Question: What does "Here's Johnny" mean? Torrance says this as he chops down the bathroom door.
Question: Why did Jack type "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" a thousand times? In the interview, he said he was working on a new project, and I doubt that he was referring to typing the same thing over and over. Also, does Jack actually know the truth about the hotel? He implies in the breakfast scene that he's not really sure about why he feels so strongly with the hotel, but he seems to personally know the bartender and doesn't seem surprised in the gold room right before he meets Grady.
Answer: The hotel has a strong influence on Jack's mentality. Jack had every intention on writing a play, but once the Torrances arrived at the Overlook, the hotel began working its powers on him, affecting his mental state. During the interview, Jack was not yet under the hotel's influence because in order to achieve its true goal (to capture Danny's shining ability) it needed to get the Torrance family to the hotel first. It is strongly implied that Jack is a reincarnation and had been the hotel many years before, explaining the strong sense of deja vu he feels. It is widely believed that Jack knows Lloyd the barman and Grady from a past life, and that all of their souls are forever linked to the Overlook.
Question: In the book, there is a bit (I'm not sure which chapter) where Danny is in the playground and is nearly trapped in a cement tunnel with what he thinks is a demon that doesn't want him to leave,and the swings move on their own.There are also lots of bits in the book where he is chased by the hedges shaped like animals but never sees them move, just hears them.Is there a good reason why this wasn't in the film, because for me they were the scariest parts?
Answer: I know they cut the hedge animals simply because the special effects to make hedges move were deemed impossible to do at the time. But both of these scenes were included in the TV miniseries "Stephen King's The Shining", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118460/.
Question: Someone has asked about redrum and whoever responded simply explained that it was murder backwards. And if you pay attention it shows you that right after Danny writes it on the door his mom sees it in the mirror. However what I think they were looking for was what is the significance of it.? Why does Danny only know it as redrum. Who passed it on to him and what happened that they only saw it backwards. We need backstory here. Also if Hallorann was also gifted with the same talent why isn't the hotel thriving off him dying in the hotel?
Answer: In the novel, Danny's visions of "redrum", provided by Tony, were always in a mirror, though he didn't realise it and was too young to make the jump to "murder". He assumes it is literal rum, based on his father's history with alcohol. Towards the end of the novel, just before Jack snaps, Danny sees the vision reflected twice and sees "murder", finally realizing what will take place. And to your last question...Hallorann's "shining" is not nearly as powerful as Danny's, is in fact rather weak compared to his, and so while the hotel does feed off him (and he knows it), it is not nearly as powerful as when Danny is there.
Question: What does "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" mean?
Chosen answer: This is a very old expression meaning that if someone, anyone, does nothing but work all the time and never takes time for recreation or relaxation, they will become a dull, uninspired person. Jack, the main character, is twisting the expression in a malevolent way as his mind and body are being taken over by evil ghosts. It's origin was from typing classes, used as a sample phrase for children to articulate movement across the keyboard.
Question: Why exactly is this film (and the book it was based upon) called "The Shining"?
Answer: It refers to the "gift" that Danny and Mr. Halloran shared as in this quote from Mr. Halloran: "I can remember when I was a little boy, my grandmother and I could hold conversations entirely without ever opening our mouths. She called it shining."
Question: Why is the supposed foreign version of the Shining with the deleted ending impossible to find? Does anybody have this version or know how to get it? I have a feeling it's an elaborate Internet rumor and does not actually exist.
Chosen answer: Stanley Kubrick changed the ending of The Shining after it had been in theatres for about three days. About ten minutes of footage was removed. The full US theatrical version runs 145mins, everywhere else 115mins after Kubrick trimmed the movie to remove what he considered "unnecessary" scenes. There is no specific "foreign version" save for cuts any TV networks may make for transmission.
Answer: In addition, the footage is impossible to find because Kubrick had all of the unused footage destroyed. You can read about it here https://ew.com/movies/2017/03/30/shining-ending-explained/.
Question: Did the Grady girls also possess the shining? Did they die for the same reasons the hotel tries to get Jack to kill his family?
Answer: It is possible that one of the daughters may have had a "shine" to her. If you'll remember the exchange in the bathroom between Jack and Grady, Grady says that one of his daughters stole some matches and tried to burn the Overlook down. It's possible she did this because she could sense the evil in the hotel and attempted to end it. It's possible, also, that she realised what the hotel was doing to her father and tried to end that.
In addition to the above response, the hotel is depicted in the book as a somewhat sentient being. Its influence is behind many of the murders that took place there. It's possible the hotel wanted Grady to kill his family since one of the daughters was attempting to burn it down, therefore it was trying to protect itself.
Question: Has anyone ever tried zooming in on the various photographs on the walls of The Overlook, other than the final scene one? I bet Kubrick has placed crazy details in those too.
Answer: The pictures in Danny's room are pictures of bears. Going along with the motif of bears throughout the film.
Question: One of the corrected entries here says that the film was shot entirely at Elstree Studios in England. Why? I mean with all the possible locations in the US especially Hollywood and all the facilities they have there, why was the entire film shot in England?
Chosen answer: Many major US-financed films have been shot in England. Parts of the original Star Wars trilogy, the Indiana Jones opening sequence, the first three Alien films and a great many others were all shot in the UK. The rationale is often financial - it can simply be cheaper to make films outside the US, with Australia being another common choice. In Kubrick's case, part of the rationale may well have been financial, but he also had a fear of flying, so made all his films from 1962's Lolita onwards in the UK, where he lived. Exterior shots in the film were shot at Mount Hood in Oregon and Lake Louise in Alberta.
Question: Are the ghosts real, or does Jack just imagine them?
Answer: Both Kubrick and King stated there were ghosts in interviews so as they are essentially the creators I would say there are.
In all fairness, Kubrick, unlike King, leaves the existence of ghosts somewhat questionable. The whole thing can just as well be just Jack succumbing to cabin fever: he loathes his family, and the long isolation just pushes him over the brink. Wendy witnesses the ghosts, too, yes, but she could also be suffering from cabin fever, not to mention the stress of her husband finally going insane, and trying to murder her and her child. In short, the whole existence of ghosts is a lot more ambiguous in the movie.
Question: What is the significance of the play that Jack is writing, in both the book and movie?
Answer: Jack, who lost his teaching job due to his alcoholism and violent temper, is attempting to rebuild his life as a writer and working at the hotel gives him the financial means to do that. As the ghosts begin taking over Jack's mind, he is increasingly unable to work on the play. As he mentally deteriorates, the play's progress (or lack of) gauges his mental decline.
Question: Early in the film the hotel manager mentions that the Overlook was built on an old Indian burial ground and that builders had to repel several Indian attacks during construction. Indian attacks? During the 20th century? And why mention this detail, since it was never mentioned again or became part of the story.
Answer: "Indian attacks" just means attacked by Indians who owned the land. It does not necessarily mean Indians with warpaint/horses/etc., just that the attack came from the tribe who owned the land. As for him mentioning it to Jack, he is just giving him a brief history of the Overlook Hotel, as Jack will be the caretaker and might want to know about the history surrounding the Overlook.
Question: How was Stanley Kubrick able to ensure that Danny Lloyd never found out that he was really in a horror movie? In the scene when Wendy accuses Jack of hurting Danny, she holds onto Danny and calls Jack a "son of a bitch." And what about when Danny sees the twin sisters? He looked terrified after seeing them.
Answer: Obviously, Danny Lloyd did eventually learn that "The Shining" was a horror film. During production, however, Stanley Kubrick only told Danny that the movie was a drama about a family living in a hotel. The single shot with Danny and the twin sisters in the corridor never showed anything particularly horrifying; Danny was simply looking straight into the camera and reacting to Kubrick's instructions.
Question: If it is really like what Dick said "It's just like reading a book", or that the spirits in the hotel don't have a physical existence, how did Danny get the bruises on his neck from the lady in the bathtub? I also don't understand the transformation in Danny's' character, I do understand that at that point he was taken over by his imaginary friend, but what actually happened to the real Danny?
Answer: Hallorann is just trying to reassure Danny so he won't be afraid, even though he (Hallorann) knows it's not the truth. This is why he so adamantly orders Danny not to go to Room 237. And Danny isn't so much ¨taken over¨ by Tony, so much as he suffers an extremely traumatic experience (being strangled by a naked, undead old woman) and goes into a state of extreme shock, through which he communicates as Tony (the personification of his shining power). He snaps back to reality when Jack tries to murder him and Wendy.
Chosen answer: The Ghosts want Jack to kill Danny because the shining is what gives the Hotel power. The only way Danny's shine would stay permanently at the Hotel would be for him to die there. The only reason Jack was chosen was because he was the weakest link to get to Danny.
Question: Just before Jack enters the gold room, he passes in front of several mirrors (three or four) and his reflection is not present on the last one, but seeing that the angle does not change, one would expect to see him pass. The question is therefore the following: what happens at this precise moment, between the last and the penultimate mirror? Should there be a change in reality? A moment when Jack switches to the past? Or anything else?
Answer: I'm not sure which scene you're referring to: when he first enters the Gold Room and finds Lloyd alone, or when he enters and finds the ball in progress. In the latter, we do indeed see his reflection...due to the angles of the shot and the mirror itself, it happens as Jack is still behind the Gold Room sign. In the former, we do not see his reflection, but it's because the shot is much tighter on Jack Nicholson, and so, the mirror in question is not visible in the shot until after the point where we would see him in it.
Answer: "Here's Johnny" is a classic line used on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson hosted. Anytime Johnny would enter the stage at the beginning of the show, Ed McMahon would shout "Here's Johnny" as his introduction. Jack Nicholson ad-libbed the line.
T Poston