Craig Toomey



Craig Toomey is the main human antagonist of The Langoliers novella and mini-series. He's a mentally unstable business man who sees the world as a collection of monsters due to a traumatic childhood. He is an aggressive, loud, and unpleasant character from the start, but grows more and more violent and unstable as the story progresses.

Role In Story
Craig Toomey, a mentally unstable man who has knowingly and proudly caused a $43 million loss to his company. Dinah, who possesses psychic powers, sees through Toomey's eyes and recognises him as a threat.

Brian takes over the plane and announces that, for safety, the flight will be redirected from Boston to Bangor, Maine. Toomey aggressively protests and announces that it is crucial that he attends his business trip in Boston. In a flashback, it is revealed that Toomey was abused as a child by his overbearing and sadistic father; when Craig failed to make straight A's, his father warned him about the "Langoliers"; creatures that chased down the lazy and devoured them. He is desperate to reach his appointment in Boston in order to announce his willful loss of finances to his boss and be freed of his father's wrath.

The plane lands at Bangor International Airport and the passengers find that it is devoid of life and electricity; even cars and battery-powered devices are useless. Dinah confesses that she hears an eerie "crunching cereal" sound in the distance that is coming closer and demands that they must leave before it reaches them or they will die; the sound eventually becomes loud enough that all the survivors hear it. Toomey sneaks away from the group while the rest find a restaurant and decide to stop for food. They then find that food and drinks have no flavour, matches do not light and sound does not reverberate. Toomey returns with a gun and takes Bethany hostage while demanding a flight to Boston; in an attempt to rescue her, Albert is shot, but the gun has no force and the round harmlessly bounces off his chest.

Toomey is captured and Bob deduces that, as they flew through an unusual aurora borealis during the flight, they have flown through a rip in the space-time continuum, traveling about 15 minutes into the past, where anything with energy has moved on without them; therefore, jet fuel would be useless. However, using Bob's logic, Albert correctly deduces that, since the plane contains electricity and life, that it contains its own pocket of the present time; therefore, anything loaded into the plane would subsequently regain its energy, even jet fuel. During this period, Nick and Laurel begin to fall in love.

Toomey escapes from his trap; now completely insane, he stabs Dinah in the chest and kills Gaffney, fearing that they are disguised Langoliers. Albert subdues Toomey and Nick plans to kill him in revenge before Dinah insists that he stay alive, to which Nick reluctantly obliges. The remaining survivors return to the plane to refuel it. Toomey regains consciousness, and Dinah communicates with him telepathically to convince him to come to the tarmac, where his Boston bosses have arrived to meet with him. He hallucinates the board of directors are there, along with his boss (Stephen King in a cameo appearance), where he gleefully confesses to purposely losing millions. He is overjoyed until his boss transforms into his father, who chastises him.

The plane completes its refueling just as Toomey regains awareness and sees the Langoliers approaching. He screams loudly and runs, drawing them away from the plane. Toomey is killed by the Langoliers and the plane narrowly escapes.