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)
The Shining (1980)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Danny Lloyd
Jack Torrance meets the ghost of Delbert Grady, the caretaker who murdered his family ages ago; Grady tells Jack that he was not the caretaker - Jack was all the time, and now, when his family is about to leave, he has to "Fix" them, just as Grady did. Jack tries to attack Wendy, who strikes him on the head with a baseball bat and locks him in the storage room before going back into her room for Danny. While she's asleep, Danny gets possessed and writes "Redrum" on the bathroom door. Wendy wakes up and by looking at the mirror she realizes it's "MURDER" backwards. Meanwhile, Jack is released by Grady's ghost, and sets off to kill his family. Wendy and Danny lock themselves in the bathroom as Jack tries to burst in; Danny exits through the window and runs into the maze. Jack axes the door, screams: "HEEEERE'S JOHNNY!" before realizing Danny's not there; Hallorann, the hotel's cook, receives a warning from his force, "The Shining", and arrives there, only to be axed by Jack who goes into the outside Maze to find Danny. Danny loses him in the maze and leaves out, to find his mother outside, shocked by horrific visions. They leave in Hallorann's snow-plow as Jack remains in the maze and freezes to death. In the final shot, we see Jack Torrance as a guest in a picture taken at the hotel at 1921; this suggests Torrence was alive the previous life, and might be back one day.
More mistakes in The Shining
Jack Torrance: Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand?
Wendy Torrance: Yeah.
Jack Torrance: Now, we're going to make a new rule. When you come in here and you hear me typing [types], or whether you DON'T hear me typing, or whatever the FUCK you hear me doing, when I'm in here, it means that I am working. THAT means don't come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?
Wendy Torrance: Yeah.
Jack Torrance: Good. Now why don't you start right now and get the fuck out of here?
Trivia: The line "Here's Johnny" originated on the The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where Ed McMahon always introduced him with that phrase. Nicholson improvised the line during the shooting; Kubrick liked it and left it in.
Question: Whenever Jack is talking to Delbert Grady, Grady mentions his wife and two daughters; one of whom tried to burn the overlook down. My question is, are they the same twin girls Danny has visions of? Whenever Danny sees them dead in the hallway, the vision matches the story Ullman told Jack about Charles Grady. Why does Delbert Grady deny killing his wife and daughters when he was the caretaker, but then contradicts himself and go on to say he "corrected" them? Was he only denying being the caretaker since Jack has always been the caretaker? What is the connection between Delbert's story and what happened with Charles Grady?
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Answer: Delbert Grady has always been at the hotel, just as Jack Torrance has...however, "Charles Grady" was one incarnation of the hotel's "caretaker", which Jack Torrance currently is. Delbert, evidenced by his appearance, occupation, and archaic racial views, has been with the hotel since its turn-of-the-century inception, just as Jack, in the photo at the end, has been. We don't know what "spirit-Jack's" function in the Overlook is...we only know that the present Jack (whom Delbert is talking to) embodies the "caretaker" who has always been there, just as Charles Grady did in his time. Delbert refers to his wife and two daughters, whom he did not murder...his "caretaker" version, Charles Grady, did that.