Shining, The

The Shining is an American feature film of the supernatural thriller and horror genres. It is loosely based on the 1977 novel The Shining by author Stephen King. The movie version of the book was directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Diane Johnson. It premiered in the United States on May 23rd, 1980. The movie stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as his wife, Wendy Torrance and Danny Lloyd as their son, Danny Torrance.

Plot
The setting of the movie is the Overlook Hotel in the mountains of Colorado in the present day. Jack Torrance is hired on as the caretaker of the hotel during the winter months when it is closed down, but before the staff leaves they warn him that the extreme isolation might give him cabin fever. Jack moves in with his wife Wendy and young son Danny. Almost immediately things begin to go awry. The hotel has a dark and haunted history and more than its fair share of ghosts. Couple that with the fact that Danny has a unique psychic ability called "shining", which causes him great distress. As the staff predicted, Jack Torrance grows violent and insane and tries to kill his family.

Appearances

 * Danny Torrance
 * Jack Torrance
 * Wendy Torrance


 * Bill Watson
 * Dick Hallorann
 * Lloyd, the bartender
 * Stuart Ullman
 * Tony


 * Delbert Grady
 * Jack Torrance
 * Lorraine Massey


 * Bertha Lynn
 * Dog man
 * Grady daughters
 * Injured guest
 * Larry Durkin


 * Donner family
 * Torrance family


 * Humans
 * Ghosts
 * Psychics


 * Colorado
 * Rocky Mountains
 * Boulder
 * Overlook Hotel
 * Room 237
 * Denver
 * Sidewinder


 * Axe
 * Baseball bat
 * Butcher knife
 * Knife
 * Shotgun


 * The Torrance's car
 * Snowcat
 * Volkswagen beetle


 * Psychokinesis
 * Remote viewing
 * Shining
 * Telepathy


 * Caretaker
 * Cook
 * Housewife
 * Psychopath
 * Teacher
 * Writer


 * 1921
 * Alcoholism
 * Dreams
 * Hallucination
 * Haunted house
 * Head injury
 * Hotel
 * July 4th
 * Possession
 * Reincarnation
 * Smoking

Notes & Trivia

 * The Shining is loosely based on the 1977 horror novel The Shining by author Stephen King. While the premise between the two is the same, there are many drastic alterations between the movie and the book. See Differences from the novel for more details.


 * Shining (1980), The Shining (1980), and Shining, The (1980) all redirect to this page.


 * Production on The Shining began on May 1st, 1978.


 * The title of the book and the film is derived from the 1970 song "Instant Karma!" by John Lennon. The song contains the lyric "We all shine on", which King then utilized as a descriptor of Danny and Dick's psychic abilities. In the novel and in the miniseries, Dick Hallorann uses the phrase "shine on" when speaking to Danny.


 * The central setting of this film is Boulder, Colorado and the surrounding Rocky Mountains. Other settings include the town of Sidewinder, and Denver, which is where the Torrance family lives. The Torrance family apartment was actually filmed in Boulder however at Kensington Apartments.


 * The Shining made its television debut on ABC on May 6th, 1983.


 * The opening aerial shots of this movie were filmed at Glacier National Park in Montana. Another horror movie of note that was filmed here is the 1951 sci-fi film The Thing from Another World.

Fun Facts

 * When learning about Danny's nickname, "Doc", Dick Hallorann imitates Bugs Bunny's famous line, "What's up, Doc?" Bugs Bunny is the property of Warner Bros., which also produced The Shining.


 * The 2017 film The Dark Tower pays homage to The Shining in a film scenes. In an opening scene there are two girls in a playground wearing blue and white playing patty cake. They are singing "Come and play with us", just like the Grady daughters. A more obvious connection is the character of Jake Chambers who has psychic abilities that is referred to as "The Shine". He used the Shine to survive being attacked by a house demon.


 * Jack Torrance's famous line "Here's Johnny!" is the trademark introduction for Johnny Carson, the host of The Tonight Show, as spoken by Carson's co-host Ed McMahon.


 * Actor D.J. Cotrona was born on the same day that The Shining premiered in the United States. He would go on to play the role of bank robber Seth Gecko in the TV show From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.

Differences from the novel

 * In the movie, the naked woman ghost occupies Room 237. In the novel it is Room 217.


 * In the movie, Jack chases Danny and Wendy around the hotel with an axe. In the novel he used a croquet mallet.


 * In the movie, Jack kills Dick Hallorann with an axe. In the book, Dick survives.

Cast connections

 * Jack Nicholson wanted Stanley Kubrick to cast Jessica Lange in the role of Wendy Torrance, but Kubrick settled on Shelley Duvall. Lange made her film debut in the 1976 version of King Kong, which also featured an appearance by Scatman Crothers, who played Dick Hallorann in The Shining.