albert is just a music student, bespectacled, and generally isn't much to look at. He can also do a fair [[JustForPun whack]] of damage with a toaster. [[spoiler: And he wins both of the confrontations he has with Craig Toomey.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Our heroes return to their own dimension. However, not everyone made it back. At least four people died before the movie was resolved, Dinah among them. Nonetheless, the ending plays out [[AngstWhatAngst cheerily]] as the survivors celebrate their rightful place in the timeline.]]

** Toomey also mimic's Nick's English accent after he's tied up.

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: At the airport, Bob Jenkins asks a cigarette from Bethany, though he quit ten years ago, saying: "This seems like an excellent time to renew acquaintances with old habits."

* ClothingDamage: [[spoiler: Craig Toomey's expensive suit gets pretty soiled before his death. Although, he oddly keeps the tie sinched tight and the jacket buttoned correctly for the entirety of his appearance, and doesn't remove the jacket or loosen the tie like Brian Engle and Rudy Warwick do.]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If Flight 29 had continued to [[spoiler: Boston, Toomey would likely not have gone on a rampage, thus avoiding much of the conflict. Also, since Boston is further west than Bangor, the passengers would have had longer to figure out what do about their situation.]]
** Unlike many examples of this trope, there were very good reasons for the flight to divert to Bangor, as Brian, a professional pilot and familiar with the airports in question, explains to his passengers (and thus the reader). Also, Toomey was breaking down before even boarding Flight 29. There would have been ''something'' that set him off regardless.
** [[spoiler: Even without Toomey's rampage, they'd have still been trapped at an empty airport and still would have had to take similar steps to survive. Also, part of the reason they're able to escape Bangor in the first place is because Toomey goes nuts and Dinah then uses him as a diversion for the Langoliers.]]

* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:Dinah is stabbed in the chest by Toomey, and eventually succumbs to her injuries.]]

* DisabilitySuperpower: Dinah is able to hear the approaching Langoliers before anyone else does, leading to NotNowKiddo, below. She is also able to psychically "see" through the eyes of others, and use a sort of blind-sense to be aware of the presence or absence of others around her. Later, [[spoiler: she becomes a full-body apparition projection to Craig Toomey when she's urging him out onto the runway to distract the approaching Langoliers.]]
* DressCodedForYourConvenience: Asshole executive Craig Toomey gets an upgrade from the crew-neck jersey he's describes as wearing in the novella to a double-breasted suit and an expensive dress shirt with cufflink sleeve closures in the telefilm to make him stand out against the other, more casually dressed characters, and to make him look more befitting of a man traveling to meet the executive board. Neither Bob's sport coat or Rudy Warwick's off-the-rack suit are as distinctive as Toomey's expensive duds.

* ExtremeOmnivore: The Langoliers eat the past. Can't get much more extreme than that. In the process they also eat a hillside, an airport, a runway, [[spoiler:[[BreadEggsMilkSquick and Craig Toomey]]]].

* IDidntMeanToKillHim: [[spoiler: Albert totally freaks out and has this reaction after fighting Toomey. He's so upset he vomits after. Nick finds him and discovers Toomey is still alive, easing Albert's guilt, (though in the novel, the damage Albert does is so extensive that he privately thinks to himself that Toomey's going to expire soon.)]]

** Round 1: Cased violin. Round 2: Toaster in a tablecloth. Albert: 2, plus several thousand for style; Toomy: 0, [[spoiler:minus several billion for getting eaten afterwards]]. Even the stoic Nick [[spoiler: is stunned, especially in the novella, at how much damage Albert did to Toomey's face with the toaster.]]
** Nick uses ordinary coins as a makeshift set of brass knuckles when he goes looking for Albert and Don, and then re-pockets the change [[spoiler: when he sees that Albert is alive and Toomey seemingly isn't.]]

%%* InWhichATropeIsDescribed

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nick, he's rough when it comes to getting the job done and the other passengers call him out on his harsh treatment of JerkassWoobie Toomy, but he is one of the first adults to believe Dinah when she hears the Langoliers coming.

%%* KillTheCutie: Poor Dinah.

* MinorInjuryOverreaction: [[spoiler: After Toomey shoots him, Albert goes faint, collapses on the floor, and asks Nick and Brian if they'll be able to stop the bleeding. Then Nick holds up the bullet for Albert to see, showing him that he wasn't even shot, the bullet simply bounced off of his shirt, and he's totally fine.]]

** Several of the passengers go through this [[spoiler: when they find the plane virtually empty. Nick keeps it pretty together until Brian makes the descent to Bangor. It's one of the few times Nick cracks.]]

** Albert has one [[spoiler: After Toomey kills Don Gaffney, and Albert realizes he's alone with a psychopath with only a toaster in a tablecloth to defend himself. He even derides himself in the novella for bringing what he things is a "kid's weapon" for his defense. He does well with it though.]]

* OppositesAttract: Down-to-Earth school teacher Laurel, even though she's repulsed in the beginning by how Nick treats Toomey to keep him under control, eventually falls for her majesty's hitman, and he falls for her just as heavily.

* RecycledInSpace: This miniseries is essentially "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E54TheOdysseyOfFlight33 The Odyssey of Flight 33]]" under a Stephen King filter (which emphasises the TimeyWimeyBall nature of the whole ordeal).
* RedHerring: The guy with the black beard. Eleven people survive the trip. One spends the the entire book sleeping in the back of the plane. He wakes up, briefly, and then goes back to sleep. You keep expecting him to do something, but no, that's it. His purpose is [[spoiler:to remind Bob Jenkins that they must be asleep to survive the trip back through the time rip. (Rudy Warwick covers this role in the TV adaption, as he retreats to the coach section to sleep while everyone else is in First Class, and the black beared man is AdaptedOut.)]]
* SanitySlippage: Discovering you've lost everything, when you've been made [[FreudianExcuse obsessed with success]], and are going to Boston to explain this to your superiors, only to wind up trapped in a past being eaten by monsters, does this to a person. Craig Toomey's mental stability does ''not'' last long.

* SeriousBusiness: "I have a meeting in Boston at NINE O'CLOCK!" This is so important to Toomey that he snaps and is willing to try to kill several passengers to make his meeting on time.

* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: The guy with the black beard. This could also be said for the main characters as well. If they hadn't, there'd be no film.

* TalkToTheFist: Nick really doesn't have time to listen to Toomey yammering on about how important his meeting is and how much he ''forbids'' the plane to make any sort of unscheduled stop at all. No, not even if most of the people on the plane including the flight crew have mysteriously vanished. [[spoiler: While he never actually punches Toomey, Nick gets him in a brutal nose-hold that takes the fight out of him completely in the beginning of the story.]]

* TragicVillain: Toomey, oh so very much. The guy is a complete danger to everyone else and grossly unpleasant, but is driven by mental torment rather than true, deliberate malice.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Toomey. Again. (Yes, he is both TheBGrade ''and'' the WellDoneSonGuy. Scary, isn't it?)
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Toomey stabs Dinah in the chest, which eventually leads to her death. However, he was insane, and thought that Dinah isn't a real child but a Langolier in disguise]].
** Toomey also [[spoiler: threatens Bethany at gunpoint. While she's not a child, she's easily the second youngest person in the party.]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Despite being a {{Jerkass}}, Craig Toomey doesn't want to hurt anyone, not really, but extreme pressure coupled with obviously severe mental illness eventually cause him to violently snap and lose his mind entirely.

''The Langoliers'' is a novella by Creator/StephenKing, published in the anthology ''Literature/FourPastMidnight'' in 1990. It tells the tale of a handful of passengers on a cross-country redeye flight who wake to discover that the flight crew and most of their fellow passengers have vanished. They are unable to contact ground control, and they see only darkness below them. After making an emergency landing in Bangor, they soon discover the chilling truth, and must find a way to escape the approaching sounds that may spell their doom while dealing with one of their fellow passengers, who is having a psychotic breakdown.

** In the novella only, [[spoiler: Nick tells Bob that James Bond isn't real when Bob asks if Nick could put them out with his combat training when they're trying to figure out ways to fall asleep so they can go back through the time rip. Almost comes across as a TakeThat, since is hard for readers and viewers not to see Nick as almost an expy of Bond in the novella and film. The film takes it a step further by casting English actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, who has black hair and blue eyes like the Bond character is described in the novel.

* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler: The sweet and innocent Laurel would have been quite the grounding force for the haunted and needing to atone Nick. They're both quite smitten with each other, and both admit they could have something after they get back to the present. However, Nick foregoes the romance to atone for his past misdees, and sacrifices himself so Laurel and the remaining survivors can live.]]

** They get another one [[spoiler after they find the rip. Bob realizes that they all have to be asleep. As they're throwing out various ideas, Laurel reminds them that getting to sleep isn't the problem, it's someone being awake to fly the plane after. Even TheStoic Nick thinks they're fucked at that point. (They eventually find a solution to this as well.)]]

** The film has a similar moment. [[spoiler: Instead of remembering the book title, Bob is looking at all of the piles of left behind items, then seeing and hearing the sleeping Jenkins and Bob realizes they were all asleep.

* Before that, [[spoiler: Just finding the rip itself is the hope spot. Then it goes south when they realize that they came through asleep, and thus, must go back through asleep, while finding a way to wake back up after they're through, so the plane doesn't run out of fuel and crash.]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If Flight 29 had continued to [[spoiler: Boston, Toomey would likely not have gone on a rampage, thus avoiding much of the conflict. Also, since Boston is further west than Bangor, the passengers would have had longer to figure out what do about their situation.

** They get another one [[spoiler after they find the rip. Bob realizes that they all have to be asleep. As they're trowing out various ideas, Laurel reminds them that getting to sleep isn't the problem, it's someone being awake to fly the plane after. (They eventually find a solution to this as well.)]]
** Laurel [[spoiler: has an extreme one after Nick sacrifices himself to cross back over. She laments the fact that the world is still as dark and seemingly dead as where they were, and thus Nick and Dinah seemingly died for nothing. After Brian safely lands them at LAX, she tells him he should have pulled a BetterToDieThanBeKilled and crashed the plane, rather than potentially face the Langoliers again.]]

* BadassBookworm: Albert is just a music student, bespectacled, and generally isn't much to look at. He can also do a fair [[JustForPun whack]] of damage with a toaster.

Adapted into a two-part 1995 MiniSeries on Creator/{{ABC}}, directed by Tom Holland (the one of ''Film/{{Fright Night|1985}}'' and ''Film/ChildsPlay'' fame, not [[Creator/TomHolland the one of MCU Spider-Man fame]]) and starring Kate Maberly, Kimber Riddle, Creator/PatriciaWettig, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Creator/FrankieFaison, Baxter Harris, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/DavidMorse, Christopher Collet, and Creator/BronsonPinchot.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Without the benefit of a third-person omniscient narrator, the film can't do a very good job of describing the interplay between Dinah and Toomy or the nature of the Langoliers, and the resulting story makes a lot less sense than its source material.

* AlasPoorVillain: Toomy. [[spoiler: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. Even though Toomy stabbed her, Dinah still feels pity for him when she sends him to his death.]]
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Toomy calls the Langoliers "purpose personified".

* DisabilitySuperpower: Dinah is able to hear the approaching Langoliers before anyone else does, leading to NotNowKiddo, below. She is also able to psychically "see" through the eyes of others, and use a sort of blind-sense to be aware of the presence or absence of others around her.

* RedHerring: The guy with the black beard. Eleven people survive the trip. One spends the the entire book sleeping in the back of the plane. He wakes up, briefly, and then goes back to sleep. You keep expecting him to do something, but no, that's it. His purpose is [[spoiler:to remind Bob Jenkins that they must be asleep to survive the trip back through the time rip. (Rudy Warwick covers this role in the TV adaption, as he retreats to the coach section to sleep while everyone else is in First Class.)]]
* SanitySlippage: Discovering you've lost everything, when you've been made [[FreudianExcuse obsessed with success]], and are going to Boston to explain this to your superiors, only to wind up trapped in a past being eaten by monsters, does this to a person. Craig Toomy's mental stability does ''not'' last long.

* SeriousBusiness: "I have a meeting in Boston at NINE O'CLOCK!" This is so important to Toomy that he snaps and is willing to try to kill several passengers to make his meeting on time.

* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: The guy with the black beard.
* SomeoneHasToDie: [[spoiler:Good news: They should be able to escape by flying back through the time rip. Bad news: If they're awake when they go through, they'll vanish -- and after seeing the past get eaten by ClockRoaches, none of them are particularly inclined towards sleep. Good news: If they lower the cabin pressure, they'll all fall unconscious and make it through unharmed. Bad news: Someone has to stay awake to restore the cabin pressure so they'll wake up on the other side.]]

* TalkToTheFist: Nick really doesn't have time to listen to Toomy yammering on about how important his meeting is and how much he ''forbids'' the plane to make any sort of unscheduled stop at all. No, not even if most of the people on the plane including the flight crew have mysteriously vanished.
* ThereWasADoor: DoubleSubverted. Right before Nick and Brian kick down the door to the cockpit, Bethany muses on whether or not there's a key. Nick is caught completely off-guard by the question, before asking Brian the same thing. There isn't a key, but Nick compliments her for thinking of it.

* TragicVillain: Toomy, oh so very much. The guy is a complete danger to everyone else and grossly unpleasant, but is driven by mental torment rather than true, deliberate malice.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Toomy. Again. (Yes, he is both TheBGrade ''and'' the WellDoneSonGuy. Scary, isn't it?)
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Toomy stabs Dinah in the chest, which eventually leads to her death. However, he was insane, and thought that Dinah isn't a real child but a Langolier in disguise]].
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Despite being a {{Jerkass}}, Craig Toomy doesn't want to hurt anyone, not really, but extreme pressure coupled with obviously severe mental illness eventually cause him to violently snap and lose his mind entirely.

* WrongGenreSavvy: A fiction writer gives an anlysis of the situation (everyone waking up on an abondoned plane in mid-air) from the perspective of a mystery thriller. [[SubvertedTrope However]], he immediately admits that it's a bunk theory, because there are still too many discrepancies. He realizes that they're really in a science fiction story, and later puts forth a different, correct theory on what happened to them.

** Round 1: Cased violin. Round 2: Toaster in a tablecloth. Albert: 2, plus several thousand for style; Toomy: 0, [[spoiler:minus several billion for getting eaten afterwards]].

* AxCrazy: By the time Toomy finally snaps and goes mad, he's trying to murder everyone else, assuming they are Langoliers. Best exemplified in the miniseries where he's grinning in delirium.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If Flight 29 had continued to Boston, Toomey would likely not have gone on a rampage, thus avoiding much of the conflict. Also, since Boston is further west than Bangor, the passengers would have had longer to figure out what do about their situation.

* ExtremeOmnivore: The Langoliers eat the past. Can't get much more extreme than that. In the process they also eat a hillside, an airport, a runway, [[spoiler:[[BreadEggsMilkSquick and Craig Toomy]]]].

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the novella, Albert forgets to bring his violin back on board the plane, thus letting it get eaten. In the miniseries, Laurel brings it back on board for him, but then he leaves it on the plane when they get back to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.

** Nick briefly considers using ordinary coins as a makeshift set of brass knuckles.

--->'''Toomy:''' I didn't make any money for you! I didn't MAKE ANY MONEY FOR YOU!! I LOOOOOST MONEY FOR YOU!!! I LOOOOOOOOST MONEY FOR YOU! I LOST 43 MILLION DOLLARS, AND I DID IT DELIBERATELY! I DID IT DELIBERATELY! I DID IT DELIBERATELY! [[EvilLaugh EEYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]]

* NotNowKiddo: Subverted. Dinah hears the Langoliers coming before everybody else, but she thinks that the rest of the group won't listen to her because grownups don't believe children, especially blind girls. However, they believe her pretty fast. They even muse that as she's blind, she probably has really good hearing.
* NowDoItAgainBackwards: The survivors determine that they must fly back though the time rip to get home. But there's a problem...
* OhCrap: Bob's reaction when Brian announces that he's going to try flying through the time rip. Which, since everyone on board is awake, would have had the effect of vaporizing everyone and leaving the now-empty plane to run out of fuel right over downtown Los Angeles. Fortunately, he's able to point this out in time.

Adapted into a two-part 1995 MiniSeries on Creator/{{ABC}}, directed by Creator/TomHollandDirector (the one of ''Film/{{Fright Night|1985}}'' and ''Film/ChildsPlay'' fame, not [[Creator/TomHolland the one of MCU Spider-Man fame]]) and starring Kate Maberly, Kimber Riddle, Creator/PatriciaWettig, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Creator/FrankieFaison, Baxter Harris, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/DavidMorse, Christopher Collet, and Creator/BronsonPinchot.

** {{Discussed}}. As a mystery writer, Bob Jenkins provides a plausible analysis to Albert to explain how they all ended up on a seemingly abandoned plane in mid-flight by pitching a conspiracy scenario about a black ops social experiment. When Albert suggests that they take over the plane, Jenkins admits out that his scenario can only explain the state of the ''plane''; he can't think of any way an outside agency could suppress any sign of life on the ''ground,'' which should be covered in electric lights visible through any possible cloud cover. The fact that the entire ''world'' can be demonstrated to be out of whack takes things [[HowUnscientific beyond the pale]], meaning [[GivingUpOnLogic rational deduction is meaningless]];

* RantInducingSlight: Toomy couldn't care less about almost everyone (including the ''pilots'') vanishing or them being trapped in a dead dimension, but if you dare suggest he's going to be late for his meeting in Boston he will flip out on you like you wouldn't believe.

--->'''Jenkins:''' I'm the [[WrongGenreSavvy wrong person to ask]], I'm afraid. It's too bad Creator/LarryNiven or Creator/JohnVarley isn't on board."\\

Adapted into a two-part 1995 MiniSeries on Creator/{{ABC}}, directed by Tom Holland (the one of ''Film/{{Fright Night|1985}}'' and ''Film/ChildsPlay'' fame, not [[Creator/TomHolland the one of MCU Spider-Man fame]]) and starring Kate Maberly, Kimber Riddle, Patricia Wettig, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Creator/FrankieFaison, Baxter Harris, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/DavidMorse, Christopher Collet, and Creator/BronsonPinchot.

* AccidentalChildKillerBackstory: [[spoiler: Nick Hopewell volunteers for a certain death task that must be performed — because, as a younger man, he accidentally shot some children who were throwing potatoes that he mistook for grenades.]]