50 Fun Facts About The Shining

Who directed the 1980 film The Shining?

He co-wrote it with novelist Diane Johnson after admiring her 1974 novel The Shadow Knows.

Who plays the caretaker Torrance in the film?

He suggested Jessica Lange for Wendy, but Shelley Duvall already knew the part was hers.

In which state's Rocky Mountains does the fictional Overlook Hotel stand?

It sits in the Colorado Rockies in the story; the real Stanley Hotel inspired it, the Timberline supplied exteriors and the Ahwahnee inspired the interiors.

What does Dick Hallorann call the telepathic gift he shares with Danny?

His grandmother's word for it gave the book its title, which King took from the John Lennon line "We all shine on."

Which room does Hallorann warn Danny to avoid?

It was 217 in the novel; the Timberline Lodge asked Kubrick to change it so guests would not fear a real room.

Why was the number changed from the novel's 217?

The lodge has no room 237, so a nonexistent number was substituted; the theory about the moon's distance is a fan invention.

What phrase fills the pages of the manuscript when Wendy finally reads it?

Kubrick reshot the scene with the proverb typed in Italian, French, Spanish and German for dubbed versions.

Where did 'Here's Johnny!' rank on AFI's list of top movie quotes?

Nicholson borrowed it from Ed McMahon's nightly introduction of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.

The hotel's exteriors were shot at which real building?

The real lodge has no hedge maze, which is why the maze never appears in those establishing shots.

Where was almost all of the film actually shot?

Principal photography ran from May 1978 to April 1979, and a fire badly damaged the main lounge set in February 1979.

Which then-new camera rig gave the film its gliding corridor shots, with its inventor working on set?

Garrett Brown's rig followed Danny's Big Wheel through the halls, the sound switching from clatter on wood to silence on carpet.

What does Danny ride through the hotel corridors?

The tracking sequence following him is one of the most discussed shots in the film.

The Grady girls were played by identical siblings, but what does the script say about the characters?

Lisa and Louise Burns' staging echoes Diane Arbus's 1967 photograph Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey.

How does Jack die in the film?

In the novel the Overlook's boiler blows up and destroys the hotel with Jack inside; Kubrick swapped that for the maze.

The final photograph shows Jack at a hotel party dated to which day?

The real photo was a Valentine's Day dance in 1921 at a London hotel, with Nicholson's face airbrushed over a dance instructor's.

Whose face was Nicholson's airbrushed over in the 1921 photograph?

John Golman later taught dance under the name Santos Casani; the provenance was pinned down only in 2025.

Which scene did Guinness originally credit with the most retakes in film history, at 127?

Guinness later moved the record to 148 takes for the scene of Danny and Hallorann discussing the shine.

What did Stephen King mainly dislike about Kubrick's adaptation?

King produced a more faithful three-part miniseries in 1997 in response.

The Shining was Kubrick's only film nominated for which awards?

Nominations for Worst Director and Worst Actress came in the Razzies' first year; the Duvall nod was later rescinded.

What scene did Kubrick cut a week into the film's release?

Projectionists physically cut it from prints on Warner's orders, taking the running time from 146 to 144 minutes.

What sport's mallet does Jack use as his weapon in the novel, rather than an axe?

Roque is an American variant of croquet; the film swapped it for the far more cinematic axe.

How is the hotel destroyed at the end of the novel?

In the book the hotel's topiary animals also come to life, an element the film replaced with the hedge maze.

The Shining was Stephen King's third published novel. What milestone did it mark for him?

Carrie and 'Salem's Lot preceded it; its success established him as horror's leading author.

Where did King and his wife check in on October 30, 1974, planting the seed for the novel?

King and his wife checked in on October 30, 1974, and he dreamed the book in room 217.

The Stanley Hotel opened on July 4 of which year?

It was built as a resort for wealthy Easterners and a retreat for tuberculosis patients; the same July 4 date is echoed in the film's final photograph.

Which comedy used the Stanley Hotel as a filming location in 1994?

It stood in for the fictional Danbury hotel in Aspen; the Stanley is also billed as one of America's most haunted hotels.

What was the working title of the abandoned 1972 King novel that evolved into The Shining?

The final title came from John Lennon's "Instant Karma!" and its line "We all shine on."

What is Danny's imaginary friend called?

The novel makes clear he is a projection of Danny's own psyche, amplified by the shine.

Who declined the role of Dick Hallorann in The Shining because of his Dr. Strangelove experience with Kubrick?

Pickens said he would only do it if his scenes took fewer than 100 takes; Crothers got the part on Pickens's agent's suggestion.

How did Kubrick protect young Danny Lloyd during filming?

Kubrick auditioned boys from cities whose accents fell between Nicholson's New Jersey and Duvall's Texas.

Which composer's piece 'The Awakening of Jacob' scores Jack's dream of killing his family?

Kubrick chose music originally associated with the Holocaust; co-writer Diane Johnson thought his preoccupation with it shaped the burial-ground detail too.

What is the name of the ghostly bartender who lures Jack back to drinking in the Gold Room?

The Simpsons parodied the Gold Room scene with Homer, Lloyd and an axe-wielding HR director.

How does Hallorann get back to the snowbound hotel?

Jack has already sabotaged the hotel's own snowcat and radio.

Which film did Kubrick screen for the cast and crew in July 1978 to set the mood?

David Lynch's 1977 debut was the reference point; The Exorcist's box office had helped push Kubrick toward horror in the first place.

Who plays the adult Dan Torrance in the 2019 sequel Doctor Sleep?

Mike Flanagan wrote, directed and edited the film, which grossed a disappointing $72 million.

In Doctor Sleep, what is the name of the cult of psychic vampires led by Rose the Hat?

They feed on "steam," the essence released when people with the shining are tortured and killed.

Which manager tells Jack about the previous caretaker who murdered his family a decade earlier?

The killer is introduced as Charles Grady, but the ghost Jack meets calls himself Delbert, one of the film's many doublings.

Danny's premonition and Wendy's later vision both feature what pouring from an elevator?

The shot took reportedly a year to get right and became the film's most reproduced image.

Roughly how much footage did Kubrick cut across the film's successive theatrical versions?

The European cut removed all the scenes with Anne Jackson and Tony Burton, though their credits stayed.

In 2018 the Library of Congress gave the movie which recognition?

The Library of Congress judged it culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Jack's 'Here's Johnny!' line was lifted from whose nightly introduction on The Tonight Show?

The ad-lib nearly didn't survive: the director had lived in England for years and almost used a different take. Johnny Carson later opened his 18th anniversary show with the clip.

The opening aerial shots follow the Torrances' car through which national park?

The yellow Volkswagen Beetle winds past Saint Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island in Montana. The footage was shot by a second unit while the director stayed in England.

King's own faithful adaptation aired as a 1997 miniseries on which network?

King wrote it and watched over production to keep it close to the book. It was well received at the time but has aged less gracefully with critics than the 1980 film.

The novel's title was inspired by a line from which 1970 John Lennon song?

King's first draft took under four months, and his Doubleday editor Bill Thompson tried to talk him out of the book for fear he would be typecast as a horror writer.

Which novelist co-wrote the film's screenplay after the director rejected King's own draft?

She was teaching a seminar on the Gothic novel at Berkeley and got a cold call while visiting England in 1976. She later called the source novel 'a very bad book' that was nonetheless very effective.

Outtakes from the film's opening panorama were reused to close the original cut of which 1982 film?

Ridley Scott borrowed the mountain footage for the studio-imposed happy ending, in which Deckard and Rachael drive off into the wilderness.

During his 1974 hotel stay, King was served drinks by a real bartender with what surname?

That night King dreamed of his three-year-old son being chased through the corridors by a fire hose, and had the bones of the book in his head before his cigarette was finished.

Who was the director's backup choice to play Jack Torrance if his first choice had declined?

King objected to every name on the shortlist, preferring Jon Voight, Michael Moriarty or Martin Sheen as a more ordinary man who slowly unravels. De Niro said the film gave him nightmares for a month.

In 2020 Guinness moved the most-retakes record to 148 takes for which scene?

Editor Lee Unkrich disputes the famous take counts entirely, saying the real record holder at 66 takes is the long dolly shot bringing the family into the Gold Ballroom.

In a 2009 website poll, King's readers chose Doctor Sleep over which Dark Tower book?

It was a near tie: 5,861 votes to 5,812. King wrote both anyway, with the Dark Tower entry arriving in 2012 and the sequel a year later.