Revealing mistake: In the first scene, when Nicholson is driving to the Overlook, the shadow of a helicopter can be seen at the bottom right. This is only visible in the un-matted VHS print and fullscreen DVD. (00:01:05)
Visible crew/equipment: In the final shot of the opening sequence (before "the Interview" title shot), at the top of the frame, you will see the helicopter blades twirling. (Visible on fullscreen DVD and VHS.) (00:02:43)
Continuity mistake: In the initial overhead shot of the hotel the hedge maze is not there though later on it is shown quite close to the hotel. (00:02:45 - 01:42:30)
Visible crew/equipment: At the beginning of the movie, Jack knocks on Ullman's office door and you can see Stanley Kubrick reflected in one of the square window panes behind Mr Ullman. Do not confuse Kubrick's reflection with Jack Nicholson's. (00:03:39)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning when Danny is talking to his Mom and eating a sandwich, the sandwich gets about 5 bites smaller in a split second. (00:04:45)
Other mistake: When Stuart Ullman is showing Jack and Wendy their quarters, there is a window on the wall to the right across from the bed. However later, when Jack tries to break into the bathroom with the axe and Wendy puts Danny through the window onto the hill of snow, their quarters is not on a corner of the hotel, which the aforementioned window would suggest. (00:22:45)
Suggested correction: Stanley Kubrick intentionally did this, to get the audience to feel like something has been off the entire movie. Like in the interview scene, there should be a hallway where the window is but there's not. And the hotel is constantly changing itself as it is sentient.
Visible crew/equipment: When Danny runs with his tricycle through the corridors before stopping in front of room 237, the shadow of the camera chasing him can be seen on the tricycle's backrest. (00:28:50)
Continuity mistake: As Danny is writing 'redrum' on the bathroom door, the lampshade on the nightstand light is askew. A moment later, when Jack is knocking down the door with the axe, the lampshade has somehow straightened itself out. (01:32:40)
Suggested correction: This along with other subtle movements and the microscopic misplacement of everything inside the Overlook is meant to snap back to its former or appear "off" for no reason other than it gives the viewer an uncomfortable and uneasy feeling.
Continuity mistake: While breaking down the bathroom door with the axe, Jack repeatedly strikes and damages the right hand panel, but as he turns away from the door (when he hears the snow-cat) both left and right panels have been damaged.
Continuity mistake: When Jack finally dies and you see him lie down on the hedges, his back is flat on the hedge, but when you see him face front, his back is about five feet away from the hedge.
Revealing mistake: Wendy has a baseball bat in her hand and Jack is trying to get the baseball bat. When Wendy hits him over the head, the baseball bat bends.
Continuity mistake: When Jack breaks the door to the bathroom and reaches in to unlock, Wendy cuts him. Later there is no blood on the knife.
Continuity mistake: Wendy comforts Jack after he has had his nightmare. His hairstyle keeps differing depending on the angle focusing on him.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning when Wendy is talking to the doctor, Wendy lights a cigarette, seconds later the paper has burned almost to the filter.
Continuity mistake: When Wendy is looking through all the typed sheets where Jack has typed 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy', you can see that they are getting disorganised, and when Jack sneaks up on her, she gets a fright and puts them down in an untidy pile. However, in the next shot, they are in a relatively neat pile again in the tray.
Continuity mistake: When Jack is typing and is interrupted by Wendy, he takes out the sheet and tears it and with no replacement. In the next shot there is a new one on the typewriter.
Continuity mistake: When Danny is playing alone in the corridor, with his toy cars and trucks, in the overhead shot, the little vehicles are set up on the orange and brown pattern, as the ball roles to him down the center brown path in the carpet's sextagon pattern. However, in Danny's close-up, when the ball is in front of him, all the little toy vehicles are now set up (still the same way) on the opposite side of the carpet's distinct pattern, as he also faces the opposite way. This mistake has absolutely nothing to do with the ghosts of The Overlook moving the ball.
Factual error: At the end of the movie there is the chase scene through the hedge maze in the dead of winter in Colorado. While Jack Nicholson runs after his son in a winter setting you cannot see their breath in what would be the cold night air.
Continuity mistake: When Hallorann is showing Wendy & Danny around after they first arrive at the hotel, they walk through the kitchen towards the camera & into the freezer door to the left of the screen. You can see the kitchen still visible in the background. When they leave the freezer (after Hallorann calls Danny "Doc"), the background is completely different & the kitchen is not visible. This is because they have actually filmed a different door on the opposite side of the corridor. They then walk towards camera again & back into the kitchen they have just walked through.
Suggested correction: This sort of discontinuity is deliberate. The layout of the Overlook is intended to make no sense.
Continuity mistake: When Wendy gets jack in to the food storage, two boxes beside the door fall to the floor. When Jack wakes up those boxes are back on the pile again.
