During a red eye flight of a Lockheed L-1011 from Los Angeles International Airport to Boston Logan International Airport, the plane flies through a strange light, and most of the passengers and flight crew disappear, leaving behind only personal art...

During a red eye flight of a Lockheed L-1011 from Los Angeles International Airport to Boston Logan International Airport, the plane flies through a strange light, and most of the passengers and flight crew disappear, leaving behind only personal artifacts. Only those passengers who were asleep remain, and discover the predicament when they wake. Pilot Brian Engle, deadheading on the flight, takes the controls; unable to contact any other airport, he decides to land the plane at a small airport in Bangor, Maine. In addition to Engle, the other passengers include: Nick Hopewell, a mysterious Englishman; Laurel Stevenson, a schoolteacher on vacation; Don Gaffney, a tool and die worker on his way to meet his new granddaughter; Albert Kaussner, a violinist on his way to a music school in Boston; Bethany Sims, a girl whose estranged family is planning on sending her to a drug rehab; Bob Jenkins, a mystery-novel author; Dinah Bellman, a blind girl on her way to Boston to undergo optic surgery; Rudy Warwick, a perpetually sleepy businessman with a ravenous appetite, and Craig Toomy, an unstable business executive agitated over missing a scheduled meeting in Boston. Dinah, who has some telepathic ability, senses troubling issues with Craig and warns the others about him. In flashback, it is shown that Craig suffered from psychological abuse from his father, who instilled in him a fear of the 'Langoliers', creatures who hunt down and devour the lazy and irresponsible.