FILM · 1980 · UK
The Shining
- Directed by
- Stanley Kubrick
- Runtime
- 144 min
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures, Peregrine, Hawk Films
431 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
431 Interesting Facts About The Shining
Interesting Facts (23)
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When the film was parodied by THE SIMPSONS during one of the annual "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween-adjacent anthology episodes, Bart is both told to and later (annoyedly) says the title as The SHINNING because he doesn't want Stanley Kubrick to sue him. Kubrick actually loved both the show and the parody, and sent a message to James L. Brooks stating they could directly parody and mention any movies of his that they wanted to and he was cool with that.
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Monday, September 29th, 1980 was the night of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)'s annual anniversary show, 18th Anniversary Show (1980). It was ten weeks after the release of this movie, but most Americans had not yet seen it and were not aware of any details, beyond it being some sort of horror film starring Jack Nicholson. That evening, when people tuned in for the show, it did not start off with the normal theme song and visuals, but for no apparent reason there was an immediate cut from the normal "coming up next" bumper to a film sequence. There was Nicholson running with an ax, Shelley Duvall screaming, the ax going through the door, then Nicholson saying the now famous "Heere's Johnny" line, at which time the Tonight Show theme played and the show started. It was one of the funniest moments in the history of television. It also drove another couple of million people to see the movie, giving it an unexpected extended run.
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Anjelica Huston lived with Jack Nicholson during the time of the shooting. She recalled that, due to the long hours on the set and Stanley Kubrick's trademark style of repetitive takes, Nicholson would often return from a day's shooting, walk straight to the bed, collapse onto it, and would immediately fall asleep.
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Stanley Kubrick originally wanted around seventy takes of the scene where Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) is killed by Jack Torrance, but Jack Nicholson convinced Kubrick to go easier on the sixty-nine-year-old Crothers and stop after forty. At one point during filming, Crothers became so frustrated with Kubrick's famously obsessive style of repeated takes that he broke down in tears, asking, "What do you want, Mr. Kubrick?"
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At the time of its release, MPAA policy did not allow depictions of blood in trailers approved for all audiences. In 1980, the MPAA began introducing the green-band and red-band trailer concept. Oddly, the trailer consists entirely of blood pouring from the elevator. Stanley Kubrick had convinced the board that the blood flowing from the elevator was actually rusty water. There was also red paint on the water.
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Tony Burton, who briefly took on the role of garage owner Larry Durkin, came to the set one day with a chess set, hoping to play with someone between takes. Stanley Kubrick, an ambitious chess player who had played for money in his youth, noticed the chess set. Even though the production was behind schedule, Kubrick postponed filming for that day and began playing a series of games with Burton. Burton managed to win only one game, but Kubrick still thanked him, because he had not played against a challenging opponent for a long time.
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Anjelica Huston was living with Jack Nicholson at the time of shooting. Because of the long hours spent on set and Stanley Kubrick's trademark repeated takes, she recalled that Nicholson would usually return from a day's filming, walk straight to bed, collapse onto it and fall asleep immediately.
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In an interview with the magazine Britain's 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003), Shelley Duvall explained that, because her role required her to be in an almost constant state of hysteria, she eventually ran out of tears from crying so much. To cope with this, she always kept a bottle of water with her on set so she would not become dehydrated.
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Along with his many criticisms of the film, Stephen King also disliked the casting of Shelley Duvall as Wendy. King had envisioned Wendy as a blonde, former cheerleader type who had never faced real hardship, which would make her ordeal at the Overlook especially horrifying. He felt Duvall seemed too emotionally vulnerable and experienced, the exact opposite of the character he had imagined.
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The scene in which Wendy, walking past a room, sees a man in a bear costume having sex with the hotel's former manager is never explicitly explained and remains open to interpretation. The novel gives a similar situation clearer context, but Kubrick presents it ambiguously, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions.
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In the DVD commentary for Making 'The Shining' (1980), Vivian Kubrick reveals that Shelley Duvall received no sympathy on set, because part of Stanley Kubrick's method for drawing out a more heartfelt performance was to make the actress feel as tense as Wendy Torrance. Despite the difficult experience, Duvall later acknowledged that she and Kubrick shared the same goal and that she ultimately valued the process, stating that Kubrick taught her more than her other films did.
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Production Story (198)
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According to Variety Magazine, the film took almost 200 days to shoot. However, according to assistant editor Gordon Stainforth, it took much more, nearly a year. The film was originally supposed to take seventeen weeks, but it ultimately took fifty-one. Because the film ran so long, Reds (1981) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) were delayed, as they were waiting to shoot in Elstree Studios.
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Among his many criticisms of the film, Stephen King also disliked the casting of Shelley Duvall as Wendy. King had envisioned Wendy as a blond former cheerleader type who had never faced real hardships, which would make her ordeal at the Overlook especially terrifying. He felt that Duvall appeared too emotionally vulnerable and experienced, essentially the opposite of the character he imagined.
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Stephen King was first contacted by Stanley Kubrick about making this movie through an early morning phone call, with England being five hours ahead of Maine. King, suffering from a hangover and shaving, initially thought one of his children was hurt and was shocked when his wife told him Kubrick was actually on the phone. King recalled that the first thing Kubrick did was immediately start talking about how optimistic ghost stories are, because they suggest that humans survive death. "What about Hell?" King asked. Kubrick paused for several moments before finally replying, "I don't believe in Hell." King responded that there are people who do believe in Hell and fear it more than death itself. This conversation was extremely effective in helping Kubrick understand the tone of the story.
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Outtakes of the shots of the Volkswagen Beetle travelling towards the Overlook Hotel at the start of the film were later used by Ridley Scott when he was forced by Warner Bros. to add a "happy ending" to the original release of Blade Runner (1982). Stanley Kubrick, who was a fan of Scott's previous film Alien (1979), happily gifted the footage, under the condition that only shots were used that haven't been used in The Shining. This was no problem, as enough unused footage of the scene was available.
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Stanley Kubrick also made casting decisions for dubbing actors in other countries. In Spain, actor and actress Joaquín Hinojosa and Verónica Forqué did the voices of Jack and Wendy Torrence, respectively. Both had little experience in dubbing. In Spain, this dubbing is considered one of the worst dubbings ever made, due to that casting choice.
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The reasons why Stephen King remained so critical of The Shining have never been entirely clear, especially since he is not usually so harsh about adaptations of his work. Over the years, King pointed out that Kubrick's vision diverged from his own in several ways (and he has even referred to his dissatisfaction in his books), though these differences do not seem to fully justify his numerous harsh commentaries, given his typically lenient stance on other adaptations. It has been suggested that King's feeling were due to personal behind-the-scenes issues, as King implied that the novel contained several autobiographical elements that were not used or only briefly referenced in the film. These elements include Jack Torrance' difficult relationship with his father (King's father left the family when he was 2 years), his alcohol addiction and struggles with recovery (King has been a drug and alcohol addict for most of the 1980s), as well as Jack's bouts of rage while under the influence (King admitted that his son once nearly sent him into a murderous rage after messing with his notes).
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Stanley Kubrick adapted the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" for different language versions of the film, using culturally fitting proverbs such as the Italian "Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca" ("He who wakes up early meets a golden day"), the German "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" ("Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today"), and the Spanish "No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" ("Rising early will not make dawn sooner").
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When discussing the original Stephen King book in an interview with critic Michael Ciment, director Stanley Kubrick commented: "The novel is by no means a serious literary work, but the plot is for the most part extremely well worked out, and for a film that is often all that really matters".
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At the time of release, it was the policy of the MPAA to not allow the portrayal of blood in trailers that would be approved for all audiences. In 1980, the concept of green band and red band trailers were being introduced by the MPAA. Bizarrely, the trailer consists entirely of the shot of blood pouring out of the elevator. Stanley Kubrick had convinced the board the blood flooding out of the elevator was actually rusty water. The water also had red dye on it.
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To construct the interiors of the Overlook Hotel, Stanley Kubrick and production designer Roy Walker purposely set out to make it look like an amalgamation of bits and pieces of real hotels, rather than giving it one single design aesthetic. Kubrick had sent many photographers around the country photographing hotel rooms and picking his favorite. For example, the red men's bathroom was modelled on a men's room in the Biltmore Hotel in Arizona, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Colorado lounge was modelled on the lounge of the Ahwanee Hotel in the Yosemite Valley. Indeed, the chandeliers, windows and fireplace are nearly identical, so much so that people entering the Ahwahnee Hotel often ask if it's "the Shining hotel".
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Stephen King was disappointed with Kubrick's adaptation, feeling it diverged from his vision. In an interview in the June 1986 issue of American Film, he said, "It's like a great big beautiful Cadillac with no motor inside. You can sit in it and enjoy the smell of the leather upholstery; the only thing you can't do is drive it anywhere. So I would do everything differently. The real problem is that Kubrick set out to make a horror picture with no apparent understanding of the genre." King eventually produced and wrote the miniseries The Shining (1997), but it is largely regarded as inferior to Stanley Kubrick's horror classic.
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Stanley Kubrick considered Robert De Niro and Robin Williams for the role of Jack Torrance, but decided against them. Kubrick did not think De Niro would suit the role after watching his performance in Taxi Driver (1976), as he deemed De Niro not psychotic enough for the role. He did not think Williams would suit the role after watching his performance on Mork & Mindy (1978), as he deemed him too psychotic for the role. According to Stephen King, Kubrick also briefly considered Harrison Ford.
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Stephen King's dissatisfaction with the movie adaptation of The Shining led him to re-adapt the novel into a 1997 miniseries that remained closer to his original work. However, because Warner Bros. held the rights to the film, King had to sign a contract with the studio agreeing to refrain from making frequent public criticisms of Kubrick's version in order to move forward with the miniseries. Stephen King's adaptation The Shining (1997) is widely regarded as inferior to Stanley Kubrick's original film.
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The Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon, was used for the front exterior, but all of the interiors, as well as the back of the hotel, were specially built at Elstree Studios in London, England. Legend says that the management of the Timberline requested that Stanley Kubrick not use 217 for a room number (as specified in the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.
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Adding to his never-ending disapproval, Stephen King reportedly said, upon seeing the film, "You know what? I think he wants to hurt people with this movie. I think he really wants to make a movie that will hurt people." Stanley Kubrick, on the other hand, truly enjoyed King's novel and wanted to stay true to his first experience of reading the book: "What I like about not writing original material is that you have this tremendous advantage of reading something for the first time. You never have this experience again with a story. You have a reaction to it: it's a kind of falling-in-love reaction."
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Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind wrote and performed a full electronic score for the film, but Stanley Kubrick discarded most of it and used a soundtrack of mostly classical music. Only the adaptation of the "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath") melody (from the traditional requiem mass) during the opening credits, the music during the family's drive to the hotel, and a few other brief moments (such as Hallorann's plane trip) survive in the final version. Wendy Carlos once noted that she'd like to see the original score released on CD, but there were too many legal snags at the time. As of 2005, Carlos' score for the film has been remastered, and is a part of "Rediscovering Lost Scores Volumes 1 and 2".
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Jack Nicholson suggested Scatman Crothers for the film. Crothers had a tough time on this movie, with Stanley Kubrick making him do over one hundred takes for one scene. Crothers' next film was "Bronco Billy (1980)," directed by Clint Eastwood, who was famous for generally only going with one take. Crothers broke down in tears of gratitude on his first scene in the film when he realized he wouldn't have to do so many endless takes.
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Stanley Kubrick had envisioned Shelley Duvall as a more timid, emotionally fragile version of Wendy Torrance from the start. However, after reading the novel, Jack Nicholson wanted Jessica Lange for the role and even recommended her to Kubrick. After explaining the changes he had made, Kubrick persuaded him that Duvall was the right choice. Years later, Nicholson praised the actress and told Empire magazine that he thought Shelley Duvall was fantastic, calling her work in the film "the toughest job that any actor I have seen had."
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The original theatrical aspect ratio for this movie is 1.85:1, however the film was shot using the entire film frame (1.37:1 or 4x3 as is known in current technical set-ups). The film has been known to be shown full screen on VHS, LaserDisc, television, and more in the 1.37:1 or 4x3 aspect ratio, revealing more picture information on the top and bottom of the screen. For many years with 4x3 televisions, Kubrick much preferred the movie be shown this way, to avoid any cropping at the sides of the image, and as most of his photography was centered and vertical, it also added to the effect on smaller television screens. However, this movie has always been intended as a 1.85:1 presentation, despite many conflicting opinions and viewpoints to the contrary. Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987) was also shot this way, and while Eyes Wide Shut (1999) was believed to have been shot in 1.37:1, this was proven incorrect by examining the 35mm prints of the film, where hard mattes and camera equipment were present outside the 1.85:1 safe zone. The 1.85:1 versions are the director's intended versions, and are now available on Blu-ray, digital platforms, and DVD.
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The famous line, "Here's Johnny," was originally removed in the Spanish dubbed voice-over, as Johnny Carson and The Johnny Carson Show (1953) were totally unknown in Spain. It was changed to "Aquí está Jack" ("Here's Jack") to make the scene easier to understand, with Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) referring to himself.
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Prior to hiring Diane Johnson as his writing partner, Stanley Kubrick rejected a screenplay written by Stephen King. King's script was a much more literal adaptation of the novel, featuring a more traditional type of horror that did not match the unsettling mood Kubrick wanted for his film. He had considered hiring Johnson because he admired her novel The Shadow Knows, but when he discovered she held a Doctorate in Gothic Studies, he became convinced she was the right person for the job.
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Stephen King tried to talk Stanley Kubrick out of casting Jack Nicholson in the lead, suggesting, instead, either Michael Moriarty or Jon Voight. King felt that seeing normal-looking men gradually descend into madness would have enhanced the drama, but Kubrick had a different vision for the film.
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Stephen King got the idea for the book while he and his wife were staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, as the last guests before it closed for the winter. He saw a group of nuns leaving the hotel, which made him feel the place had suddenly become godless. They were the only two remaining guests in the hotel, and had dinner in a dining room that was completely empty apart from them. After his wife went to bed, King took a walk around the empty hotel, and ended up in the bar where he was served drinks by a bartender named Grady. A fire hose in the hotel also reminded him of a snake, and later that night, he woke up from a nightmare about his son being chased by that hose. The King family stayed in Room 217, the haunted room in the novel, which was changed to Room 237 in the film. The fire hose was an element that appears in the book and later in his television miniseries The Shining (1997).
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Stanley Kubrick initially offered the Dick Halloran role to Slim Pickens, with whom he previously worked on Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), but Pickens didn't want to work for Kubrick again without stipulations (to curb his never-ending perfectionism). Pickens' agent reportedly relayed the script to Scatman Crothers' agent, Don Schwartz. After reading the screenplay, Schwartz genuinely believed the role of the caretaker was written specifically with Crothers in mind. He lobbied Kubrick for a year (with some assistance from Jack Nicholson, who previously worked with Crothers on three films). Crothers had never even heard of Kubrick. Moreover, he readily acknowledges the first Kubrick film he ever saw was The Shining (1980).
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After Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick started researching his next project by reading a lot of recent books. His secretary could hear him throwing rejected books at the wall in his office. One day, he started reading Stephen King's novel and, after a few hours, when his secretary hadn't heard the familiar sound of a book hitting the wall, she knew he had found his next project. Interestingly, Stephen King is skeptical of this account, as he felt that the novel begins rather slowly.
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There were so many changes to the script during shooting (a scene change was made almost daily) that Jack Nicholson claimed he stopped reading it. He would read only the new pages that were given to him each day. Nicholson also said that eventually, when presented with a revised scene he would throw it in the trash, knowing another was coming anyway.
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For the movie poster Stanley Kubrick contacted renowned graphic designer Saul Bass who produced several designs based on his interpretations of the source material, but despite acknowledging the quality of the works, Kubrick felt none captured the exact "mood" he wanted at first. Some early designs were more abstract or included elements the director did not wish to emphasize. After numerous iterations, they finally arrived at the now-iconic poster featuring the face. Stanley Kubrick was thrilled with the result, appreciating how it uniquely combined art with the film's title, something he often found lacking in other movie advertisements. Saul Bass later recalled that working with Kubrick nearly drove him nuts and that he made about three hundred drawings, yet he considered it a hell of an experience, expressing how he respected and related to the director's rigorous work ethic.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
In the novel, Jack Torrance also gets possessed but he temporarily regains control, long enough to tell Danny to escape with his mother. The Overlook Hotel then burns to the ground because of the boiler that Jack failed to dump, killing him in the blaze. In the movie, The Overlook Hotel is still standing at the end, and Jack freezes to death inside a hedge maze after chasing Danny there, instead of perishing with the hotel. Dick Hallorann is also in the novel and gets attacked by Jack, but contrary to the film, he survives the book. When the sequel novel 'Doctor Sleep' was filmed as Doctor Sleep (2019), these discrepancies had to be taken into account to make it a proper continuation of The Shining movie.
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The shoot was so chaotic that the script changed almost daily. Jack Nicholson eventually said he stopped reading the script; each morning he would read the new pages he was given, and when he came across a revised scene, he would throw it away because he already knew another scene was coming.
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According to Variety Magazine, the film was shot in nearly 200 days; assistant editor Gordon Stainforth says the duration was close to a year. The planned seventeen-week shoot stretched to fifty-one weeks. Because of this delay, Reds (1981) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) had to be postponed, as they were waiting their turn at Elstree Studios.
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After Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick was scanning current books for his next project. His secretary could hear him throwing rejected books against the wall in his office. One day he began reading Stephen King's novel, and when his secretary did not hear the familiar sound of a book hitting the wall after a few hours, she realized Kubrick had found his next project. King is skeptical of this account, because he thinks the novel starts quite slowly.
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The first contact between Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick was a phone call in the early morning; England was five hours ahead of Maine. King, hungover and shaving, at first thought one of his children had been hurt, and was shocked when his wife told him Kubrick was on the phone. King recalls that Kubrick began by talking about how optimistic ghost stories are, because such stories imply that people survive death. "What about Hell?" King asked. Kubrick paused for a few minutes and finally replied, "I don't believe in Hell." King said there are people who believe in hell and fear it more than death. This conversation helped Kubrick enormously in understanding the tone of the story.
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Stephen King got the idea for the book while staying with his wife at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, as the hotel's last guests before it closed for the winter. He saw a group of nuns leaving the hotel, and it made the place suddenly feel godless. They were the only two people staying at the hotel, and they ate dinner in a completely empty dining room. After his wife went to bed, King took a walk through the empty hotel and went to the bar, where a bartender named Grady served drinks. A fire hose in the hotel also reminded him of a snake, and that night he woke from a nightmare in which his son was chased by that hose. The King family stayed in room 217, the haunted room in the novel; this room was changed to room 237 in the film. The fire hose was an element that appeared in the book and later in the television miniseries The Shining (1997).
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When Garrett Brown, the inventor and operator of the Steadicam, was hired, he was assured that the shoot would not last more than six months, because he had to return to the US within six months to shoot Rocky II (1979). By the sixth month of shooting, less than half of the film had been shot, and for several months Brown worked one week in London on this film and one week in Philadelphia on Rocky II, flying back and forth every Sunday on the Concorde.
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Stanley Kubrick rejected a script written by Stephen King before hiring Diane Johnson as his writing partner. King's script was a much more literal adaptation of the novel and contained a more conventional kind of horror that did not fit the unsettling atmosphere Kubrick wanted for his film. He had considered hiring Johnson because he admired her novel The Shadow Knows, but became convinced she was the right person when he discovered she had a doctorate in Gothic Studies.
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During this grueling shoot, the Wimbledon tennis tournament was in full swing in England, and Jack Nicholson, an avid tennis fan, had to make time to attend; so he asked for a few days off by pretending to have a backache. Because of his star status, Stanley Kubrick gave him permission. Unfortunately for Jack, Kubrick later saw him on a production TV set, sitting among the Wimbledon crowd between two women. Kubrick is said to have been very angry about the whole affair.
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In addition to his unending disapproval, Stephen King is reported to have said upon seeing the film: "You know? I think this film is meant to hurt people. It really is meant to hurt people." Stanley Kubrick, for his part, genuinely liked King's novel and wanted to stay faithful to the experience of first reading the book: "The reason I like not writing original material is that you have the tremendous advantage of reading something for the first time. You never experience that with a story again. You have a reaction to it: it's a kind of falling-in-love reaction."
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During the making of the film, Stanley Kubrick is said to have occasionally called Stephen King at 3 a.m. to ask questions like "Do you believe in God?" Kubrick's friend Steven Spielberg heard this story and asked Kubrick whether it was true. Kubrick denied it. King, who openly admitted in the 1980s to drug and alcohol addiction, may have misremembered, since he stated that he barely even remembered writing his 1981 novel 'Cujo'.
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Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind composed and recorded a complete electronic score for the film, but Stanley Kubrick discarded most of it and used a soundtrack consisting mainly of classical music. Apart from a few brief moments such as the 'Dies Irae' adaptation in the opening credits, the music during the family's journey to the hotel and Hallorann's flight, most of it went unused. Wendy Carlos once stated that she wanted the original music released as a CD, but that there were too many legal obstacles at the time. As of 2005, Carlos's score had been rearranged and became part of the album 'Rediscovering Lost Scores Volumes 1 and 2'.
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Over the years, author Stephen King maintained his disdain for this adaptation of his novel of the same name; even his 2018 novel 'The Outsider' contained a reference to how badly Kubrick's interpretation of the film was made. However, after watching Doctor Sleep (2019), the adaptation of the sequel novel to The Shining (and that film included themes and events from the first book that were missing from Kubrick's film), he said that everything he had disliked about the Kubrick version was compensated for.
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Stephen King's criticism of The Shining has always been puzzling given the tolerance he has shown toward his other adaptations. Although King points to the places where Kubrick's vision diverged from his own, these differences do not fully explain his harsh comments. There may be personal reasons behind the scenes: the novel contained autobiographical elements such as King's father abandoning the family, his own alcoholism and the fit of rage he experienced as a result of his son playing with his notes; most of these were not used or were only briefly touched upon in the film.
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In the novel, Jack Torrance briefly takes control and tells Danny to run away with his mother. The Overlook Hotel burns down because of the boiler that Jack forgot to empty, and Jack dies in the fire. In the film, however, the hotel survives and Jack freezes to death in the maze. Dick Hallorann survives in the novel but is killed in the film. The film of the sequel novel 'Doctor Sleep' had to take these differences into account.
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Stanley Kubrick formed a warm relationship with young Danny Lloyd. Because it was Lloyd's first acting experience, he looked after him a great deal; throughout the shoot the child did not know he was in a horror film and only learned the truth years later. In interviews as an adult, Lloyd recounted that Kubrick even played ball with him. Years after the film, Kubrick continued to send Christmas cards to the Lloyd family and even phoned Danny to congratulate him at his high school graduation.
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Jack Nicholson suggested Scatman Crothers for a role in the film. Crothers had a hard time on this film; Kubrick demanded more than a hundred takes for one scene. Crothers's next film was "Bronco Billy (1980)," directed by Clint Eastwood, who was famous for usually settling for a single take. On his first scene in that film, when Crothers realized he would not have to do endless takes, he burst into tears of gratitude.
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Stanley Kubrick wanted around seventy takes for the scene in which Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) is killed by Jack Torrance, but Jack Nicholson persuaded Kubrick to be gentler with the sixty-nine-year-old Crothers and to stop at forty takes. At one point during the shoot, Crothers became so overwhelmed by Kubrick's obsessive retakes that he burst into tears and asked, "What do you want, Mr. Kubrick?"
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Stanley Kubrick, known for his obsessive and countless retakes, completed the scene of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. However, setting up the scene took nine days. Each time the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn't look like blood." In the end it took about a year for the scene to come out right. Contrary to popular belief, the elevator doors never open; the blood comes from the sides.
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At the time of the film's release, MPAA policy did not allow blood to be shown in trailers approved for all age groups. In 1980 the MPAA was introducing the concept of green-band and red-band trailers. Interestingly, the trailer consisted entirely of the image of blood pouring from the elevators. Kubrick had been convinced that the blood overflowing from the installed elevator was actually rusty water. There was also red paint on the water.
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The only shot in the film not achieved in-camera was the slow zoom toward the model of the maze, with tiny figures of Danny and Wendy walking in the center. For this shot, a model of the maze was filmed from a height of six feet. Then the small central section of the maze was built full-scale next to an apartment complex. While Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd walked in the central section, the camera crew shot from the roof of the apartment building. The two shots were then simply combined.
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So many changes were made to the script during the shoot (a scene changed almost every day) that Jack Nicholson claimed he stopped reading the script. He read only the new pages given to him each day. Nicholson also said that when he came across a revised scene he threw it away, because he knew another scene would be coming.
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Tony Burton, who had a brief role as garage owner Larry Durkin, came to the set one day with a chess set, hoping to play a game with someone between takes. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had played for money in his youth, noticed the chess set. Even though the production was behind schedule, Kubrick canceled that day's shooting and played a series of games with Burton. Burton won only one game, but Kubrick thanked him because he had not played against a challenging opponent in a long time.
- #101
For the scenes in which Jack's typewriter is heard off-screen, Stanley Kubrick recorded the sound of a typist repeatedly writing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," because apparently every typewriter key makes a slightly different sound. Kubrick insisted on real words being typed so that the sound would match the action and to ensure authenticity.
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Jack Nicholson said the scene in which Jack explodes at Wendy for interrupting his writing was the hardest scene for him. He was a writer himself and had gotten into similar arguments with his girlfriend. Drawing on those memories as method acting, he added the line 'Or if you come in here and you don't hear my typewriter, if I'm in here, that means I'm working!'
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Stanley Kubrick had envisioned Shelley Duvall from the start as a more timid and emotionally fragile Wendy. After reading the novel, Jack Nicholson suggested Jessica Lange, but Kubrick convinced him that Duvall was the right choice. Years later, in an interview with Empire magazine, Nicholson described Duvall's performance as 'the hardest job an actress ever had.'
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All the interiors of the Overlook Hotel were shot at Elstree Studios in England. The Colorado Lounge set caught fire because of the intense heat generated by the lighting, which used seven hundred thousand watts per window to create the look of a snowy day. Fortunately, all the scenes had been completed; the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and the same space was eventually used by Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled Well of the Souls tomb in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Stanley Kubrick considered Robert De Niro and Robin Williams for the role of Jack Torrance but did not decide. He did not find De Niro sufficiently psychotic after his performance in Taxi Driver, and he found Williams too psychotic after his performance in Mork & Mindy. According to Stephen King, Kubrick also briefly considered Harrison Ford.
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Although the claim that the scene in which Wendy backs down the stairs with a baseball bat was shot 127 times made it into the Guinness Book of Records, Steadicam operator Garrett Brown and assistant editor Gordon Stainforth confirm that this is exaggerated. The scene was in fact shot roughly thirty-five to forty-five times.
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According to Variety Magazine, the film was shot in nearly 200 days, but assistant editor Gordon Stainforth says the period was much longer, approaching a year. The film was planned to be completed in seventeen weeks, but it took fifty-one weeks. This delay also caused the postponement of Reds and Raiders of the Lost Ark, which were waiting to shoot at Elstree Studios.
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After Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick began reading a great many books to research his next project. His secretary could hear him throwing rejected books against the wall in his office. One day he began reading Stephen King's novel, and when after a few hours she did not hear the sound of the book hitting the wall, she knew he had found his next project. Stephen King is skeptical of this account, because he thinks the novel starts rather slowly.
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In an interview for the programme Britain's 100 Scariest Moments, Shelley Duvall said her role required her to be in an almost constant state of hysteria and that she cried so much that she eventually ran out of tears. To cope with this, she made sure not to become dehydrated by always keeping bottles of water with her on set.
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Among Stephen King's many criticisms of the film was his dislike of Shelley Duvall's casting as Wendy. King had imagined Wendy as a blonde, former cheerleader type who had never faced real hardship before, which would make her ordeal at the Overlook especially terrifying. He found Duvall emotionally too fragile and experienced, and thought she was the exact opposite of the character he had imagined.
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When building the interiors of the Overlook Hotel, Stanley Kubrick and production designer Roy Walker aimed for them to look like a blend of pieces from real hotels. Kubrick sent photographers across the country to shoot hotel rooms and selected his favorites. For example, the red men's restroom was inspired by the Biltmore Hotel in Arizona designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, while the Colorado lounge was inspired by the lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley. In fact, people entering the Ahwahnee Hotel often ask whether it is the 'Overlook Hotel'.
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Unused portions of the shots at the beginning of the film, in which the Volkswagen Beetle drives toward the Overlook Hotel, were used when Warner Bros. pressured Ridley Scott to add a 'happy ending' to Blade Runner. Kubrick was a fan of Scott's previous film Alien and gladly gifted the footage, but only on the condition that only outtakes unused in The Shining be used.
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Stanley Kubrick's perfectionism extended to insisting that the cast be present on set for the scene's lighting, something normally done with stand-ins. Jack Nicholson claimed that Kubrick was the only director who asked the actual cast to pose for lighting, which required the actors to be on set several hours earlier than usual.
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According to Vivian Kubrick in her DVD commentary, Shelley Duvall received no sympathy on set because Stanley Kubrick's method of getting a more heartfelt performance was to make the actor feel as tense as Wendy Torrance. Despite the difficult experience, Duvall said they shared the same goal and that she ultimately valued the process, and that she owes him more than any of her other films.
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His first contact with Stephen King was a phone call Stanley Kubrick made early in the morning; England was five hours ahead of Maine. King, hungover and shaving, first thought one of his children had been injured, and was shocked when his wife said Kubrick was calling. King recalls Kubrick talking about the optimism of ghost stories: they suggest survival after death. King asked, "What about Hell?" Kubrick paused for a few minutes and said, "I don't believe in Hell." King said there are people who believe in Hell and fear it more than death. This conversation helped Kubrick a great deal in understanding the tone of the story.
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Stephen King got the idea for the book while staying with his wife at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, as the hotel's last guests before it closed for the winter. He saw a group of nuns leaving the hotel and felt it suddenly became godless. They were the only two people staying at the hotel and ate in a completely empty dining room. After his wife went to bed, King went for a walk in the empty hotel and went to the bar, where a bartender named Grady served drinks. A fire hose reminded him of a snake; that night he woke from a nightmare in which his son was chased by the hose. The King family stayed in room 217, the haunted room in the novel; in the film this room was changed to 237. The fire hose appeared in the book and the 1997 miniseries.
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Garrett Brown, the inventor and operator of the Steadicam, was assured when he was hired to work on the film that the shoot would not last more than six months, because after six months he had to return to the US to shoot Rocky II (1979). By the sixth month, less than half of the film had been shot; for several months Brown worked one week in London on this film and one week in Philadelphia on Rocky II, traveling by Concorde every Sunday.
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Stanley Kubrick rejected the script Stephen King wrote before hiring Diane Johnson as his writing partner. King's script was a much more literal adaptation of the novel and contained a conventional horror genre that did not fit the unsettling atmosphere Kubrick wanted. He had considered Johnson because he admired her novel The Shadow Knows, but became convinced she was the right person upon discovering she had a doctorate in Gothic Studies.
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Steven Spielberg praised the scene where Wendy finds Jack's "novel" and confronts him as a great example of Stanley Kubrick's counterintuitive direction. Spielberg noted that the obvious way to play the scene would be for Jack to suddenly appear over Wendy's shoulder. Instead, Kubrick cut away from Wendy abruptly to a distant shot of Jack from behind a column, preparing the audience for Jack's entry into the frame and eliminating the shock effect of his appearance. Spielberg said this unusual approach had two benefits: 1. It allowed the rest of the sequence to sustain tension without a moment of relief after a "shock," and 2. By avoiding surprise at that moment, Kubrick saved the film's greatest scare for the murder of Hallorann, where Jack's sudden appearance is genuinely shocking.
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Stanley Kubrick adapted the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" into culturally appropriate proverbs for the film's different language versions: Italian "Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca" (The early bird catches the worm), German "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" (Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today), and Spanish "No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" (Getting up early doesn't make the sun rise any earlier).
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During this grueling shoot, the Wimbledon tennis tournament was in full swing in the United Kingdom, and Jack Nicholson, an avid tennis fan, had to make time to attend; so he asked for a few days off by faking back pain. Because of his star status, Stanley Kubrick granted it. Unfortunately for Jack, Kubrick later saw him on a production TV set, sitting among the Wimbledon crowd between two women. Kubrick is said to have been very angry about the whole affair.
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For the film poster, Stanley Kubrick contacted the famous graphic designer Saul Bass. Bass produced several designs based on his interpretations of the source material, but Kubrick, although he acknowledged the quality of the work, felt none of them captured the "mood" he wanted at first. Some early designs were more abstract or contained elements the director did not want to emphasize. After countless iterations, they finally arrived at the now-iconic poster featuring the face. Stanley Kubrick was very pleased with the result and appreciated how it combined the art with the film's title in a unique way; he often found this lacking in other film advertisements. Saul Bass later stated that working with Kubrick nearly drove him crazy and that he made about three hundred drawings, but that he considered it a great experience and respected the director's meticulous work ethic and felt close to him.
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Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon was used for the exterior facade, but all the interiors and the back of the hotel were specially built at Elstree Studios in London, England. According to legend, the Timberline management asked Stanley Kubrick not to use room 217 (as specified in the book), because they feared no one would want to stay in that room. Kubrick changed the script and used the nonexistent room 237.
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In the film, Danny's imaginary friend Tony is deliberately left ambiguous. While the book clearly explains Tony, the film presents him as an indistinct, low voice that shows Danny disturbing visions. This ambiguity strengthens the film's unsettling atmosphere and leaves Tony's true nature to the audience's interpretation.
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For the smoothness of the opening scenes, cinematographer Greg MacGillivray mounted a wide-angle Arriflex camera on the front of a helicopter and balanced the rotors to eliminate vibration. All the shots, including the camera descending behind the car, overtaking it and moving to the edge of the cliff, were done with the helicopter.
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Lia Beldam, who played the naked young woman in the bathtub, said in a 2018 interview that she was working as a photographic model in London and that her agency was approached by Hawks Films to provide girls for the ballroom scene. She brought her model portfolio; when the director and producers saw a few nude photos she had posed for, they changed their minds and offered her the role of the woman in the bathroom. She stated that she enjoyed working with Stanley Kubrick and that he was a true gentleman on set. They did an incredible number of takes; she spent a week walking around naked and kissing Jack Nicholson repeatedly. She had posed nude as a model for years and was not shy, so she had no problem being completely naked in a room full of men for a long time.
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The maze was built at an airfield near Elstree Studios, with branches woven onto chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. It was shot with an extremely short lens (9.8 mm, ninety degrees horizontal field of view) and always held perfectly level, so that the hedges would look far larger and more imposing than they really were.
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Philip Stone recalled his scene with Jack Nicholson: 'I think we did it 50 or 60 times - always in one take. Then Jack Nicholson, Stanley and I would sit and watch each take on video. Jack would say, "That was pretty good, wasn't it, Stanley?" And Stanley would say, "Yes, it was. Now let's do it again."'
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The making-of documentary shot by Vivian Kubrick shows that although the hedge maze set was not as large as it appears in the film (it was mostly a matte painting), it was still complex enough to require a detailed map. In the documentary's commentary, it is said that many crew members genuinely got lost in the maze, which reminded him of the lost scene in This Is Spinal Tap.
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When Stephen King saw the film, he said, 'I think he wants to hurt people with this film. He really wants to make a film that will hurt people.' Yet Stanley Kubrick genuinely loved King's novel and wanted to stay faithful to his first reading experience: 'The reason I don't like writing original material is that you have the tremendous advantage of reading something for the first time. You never experience that with a story again. It's a kind of falling-in-love reaction.'
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The filming of the scene where Jack bounces the ball off the wall took several days. This was because the ball had to bounce off the wall and hit the camera lens. Kubrick was so determined to get this precise shot that the camera kept rolling while the ball was thrown against the wall non-stop. After a few days, once the whole crew had taken turns trying, the shot was finally achieved.
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The famous opening scene was shot in Glacier National Park in Montana, just north of St. Mary's Lake. The Going-to-the-Sun Road seen in the scene really does close in winter and can only be crossed with a snowcat. Kubrick initially sent a second unit to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, but they reported that the area was not very interesting. When Kubrick saw the footage they had shot, he was furious and fired the entire crew. He then sent renowned helicopter cameraman Greg MacGillivray to Montana, and he shot the scene.
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About 4,000 people auditioned for the role of Danny Torrance over six months. The interviews were conducted in Chicago, Denver and Cincinnati by Stanley Kubrick's assistant Leon Vitali and his wife Kersti Vitali. Prospective actors were asked to send in their photos, and a list was made of the children who looked suitable from the photos and they were called in for interviews. Vitali had the children do small improvisations in front of the camera, and Kubrick watched the footage and gradually narrowed the list. Danny Lloyd, who played Danny Torrance, was four years old during auditions and five during filming. He said his father sent in his photo as a joke and he expected nothing to come of it. He described his own selection process not as reading many lines or doing a screen test, but rather as Kubrick and the casting director observing him in real-life situations, so that the director could determine things like whether the child could take direction, how he got along with other adults, how he behaved when very tired, and whether he was affected by the presence of the camera.
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The film was shot at the same studio used for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). In fact, much of the artificial snow used for this film was also used in the Hoth scenes. Stephen King visited the sets of both films and met director Irvin Kershner. This later formed the basis for a chapter in the book 'It'. Kershner's nickname was 'Kersh', and he was directing the first Star Wars film featuring Yoda. In Stephen King's book 'It', there is a character named Mrs. Kersh who is said to resemble Yoda when she speaks. King's various books also contain numerous other Star Wars references.
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The line "Great party, isn't it?" spoken by the ghost with the bloody head is credited as 'Injured Guest'. In the book, this line belongs to the ghost of Horace Derwent, the millionaire who renovated the Overlook Hotel. The film Doctor Sleep (2019) identifies this character as Horace Derwent.
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Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind composed a complete electronic score for the film, but Kubrick discarded most of it and used classical music. Only the "Dies Irae" adaptation in the opening credits, the family's journey and a few brief moments (such as Hallorann's plane trip) remained. Carlos stated that she wanted the original music to be released as a CD but that there were legal obstacles. In 2005, the music was rearranged as part of the album "Rediscovering Lost Scores".
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The pictures of a topless Black woman with an afro in Hallorann's bedroom were a popular style in the '60s and late '70s. These pictures emphasize that he is an ordinary man with 'the shine'. The dark yellow-brown walls, meanwhile, recall the Overlook Hotel and imply that Hallorann has not completely escaped the hotel.
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It is not fully understood why Stephen King has been so critical of the adaptation of The Shining, because he is generally tolerant of other adaptations. King implied that the novel contains autobiographical elements not used in the film: Jack's difficult relationship with his father (King's father abandoned him), his alcoholism and struggle for recovery (King was an addict in the '80s), and Jack's fits of rage (King admitted that he nearly killed his son after playing with his notes).
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The dialogue in the scene where Jack drinks bourbon at the bar is taken verbatim from the novel: "I like you Lloyd... you've been the best damn bartender." This line is a reference to Portland, Oregon, where the hotel's exterior scenes were shot (the hotel's exterior is the Timberline Lodge).
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According to second-unit cameraman Jeff Blyth, a scene in which Dick Hallorann receives a telepathic call for help from Danny and nearly crashes into oncoming traffic was shot on the Pacific Coast Highway. Blyth was sorry that Kubrick replaced this scene with the one in which Dick watches television in bed.
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On September 29, 1980, the 18th anniversary show of The Tonight Show began with a scene from The Shining instead of its usual theme song: Nicholson running with an axe, Duvall screaming and the line 'Heere's Johnny' being heard. This was one of the funniest moments in television history and encouraged people to watch the film, extending its theatrical run.
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In the novel, the woman who commits suicide in the bathtub in room 217 had been abandoned by her young lover. Although her identity is left unspecified in the film, there is a subtle reference: the old woman sitting at the table next to the red toilet in the Gold Room scene resembles the 'old witch' in room 237. Jack gives her an icy look as he passes.
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As Jack's immersion in the alternate world increases, his financial situation changes as well. When he is alone with the bartender Lloyd in the empty ballroom for the first time, he says he has 'two twenties and two tens,' then finds his wallet empty. Lloyd says he will trust him for credit. When Jack enters the crowded ballroom, his wallet is no longer empty and he takes out money to pay for his drink. The only other currency mentioned is his soul; when he first sits down at the bar, he vows to sell his soul for a drink. Later, when he asks who paid for the drinks, Lloyd dodges the question.
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For years, the details of the photograph at the end of the film were unknown: who the man was onto whom Jack Nicholson was placed, where it was taken, at what event, when, and whether the photograph had survived to the present day. In 2024/5, Alasdair Spark identified the man as Santos Casani (the stage name of John Golman). The photograph was taken at a Valentine's Day Ball held on 14 February 1921 in the Empress Rooms of the Royal Palace Hotel in London. The original photograph was taken by Hal Morey and is held in Getty Images' Hulton Collection.
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Denver media was used twice in the film. As Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) drives through the blizzard toward Sidewinder, he listens to AM disc jockeys Hal Moore and Charley Martin. Denver's KHOW was playing pop music at the time, and Hal and Charley were actually morning show hosts. They used elements from their show for a scripted episode. Additionally, the television at the Overlook Hotel could pick up Denver's channel 9. On-screen personalities Bertha Lynn and Bill Custer recorded a scripted episode to be used on the Overlook's television. The weather report Dick Hallorann watches in Miami featured Glen Rinker, a famous Florida news anchor of the era.
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The kitchen set was actually a backstage area at Elstree Studios, and Kubrick's personal office was just around the corner. The food storage room where Wendy locks Jack in was a storage space where Kubrick kept his camera equipment, old costumes and other film-related items. This information came to light in a video in which Vivian Kubrick gave a tour of Elstree Studios in 1980.
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The film's original theatrical aspect ratio is 1.85:1, but it was shot using the full film frame (1.37:1). On VHS, LaserDisc and television it was shown at 1.37:1, offering more image information at the top and bottom. Kubrick preferred this presentation so there would be no side cropping on 4x3 televisions, but the film was always designed for 1.85:1 presentation. Full Metal Jacket was shot the same way; the claim that Eyes Wide Shut was shot at 1.37:1, however, is false. The 1.85:1 versions are the director's intended versions and are available on Blu-ray, digital platforms and DVD.
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The two daughters of the 1970 caretaker Delbert Grady speak with English accents; the waiter who uses the same accent turns out to be the same person. Jack and Grady leave the ballroom's alluring 1920s atmosphere and step into a modern bathroom with bright red surfaces. Ullman had told Jack that the entire wing had been renovated; the bathrooms should have been in the same style. The fact that the bathroom is completely different, and that the reality of the fantasy world becomes clear here, suggests the problem is not the ballroom's and the hotel's elaborate fantasy, but Jack's soul.
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Hallorann's plane arrives in Denver just after eight in the morning; his departure from Miami is after three o'clock. He went to the airport shortly after speaking with the forest ranger. The drive to the town nearest the Overlook takes five hours. The snow vehicle can do about 15 miles per hour. According to Ullman's description, the Overlook is about 25 miles from the town. If we factor in phoning from the airport, renting a car, driving to the town, renting the snow vehicle and the final leg, Hallorann's arrival would be around 16:45. At this time of year, sunset is around 17:30, but at the Overlook's location the sun sets behind the mountains earlier.
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A stack of records can be seen on the floor next to the television in Dick Hallorann's room. The record in front of the stack on the left is the British folk-rock group Steeleye Span's 1975 album "Commoners Crown". The album's third track, 'Long Lamkin', is based on a traditional "Lamkin" song and tells of the murder of a woman and her infant son by a man; in some versions the killer is a resentful mason, in others the devil, a bogeyman or an evil without motive. Also, on the album, Peter Sellers, one of Stanley Kubrick's former collaborators, made a guest appearance on ukulele and vocals.
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Jack Torrance drives a Volkswagen Beetle; this car was also a favorite of serial killer Ted Bundy because he considered it ordinary. Both Ted Bundy and Jack Nicholson heard the same lie while growing up: that their sisters were actually their mothers, and their mothers were their grandmothers.
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The low tricycle Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) rides through the Overlook's corridors is still often described today as a "Big Wheel." In fact, it is a Hedstrom Super Cycle, a metal-framed imitation of the original Big Wheel that Marx introduced in 1969. Its blue and red colors matched Danny's costume and the set interiors, and the simple metal frame, besides being unobtrusive, could be modified to accommodate low camera angles with a wheelchair-mounted Steadicam. Although Danny claimed he was promised the bike, he never received it, as it was probably lost in the fire that destroyed the Elstree Studios set while filming was still underway.
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The scene in which Jack watches a model of the hotel while Wendy and Danny make their way through the maze emphasizes the size of the maze with an overhead shot and shows that the pair have found the way out. When Jack chases Danny and gets lost, the same shot is not used, preventing the audience from mapping the maze. The combination of these two scenes creates the illusion that Jack is in fact watching Wendy and Danny rather than the maze.
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In the French-dubbed version, when Wendy tells Dick that they nicknamed Danny "Doc" because of Bugs Bunny's famous line "What's up Doc?", the translators understood "Doc" as "duck," because the two words sound the same to a French speaker. For this reason, Danny's nickname in the French version became "Canard" (duck).
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Behind the Scenes (113)
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When Steadicam inventor and operator Garrett Brown was hired to work on the picture, he was assured that there was no way the shoot would run over six months, as he had to be back in the United States in six months time to shoot "Rocky II (1979)." Six months into the shoot, less than half the film had been shot, and for several months, Brown worked one week in London on this movie, and one week in Philadelphia on "Rocky II (1979)," commuting by Concorde every Sunday.
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Tony Burton, who had a brief role as Larry Durkin the garage owner, arrived on-set one day carrying a chess set in hopes of getting in a game with someone during a break from filming. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had, in his youth, played for money, noticed the chess set. Despite production being behind schedule, Kubrick proceeded to call off filming for the day and engage in a set of games with Burton. Burton only managed to win one game, but nevertheless Kubrick thanked him, since it had been some time that he'd played against a challenging opponent.
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According to 2nd unit cameraman Jeff Blyth, a scene was filmed on the Pacific Coast Highway in which Dick Halloran is driving along and receives the telepathic distress call from Danny. Dick then loses control of the car and almost crashes into oncoming traffic. Blyth said it was a dangerous scene to shoot and was disappointed that Kubrick replaced it with the scene where Dick is simply laying in bed watching TV.
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Stanley Kubrick's perfectionism extended to insisting that the cast members be on-set to be measured for the lighting of the scene, something that is normally done with stand-ins. Jack Nicholson claimed that Kubrick was the only director he ever worked with who required the actual cast members to pose for the lighting, which required that they arrive on-set several hours earlier than usual.
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The low-rider tricycle Danny Torrance ( Danny Lloyd ) pedals through the halls of the Overlook is to this day often described as a "Big Wheel". It is in fact a Hedstrom Super Cycle, a metal-frame knock-off of the original Big Wheel introduced by Marx in 1969. Its blue and red colors harmonized with Danny's outfit and set interiors, and the simple metal frame, aside from being inconspicuous, could be modified to accommodate low shooting angles by a wheelchair-borne Steadicam. Though Danny alleges he was promised he could keep the tricycle, he never received it, as it was probably lost in the fire that consumed the Elstree Studios set while filming was still wrapping up.
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All of the interior rooms of the Overlook Hotel were filmed at Elstree Studios in England, including the Colorado Lounge, where Jack does his typing. Because of the intense heat generated from the lighting used to recreate window sunlight (the room took seven hundred thousand watts of light per window to make it look like a snowy day outside), the lounge set caught fire. Fortunately all of the scenes had been completed there, so the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and the same area was eventually used by Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled Well of the Souls tomb in "Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)."
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During an interview for Britain's The 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003), Shelley Duvall revealed that due to her role requiring her to be in an almost constant state of hysteria, she eventually ran out of tears from crying so hard. To overcome this, she kept bottles of water with her at all times on-set to remain hydrated.
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On the DVD commentary track for Making 'The Shining' (1980), Vivian Kubrick reveals that Shelley Duvall received no sympathy at all on set, apparently because part of Stanley Kubrick's method to elicit a more visceral performance was to make the actress feel on edge, like Wendy Torrance. Despite the difficult experience, Duvall later acknowledged that she and Kubrick shared the same goal and ultimately valued the process, stating that he taught her more than any of her other films.
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Director Stanley Kubrick had a good relationship with the young Danny Lloyd, and since it was his first acting job, he was highly protective of the child. During the shooting of the movie, Lloyd didn't even know he was in a horror film and only realized the truth many years later. In later interviews as an adult, Lloyd mentioned that Kubrick would even play ball with him; for years after the movie, Kubrick sent Christmas cards to the Lloyd family and even phoned Danny to congratulate him on his high school graduation.
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There is a lot of exaggeration surrounding this film and the number of retakes Kubrick supposedly demanded. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the scene where Wendy backs up the stairs swinging the baseball bat was shot 127 times, setting a record for the most takes of a single scene. While this fits neatly into the myth of Kubrick as a perfectionist, both Steadicam operator Garrett Brown and assistant editor Gordon Stainforth confirm that it is highly exaggerated. The scene was actually shot about thirty-five to forty-five times, far less than the legendary 127 takes.
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During this grueling shoot, the Wimbledon tennis tournament was in full swing in the UK and Jack Nicholson, an avid tennis fan, had to find a way to take time out to attend, so he feigned back pain and asked for a few days off. Because of his star status, Stanley Kubrick granted him the break. Unfortunately for Jack, Kubrick later saw him on a production TV set seated in the Wimbledon crowd flanked by two women. Kubrick was apparently furious about the whole incident.
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Earlier in the movie, Danny is shown watching the Looney Tunes cartoon Stop! Look! And Hasten! (1954). In the original screenplay, Jack Torrance was set to say "That's all, folks!" while breaking through the bathroom door, referencing Looney Tunes. Instead, Jack Nicholson improvised the now-iconic line "Here's Johnny!"
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One of the shots in the part where Jack is bouncing a ball against a wall took several days to film. This was because the shot entailed the ball bouncing from the wall onto the camera lens as it filmed. As Stanley Kubrick was so determined to get this precise shot, the camera kept rolling while the ball was continually hit against the wall in the hope of it bouncing back and hitting the lens. It took everyone on the entire unit having a go at it in between other shots before the shot was finally achieved after several days.
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This film was shot in the same film studio that was used for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). In fact, much of the same fake snow used for this film was used for the Hoth scenes. Stephen King visited the set of both films, and met director Irvin Kershner. This later became the basis for part of his book "It". Kershner had been nicknamed "Kersh", and was directing the first Star Wars film to feature Yoda. In the Stephen King book "It", there is a character named Mrs. Kersh, who is said to sound like Yoda when she talks. As well as countless other mentions of Star Wars in various King books.
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The only shot in the film not achieved in-camera was the slow zoom in on the model of the maze, with the tiny figures of Danny and Wendy walking around at the center. To achieve this shot, a model of the maze was shot from six feet above. Then the small central section of the maze was built to scale next to an apartment complex. Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd then walked about in the central section while the camera crew filmed it from the roof of the apartment building. The two shots were then simply composited together.
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The maze was constructed on an airfield near Elstree Studios, by weaving branches to chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. The maze was shot using an extremely short lens (a 9.8 mm, which gives a horizontal viewing angle of ninety degrees) which was kept dead level at all times, to make the hedges seem much bigger and more imposing than they were in reality.
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Stanley Kubrick, known for his compulsiveness and numerous retakes, got the difficult shot of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. This would be unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that the shot took nine days to set up. Every time the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn't look like blood." In the end, the shot took approximately a year to get right. Contrary to popular belief, the elevator doors never open. The blood comes from the sides.
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In order to help keep Danny Lloyd entertained and away from the darker elements of the story, he was brought to watch filming of The Muppet Show (1976). It appears that he brought some fuzzy friends back to the Overlook as a photo was recently discovered of Danny having fun with sourpuss Statler (Richard Hunt).
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Lia Beldam, who plays the nude young woman in the bathtub, said in a 2018 interview that she was working as a photographic model in London and her agent was approached by Hawks Films to supply girls for the ballroom scene, so she was sent along. She brought her modeling portfolio and when the director and producers saw the several nude photos she posed for, they changed their minds and offered her the part of the woman in the bath instead. She said she enjoyed working with Stanley Kubrick who was a true gentleman on set. They ended up filming an incredible amount of takes and she spent a week walking around naked and kissing Jack Nicholson over and over. She had years of experience posing nude as a model and she wasn't shy, so she had no issue being totally naked in a room full of men for so long.
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Jack Nicholson claimed that the scene where Jack snaps at Wendy for interrupting his writing was the most difficult for him, as he was a writer himself and had gotten into similar arguments with his girlfriend. Being a method actor, he drew on his memories of those arguments and added the line "Or if you come in here and you DON'T hear me typing, if I'm in here that means I'm working!"
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The famous opening scene was shot in Glacier National Park in Montana just north of St. Mary's Lake. The road seen in the scene, Going-to-the-Sun Road, does actually close down during winter and is only negotiable by snowcat. Kubrick initially sent a second unit to the Rockies in Colorado, but they reported back that the area wasn't very interesting. When Stanley Kubrick saw the footage they had shot, he was furious, and fired the entire unit. He then sent Greg MacGillivray, a noted helicopter cameraman, to Montana and it was McGillivray who shot the scene.
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To achieve the smoothness of the opening shots, cameraman Greg MacGillivray secured a wide angle Arriflex camera to the front of a helicopter, then balanced the blades to remove any vibrations. Even the shot where the camera comes down behind the car, passes it out, and goes over the edge, is done via the helicopter.
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For the scenes when Jack can be heard typing off-screen, Stanley Kubrick recorded the sound of a typist actually typing the words "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" repeatedly, because apparently each key on a typewriter sounds slightly different. Kubrick insisted that the actual words be typed so the sound matched the action and ensured authenticity.
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The "Making-of" documentary shot by Vivian Kubrick shows that the hedge maze set, while nowhere nearly as large as the maze in the film (which was mostly a matte painting), was still large and complex enough to require a detailed map. In the commentary for her documentary, she notes that many crew members really got lost in the maze, dryly noting that it now reminds her of the lost backstage scene in This Is Spinal Tap (1984).
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Philip Stone recalled of his scene with Jack Nicholson, "We shot it 50 or 60 times, I should think - always in one take. Then Jack Nicholson, Stanley and I would sit down and look at each take on a video. Jack would say, 'That was pretty good, wasn't it, Stanley?' And Stanley would say, 'Yes it was. Now let's do it again'."
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James Mason can be seen visiting the set of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) in Making 'The Shining' (1980). Stanley Kubrick did not usually allow visitors to his set, but made an exception for Mason, who had memorably played Humbert Humbert in Lolita (1962). Mason appeared on the set wearing his "Watson" costume from Murder by Decree (1979), which was a Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper movie being filmed at the same studio.
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The kitchen set was actually just a backstage area at Elstree Studios, and Kubrick's personal office was just around the corner in the same area. The food storage room that Wendy locks Jack in was a storage room where Kubrick stored camera equipment, old costumes, and other items related to his films. This was revealed in a video available online (from 1980) where Vivian Kubrick gives an extensive tour of Elstree Studios to a foreign journalist.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Steven Spielberg praised the scene in which Wendy finds Jack's "novel" and is confronted by him, as a great example of counter-intuitive direction by Stanley Kubrick. Spielberg noted that the obvious way of playing the scene would be to have Jack suddenly appear over Wendy's shoulder while she and the audience is preoccupied with the manuscript. Instead, Kubrick abruptly cuts away from Wendy to a shot from behind the pillar that tracks over to a distant view of Wendy from behind, thus preparing the audience for Jack's entrance into the frame and eliminating any shock of his appearance. Spielberg noted that Kubrick's unusual way of filming and editing the scene had two benefits: 1. It allowed the remainder of the sequence to maintain tension without a moment of relief that would follow from a "shock", and 2. By avoiding a surprise at that moment, Kubrick saved the biggest scare in the film for Hallorann's murder, in which Jack's sudden appearance does come as a shock.
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Director Stanley Kubrick had a good relationship with young Danny Lloyd and was quite protective of the child, as it was his first acting job. During filming, Lloyd was not even aware he was in a horror film and only realized the truth years later. In later interviews as an adult, Lloyd said Kubrick would even play ball with him; years after the film, Kubrick sent Christmas cards to the Lloyd family and even called Danny to congratulate him on his high school graduation.
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There is a great deal of exaggeration surrounding this film and the number of retakes Kubrick supposedly demanded. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the scene in which Wendy backs up the stairs swinging a baseball bat set a record for the most takes of a single scene, at 127. While this fits neatly with Kubrick's reputation as a perfectionist, both Steadicam operator Garrett Brown and assistant editor Gordon Stainforth confirm it is heavily overstated: the scene was actually shot thirty-five to forty-five times, far fewer than the legendary 127 takes.
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Stanley Kubrick's perfectionism extended to insisting that the cast be on set so the lighting for a scene could be measured against them, something normally done with stand-ins. Jack Nicholson claimed that Kubrick was the only director he had worked with who required the cast to pose for the lighting, which meant they had to arrive on set several hours earlier than usual.
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For the scene in which Dick Hallorann is killed, Kubrick wanted around seventy takes, but Jack Nicholson persuaded Kubrick to go easier on the sixty-nine-year-old Scatman Crothers and to stop after forty takes. At one point Crothers was so frustrated that he burst into tears and asked, 'What do you want, Mr. Kubrick?'
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The scene of blood pouring out of the elevator was completed in only three takes, but the preparation took nine days. Each time the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, 'It doesn't look like blood.' In the end, the right take took about a year. Contrary to popular belief, the elevator doors never open; the blood comes from the sides.
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All the interiors of the Overlook Hotel were filmed at Elstree Studios in England. Seven hundred thousand watts of light per window were used in the Colorado Lounge; the intense heat caused the set to catch fire. Fortunately, all the scenes had been completed, the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and it was later used by Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled pit in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'
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The interiors of the Overlook Hotel were designed to look like a mixture of parts of real hotels. Kubrick had photographs taken of hotel rooms across the country. The red men's restroom was modeled on the Biltmore Hotel in Arizona, and the Colorado Lounge on the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite; so much so that people entering the Ahwahnee often ask, 'Is this the hotel from The Shining?'
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Steven Spielberg praised the scene in which Wendy finds Jack's 'novel' and confronts him about it as a great example of Kubrick's counterintuitive direction. According to Spielberg, the obvious route was for Jack to suddenly appear over Wendy's shoulder while she and the audience were absorbed in the manuscript. Instead, Kubrick cut away from Wendy and went to a distant shot of Jack from behind a pillar, preparing the audience for Jack's entrance and eliminating the shock effect. This unusual editing had two benefits: it preserved the tension for the rest of the film and saved the biggest scare for Hallorann's murder.
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Stanley Kubrick adapted the phrase 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' into culturally appropriate proverbs for the film's different language versions: the Italian 'Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca', the German 'Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen' and the Spanish 'No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano'.
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For the film poster, Kubrick contacted the famous graphic designer Saul Bass. Bass produced several designs based on his interpretations of the source material, but although Kubrick acknowledged the quality of the work, he felt none of them captured the 'mood' he wanted. After countless iterations, they finally arrived at the iconic poster featuring the face. Kubrick was very pleased with the result and appreciated the way it uniquely combined the art with the film's title. Bass later said that working with Kubrick nearly drove him mad and that he made around three hundred drawings, but that he regarded it as a great experience.
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The Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon was used for the front exterior, but all the interiors and the back of the hotel were built at Elstree Studios in London. According to legend, the Timberline management asked Kubrick not to use room 217, because they feared no one would ever want to stay in that room again. Kubrick changed the script to use room 237, which does not exist.
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To capture the smoothness of the opening scenes, cinematographer Greg MacGillivray fixed a wide-angle Arriflex camera to the front of the helicopter and balanced the rotors to eliminate vibration. Even the shot that descends from behind the car and moves in front of it, heading down the cliff, was done with the helicopter.
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Philip Stone recalls his scene with Jack Nicholson: 'I think we shot it 50 or 60 times - always in one take. Then Jack, Stanley and I would sit and watch each take on video. Jack would say, "That was pretty good, wasn't it, Stanley?" And Stanley would say, "Yes, it was. Now let's do it again."'
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The famous opening scene was shot in Glacier National Park in Montana, just north of St. Mary's Lake. The Going-to-the-Sun Road seen in the scene really does close during the winter months and can only be crossed with snow cats. Kubrick initially sent a second unit to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, but they reported that the area was not very interesting. When Kubrick saw the footage they had shot, he was furious and fired the entire crew. He then sent the famous helicopter cinematographer Greg MacGillivray to Montana, and he shot the scene.
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The film was shot on the same studio used for Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980); much of the fake snow was used in the Hoth scenes. Stephen King visited both sets and met director Irvin Kershner. Kersh in King's novel "It"; Kershner had been nicknamed "Kersh" and was directing the first Star Wars film featuring Yoda. King's books contain countless Star Wars references.
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James Mason can be seen visiting the set in the documentary Making 'The Shining' (1980). Kubrick generally did not accept visitors, but he made an exception for Mason, who had played Humbert Humbert in Lolita (1962). Mason came in his "Watson" costume from Murder by Decree (1979), which was shot on the same studio.
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The dialogue in the bar scene where Jack drinks bourbon is taken verbatim from the novel: "I love you Lloyd. You were the best damn bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon." This is a nod to Portland, Oregon, where Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, the location for the hotel's exterior scenes, is located.
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According to second-unit cameraman Jeff Blyth, a scene was shot on the Pacific Coast Highway in which Dick Halloran receives Danny's telepathic call for help and nearly collides with oncoming traffic. Blyth said he was sorry that this dangerous shot was replaced by Kubrick with the scene of Dick watching TV in bed.
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Denver media was used twice in the film. As Dick Hallorann drives to Sidewinder, he listens to AM disc jockeys Hal Moore and Charley Martin; they were in fact the morning hosts on Denver's KHOW radio and recorded a scripted segment for the audio. The television at the Overlook received Denver's channel 9; its on-screen stars Bertha Lynn and Bill Custer recorded a scripted segment for that channel. The weather report Dick watches in Miami featured well-known Florida news anchor Glen Rinker.
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The kitchen set was actually a backstage area at Elstree Studios; Kubrick's office was in the corner of the same area. The food storage room where Wendy locks Jack in was the storage room where Kubrick kept his camera equipment, old costumes and other items. This came to light in Vivian Kubrick's 1980 video in which she gave a journalist a tour of the studio.
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Hallorann's plane left Miami after three and landed in Denver just after eight in the morning. He must have gone to the airport shortly after talking to the forest ranger. The drive to the town nearest the Overlook takes five hours; a snow vehicle can do 15 miles per hour in typical conditions. According to Ullman's directions, the hotel is twenty-five miles from the town. With the phone call, car rental, trip to the town and snow vehicle rental, Hallorann's arrival works out to around 16:45. Sunset is around 17:30, but at the Overlook the sun disappears behind the mountains by the time Hallorann arrives.
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Danny's tricycle is often mistaken for a 'Big Wheel', but it is actually a Hedstrom Super Cycle. It was a metal-framed imitation of Marx's original 1969 Big Wheel. Its blue and red colors matched Danny's outfit and the set; its simple metal frame could be modified to allow low-angle shots with a Steadicam mounted on a wheelchair. Although Danny claimed he was promised he could keep the tricycle, he never got it, as it was lost in the fire that destroyed the Elstree Studios set during filming.
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As Wendy and Danny make their way through the maze, Jack is shown inside the hotel watching a model of the maze. The overhead shot emphasizes the size of the maze and shows Wendy and Danny finding the way out at the center. Later, when Jack chases Danny and gets lost, no overhead shot is used, preventing the viewer from mapping the maze. The combination of these scenes creates the illusion that Jack is watching Wendy and Danny rather than the maze itself.
Characters & Cast (32)
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Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall have both spoken about the critical reception of the film, which they felt overlooked the intense efforts of the cast and crew. Nicholson described the film as one of the most demanding of his career and has called Duvall's performance the most difficult role he has ever seen an actress undertake. Duvall herself has described the role as the hardest of her life, highlighting the emotional intensity required for the role.
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Despite Stanley Kubrick's demanding nature, Jack Nicholson admitted to having a good working relationship with him. Shelley Duvall resented the director at the time, as he pushed her harder than anyone else, but acknowledged that he had been challenging her to reach her full potential. She has since expressed great respect for Kubrick and said that he taught her more than she had learned on all her other films. Kubrick, in turn, praised Shelley's talent in interviews and said he was deeply impressed by her performance in the finished film.
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Stanley Kubrick considered Robert De Niro and Robin Williams for the role of Jack Torrance but decided against them. After watching his performance in Taxi Driver (1976), Kubrick did not think De Niro was right for the role because he felt De Niro was not psychotic enough for it. After watching his performance in Mork & Mindy (1978), he did not think Williams was right for the role because he felt he was too psychotic for it. According to Stephen King, Kubrick also briefly considered Harrison Ford.
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Stanley Kubrick formed a warm bond with young Danny Lloyd. Because it was the child's first acting experience, he protected him excessively; Lloyd did not know during filming that he was in a horror film, and only learned the truth years later. In interviews he gave as an adult, Lloyd recounted that Kubrick played ball with him, sent his family Christmas cards for years, and even called to congratulate him at his high school graduation.
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Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall were unhappy with the film's critical reception; they felt the intense efforts of the cast and crew were being overlooked. Nicholson described the film as one of the hardest of his career, while calling Duvall's performance the most difficult role an actor could take on. Duvall, for her part, saw the role as the hardest job of her life and emphasized its emotional intensity.
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Jack Nicholson suggested Scatman Crothers for the film. Crothers had a difficult time on this film; Kubrick had him do more than a hundred takes for one scene. Crothers's next film was "Bronco Billy" (1980), directed by Clint Eastwood, who generally settled for a single take. On his first scene, when he realized he would not have to do endless takes, he burst into tears of gratitude.
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Jack Nicholson said the scene in which Jack explodes at Wendy for interrupting his writing was the hardest scene for him, because he was a writer himself and had gotten into similar arguments with his girlfriend. As a method actor, he drew on those memories and added the line, "Or if you come in here and you don't hear me typing, if I'm in here, it means I'm working!"
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Stanley Kubrick had from the start envisioned Shelley Duvall as a more timid, emotionally fragile version of Wendy Torrance. After reading the novel, however, Jack Nicholson wanted Jessica Lange for the role and suggested her to Kubrick. Kubrick explained the changes he had made and convinced Nicholson that Duvall was the right choice. Years later, in an interview with Empire magazine, Nicholson said Duvall was wonderful and described her work in the film as "the hardest job any actor has ever had to do."
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Despite Kubrick's difficult nature, Jack Nicholson acknowledged that he had a good working relationship with him. Shelley Duvall, meanwhile, was angry at the director at the time, because he had pushed her harder than anyone else, but she acknowledged that he pushed her to reach her potential. She later said she had great respect for Kubrick and that he taught her more than all her other films. Kubrick, too, praised Shelley's talent in interviews and said he was deeply impressed by her performance in the finished film.
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Stanley Kubrick considered Robert De Niro and Robin Williams for the role of Jack Torrance, but did not make a decision. After De Niro's performance in Taxi Driver (1976), he did not find him psychotic enough for the role; after Williams's performance in Mork & Mindy (1978), he found him too psychotic. According to Stephen King, Kubrick also briefly considered Harrison Ford.
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In an interview for Britain's The 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003), Shelley Duvall explained that because her role required her to be in an almost constant state of hysteria, she eventually cried so much that her tears ran out. To get through it, she made sure not to become dehydrated by always keeping bottles of water with her on set.
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Among Stephen King's many criticisms of the film was his dislike of Shelley Duvall being cast as Wendy. King had imagined Wendy as a blonde, former cheerleader type who had never faced real hardship before, which would make her ordeal at the Overlook especially terrifying. He thought Duvall seemed too emotionally fragile and experienced, the exact opposite of the character he had imagined.
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In the DVD commentary for Making 'The Shining' (1980), Vivian Kubrick reveals that Shelley Duvall received no sympathy on set, because part of Stanley Kubrick's method for getting a more heartfelt performance was to make the actor feel as tense as Wendy Torrance. Despite the difficult experience, Duvall later acknowledged that she and Kubrick shared the same goal and that she ultimately valued the process, which taught her more than all her other films.
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Stephen King tried to dissuade Stanley Kubrick from casting Jack Nicholson in the lead and instead suggested Michael Moriarty or Jon Voight. King believed that watching ordinary-looking men slowly descend into madness would strengthen the drama, but Kubrick had a different vision for the film.
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Lia Beldam, who played the young woman in the bathtub, said in a 2018 interview that she was a photographic model in London. Her agency had been contacted by Hawks Films, who were looking for girls for the ballroom scene, and she went with her portfolio. When the director and producers saw the nude photos she had posed for, they changed their minds and offered her the role of the woman in the bathroom. She said she enjoyed working with Stanley Kubrick and that he was a true gentleman on set. She walked around nude for a week and kissed Jack Nicholson many times; she was not shy because she had years of experience posing nude as a model.
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Over a six-month period, approximately 4,000 people auditioned for the role of Danny Torrance. The interviews were conducted in Chicago, Denver and Cincinnati by Kubrick's assistant Leon Vitali and his wife Kersti Vitali. Candidates were asked to send photographs, and those deemed suitable were called in. Vitali had the children do small improvisations on camera, and Kubrick would review the footage to narrow down the list. Danny Lloyd was four at the auditions and five during filming. He said his father sent his photo just for fun and he never thought anything would come of it. He described the selection process as Kubrick and the casting director observing him in real-life situations, so they could assess whether he could take direction, how he got along with other adults, how he behaved when tired, and whether he was affected by the camera.
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Easter Eggs & References (24)
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In the French-dubbed version of the film, when Wendy explains to Dick that they nickname Danny "Doc" because of Bugs Bunny's famous line "What's up Doc?", the people responsible for the translation understood it as "duck", because the two words sound the same to a French speaker, which explains why Danny is nicknamed "Canard" (which is French for duck) in the French version.
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In the bar scene where Jack has some bourbon, the dialogue includes: "I like you Lloyd. You were always the best goddamn bartender from Timbuktu, to Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon for that matter." This is taken directly from the novel, and coincidentally a reference to their host city of Portland, Oregon, where they filmed the exterior scenes of the hotel, which was the Timberline Lodge on nearby Mt. Hood.
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A stack of records can be seen on the floor beside Dick Hallorann's TV in his room. The record at the front of the stack to the left is "Commoners Crown", a 1975 album by British folk-rock group Steeleye Span. The album's third track 'Long Lamkin' is based on a traditional song called "Lamkin", which gives an account of the murder of a woman and her infant son by a man; in some versions, a disgruntled mason, in others, a devil, bogeyman or a motiveless villain. For a further connection, the album also features guest ukulele and vocalisations by one of Stanley Kubrick's former collaborators, Peter Sellers.
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In the novel, the woman in the bathtub in room 217 had killed herself after being abandoned by her young lover. In the film, her identity is left ambiguous, but there is a subtle reference: in the Gold Room scene an older woman at the table nearest the red bathroom resembles the "old hag" from room 237. She sits with a young man and gives Jack an icy stare as he passes.
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The magazine that Jack reads in the lobby and tosses back onto the chair when arising to greet Stuart Ullman is the January 1978 issue of "Playgirl". That issue listed on the cover an article on incest and another titled, "Interview: The Selling of (Starsky and Hutch (1975)'s) David Soul." It could have been a very subtle foreboding plot device placed in the scene by Stanley Kubrick, or it could just be a meaningless joke Kubrick had nothing to do with. In either case, it's unlikely a pornographic magazine would be available for viewing in the lobby. Coincidentally (or not), one of the articles in the magazine references both Stanley Kubrick and his earlier film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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One ghost with a bloody head says "Great party, isn't it?" He is credited as 'Injured Guest' at the end but never identified. In the book, this is said to Wendy and Danny by the ghost of Horace Derwent, the late playboy millionaire who bought the decayed Overlook Hotel, renovated it and returned it to its former glory. The character also appears in the miniseries The Shining (1997). The movie sequel Doctor Sleep (2019) also retroactively identifies and credits the Injured Guest as Horace Derwent.
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In their 1985 song "Last Time Forever", which was about domestic violence, British pop group Squeeze sampled two lines of dialogue from the picture. The first sample was the line "A momentary loss of muscular coordination" from the scene where Jack Nicholson is describing how he broke his son Danny's arm when grabbing him angrily, and later in the song a sample of Shelley Duvall screaming "NO! NO! Jack, please!" can be heard.
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As Hallorann's flight arrives in Denver just after eight a.m., this means that his flight from Miami departed some time after three a.m., which indicates that he left for the airport shortly after speaking with the forest ranger. The drive to the town nearest the Overlook takes another five hours. A snowcat under blizzard conditions can travel at speeds of about 15 miles an hour. As described by Ullman, the Overlook is about twenty-five miles from town. Counting the time making a call from the airport, renting a car, driving to the town, renting the snowcat and making the final leg, this would put Hallorann's arrival at around 4:45 p.m. Sunset at that time of year is at about 5:30 but where the Overlook is located, the sun would dip below the mountains at just about the time Hallorann arrives.
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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film, for a television commercial in 2010 for Premier Inn hotels (UK), British comedian Lenny Henry reenacted Jack Nicholson's "Heeere's Johnny" scene ("Heeere's Lenny") in which he demolished a hotel bathroom door with an axe. The commercial was later banned due to complaints.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
For years, the details of photograph at the end of the movie was unknown - who the man Jack Nicholson was pasted over was, where it was taken, at what event, when, and if it survived. In 2024/5 Alasdair Spark identified the man as Santos Casani, the stage name of John Golman. The photo was taken at a St Valentine's Ball at the Empress Rooms of the Royal Palace Hotel, London, Feb 14, 1921. The original photo was taken by Hal Morey and survives in the Hulton Collection of Getty Images.
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The footage of the Volkswagen Beetle driving toward the Overlook Hotel at the start of the film was later used by Ridley Scott, who was pressured by Warner Bros. into adding a "happy ending" to the original release of Blade Runner (1982). Stanley Kubrick, a fan of Scott's previous film Alien (1979), happily gave the footage away on the condition that only outtakes unused in The Shining be used. This was no problem, since plenty of underused footage of the location existed.
Deeper Meaning (40)
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Wendy sees the bruises on Danny's neck and thinks that Jack did this. Later, when Danny tells her it was done by the woman in room 237, this provides Jack with an out. Rather than making a case that the woman must have left, Jack acts like it was Danny's delusion, which would place the suspicion back on Jack. This lack of clarity on Jack's part is a manifestation of his unbalanced mental state.
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Stanley Kubrick included a lot of Native American imagery, as well as stories of the hotel having to fight off Native Americans for being built on an Indian Burial Ground. Jack throws his ball against the Native American tapestry as well. Danny even defeats Jack with an old Native American trick.
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In the 1980 film, Danny Torrance's imaginary friend, Tony, is deliberately left unexplained. While the book provides a clear explanation for Tony, the film takes a different approach, presenting him as an ambiguous low-pitched voice that shows Danny disturbing visions and influencing him in key moments. This ambiguity enhances the film's unsettling atmosphere and leaves Tony's true nature open to the viewer.
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While Wendy and Danny navigate the maze, Jack is shown observing a scale model of it inside the hotel. A Bird's Eye shot emphasizes the maze's vast size and reveals Wendy and Danny at its center finding the way out. Later, when Jack chases Danny into the maze and gets lost, no Bird's Eye shot is used, keeping the audience from mapping the maze. The combination of these scenes creates the subtle illusion that Jack is watching Wendy and Danny rather than the maze itself.
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The paintings of topless African American women with huge afros on the walls of Hallorann's bedroom in Florida are of a style that were very popular in the late sixties and seventies. The fact that he had them in his bedroom make a point of the notion that his "shining" is not because he is a holy man of some sort, but just an everyday guy. It might also be noted that the ochre-brown walls are reminiscent of the Overlook Hotel, which could be a way of inferring that the fellow is never completely free of the place.
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Filmmakers tend to strictly follow what is known as the 180-Degree Rule when filming two characters in a scene. The first shot of a scene typically establishes each character as being on either the left or right hand side of the screen. Although the camera may change angles many times over the course of a scene, it never moves more than 180 degrees from its original position. Keeping it less than that keeps the characters on their established sides of the screen, while going over (referred to in film-making jargon as "crossing the line") causes the characters to reverse position, disorienting the viewer. Kubrick breaks this rule during Jack's meeting with Grady in the men's room, visually hinting to the viewer that Jack is becoming more like Grady.
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As Jack's sinking into the alternate world increases, his financial situation appears to change. When he is first with Lloyd the bartender, with the two alone in an empty ballroom, he says he has "two twenties and two tens", then finds his wallet empty. Lloyd tells him his credit is good. By the time Jack enters the filled ballroom, his wallet is no longer empty as he takes money out of the wallet in an attempt to pay for his drink. The only other currency mentioned is that of his soul, which upon first sitting down at the bar, he swears he would sell for a drink. Later, when he asks who's paying for the drinks, Lloyd obfuscates.
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The two daughters of Delbert Grady (the caretaker from 1970) speak in British accents, as does the waiter, who turns out to be the same person. As Jack and Grady leave the enticing and pleasant 1920s atmosphere of the ballroom, they step into a severe-looking modern restroom with bright red surfaces. As Ullman had told Jack that the entire wing had been entirely renovated, the restrooms should have been done in the same style as the rest of the wing. The fact that the restroom is starkly different and that this is the place where the reality of the fantasy world is made clear, this indicates that the issue is that of Jack's soul and not of the elaborate fantasy of the ballroom and the rest of the hotel.
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In the film, the scene where Wendy runs past a room and sees a man in a bear costume having sex with the former hotel manager is never explicitly explained, leaving it open to interpretation. In the novel, a similar situation is given a clearer context, though Kubrick chose to present it ambiguously, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
According to the time line presented the film (the closing date of the hotel is Oct. 30, according to Overlook GM Stuart Ullman; the different chapters in the film show the passage of time), the final events of the film occur on Dec. 11th, which includes Jack's attack on his family, Wendy and Danny's escape and Jack's death in the maze.
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In the 1980 film, Danny Torrance's imaginary friend Tony is deliberately left unexplained. While the book offers a clear explanation for Tony, the film takes a different approach and presents him as an ambiguous, faint voice that shows Danny disturbing visions and influences him at key moments. This ambiguity strengthens the film's unsettling atmosphere and leaves Tony's true nature to the viewer.
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Initially misunderstood by many critics and viewers, The Shining was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Actress for Shelley Duvall and Worst Director for Stanley Kubrick, but it 'lost' in both categories. In hindsight, the nominations seem almost absurd, as both the film and Duvall's performance are now regarded as among the best in the horror genre. On 31 March 2022, long after the fact, the Razzie committee officially withdrew Duvall's nomination, saying, 'We have discovered that Duvall's performance was affected by Stanley Kubrick's treatment of her throughout the production.' Yet even within the film's own context, Duvall's performance is remarkably strong and entirely in tune with its psychological intensity.
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A ghost with a bloody head says, 'Great party, isn't it?' He is credited as 'Injured Guest' but is never identified. In the book, the line is spoken to Wendy and Danny by the ghost of the late playboy millionaire Horace Derwent, who bought the ruined Overlook Hotel, renovated it and restored it to its former glory. The character also appears in the 1997 miniseries The Shining. The 2019 film sequel Doctor Sleep also retroactively identifies and credits the Injured Guest as Horace Derwent.
- #413
- #414
Stanley Kubrick added numerous Native American images, as well as stories that the hotel had to fight Native Americans because it was built on a Native American burial ground. Jack throws his ball at the Native American wall hanging. Danny even beats Jack with an old Native American trick.
- #415
The huge images of topless African-American women with afros on the walls of Hallorann's Florida bedroom are in a style very popular in the sixties and late seventies. Keeping them in his bedroom emphasizes the idea that he is an ordinary man, not a kind of holy man because of his 'shine.' It can also be noted that the dark yellow-brown walls recall the Overlook Hotel, which may be a way of implying that the man never fully escaped the hotel.
- #416
On the night of Monday, September 29, 1980, the 18th Anniversary Show (1980), the annual anniversary show of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), aired. This was ten weeks after this film's release, but most Americans had not yet seen the film and were unaware of any details beyond that it was a kind of horror film starring Jack Nicholson. That evening, when people turned on the channel to watch the show, it did not begin with the normal theme song and visuals; without any apparent reason, it cut from the normal 'up next' announcement to a film sequence. Nicholson runs with an axe in his hand, Shelley Duvall screams, the axe goes through the door, and then Nicholson says the now-famous line 'Heere's Johnny'; at that moment the Tonight Show theme played and the show began. It was one of the funniest moments in television history. It also pushed several million more people to see the film and gave the film an unexpectedly long theatrical run.
- #417
The magazine Jack reads in the lobby and throws at the chair while greeting Stuart Ullman is the January 1978 issue of Playgirl. Its cover features an article about incest and an interview with David Soul. Whether Stanley Kubrick placed this detail as a deliberate warning is debated; however, one of the articles in the magazine refers to Kubrick and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- #418
In the novel, the woman in the bathtub in room 217 had committed suicide after being abandoned by her young lover. In the film her identity is left ambiguous, but the old woman sitting at the table next to the red bathroom in the Gold Room scene resembles the 'old hag' in room 237. She sits with a young man beside her and gives Jack an icy look as he passes.
- #419
- #420
- #421
Jack's financial situation changes as he sinks into the alternate world. At his first encounter with the bartender Lloyd, he says he has 'two twenties and two tens,' and his wallet is empty. Lloyd says his credit is good. In the crowded ballroom his wallet is no longer empty and he pays for his drink. On his first sitting he swears he would sell his soul; later, when he asks who paid for the drinks, Lloyd gives an evasive answer.
- #422
For years, the details of the photograph at the end of the film were unknown. In 2024/5, Alasdair Spark identified the man as John Golman under the stage name Santos Casani. The photograph was taken at a Valentine's Day Ball held on February 14, 1921, in the Empress Rooms of the Royal Palace Hotel in London. The original photograph was taken by Hal Morey and is held in Getty Images' Hulton Collection.
- #423
- #424
- #425
The two daughters of the 1970 caretaker Delbert Grady speak with English accents; the waiter who uses the same accent turns out to be the same person. Jack and Grady leave the alluring 1920s ballroom and step into a modern bathroom with bright red surfaces. Ullman had told Jack that the entire wing had been renovated; the bathrooms should have been in the same style. The fact that the bathroom is completely different shows that the problem lies not with the ballroom's elaborate fantasy but with Jack's soul.
- #426
- #427
In Dick Hallorann's room, a stack of records on the floor next to the television stands out. The record on top is the British folk-rock group Steeleye Span's 1975 album 'Commoners Crown'. The album's third track, 'Long Lamkin', is based on a traditional song about the murder of a woman and her baby; in some versions the killer is an angry mason, in others the devil or a motiveless villain. Stanley Kubrick's former collaborator Peter Sellers also makes a guest appearance on ukulele and vocals on the album.
- #428
The Volkswagen Beetle driven by Jack Torrance is a model also preferred by serial killer Ted Bundy because of its ordinary appearance. An interesting coincidence: both Bundy and Jack Nicholson were told as children that their sisters were actually their mothers, and that their mothers were their grandmothers.
- #429
- #430
Career & Awards (1)
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
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- IMDb
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