Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 filmThe Shiningis widely considered one of the greatest horror films of all time by fans and critics alike. Famous for its ambiguity,The Shininghas one of the most heavily discussed and theorized endingsin cinematic history. Famous horror filmmakerMike Flanagan’s 2019 sequel,Doctor Sleep,only adds to the mythos of Kubrick’s adaptation. Based on the book of the same name byStephen King,The Shiningfollows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a writer who has been hired as the winter caretaker atthe isolated Overlook Hotelin snowy Colorado. Jack, struggling with writer’s block, thinks this is an excellent opportunity to free himself of distractions and finish writing his book. Jack brings along his wife Wendy (played by the late greatShelley Duvall) andtheir 5-year-old son Danny(Danny Lloyd), and the family quickly discovers thatthe Overlook Hotel has a disturbing history that jeopardizes Jack’s sanity and threatens Wendy and Danny’s lives.
King famously despised Kubrick’s film adaptation of his novel, which does differ in major ways from its source material. When Kubrick signed on to direct the film,he requested to makesome changes to King’s original story, many of which completely altered the core themes of the novel. The famous final shot of Jack in the Overlook Hotel in 1921 is essential to Kubrick’s vision for hisadaptation of King’s novelthat has spawned theories that continue to this day.
The Shining
Jack Torrance Descends Into Madness in The Shining'
Once the Torrance family arrives at theOverlook Hotel,The Shiningbecomes one continuous spiral into madness, but the ending of the movie perhaps starts when Jack once again enters the gold room where an elaborate party is in full swing. Jack sits down at the bar and strikes up a conversation with the bartender Lloyd (Joe Turkel), who tells him that his money is no good here, cryptically explaining it is “orders from the house.”
As Jack is holding his drink, a server accidentally bumps into him, causing his drink to spill on his jacket. Apologizing profusely, the server (“Jeevesy old boy”) offers to clean his jacket.He tells Jack that his name is Delbert Grady(Philip Stone), which Jack recognizes as Charles Grady, the name of the old caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. When Jack tells Grady that he chopped his wife and daughters “into little bits” before shooting himself in the head, Grady looks at him strangely and says that he has no recollection of such a thing. He tells Jack he is mistaken. He was never the caretaker here —Jackis the caretaker.He cryptically informs him, “I’m sorry to differ with you, sir. Butyouare the caretaker. You’ve always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I’ve always been here.”
What Does “The Shine” Mean?
Grady warns Jack that his son Danny has a special gift — the “Shine,” which, in Stephen King’s universe,is a form of psychic ability that allows people to communicate with others using the mind, and gives people the ability to see things that have happened in the past, or will happen in the future.Danny uses his gift to contact Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), the Overlook Hotel’s head chef who also possesses the “Shine.” Grady’s message to Jack is clear:Danny and Wendy must be “corrected,“just as he corrected his wife and daughters. The next day,Wendy leaves Danny(who, according to “Tony,” has checked out) in their room while she goes to confront Jack. Clutching a bat in her hand in trepidation, Wendy carefully walks toward Jack’s usual writing table only to see that he isn’t there.She instead finds the manuscriptthat he’s been slaving away over, which, to her horror, is hundreds of pages with only one sentence repeated over and over again: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
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Jack creeps up behind her to ask how she likes his book. They then partake in what isnotthe most productive conversation, in which Jack, of course, tells Wendy he is going to, “bash her fucking brains in.“She knocks him unconsciouswith the bat and locks him in the kitchen pantry. Later, there is a knock on the pantry door and Jack hears Grady’s voice on the other side. Grady tells him that he and “the others” have started to think he doesn’t have the stomach to do what he needs to do and deal with Danny and Wendy in the harshest way possible. There is the distinct click of a lock, andwe can assume Grady has unlocked it.
What Happens at the End of ‘The Shining’?
Upstairs, Wendy is sleeping, not yet aware that Jack has broken free of his confinement. Danny/Tony is repeatedly croaking out his unsettling mantra for the evening — “REDRUM” — waking a terrified Wendy, who sees through the mirror that he has written “REDRUM” on the door, which spells out “MURDER” backward. Right on cue,Jack starts to hack through their doorwith an ax while Wendy and Danny attempt to escape through the window. Only Danny can fit, so Wendy sends him out and tells him to run. Jack starts to hack his way through the bathroom door (“Heeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!") when Wendy manages to cut his hand with a knife.
Meanwhile, Hallorann, who has been communicating with Danny via the Shine, arrives at the Overlook Hotel. Just as Jack is limping through the hotel, clutching his ax,Hallorann calls out to see if anyone is home. It’s too late for Hallorann, unfortunately, asJack comes up behind himand slices right through him. Wendy is running through the hotel looking for Danny and she sees through an open doorway someone dressed up in a bear costume performing fellatio on a hotel guest. Horrified, she turns and runs downstairs where she sees Hallorann dead, covered in blood in the lobby. Suddenly, she sees hotel guests all around her as decaying skeletons. Then, a wave of crimson blood starts to burst from the elevator shaft and pour through the red doors.
Danny is sprinting for his little life through the snowy garden maze outside the hotel while Jack chases after him.Danny cleverly walks back on his old snowy footprints and manages to escape and find Wendy, and the two of them flee the hotel on a Snowcat while Jack continues to hobble through the winding maze, wailing and bellowing out in hysteria for Wendy not to leave him. The camera quickly cuts to the next scene. It is morning, and Jack is dead, frozen in the maze, trapped in the Overlook Hotel forever. The final shot ofThe Shiningis the real kicker as the camera zooms in on a photo hanging in the Overlook Hotel.The photo shows the 4th of July ball in 1921, and who do we see smack dab in the center? Jack Torrance.
Why Is Jack in That Photo at the End of ‘The Shining’?
The Shiningis full of ambiguity from start to finish. Was Lloyd ever really there? Who was the lady in room 237? What did she do to Danny? Why does Grady tell Jack that he is the caretaker? But the greatest mystery of all is that final shot of Jack at the Overlook Hotel in the year 1921. One of the more popular theories is that theOverlook absorbed Jack’s soulafter he died, claiming him as it did with the guests whose spirits are trapped in the hotel.Surprisingly, in a film where so much is left to interpretation, Kubrick actually explained that ambiguous ending.
In an interview with French film criticMichel Ciment, Kubrick said thatthe ballroom photograph suggests the reincarnation of Jack. We can assume then thatJack was originally a guest, or possibly a staff member, at the Overlook Hotel, which explains howLloyd the bartender greeted him like an old friendand why Delbert Grady claimed that Jack was “always the caretaker.” This would also explain that Charles Grady, the old caretaker who infamouslymurdered his wife and little girls, was a reincarnation of Delbert Grady, or “Jeevesy.” It seems then that Jack has been, and will always be, trapped in the Overlook Hotel.
How Does the Book Ending of ‘The Shining’ Differ From the Movie Ending?
Much like the entire movie,Kubrick chose to make significant changes to the endingof King’s book as well. Unlike the book, which offers a proper conclusion to the story of the characters and the Overlook Hotel, the film keeps the story open to interpretation. To start with, in the movie,Jack murders Hallorann, who has responded to Danny’s distress call and has arrived at the hotel to save the family. In King’s book, Jack only injures Hallorann.One of the biggest changes the film makes to the ending of the book dealswith the fate of the Overlook Hotel. In the book, Jack does not chase Danny into the famous hedge maze captured in the film. Instead, Jack catches up with Danny on the top floor of the hotel. In a moment of weakness,Jack regains his senses and urges Danny to runand save his life. Danny informs Jack about the boiler that is going to explode if the pressure is not relieved.
In the final moments of the book, a possessed Jack frantically runs to the boiler room to save the hotel, the symbolic home of the evil that possesses Jack. Jack fails in his efforts and the boiler explodes, consuming Jack and the Overlook Hotel with its flames.Wendy, Danny, and Hallorann manage to save themselves. In the film, Jack freezes to death after getting stuck in the hedge maze, resulting in one of themost iconic images of the film. However, contrary to the book,The Shining’s Overlook Hotel continues to exist,suggesting that the cycle of violence and death captured in the film will continue for the years to come.
How is Mike Flanagan’s ‘Doctor Sleep’ Connected to ‘The Shining’?
An adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name,Doctor Sleeppicks up Danny Torrance’s(Ewan McGregor)story immediately after the events ofThe Shining’s climax. Young Danny continues to be haunted by the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel, especially the woman in Room 237. As he is killed in the original movie, the spirit of Hallorann (now played byCarlLumbly) comes to Danny’s aid, teaching him how to use psychic “lockboxes” to capture the ghosts. In his adulthood, Danny works at a hospice and uses his “shine” to help patients embrace a peaceful death. However, Danny is brought back to the haunting corridors of the Overlook Hotel after coming in contact with Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), who also possesses the same powers as Danny.
Abra has become the target of a group called the True Knot, led by the evil Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). True Knot consists of individuals who have been living the lives of immortals after hunting children with “the shine” and killing them for their psychic energy — their “steam.” Knowing that the Overlook Hotel also feeds on “steam,” Danny leads Rose back to the same place that haunted him and his family many years ago.
ThroughDoctor Sleep,Flanagan pays homage to both Stephen King’s and Kubrick’s versionsof the story. Although Danny manages to defeat Rose by using the demonic powers residing in the hotel, he ends up becoming the target once the ghosts take care of Rose. Just like his father, Danny gets possessed by the evil spirits of the hotel and starts chasing Abra. The climax of the sequel novel takes place in the campground that is the site of the formerOverlook Hotel.However, since the hotel was not destroyed in Kubrick’s film, Flanagan’s film sees Danny return to the Overlook Hotel inDoctor Sleepto put an end to the terror emanating from it.This provided Flanagan an opportunity to bring to life King’s original ending to the first book.
The climax ofDoctor Sleepfollows a possessed Danny hellbent on consuming Abra and her “steam.” But similar to Jack in the first book’s ending, Danny manages to take control of his body for a few moments and help Abra escape. After letting Abra run, Danny heads to the boiler room of the hotel, knowing that the only way to contain the spirits living in the Overlook Hotel is by destroying it completely. Eventually, Danny fights against the resistance put up by the spirits of the hotel,allowing the boiler to explode and providing him with the peace that he has been looking for his entire life. Quite beautifully, Flanagan manages to materialize Stephen King’s classic ending (with Danny now in the position of Jack) to the book through the set-up established by Kubrick’s film, bringing to an end one of themost celebrated horror sagasof all time.
