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Quotes

Jack Torrance: Here's to five miserable months on the wagon, and all the irreparable harm it has caused me.

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Mistakes

When Jack breaks the door to the bathroom and reaches in to unlock, Wendy cuts him. Later there is no blood on the knife. See more...

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Initially, the bathroom door Jack Nicholson was to axe in was an extremely thin one, made by the prop department to make it easier to destroy. However, Nicholson's technique with the axe was so good (he'd been a volunteer fire marshal) the door shattered into a million pieces, so they had to build a much stronger door to handle his swing. See more...

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The Shining (1980) - 46 corrections

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Barry Nelson, Danny Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, Scatman Crothers, Shelley Duvall (add more)

Genres: Horror, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Pictures
Quotes
Corrections
Questions
Submit
Jack is walking through the apartment towards the bathroom door with the ax. In the scene before he enters the apartment, "redrum" is written on the bathroom door. In the shot where we see him getting ready to break down the bathroom door, "redrum" is missing from the door. [The writing on the door "redrum" does not disappear. When Jack is getting ready to break the door down, the writing is out of camera range, which is why it can't be seen in this shot.]
Edit Corrected by mightymick
When Jack is talking to Lloyd the bartender, his Jack Daniels goes from being two thirds full to nearly empty two or three times without him having drunk any. [It's a hallucination.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
In the scene after Danny goes to room 227, Jack is typing, but you can tell by the group of typewriter keys he hits that he isn't typing "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But later after Wendy leaves the room, he is typing that phrase. [Your sequencing is off - the scene where Jack is typing, and then is interrupted, and then types again, happens *before* Danny goes to room 237 [not 227]. He is seen typing when Wendy interrupts him after Danny has gone to room 237, but he does not go back to typing - he sits at his typewriter staring blankly into space. So the scene you describe does not exist. And even if the scene did exist the way you describe it, it's not a mistake for him to change what he's typing - it could be said that this was the beginning of his madness.]
Edit Time
It was 8:20AM when his plane landed and when Dick Hallorann calls his friend Larry at the garage the clock on the wall reads 9:07. When Larry asks him how long it will take to get there he says about five hours but in the next scene where we see him driving to Durkin's garage, it's obviously the middle of the night. [So he was wrong about how long it would take him - not uncommon in a snowstorm.]
Edit Time
From the first shot to the last, Stanley Kubrick includes many references to special numbers. 12, 24, 21, 42 and 1, 2, 4 and 5 and it's multiples can be easily spotted close to 200 times. - - 1) We see Jack ax the bathroom door 12 times. 2) Wendy stops at line 21 on the page in Jack's typewriter. 3) We hear Wendy thumb through 24 pages of Jack's novel. 4) Wendy swings the bat 42 times. 5) Jack's locked up in storeroom C-1. 6) 2 girls, 2 elevators, 2 boilers, and 2 identical sides in Jack's vision of hedge maze. 7) Jack holds up 4 fingers in the last picture. 8) Jack says "5 months on the wagon" and The Overlook is closed between10/30 and 5/15. - - This is just the tip of an iceberg. Taken as time codes they point to shots in the movie and when the time code hits a :12 or :21 visions are seen (most almost exactly :24 seconds in duration). When the time code hits a :24 or :42 a cast member discovers something (durations end almost exactly with :12, :21, or :24 seconds). Just take a look at the vision in the very last shot of the movie (2:21) "Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball 1921" with a duration of :24 seconds, and you'll see what I mean. However, the timecode will only be accurate for NTSC versions of the film, as PAL versions are slightly sped up due to the differing frame rates. Go to the Forum-Mistakes-Check this out, for more examples. [Unless it can be shown that the completely random and unrelated numbers 12, 24, 21, 42, and multiples of 1, 2, 4 and 5 (which narrows it down to millions of numbers) held some significance for Stanley Kubrick, or for anyone, this is not trivia. One could take those numbers (or any numbers) and find them in any film, if one is insane enough to actually search for and chronicle them.]
Edit
As both she and Jack hear the Snow cat engine quite there's no reason whatsoever why Wendy doesn't scream out the bathroom window to Dick Halloran as he parks right outside it, like she yelled to Danny several shots before. This decision definitely benefits the plot despite making no sense. [##There indeed are several reasons why she doesn't call out for help when she hears the Snow Cat: a) she is standing near the door, not the window, and is still concerned about fending off Jack at the door; b) once Jack moves away and doesn't become a threat, she could call out, but she's still in shock and not thinking straight; and c) she would probably figure out she might not be heard over the roar of the engine.]
Edit Time
Stanley Kubrick makes use of color to indicate when certain characters are "Shining". Surroundings and possessions which are entirely yellow or red are obvious and have been noted by many but never fully understood. In the novel oranges were what Dick Hallorann smelled when he "Shined" and being that smell can not be adequately brought across to a theater audience Stanley Kubrick made the brilliant decision to use the two pigments a painter mixes together to make the color orange. Most commentators see these shots, as Jack in the yellow VolksWagon or with the red Calumet can behind his head in the storeroom, and still don't know what's going on. Red and yellow equals orange, "Shining", and all you have to do is, as the MM motto goes "open your eyes" and look at the movie to see this. [This cites no source for this information that can be considered authoritative. Without such, it is speculative at best, based purely on the occasional appearance of particular common colours. There is invariably a tendency to wish to read significance into aspects of films and this submitter has clearly taken it further than most; his assertation that most people simply fail to understand Kubrick's subtlety is at best pompous and at worst an indication that they are simply seeing significance in something that has none, a far better explanation as to why "most commentators" fail to pick up on such things.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
It took Jack 60 seconds to break down the first door.. After the 17th ax swings he only has a little bit of the door chopped out and if you look closely his ax is in the center of the door panel. In the next shot they cut to inside the apartment as he finally breaks through, now it's on the left side of the door panel. [So it takes him longer than you think it should to chop down a solid wooden door. He is drunk, or hungover, perhaps. Not a film mistake.]
Edit Time
In the baseball bat scene Wendy accidentally calls Jack Jake. Right after she says, "please, stay away, stop it Jake get away from me". [She may have a pet name for him, a long forgotten nickname perhaps, and she uses it while under stress. It happens.]
Edit Time
Jack runs away from the woman in room 237 and if you look out the front door the hallway is lit up. When he finally runs out of the room the hallway is now dark. [This may be because Jack is inside a ghostly illusion in room 237 - seeing a lit hallway from inside the haunted room is part of the way that particular ghost manifests itself. When Jack stumbles out, he sees the hallway the way it really is, dark.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
In room 237 the chairs and table on the right side of the bedroom are dark. When the old woman follows Jack out of the bathroom he walks through the bedroom again and all of these items are now lit up. [That may be because the entire room is part of the ghostly illusion - the first time Jack sees the bedroom the way it really is, but after the ghost appears, he sees the room the way it was when she died.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
The shot of Dick Hallorann in the jet is not right. If you look at the drink in front of the woman sitting next to him it's motionless. Anyone who has flown in an airplane knows that any liquid in an open glass vibrates. [Nonsense, I've flown in many many airplanes and that isn't always the case.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time
Wendy's reaction to the old bloodied gentleman in the back of the lobby is great but if you look closely there's no reason for it as he doesn't move or make a sound while she's obviously facing the other way. [Look again. He raises his glass in a toast and asks her "Great party, isn't it". So he both moves and speaks.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
Wendy is in the apartment talking to herself trying to decide what she should do with Danny and we see the right side of the apartment as she walks around. Lots of stuff has disappeared since Mr. Ullman's tour, most notable is the lamp on top of the bookcase. [As explained several times already, time has passed between Ullmann's tour and later scenes. It is quite possible for the Torrance's to have moved things around in the days or weeks they have been there. Especially in their own apartment, where they want to be as comfortable as possible.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
As Jack talks to Delbert Grady in the bathroom he says, "You chopped your wife and daughter into little bits," yet we have been told that he had two daughters by himself and Mr. Ullman, and we see two in all of Danny's visions. [Character mistake - Jack misremembers and thinks Grady only had one daughter.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
As Jack looks into the lobby of The Overlook and hears Dick yelling, "Hello" we get another chance to see the rug underneath the television set. The one there now is different then what was there as Danny and Wendy watched "The summer of 42" earlier in the movie, and the TV is in front of the wrong window. [There's no reason they can't have rearranged furniture and changed rugs as the movie goes on.]
Edit Corrected by CocoCami Time
In the Colorado Lounge a sofa appears facing, and in front of Jack's desk as he throws the tennis ball. During Mr. Ullman's tour it wasn't there. [As explained several times before, between Mr. Ullman's tour and following scenes from the Overlook several days, if not weeks, have passed. There has been plenty of time for the Torrances to move furniture around to places they prefer. After all, they are going to be stuck inside the hotel for several months, might as well make themselves as comfortable as possible.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
In the long shot of Jack typing just before the shot of Wendy trying to phone the forest rangers we see that there's no rug in front of his desk. It was there during Mr. Ulman's tour. [Several weeks pass between those two scenes. Plenty of time for the Torrances to move the rug.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time
People who "Shine" are able to see the past, present, and future through visions, yet Dick Hallorann is not able to see the trouble waiting for him at The Overlook. [They don't see the entire future. It's not a given that they'd see everything that will happen to them.]
Edit Corrected by CocoCami Time
As Jack screams from his nightmare, Wendy runs through the kitchen and we see the large fireplace before she enters The Colorado Lounge. We saw this spot before as Mr. Ullman took them on the tour of the hotel in the beginning of the movie and the floor lamp across from the fireplace next to the desk has disappeared. [Between the interview and Jack's nightmare, several days, or even weeks have passed. There's plenty of time for the Torrances to have moved the lamp.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall Time

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