The Shining

The Shining (1980)

51 corrected entries

(19 votes)

Corrected entry: In the French version of the movie, there is something strange. Danny is called "Doc" by his parents (Doc, Doctor, the smart one, as far as I understand, right?), which sounds like "Duck." In French, we do not have such a "Doc" expression for children and the translator used the word "Canard" which means "Duck" (I have never heard anybody call his kid "Canard," except "Mon canard"). Funny and complicated for translator's work since "Canard" and "Doc" do not have the same number of syllables. In fact, Doc is based on the Bugs Bunny Phrase "Whats up, Doc?" It shouldn't change for the French version, because its like a name or nickname.

Correction: Changing a name when translating is hardly a mistake. It was intentional and probably done because French audiences would be less familiar with Bugs Bunny.

Corrected entry: When Jack is sitting at the bar and orders a drink, he takes his wallet out of his back right pocket. Just before that scene when he is walking into the Gold Room, you can very see (thanks to a short jacket and snug jeans) that there is no wallet in his back pocket. After that scene when he goes into Room 273 you can again see that he has no wallet in his pocket though there would have been no time or reason for him to leave it anywhere.

Correction: This is because he does not really have his wallet when he talks with Lloyd (the bartender) in the Gold Room. Two possible explanations to this: He imagines the scene in his cabin fever and alcoholism, or the Overlook is sending him these images to be able to tell him that his credit with the House is fine, i.e. that the spirits of the hotel trust him and value his service. The wallet is in his room the whole time, and actually contains money (as seen in the scene where Grady spills Advocaat on him, when he has retrieved it and gone back to the bar), but he does not carry it around since there is nothing to buy up there.

Twotall

Corrected entry: In the scene where Wendy brings Jack breakfast in their hotel room, it starts out as a reflection in a mirror then goes to an actual shot of them and the letters on Jack's shirt are backwards, in the next shot she is on a different side of him and the letters are right again.

Correction: This conversation is two shots: one is shot by Kubrick zooming straight in on a mirror, so the first half or so of their conversation does appear "backwards"; it's actually that mirror reflection. The second half or so is from cutting to a more conventional "front" shot - so now she's on the other side and his letters are straight again. You gotta look closely for this one.

Corrected entry: When the cook returns to the hotel and Jack Nicholson kills him, he hits him once with the axe. However when Wendy sees his body later he is missing at least one arm and is covered in blood.

Correction: The first time I saw the movie I thought so too, but it really is just the camera angle that throws you off. The camera is in the exact angle that you cannot see the arm at all, so you are only seeing the black glove at the end and the body. It looks as if the arm was cut off, but it was not.

Corrected entry: When Jack Nicholson swings the axe into the black guy's chest, it is covered in blood in the next shot (as you might expect). However, when he is chasing Danny through the maze only moments later, the axe is clean again.

Correction: There is a shot of Jack wiping off the blood on the axe.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Wendy first hears Danny crying 'Redrum' from his bedroom, she is in the living room pacing back and forth with a cigarette in her hand. When she enters Danny's bedroom she is no longer holding the cigarette.

Correction: When Wendy hears Danny cry 'redrum' she gets startled and drops the cigarette.

Corrected entry: When Jack Nicholson is breaking down the bathroom door he is cutting one panel but then when he sticks his head through and says "here's Johnny," the other panel next to him is perfectly cut out even though he didn't touch it.

Correction: This is not a mistake. There is a cut between these two events, which suggests some discontinuity in time. In the first scene Jack chops through one of the panels, sticks his face through the wall and states the infamous line, and gets his hand cut as he reaches for the lock. Kubrick then cuts away to a scene of the chef approaching the hotel in his snow cat. After which Kubrick cuts back to Wendy recovering from her panic attack, we can now see that the second panel in the door has been chopped out as well. It is completely reasonable to assume that Jack may have continued chopping the second panel out while we were watching the chef approach the hotel. Jack doesn't notice the noise of the snow cat until a few moments later. Just because Kubrick didn't film and show us every progressive detail, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Corrected entry: In the scene when Jack Nicholson goes into the Gold Room bar and orders a drink, he pulls out his wallet to pay. He then shows the bartender that he doesn't have any money. He leaves to go check on room 237 to find the crazy woman who tried to strangle Danny. He then goes back to the bar and orders another drink and now has money in his wallet.

Correction: He imagined his wallet the first time, and therefore imagined that is was empty (or the Overlook sent him that image, to show that his credit was fine and he was on good terms with "the House"). The second bar scene happens much later, after he has picked up his wallet from their room.

Twotall

Corrected entry: In the baseball bat scene Wendy accidentally calls Jack Jake. Right after she says, "please, stay away, stop it Jake, get away from me". (01:48:55)

????

Correction: She never calls him by the wrong name or uses his name at all in that sequence. She says "please" in a muffed, crying scared voice. Not "Jake."

Bishop73

Corrected entry: When Jack is at the bar and asks for bourbon, Lloyd pours him what is obviously Jack Daniels. Although a whiskey, Jack Daniels is not bourbon.

Correction: Federal regulators and bartenders (and presumably a layperson like Jack) do classify it as bourbon. Although JD is not produced in Bourbon County, Kentucky and therefore not authentic bourbon (it is technically Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey), it is otherwise identical.

Federal regulations define what bourbon is. According to these regulations, bourbon must be made a certain way. Such as containing a minimum of 51% corn. Geography is not a factor. Currently there is one distillery in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Most bourbon is made in other parts of Kentucky and some is made in other states, as long as it conforms to the Federal regulations, it is bourbon.

Noman

Correction: The previous correction is correct, so I'm just adding to it. I am a bourbon drinker, but a lot of people (myself included), only distinguish whisky under two categories: rye (like Crown Royal) or bourbon (like Jim Beam). While there are other types (like sour mash), the two most recognizable are the two I just mentioned. So to say bourbon wouldn't be unusual for Jack since he most likely just wanted whiskey and would call it by the name he felt most comfortable with one the bartender would be more likely to recognize.

dewinela

Corrected entry: When Wendy goes to talk to Jack for the first time while he is working on his "book" Jack rips the paper out of the typewriter upon her entrance. He then proceeds to yell at her and rip the paper into pieces. When she leaves another piece of paper has magically appeared in the typewriter and is half way through the page. He never replaced the paper while yelling at her.

Correction: The hotel is "feeding" Jack the paper. This shows that the mansion is already controlling Jack's mind.

Continuity mistake: When Jack finally dies and you see him lie down on the hedges, his back is flat on the hedge, but when you see him face front, his back is about five feet away from the hedge.

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: Stephen King has admitted not liking this version of his book.

troy fox

More trivia for The Shining

Question: Who were all the skeletons that the Mother sees toward the end of the film? It's never explained. Also, what room was that?

Answer: It was The Gold Room. The skeletons are simply those of past guests: we never learn their identities.

Not the Gold Room. It's the lobby area you see earlier in the movie when they first get there and Jack is sitting in a chair reading a magazine.

More questions & answers from The Shining

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.