The Shining

The Shining (1980)

51 corrected entries

(19 votes)

Corrected entry: When Wendy and Danny are watching television, Danny askes her if he can go get his fire engine from his room. In that scene, the television set they are watching does not seem to have any cords or cables attached to it.

Correction: They may have figured out a way to deliberately hide the cords, or perhaps just use very very strong batteries, to end up with the image of a television running on its own with no power cord. Why? It's on the same lines as the typewriter that feeds Jack the piece of paper, the door possibly opened by ghosts - the hotel has psychic energy that makes things run and move on their own.

Corrected entry: Jack asks to be served a bottle of bourbon, but the bartender pours a glass of Jack Daniels, a sour mash.

Correction: This gets debated but is largely a semantic point. JD calls itself Tennessee Whiskey, but per Wikipedia that's "legally defined under Tennessee House Bill 1084, the North American Free Trade Agreement and at least one other international trade agreement as the recognized name for a straight bourbon whiskey produced in Tennessee. It is also required to meet the legal definition of bourbon under Canadian law." So yes, Jack Daniel's is also bourbon, even if it can be given a more specific name too.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the barman drops the drinks on Jack Nicholson, the cups are fixed to the tray. This is seen when the barman takes the tray up from the floor, and in the next scene, when he puts it on the table at the bathroom.

Correction: I have watched this scene closely several times. The man holds the tray perfectly flat and there is no indication whatsoever that the glasses are glued to the tray.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Jack is talking through the door of the food closet he has been locked into, his right hand is leaning on a long thin door handle on his side of the door. However, a later shot of the door shows the same handle to be on the right hand side of the door, in which case in the earlier shot he would have been leaning on it with his left hand.

Correction: In every scene, the knob is on the left.

Corrected entry: 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.

Correction: 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.

mightymick

Corrected entry: 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.

Correction: It's a hallucination.

JC Fernandez

Corrected entry: 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. (02:01:00 - 02:01:40)

????

Correction: 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.

Corrected entry: 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. (01:15:55)

????

Correction: 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.

Twotall

Corrected entry: 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. (01:15:25)

????

Correction: 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.

Twotall

Corrected entry: 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. (02:12:40)

????

Correction: Look again. He raises his glass in a toast and asks her "Great party, isn't it". So he both moves and speaks.

Twotall

Corrected entry: 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. (01:31:50)

????

Correction: 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.

Twotall

Corrected entry: 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. (00:51:40 - 02:07:20)

????

Correction: There's no reason they can't have rearranged furniture and changed rugs as the movie goes on.

CocoCami

Corrected entry: 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. (00:37:45)

????

Correction: 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.

Twotall

Corrected entry: 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. (00:20:45 - 00:47:05)

????

Correction: Several weeks pass between those two scenes. Plenty of time for the Torrances to move the rug.

Twotall

Corrected entry: 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. (00:21:10 - 00:59:30)

????

Correction: 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.

Twotall

Corrected entry: After the green tennis ball startles Danny he looks straight down the hall and we see one cylindrical ash tray on the right. Four shots later as he walks down the hall towards room 237 another large cylindrical ashtray appears on the left of the hall. (00:58:55)

????

Correction: Many hotels has (or had, while smoking indoors were permitted) ashtrays standing evenly-spaced throughout the hallways. I have seen this many times, in several hotels in different countries. And for economical and aesthetical reasons, these trays are bought in bulk and therefore looks similar.

Twotall

Corrected entry: The production team obviously tries to age The Gold Room back to the 20s in the party scene. But they make a mistake inside the bathroom, which has several late twentieth century air ducts, and mid twentieth century acoustic tiling on the ceiling. There's absolutely no indication that these ghostly apparitions, or Jack's delusions, oscillate in time between different decades and that they are not mistakes . (01:26:30)

????

Correction: Except that, as you yourself pointed out in another entry, details from the bar changes between Jack's first visit (1970's setting) and the second (1920's setting). There are also nothing to indicate that the images can NOT alternate between time periods as they see fit. There are no set rules as to how supernatural forces can and can not act.

Twotall

Corrected entry: When Jack walks into The Gold Room the second time there's a party going on which is obviously set around the 1920s. As he sits down at the bar even the cash register has been changed from the modern style we saw when he first met Lloyd to a vintage early 20th century model. What should have been changed also but wasn't are the liquor bottles behind the bar which are the same ones as before, only shuffled around slightly. (01:04:35 - 01:23:00)

????

Correction: Both of these could be caused by the gradually stronger supernatural qualities of the hotel. The first time in the bar, the hotel is not strong enough to project images of earlier days, so what Jack then sees is what's really there (except for Lloyd and the bottles). Later, as the hotel awakens more and more, the images and ghosts become bigger, stronger and more focused, thus being able to project an entire party with 1920's settings. There are numerous other instances where this is shown. As for the bottles, they might be a part of Lloyd's ghost, thus looking the same, but as a good bartender he occasionally uses or replaces them.

Twotall

Corrected entry: Dick Hallorann approaches The Overlook in his Snow cat and as he first spots the hotel there are tracks where there should be none, in the snow ahead of him. No other vehicles have been up there, so they must be from a previous take. (02:04:40)

????

Correction: He is on the mountain road that "leads" to the Overlook, but there is no reason other places are along this same access road wouldn't exist. It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone else living in that area would have to have a means of transportation as well, or else they would be stranded for months at a time.

Jazetopher

Corrected entry: A map of the hedge maze is shown on a signpost in one scene and it is quite small and symmetrical. Later when Shelly and her son are in the maze the camera pans up for a birds-eye view of the actual maze which is much larger and asymmetrical.

Correction: The signpost is not intended to be an exact map of the hedge maze. The hotel and maze are something of a tourist attraction, and the sign is pointing the way.

wizard_of_gore

The Shining mistake picture

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)

More mistakes in The Shining

Jack: Wendy, darling, light of my life, I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya, I'm just gonna bash your brains in. Gonna bash 'em right the f*ck in!

More quotes from The Shining

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.

moviedude345

More trivia for The Shining

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?

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.

More questions & answers from The Shining

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