The Shining - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Shining or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Shining

[bernice]

After Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick started researching his next project by reading a lot of recent books. His secretary could hear him throwing rejected books at the wall in his office. One day, he started reading Stephen King's novel and, after a few hours, when his secretary hadn't heard the familiar sound of a book hitting the wall, she knew he had found his next project. Interestingly, Stephen King is skeptical of this account, as he felt that the novel begins rather slowly.

[duane]

When Steadicam inventor and operator Garrett Brown was hired to work on the picture, he was assured that there was no way the shoot would run over six months, as he had to be back in the United States in six months time to shoot Rocky II (1979). Six months into the shoot, less than half the film had been shot, and for several months, Brown worked one week in London on this movie, and one week in Philadelphia on Rocky II (1979), commuting by Concorde every Sunday.

[ivan]

When Danny goes to explore Room 237 (Room 217) in the novel, there's also a scary fire hose outside that menaces Danny like a snake. It's not in the film, but it is in the 1997 miniseries.

[ethel]

Danny rides in circles around the Overlook hallways, including the Colorado Lounge and the room 237 hallway, giving the illusion of being followed as the camera tracks his route. He later does a loop upon himself in the maze while being chased by Jack, only to break the loop and find himself at the center of the maze.

[addison]

Music would often be played on-set to help Danny Lloyd get into the right spirit for each scene.

[cameron]

Early on, Danny is watching a Wile E Coyote And The Roadrunner cartoon on TV. Fans of the cartoon series will recognize the distinctive musical cue, which was used in "Stop! Look! And Hasten!" when the Coyote was chasing the Road Runner through a maze of railroad tracks. The film itself ends with a chase through a maze.

[carl]

Some of the most iconic moment in the film, including the elevator full of blood, the creepy twins, and the line "Here's Johnny!" Were never actually in the book

[bernice]

The shot of the tennis ball rolling into Danny's toys took fifty takes to get right.

[gerald]

Bill Watson was the caretaker at the Overlook Hotel the rest of the year in the novel. There is a "Bill" in Ullman's office at the start of the film, so that's probably him.

[miriam]

In the bar scene where Jack has some bourbon, the dialogue includes: "I like you Lloyd.... you were always the best goddamn bartender from Timbuktu, to Portland, Maine... or Portland, Oregon for that matter..." This is a subtle reference to their host city of Portland,OR where they filmed the exterior scenes of the hotel which was actually the Timberline Lodge on nearby Mt. Hood.

[bryan]

The movie has achieved the status of classic and is generally considered a horror masterpiece in spite of several factors apparently working against it. It's the first and only horror film for director Stanley Kubrick and for most of the actors. Author of the source material Stephen King famously had major issues with the narrative and the cast, although he praised the visuals. When it was released, the movie was not as well-regarded by critics as it is today; director Brian DePalma criticized it, claiming that Kubrick "can't direct horror because he doesn't like or understand people".

[sara]

Blizzards are in both The Shining and Misery, another Stephen King novel.

[ethel]

The Overlook is built on one (Indian burial ground). In 1987 San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bill Blakemore penned a rather intriguing essay arguing that the film is a hidden commentary on the genocide of the American Indian.

[bryan]

The two tracked vehicles in the movie are the Activ Fischer VW Powered 4 Speed Snow-Trak (referred to, and labelled on the vehicle as a "SnowCat") and a Thiokol Imp SnowCat (this is the vehicle in which Wendy and Danny escape).

[kristina]

Jack Nicholson and Joe Turkel rehearsed the "Gold Room" scene for six weeks. Turkel said it was his favorite scene in the film.

[claude]

During an interview for Britain's The 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003), Shelley Duvall revealed that due to her role requiring her to be in an almost constant state of hysteria, she eventually ran out of tears from crying so hard. To overcome this, she kept bottles of water with her at all times on-set to remain hydrated.

[wallace]

The maze was constructed on an airfield near Elstree Studios, by weaving branches to chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. The maze was shot using an extremely short lens (a 9.8 mm, which gives a horizontal viewing angle of ninety degrees) which was kept dead level at all times, to make the hedges seem much bigger and more imposing than they were in reality.

[carla]

When Jack uses an axe to break through the bathroom door, he shouts "Here's Johnny". This was a reference to the catchphrase of talk show host Johnny Carson, which had been ad-libbed by Jack Nicholson. However, an alternative explanation is that it is a reference to an incident that occurred in the 1960s, when Johnny Cash used a fire axe to break a connecting "doorway" between two motel rooms that he and his band members were using while on tour, and then broke through one of the doors from the corridor, to make it look as if a thief had broken in and trashed the rooms.

[ruby]

Despite receiving generally unfavorable reviews upon its initial release, the film is now regarded as one of the best horror movies ever made. In 2001, it was ranked twenty-ninth on AFI's '100 Years...100 Thrills' list. In 2003, Jack Torrance was named the twenty-fifth greatest villain on the AFI's '100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains' list. The film was named the scariest film of all time by Channel 4 in 2003, and Total Film had it as the fifth greatest horror film in 2004. Bravo TV placed it sixth on their list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments in 2004. In addition, film critics Kim Newman and Jonathan Romney placed it in their all-time top ten lists for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.