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3[[folder:Novel]]
4* If (in the novel) Tony is Danny from the future, does that mean [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong he came from a timeline where Jack succeeded in killing his family?]] In other words, where did Tony come from and why is he there?
5** In the other movie (miniseries?) Danny from the future helped himself in the past, sort of a closed time loop, but went by the name Tony to avoid confusing young Danny.
6*** In the novel and the mini-series adaptation King did, Tony is Danny's future self. In the Kubrick film, he's not.
7*** The movie never reveals just what Tony is, in the novel, Tony is Danny's future self sending mental projections into the past.
8*** Maybe some of this is explained in Literature/DoctorSleep?
9*** No. In fact, it gets more baffling as Abra starts interacting with Tony when she's very young (she thinks Dan is Tony's father for a while).
10** Alternatively, he is an imaginary friend that somehow became a separate entity.
11* Also something of a WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the novel, Ullman (the manager) doesn't want to hire Jack because of what happened to Grady. He mentions, in passing, that he's more comfortable hiring a student or single guy as they have in the past. This must mean there have been OTHER caretakers. What happened to them? Did they just not "shine" enough? Were they too smart/not alcoholics/too strong for the hotel to get them?
12** It's possible they either didn't have the same susceptibility Grady and the Torrances had, or that them being there alone meant there weren't other people around to exasperate their cabin fever. Remember, thousands of people stay at the Overlook yearly, and only a handful are ever confronted with any of the hotel's nasty secrets.
13* Why did the family move to Boulder in the first place? I mean, lovely town and I'm very fond of it, but it's a long damn way from Vermont. Al Shockley got Jack the Overlook job. Was the idea that they would move to Boulder explicitly so Jack could take the caretaker position a few months afterward?
14** Re-reading the first part of the book, IMHO it seems like they moved due to the loss of income when Jack lost his teaching job at Stovington. Jack's pride wouldn't let him take any money from Shockley, so it seems likely that they moved to more affordable climes. And it's not like Jack was looked on very favorably by other staff members -- he and Shockley became friends because they both drank to excess.
15* If the ghosts in the book and the mini-series wanted to kill Danny for his Shining, shouldn't they have tried to kill Dick prior to him trying to help Danny? Sure, he didn't Shine as strongly, but surely he had enough to at least be somewhat useful to them.
16** Firstly because he was never there alone. He was always there during the on season and the hotel was limited in how it got him, and it wasn't strong enough to outright kill people anyway, just influence. Second, he was also smart enough to avoid the things that could have harmed him like the lady in the bath.
17** As of ''Literature/DoctorSleep'', we find out that Hallorann's coping mechanisms are extremely strict, and as Danny grows older, he teaches him how to compartmentalize (literally) the ghosts into boxes so they won't bother him again. While this is a bit of a RetCon, it explains how Hallorann was never harmed by anything in the hotel, along with the previous explanation that he was likely never alone.
18** Hallorann was the cook, and the ghosts did not appear in the kitchen or cook's quarters (which is also the apartment where the Torrances live). There were certain areas of the hotel that were more dangerous than others, and Hallorann did have contact with some of them before the evil things were "powered up" by Danny's shine. He saw the topiary dog change positions. He went into the attic for something and the light went out and he stumbled around while it seemed like something was chasing him. And finally, after Dolores saw Mrs. Massey and got herself fired for screaming about it, Dick went to investigate. Mrs. Massey was not only there, she opened her eyes and started getting up before he ran. So yeah, the things in the hotel tried to get him when he was around them, but they weren't strong enough to do damage, and the later RetCon of his ability to compartmentalize helped a great deal.
19** Hallorann is also a grown man in his fifties who had lived with his ability all his life. From a young age, he had a grandmother who shared his gifts and who helped him understand how they worked. By the time he got to the Overlook, he was probably about as prepared as he could get. If the Overlook made a play for him, he might have been capable of defending himself. (Not to mention that he had one significant advantage over Danny: if things ever became too much for Hallorann, he could ''leave.'')
20** Also, it's revealed in ''Literature/DoctorSleep'' that the shining ability is more potent during childhood and adolescence. The True Knot group specifically targets children and teenagers for this reason, which helps explain why the hotel considers Danny to be more valuable, and is willing to exert so much effort to kill him.
21* Hallorann says the visions can't hurt you, but they do anyway. Was he wrong? If the visions could hurt people all along why did the hotel even need Jack?
22** Either he was trying to help Danny not be scared so much, or he thought it was the case that the ghosts were just visions or imprint and couldn't do genuine harm; possibly Danny's 'shine' helped power up the Hotel's spirits to give them more tangible power.
23** Another possibility is that the ghosts work under YourMindMakesItReal logic: if you ''believe'' them to be able to harm you, they can, but if you just convince yourself they're "pictures in a book," they have no power over you except to frighten you.
24* Why is Room 217 the only threatening room, since it sounds like several rooms had people die in them?
25** It's probably not the only dangerous room, but since numerous people with the Shining had already had bad experiences there, it's the one Hallorann chose to warn Danny about.
26** The novel mentions that Halloran had always seen visions in other parts of the hotel, but The Lady In Room 217 was the only vision that actually came after him. Which is why, by the time the end of that season comes around, Halloran has decided that it will be his last with the hotel.
27* Jack has pretty negative memories of his father, so why did he give his child the same middle name as him (Anthony)?
28** Perhaps because Jack still loved his father even if he had horrible memories of him. Abused children can still love the parent or parents who abused them on some level despite the abuse.
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32[[folder:Film]]
33* In the film, the biggest jump scare is [[spoiler:Hallorann's violent death]]. Hallorann already knew that the Torrances were in danger, particularly Danny... if he can know that Danny's in trouble from across the coast, how can he not know [[spoiler: that there's a madman with an axe less than ten feet in front of him?]]
34** [[spoiler: Danny has both low-level telepathy (the titular Shining), and precognition. Hallorann has only the former, and only knew that Danny was in trouble because Danny contacted him, which Hallorann told him to do only in an emergency.]]
35*** But that begs the question why [[spoiler:he didn't come in armed. He knew it would be an emergency, so why didn't he bring any sort of weapon just in case?]]
36*** He had tunnel vision, the sort of idiocy that plagues many people. He was concentrating entirely on his mental shields, because he figured that Danny was calling out to him due to the hotel "awakening", and thus the supernatural threats were foremost in his mind. He never considered that the ghosts in the hotel might actually know enough to ''ShootTheMageFirst''...
37** Hallorran didn't know there was any physical danger, just that something weird is happening and that they can't contact the hotel by radio.
38* Why do they jump right from "there was no one in Room 237" to "this woman doesn't exist and Danny strangled himself"? Like, it's clear that Jack doesn't believe that, and also clear why he'd lie (because he doesn't want to say he walked in, saw a woman, and immediately made out with her before realizing she was dead and decomposing), but why does Wendy go along with this? And for that matter, why doesn't Jack come up with a more believable lie? It seems like the reasonable conclusion to draw in that situation- Danny was clearly attacked by *someone*, and it wasn't one of his parents, it's not like the room was locked (Jack even says that he found the door open), and the hotel likely has hundreds of rooms someone could hide in- would be that there was some kind of intruder that ran away when Danny saw them. It could even be a homeless person or a staffer that stayed behind when everyone had cleared out, hoping to hide out in the hotel, eating the food and living rent-free, that tried to strangle Danny because they were worried they'd be discovered. We the audience know that's not what happened, but it's odd that the characters don't even consider this.
39** Roger Ebert's suggestion that none of the main characters are reliable narrators seems reasonable. We're viewing from the points of view of the people who are in various stages of losing it. Note that when Jack talks to Wendy after returning from room 237, he doesn't seem to be affected in the slightest at what happened in the room. Was this Wendy's POV, seeing an uncaring self absorbed Jack blowing off her worries? Maybe Jack's experience in 237 with the ghost women didn't occur at all, explaining why he was so nonplussed and it was merely Danny's shining fantasy?
40** Firstly, Wendy doesn't really buy Jack's story. Her exact response is: "Whatever the explanation is, I think we have to get Danny out of here" which comes off more like her trying to avoid a heated argument than her truly believing him. Secondly, Jack (and perhaps the Overlook itself) is trying to keep Wendy and Danny from leaving the hotel and is trying to downplay her fears and concerns. If he ''had'' gone with "It might've been some homeless guy who broke in", that would've only encouraged Wendy to leave even more than she already wanted to.
41* What did the photo at the ending mean? Was Jack "absorbed" into the hotel, or had he "always been the caretaker" (i.e. was some kind of reincarnation)?
42** Yes
43** Oddly enough, this is one of the few things about the film that Kubrick was clear on. He stated in an interview that it was supposed to suggest that Jack was the reincarnation of a former official at the hotel. In one scene, he tells Wendy that when he arrived for his interview, he felt like he knew the place already. It's because he already HAD been there...
44* How exactly did Jack get out of the pantry? Grady? Grady is a ghost (or a figment of Jack's imagination).
45** Grady's ghost is just one part of a sentient hotel. The door latch is also.
46*** If it can open the latch why not just open all the locked doors he has to chop down with his axe?
47*** RuleOfScary?
48*** There's no clear answer as to just what Grady is, and if he's a ghost, there's no in-universe reason for why he can't interact with his environment.
49*** The Hotel is testing Jack. He needs a bit of a hand, but it won't do bloody everything for him.
50**
51*** Of course it could have been Danny. In that case, Grady's voice would have been a hallucination by Jack. [[TruthInTelevision Abused children often still love their parents]], including letting them out of a locked room.
52*** Danny is with Wendy for the entire "Redrum" bit. For him to have let Jack out, he would have had to have been told by Wendy where Jack is (not done on camera, IIRC). He could have snuck down and done it while Wendy was sleeping, but that would require him to somehow have let Jack out, made it all the way upstairs with much smaller legs, and then done the entire "Redrum" sequence before Jack caught up to him. Perhaps Jack could have been using that time to find the ax, but it would still involve him just standing in the freezer for no reason for the amount of time that it took Danny to get out of the enormous kitchen. Plus, it's not even clear if Danny can reach the latch on the freezer door, and there's nothing to directly imply that Danny did it anyhow.
53*** Even if Danny could reach the latch, would he have been strong enough to undo it? Seems unlikely for a kid his age and size.
54*** He was far too terrified of him to have let him out. The only thing I can think of is that there is a third personality we haven't seen, separate from Tony, but not only is there no evidence for this, it doesn't seem to fit anyway unless Danny has some suicidal part hidden in his psyche.
55*** IIRC, in the book, Danny helps Wendy to move Jack into the pantry, and Jack starts to wake up and orders Danny to let him out. Danny almost instinctively starts to do so. Considering this, it doesn't seem ''completely'' implausible that Danny might have let him out.
56*** When Jack is trying to break open the door, one can see what seems to be an emergency release handle on his side of the door. It's possible that he opened the door that way. In any case, how he managed to get past the locked door is unclear as while Jack suggests that Grady opened it, the film purposefully does not show the door unlocking itself.
57** The hotel did it. It gains strength from souls who died there or apparently did something of significance, which is why it has all those people there and does all those freaky things. Danny, being a 'shiner' gave the hotel a lot of strength just by being there, which is why they wanted him so badly. With him supercharging it, the hotel became much more tangible.
58** Only the door had a lock on it. We don't know where Jack got the axe and we don't see the condition of the storeroom after his escape. It's entirely possible the axe was inside (likely hanging on the fourth wall) and he used it to break through the wall and escape.
59** WordOfGod is that everything is meant to be ambiguous ''until'' Grady lets Jack out of the freezer. This moment is meant to end the ambiguity.
60* Why is it called "The Shining"? I know Danny's telepathy is called the Shining, but it has almost no importance to the movie.
61** In the book, it's never referred to as "the Shining." It's either a verb (people "shine") or the noun is called "the shine." In an essay, King noted that the novel was originally called The Shine. Someone at the publisher thought it might be taken as something racist because the term might connote black shoeshine boys when we meet the (also black) cook, Dick Hallorann. So the publishers changed the title to ''The Shining,'' which King never liked. As different from the novel as the movie is, the characters and concept are still adapted from the book so the adaptations have the same title.
62** Danny's ''ability'' is called the Shining because that is the word Hallorann uses to describe it, which is the first time Danny's ever heard that it has a name. It seems to have something to do with the idea that people with this power have a little extra something that makes them stand out, like something shiny. The novel is called ''The Shining'' likely because psychic ability is the supernatural twist that drives the plot. From a marketing perspective, it's probably more unusual and interesting than naming it ''The Overlook.'' And the movie's called ''The Shining'' because Kubrick had the rights to the novel and dammit, he was going to use them.
63** In the book, Danny's and Jack's "shine" is also the reason the hotel is as active as it is. To people with lesser "shine" (like Hallorann) the hotel can only produce frightening images at worst. It's when someone like Danny, Jack, or presumably Grady come along with more "shine" that it starts to get really dangerous. So without "the Shining" the story would be pretty dull.
64* Why does Danny carefully follow his steps backwards into the labyrinth? I understand this is a way to find back the entrance, but it's also the surest way to stumble into Jack, who is also following Danny's steps. How does he manages to lure Jack ''and'' find the exit?
65** Did you miss the scene after that? Danny starts to retrace his steps to an extent, then jumps into a side passage and hides around the corner. Once Jack passes him, comes to the end of the trail, and then picks a random direction to go in, Danny starts running in the opposite direction and retraces his steps to the entrance from there.
66* Was the naked woman ghost in the bath who tries to strangle Danny and makes out with Jack supposed to be Grady's wife?
67** It's been a while since I've read the novel, but I believe she was a socialite who committed suicide in the tub. Your interpretation is perfectly valid for the Kubrick version, however.
68*** I don't recall the movie explanation, but in the book I believe Grady hacked up his kids, and then his wife, (or maybe he shot her before he shot himself) so she would have died in a different way, not in the tub.
69*** In the novel she was an older woman who killed herself when her lover abandoned her, but since this woman is a lot younger, its possible it might have been Grady's wife. Or not. It can work either way.
70*** Her name is Mrs. Massey. In the book, Watson tells Jack about how she arrived at the hotel sometime before the story begins (it doesn't specify when, although it doesn't seem to have been that long) with her lover, a young man. One afternoon, he left the hotel and didn't come back (it's never specified what actually happened to him), and not long after that, she killed herself in the bath. At no point in the book does she magically become younger (Watson says she was about sixty) and then make out with Jack, although she does try to strangle Danny. In the book, Dick and a maid called Delores Vickery (who Dick describes as having "a little bit of shine to her") also saw her.
71* When Jack put his face through the hole in the door, why in the HELL did Wendy stand there and scream while he spouted a one-liner, instead of stabbing him in the eye with the big KNIFE she was holding in her hand? Wasn't that the point of having the knife in the first place? I mean, I know it's a hard thing to do, but when he's got an axe and you've got an opportunity, not taking it is deadly. And that's probably why Shelly Duvall's Wendy is so universally hated.
72** When you are in extreme panic and stress, you do not always think clearly and even can become temporarily almost catatonic. This is completely normal and nothing unexpected. I don't see any problem with it.
73** Wendy did not want to kill Jack even after he made it clear that he wanted to kill her. Remember that after she knocked him out with the bat that she locked him into the room with the non-perishable food where he could easily survive for days or even months. She could have chosen the meat locker instead which would have killed him in hours, or she could have just kept hitting him with the bat until he died. She didn't. Her goal was to evade Jack and escape with Danny, not to kill Jack. The knife, like the bat before it, was a last resort that she did not want to use. IRL, not wanting to kill someone you love even when they become violent toward you is very common. The Kubrick version of Wendy reacts to events in a realistic way that does not fit the ideal that we tend to expect from fiction.
74** Wendy was terrified because someone much bigger and stronger was swinging an axe to break a door with the apparent intent to kill her. She could have possibly stabbed him at the moment he stopped but it was very brief and even if she thought to use the knife it's unlikely it would take him down. She grabbed the knife earlier to use as a weapon but wasn't expecting Jack to show up with an axe in a murderous rage.
75* It was outright stated that all the alcohol was removed from the hotel for insurance reasons. So how in the world was Jack able to get a glass of bourbon from Lloyd, ghost or no ghost, and actually taste it, to boot?
76** The easy explanation here is that Jack was heavily hallucinating.
77** Or that it was something that the hotel/the ghosts conjured up to tempt Jack. There are plenty of times when he interacts with objects that shouldn't be there.
78* What, if any, significance is there to Danny's Apollo sweater, aside from the TinfoilHat conspiracy theories regarding the idea that Kubrick faked the moon landing? It really seems quite prominent in that one scene.
79** No big significance, according to [[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/movies/aide-to-kubrick-on-shining-scoffs-at-room-237-theories.html?_r=0 this article]] Kubrick wanted Danny in a sweater, and a friend of the film's costume designer had knitted the sweater, so Kubrick used it because it was something a little kid would wear. Knitters make stuff like this all the time. In the novel, Wendy was a knitter, so it's fun to pretend Wendy or one of her relatives might have knitted that sweater for Danny.
80** It could be symbolic in several ways. The Apollo 11 mission consisted of three people going to a remote, lifeless, unfamiliar location, much like the characters in the film. Also, Apollo 11 is a symbol of a triumphant USA, which is a recurring motif contrasting with the American Indian inspired hotel decor. For example, in an earlier scene Danny is wearing a red, white, and blue shirt. Ullmann mentions at one point that the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground, and that the builders fought off raids from local tribes during the construction. In the lobby, an American flag flutters above a collection of trophy-like displays of Indian artifacts. Then, we have the ominous photograph at the end which features a Fourth of July celebration. This is all in keeping with a popular interpretation that the hotel is haunted by vengeful spirits of natives whose burial ground was disturbed. Thus, according to this interpretation the patriotic symbols are a subtle way of representing the Torrences as targets of the spirits' hostility.
81* How does one give fellatio while wearing a face-covering bear mask?
82** The mask presumably had a mouth hole intended for things like eating, drinking, breathing...
83** In the movie version, what the ghost is doing is only vaguely implied; it's possible Wendy interupted them as best you can ghosts before he could lift the mask to actually do the deed.
84* That shot of Jack frozen in the snow. He doesn't appear to be in the same spot he was previously, in fact he seems to be ''away'' from the hedges, and he's sitting upright instead of collapsed on his back like in the previous shot. I guess what I'm asking is, did Jack actually manage to make it out of the maze, only to freeze to death right there?
85** The hedge actually appears to be behind him; might be what he's supposed to be leaning against, so he it seems like he's intended to still be in the maze, just have shifted slightly after collapsing but before expiring. Also, the film is full of apparent continuity gaffes that were likely intentional to help it serve as a MindScrew.
86* Why did Hollorran go to the hotel alone? Why didn't at least one forest ranger go with him? They know they can't contact the hotel and that there's a small child there. Plus Holloran is at least well into his 60s and going up the mountain alone in the dead of winter would be dangerous on its own.
87** It was explained in the book that no one was taking Dick’s concerns that seriously; he had no tangible reason to think that the Torrances needed immediate help. Sure, they weren’t answering the radio, but they hypothetically had a way down from the hotel if they need it and they would be well-protected from the elements with plenty of food and supplies in the meantime. In the book, it’s often assumed by the characters that the rangers would have gone up to check on them eventually, just not in the middle of an intense winter storm when there are others out there in more dire need of help.

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