The Shining Ending Explained: Why Jack Is In The Photo

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining ending explained that Jack was connected to The Overlook by showing him in the infamous photo of the guests at the party. Based on Stephen King’s novel, The Shining follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Jack takes his wife and son, but the Overlook has dark secrets. Triggered by Danny’s psychic abilities, the hotel releases some dangerous supernatural forces that break Jack’s sanity.

The Shining film is very different from the novel — so much so that Stephen King said he hates the adaptation. Kubrick changed the essence of the book and added elements that weren’t present in the novel. The Shining book and movie are very different entities, and details that are explained — or at least easier to interpret — in the novel are either not included or left very ambiguous in the film. Kubrick deliberately didn’t explain The Shining‘s ending during the film but later explained why Jack Torrance appears in The Shining picture at the end.

Why Jack Torrance Is In The Photo At The End Of The Shining

Kubrick Suggests Jack Is A Reincarnation Of An Earlier Employee

Perhaps the most challenging part of The Shining‘s ending is the final shot: a 1921 photograph showing Jack with other guests in the hotel’s ballroom. This scene has been interpreted in many ways, and one of the most popular explanations is that it represents the hotel “absorbing” Jack’s soul. Although this makes sense, Kubrick himself has said the photo suggests Jack is a reincarnation of an earlier official at the hotel.

Reincarnated Jack makes sense when returning to his conversation with Grady in the bathroom, where the butler tells Jack that he has “always been the caretaker.” This explanation for The Shining’s ending also fits with the roles of both Grady characters mentioned in the film: the past caretaker and the ghost. The ghost is Delbert Grady, and the past caretaker is Charles Grady. Jack says he saw Delbert in the newspaper, and thus, he is the reincarnation of Charles Grady.

While the explanation that Jack is in the photo at the end of The Shining because he’s a reincarnated former employee makes sense, this isn’t explained in the movie itself. It’s also not immediately obvious when rewatching with that knowledge. Kubrick’s explanation for Jack Torrance’s appearance in the 1921 ballroom photo may be plausible, but it’s also one of the few weaker elements of The Shining, as such a significant plot element could have been further elaborated on and made more apparent.

How Wendy & Danny Escape The Overlook

They Flee On A Snowcat, & A Deleted Scene Shows Their Recovery

After being freed from the kitchen pantry by Grady’s ghost, Jack (whose sanity was already shattered by that point) goes after Wendy and Danny, ax in hand. Wendy and Danny lock themselves in the bathroom, and Wendy sends Danny through the window. Unable to pass through that same window, Wendy is trapped when Jack arrives and breaks through the door with the ax — the famous “Here’s Johnny!” scene.

Wendy defends herself with a knife and slashes Jack’s arm, causing him to retreat. The Overlook’s cook, Dick Hallorann, arrives to help Wendy and Danny after the latter reaches out to him through “the shining,” but is ambushed and killed by Jack. Jack then goes after Danny, who runs into the hedge maze — all this during a snowstorm.

The sequel movie,
Doctor Sleep,
explains what happens to Danny and Wendy after leaving The Overlook Hotel.

Meanwhile, Wendy runs through the hotel, looking for her son. In the hedge maze, Danny manages to escape by laying a false trail to mislead Jack. Wendy and Danny reunite and leave the hotel in a Snowcat, and Jack freezes to death. What happens to Wendy and Danny after that is unknown (in the film, at least), although a deleted scene features them in a hospital, recovering both physically and mentally from everything they went through by the time The Shining ended.

How The Shining Movie’s Ending Differs From The Book

Jack’s Death And The Escape Are Both Very Different

As mentioned above, the film ends with Wendy and Danny escaping during a snowstorm thanks to the Snowcat Hallorann arrived in. Jack is left in the snow and freezes to death, and it’s implied that the Overlook Hotel continues with its cycle of murder by bringing in more reincarnations of past workers. The Shining novel, however, has a very different ending, and one that even made way for the sequel Doctor Sleep.

In the novel, Jack manages to fight the hotel’s possession long enough for him to tell Danny to run for his life. Unlike the film, Hallorann in The Shining book doesn’t die and helps Wendy and Danny escape at the end. The hotel makes one last attempt to possess Hallorann, but he successfully manages to avoid it. As for Jack, he does die, but not in the snow: a malfunctioning boiler explodes and kills Jack while also destroying the hotel.

The novel ends with Danny and Wendy spending the summer at a resort in Maine where Hallorann works as head chef. The three remain close, and Hallorann comforts Danny over the loss of his father and teaches him to fish. Interestingly, in the 1997 Shining miniseries, which King himself wrote, there’s a brief epilogue in which a graduating Danny is visited by the ghost of Jack, beaming with pride, suggesting that Jack’s spirit was fully freed when the Overlook blew up.

The meaning and topics addressed in the novel are very different from those in The Shining movie Stephen King hates so much, given Kubrick’s many changes to the story to fit his vision. The Shining novel and film work best as separate pieces, with each ending having a different meaning. The aforementioned sequel, Doctor Sleep, got a cinematic adaptation that serves as both a sequel to The Shinin g novel and Kubrick’s film, in a way.

Redrum & The Elevator Blood Explained

Visions And Warnings For Danny

In The Shining, Danny and Hallorann are the two characters with “shining” abilities, which allow them to communicate with each other even when miles apart. Danny’s “shine” reaches its peak at the Overlook Hotel, which mixed with the hotel’s spirits and own evil, unleashes some real horrors. Danny has visions of the hotel right after Jack gets the job and during his time at the hotel, and has a traumatizing experience when drawn into the “forbidden” room 237.

Danny starts chanting and drawing the word “REDRUM,” which Wendy later sees reversed in the mirror, revealing the word “MURDER.”

When the hotel’s forces get hold of Jack, Danny starts chanting and drawing the word “REDRUM,” which Wendy later sees reversed in the mirror, revealing the word “MURDER.” Danny was warned by the Grady twins that something terrible was going to happen, and “REDRUM” was the warning passed on to Danny and Wendy through Danny.

One of the most memorable scenes from The Shining is the blood coming out from the elevator. This is one of the film’s unique scenes (along with the Grady twins) and there are a number of ways to explain The Shining‘s elevator scene. As mentioned, Kubrick left many details open to interpretation, whether for viewers to come up with their own explanations or just to mess with them.

The movie’s Overlook Hotel was built on an “Indian burial ground.”

The elevator blood scene first appears as a vision to Danny and materializes near the end of the film when Wendy is looking for him. Because the movie’s Overlook Hotel was built on an “Indian burial ground,” the blood coming out from the elevator has been interpreted as that of the Indigenous people buried there. Others believe it’s the blood of all the lives claimed by the forces of the hotel, which might be the most convincing explanation.

The Shining’s Real Meaning

Cyclical Violence And Abuse Are The Heart of The Movie

Kubrick may not have been fully faithful to the source material when adapting Stephen King’s book, but he succeeded in making a film full of metaphors and symbolism that have made way for countless interpretations of its true meaning. Of course, there are some more convincing (and coherent) than others, but The Shining is explained as, at its core, a story about violence and abuse and how these are often cyclical.

Jack had a history of anger issues and violence, mainly against his family. When Wendy finds Danny after he enters room 237, he’s in shock and physically injured, and Wendy immediately blames Jack for it as he has hurt their son before. Jack is a recovering alcoholic and relapses at the hotel. He might have had his anger under control for a while before taking the job, but he went back to it there.

The Shining‘s Overlook Hotel itself also has a history of cyclical violence: it was built over a Native American burial ground, and its existence is a testament to the violence of colonization. Charles Grady killed his family with an ax, and Jack was on track to replicate that. The abuse part of the story is both physical and psychological: both Wendy and Danny are clearly scared of Jack, even before the hotel’s influence takes control of him, and yet they stay with him.

A popular theory, and one that has gone very deep into the symbolism of The Shining, says that the film also addresses sexual abuse. The scene with the man in the dog costume and the man in a tuxedo is the one used to support this theory, which says the dog represents young Danny Torrance (who earlier in the film is shown to have a plush toy) and the man in the tuxedo represents Jack. Tony, Danny’s imaginary friend, is believed by some to be Danny’s way to cope with the trauma of sexual abuse from his father.

The dog/sexual abuse interpretation hasn’t been confirmed by those involved in the film, so it’s up to each viewer if they accept it or not. Either way, The Shining is not so much a ghost story in a literal sense, but a story about the “ghosts” (or “demons,” in some cases) of violence and abuse, and how these can come back to continue with the cycle.

Even when looked at more literally, The Shining‘s meaning is still up for debate, as some fans disagree on whether the ghosts in The Shining are even real. Of course, the ghost of Grady freeing Jack from the freezer remains hard to explain, although that doesn’t stop some from trying.

What The Shining Producer And Screenwriter Say About The Ending

The Photograph Was Always Part of the Ending

Funnily enough, director Stanley Kubrick had a couple of different endings in mind for The Shining, each of them very different. Kubrick was never into the idea of making a typical horror film, and he certainly got what he wanted out of the film, even if Stephen King didn’t like it. In an interview (viaEW), executive producer Jan Harlan and screenwriter Diane Johnson both expand on the final scenes of The Shining, including The Shining picture at the end. Diane Johnson said this of Stanley Kubrick’s non-horror vision:

“The ending was changed almost entirely because Kubrick found it a cliché to just blow everything up. He thought there might be something else that would be metaphorically and visually more interesting.”

Despite all the changes Stanley Kubrick made to the ending, one of the director’s visions remained in place throughout all of it: The Shining picture at the end. In the same interview, the screenwriter says:

The photograph was
always
in the ending. The maze chase grew out of the topiary animal hedges that move around in the book. Kubrick thought topiary animals might be too goofy and cute, but he always liked the idea of a maze.

The maze in The Shining went over better than the hedge animals would’ve in Kubrick’s vision. It’s certainly an impactful moment that brings the movie full circle, seeing Jack become a part of the famous Overlook hotel ghosts once and for all. While it may not work for Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining ending can be explained as perfectly fitting the film he created.

What Happened After The Shining Ended

Doctor Sleep Continues The Story

Thanks to the existence of 2019’s Doctor Sleep, there are now canon details of what happened to Danny, Wendy, and The Overlook Hotel after The Shining ending. Firstly, it’s clear that the end of The Shining wasn’t the end of the troubles at The Overlook. Danny (who goes by the name Dan as an adult) is plagued by hauntings from the spirits of The Overlook for the rest of his life, with Doctor Sleep focusing on his attempts to capture them and put an end to his torment.

Stephen King published
Doctor Sleep
in 2013, 36 years after
The Shining.

Dan doesn’t live anywhere near The Overlook, which shows that the power within is far greater than even The Shining hints. It’s also revealed in Doctor Sleep that The Overlook was abandoned after the events of The Shining. However, this is another change from the original Stephen King narrative, in which The Overlook was destroyed at the end of The Shining novel when the boiler exploded.

As for what happened to Wendy Torrance after The Shining, Doctor Sleep reveals that she passed away from lung cancer in 1999, age 53, when Danny/Dan was 20. This is only alluded to in the Doctor Sleep movie, but the book version gives a few more details about her life after The Shining ended.

Halloran helps Wendy understand and manage Danny’s troubles at the hands of the spirits of The Overlook.

Following the ending of The Shining, Wendy and Danny move to Florida after receiving a settlement from The Overlook’s board of directors. In the book, she looks after Danny for the remainder of his childhood and maintains contact with Dick Halloran. Halloran helps Wendy understand and manage Danny’s troubles at the hands of the spirits of The Overlook. Her death, combined with being haunted, drives Danny to alcohol abuse.

What Doctor Sleep Revealed About Jack’s Fate

Jack’s Soul Becomes Part Of The Hotel

The sequel to The Shining, 2019’s Doctor Sleep movie managed to walk a delicate tightrope between adapting King’s Shining sequel book and being a follow-up to Kubrick’s Shining movie. Directed by modern horror master Mike Flanagan, Doctor Sleep offered an unexpected treat in the form of an extended cameo by none other than Jack Torrance himself, now played by Henry Thomas.

In
Doctor Sleep
, adult Danny Torrance is forced to head to the Overlook.

This appearance doesn’t clear up the question about why Jack is seen in the 1921 photo at the Overlook, but it does suggest that the theory about his soul being somehow absorbed by the haunted hotel is true. In Doctor Sleep, adult Danny Torrance is forced to head to the Overlook to unleash a greater evil on villain Rose the Hat, but while there encounters the ghost of his father. Yet, this isn’t Jack — it’s Lloyd the bartender, albeit not the same Lloyd that Jack Torrence encountered.

Some believe this suggests Lloyd the bartender was never a real person, and instead just a role the Overlook assigns to one of the souls it owns. While Danny’s barbs do eventually seem to wake up part of Jack’s consciousness from inside his Lloyd identity, whatever good he had left in him was clearly erased once Jack was fully taken over.

There’s An Unseen Alternate Ending To The Shining

A Deleted Scene Implies Stuart Ullman Is Part Of The Hotel

The ending of The Shining may be iconic, but it almost contained a hidden twist that removed some of the ambiguity. The alternate ending to The Shining included a deleted scene that saw the return of Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson), the man who hires Jack to visit the Overlook hotel at the beginning of the movie. While not connected to the Overlook, Ullman has a similarly strange vibe to him, and the deleted scene in The Shining explained why to an extent.

Jack and his family had been pre-selected and summoned there by the strong spiritual forces.

The alternate ending saw Ullman visit Wendy and Danny while they were in hospital where, much to their shock, he explains the police found nothing untoward when searching the hotel — including Jack’s body. Ullman also has a gift for Danny — the red ball Jack had been throwing against the wall. This strongly implied that Ullman himself was part of the hotel, and that Jack and his family had been pre-selected and summoned there by the strong spiritual forces possessing it.

While the alternate The Shining ending didn’t remove much of the ambiguity Kubrick had carefully crafted, the director did feel that it diminished the nuance of his vision. What’s more, test audiences seemed to agree with the infamous perfectionist, and since the scene wasn’t responded to well in early screenings, Kubrick had it removed.

The Real Hotel Stephen King Visited That Inspired The Overlook

There Is A Real Haunted Hotel In Colorado

One of the most chilling details about both the novel and film versions of The Shining is that the Overlook Hotel is based on a real (possibly haunted) location that Stephen King once visited. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado made a strong impression on King thanks to its long, eerily empty corridors during his stay right before the hotel closed for the winter. What’s more, while staying at the Stanley Hotel, King reports having caught glimpses of a young boy roaming the halls even though he and his wife were the only registered guests at the time.

The Stanley Hotel is still open to guests, and even hosts seances – embracing its haunted reputation.

Like The Shining‘s Overlook Hotel, the Stanley Hotel also has a haunted history, even possessing a particularly haunted room (number 217) just like the Overlook’s room 237. For all the supernatural twists and turns in The Shining‘s ending and story, knowing that it’s based on a real location makes the film (and its difficult-to-explain ending) all the creepier.

How The Shining Ending Was Received

The Majority Of Movie Fans Loved It, While Stephen King Fans Dismissed It

The biggest problem with The Shining is that it splits Stephen King movie fans and horror fans down the middle in terms of its story and ending. In King’s novel, the villain is The Overlook Hotel, which corrupts Jack and turns him against his family. In Kubrick’s movie, the villain is Jack, who is influenced by the hotel and is mostly a bad person from the movie’s start. The ending of the book and the movie are different because King wanted to stop the hotel, and Kubrick wanted to stop Jack. This is what split the fans.

In the book, the ending comes when Jack recovers for a moment and tells his son to run before starting to bash himself with the mallet so he can’t relieve the unstable boiler pressure. This causes the hotel to explode, killing the evil. In the movie, Jack never recovers and freezes to death, chasing Danny through the maze. In a discussion of the book and movie’s ending, Redditor sky_mo wrote that they are a fan of the book and feel the movie’s ending ruined Jack:

“My main complaint was that the movie made Jack a bad guy, as in the book he was an imperfect man but ultimately a victim of the hotel and his own demons. In the end he was actually the hero and saved his family.”

However, there are other fans who feel that the movie did a good job in showing the hotel overtaking Jack, which explains that it might have absorbed him into the photograph at the end. According to Redditor Jack_Q_Frost_Jr, “The hotel was in a way manipulating Jack to become a murderer and trying to get him to kill Danny. Danny was the Overlook’s real target, hoping to absorb his psychic powers. The hotel wanted the Grady sisters killed because they were a threat.“

Overall, The Shining remains a beloved horror movie, even if it isn’t a beloved Stephen King adaptation. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a very high 83% Certified Fresh rating and an even higher 93% audience Popcornmeter rating. It also has a very high 8.4 rating on IMDb, with over 1.1 million votes, showing that, despite the changes and the controversial ending, The Shining remains a beloved masterpiece of horror cinema.