 | |
| Poplar Apartments | |
| Continuity: | The Shining |
| Aliases: | Poplar Apts. |
| Category: | Residence |
| Continent: | North America |
| Country: | United States of America |
| State: | Colorado |
| City: | Boulder |
| Residents: | Danny Torrance; Jack Torrance; Wendy Torrance |
| 1st appearance: | The Shining |
Poplar Apartments is a fictional location featured in The Shining franchise. It was first referenced as an unnamed residence in the 1977 horror novel The Shining by author Stephen King. It was featured in the 1980 feature film adaptation of The Shining by director Stanley Kubrick, and was again unnamed. The 1997 television miniseries version of The Shining showed the exterior and interior of the complex where the name was prominently displayed as "Poplar Apts."
Description[]
In all iterations of the story, the Poplar Apartments was a small apartment complex located in Boulder, Colorado. The Torrance family relocated here from Vermont after family patriarch Jack Torrance lost his job at Stovington Preparatory School in Vermont for physically assaulting a student.
In Kubrick's film, Wendy Torrance makes her son Danny Torrance a sandwich and eats one herself while smoking a cigarette and reading The Catcher in the Rye. Wendy was awaiting news of a potential job prospect for her husband Jack Torrance near the town of Sidewinder. Danny Torrance, who had psychic gifts, told her that Jack had gotten the job, which would require the family relocating from the apartment complex to the spacious Overlook Hotel.
Danny Torrance was gifted with psychic abilities, which he interpreted through an invisible friend that he named Tony. Danny seemed fine at the prospect of moving, citing that he had hardly any friends at school or at the apartment. "Tony" however, felt differently and did not want to go to the hotel for reasons that he could not explain.
A short time later, Danny went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. While there, he had a conversation with Tony and tried to figure out why Tony didn't want to go to the hotel. It was at this point that Danny suffered from some mysterious seizure and his mother had to contact a doctor.
The doctor came to the apartment complex and examined Danny. She could find nothing physically wrong with him, but suggested that he should remain off his feet for the remainder of the day. Back in the kitchen, the Doctor had a conversation with Wendy and learned about husband Jack's problems with alcohol, which once resulted in him accidentally breaking Danny's arm.
Films that feature the Poplar Apartments[]
TV shows that feature the Poplar Apartments[]
Books that feature the Poplar Apartments[]
Characters from Poplar Apartments[]
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| Danny Torrance | The Shining |
| Jack Torrance | The Shining |
| Wendy Torrance | The Shining |
Notes & Trivia[]
- A poplar is a species of flowering plant.
- In the TV miniseries, a large tree existed outside the apartment, which included a swing. Various children's toys were strewn about the yard. Whether these toys belonged to Danny Torrance or not is unknown.
- The decor of Danny Torrance's bedroom in the Kubrick film included representations of Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, and Dopey of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The former two are the properties of Warner Bros. who produced The Shining.
- In the miniseries, Wendy Torrance enjoyed spending her free time drawing pictures of fruit.
- It is interesting to note that the layout of the bathroom from the Kubrick film, with regards to the placement of the bathtub, sink, and toilet, is identical to that of the bathroom from Room 237 at the Overlook Hotel. Perhaps this was an intentional bit of foreshadowing, as Danny would suffer harrowing experiences in both locations.
- Although he was a resident, Jack Torrance does not appear in any scenes involving the apartment complex in the Kubrick film.
- In the TV mini-series, Danny Torrance was playing in the front yard of the apartment complex with a toy airplane.