What is the significance of the end of the shining

The film only scratches the surface, but as Dick's time in the living world ends, Danny's is just beginning, and he's about to go on his own journey. The Shining is a film about cyclical violence, and about how we can't escape the dark specter of history. The Overlook is built on the sacred lands of Native Americans slaughtered by white expansion, and blood continues to spill there.

Jack Torrance has always been the caretaker. His alcoholic tendencies come back to tempt him when he's in the Overlook's grip. Wendy sees Danny injured and immediately thinks it was Jack, because he's hurt their son before. Grady killed his family, and his daughters warn Danny of what's to come for him. Jack's eventual weapon of choice, like Grady's, is an ax. And yet, by the end of the film, only Dick — who wasn't supposed to be there — and Jack himself are dead.

Wendy and Danny escape relatively unscathed. Does this mean that, through their survival, they've somehow broken the cycle?

Does this mean the Overlook's evil sway is at least somewhat lessened? It's not clear, but there is hope. Over the years, The Shining has spawned some of the most elaborate and bizarre fan theories you'll ever hear about any film. An entire documentary, Room , rose out of this subset of Shining fan culture, and over the years, these theorists have posited any number of ideas about what the film "really" means.

For some, it's a secret admission and apology for Kubrick's supposed faking of the moon landing in For others, it's the story of the mythical Minotaur.

There are even some people who think the true meaning of the film is unlocked by watching it backwards. Many of these theories rose out of Kubrick's famous filmmaking precision. These fans can't believe that a detail-oriented filmmaker like Kubrick would leave any single object or moment to chance, so it all had to be part of a larger meaning.

But according to Kubrick's co-writer, Diane Johnson, that's really not the case. It's a ghost film! Any child can see that. And Stanley's explanation was, 'It's a ghost film! Forget it! It's not a movie with a serious message. It relies on "the world of real things" for food, and also for care. But its evil power relies on inducing forgetfulness and alterative realities in the caretaker.

Or, is it possible the Overlook has a death wish, and this is its suicide? Is Danny simply compelled to remind Jack about the boiler, or does he consciously send Jack to his death? Consider what Jack has done to Wendy and Halloran, and consider his loss of sanity.

If he hadn't died, is there still hope for him to live a happy life? Could King let Jack live? Jack's consciousness upon dying is described as "dissolving, losing thought and will […], searching, not finding, going out, going out to, fleeing, going out to emptiness, notness, crumbling" What do you make of these lines?

Is Jack ceasing to exist or is he going to another place? Is there enough information to tell. If you're most familiar with Stanley Kubrick's iconic film, you might be surprised to learn that in the novel, Jack and the Overlook die in a fiery boiler explosion. In the film, Jack dies by ice, and the Overlook survives. Who can forget the image of Jack Nicholson as Jack, buried up to the neck in snow, with his eyes wide open check out a picture here , only to be "claimed" by the Overlook.

The film ends with a gradually enlarged photograph of participants of a Fourth of July Ball at the Overlook.

The ball in the novel takes place in August , probably near the time Jack was born. Jack is featured most prominently in the picture.

The Overlook survives, and Jack, presumably, with it to haunt another year. Just before that, in the film, Halloran is axe murdered by Jack, and Wendy and Danny get away in a "Snowcat.

The novel's epilogue features Danny, Wendy, and Halloran in the summer after the winter of their discontent. Halloran's survival is important to Danny's future well being. He's the one person who can validate and verify Danny's ability to shine. He's part of the story's hopefulness. We aren't quite sure why Kubrick decides to kill him off. Elsewhere, Danny manages to exit the hotel through a bathroom window. Jack chases after him and the pair end up in the huge maze inside of the hotel's grounds, where Danny tricks his father by creating false footprints in the snow.

He hides as Jack drives himself more mad trying to find the youngster, before eventually escaping and reuniting with Wendy. The duo drive off in Hallorann's snowcat. The following morning, Jack is seen frozen to death in the snow, before the camera cuts back to the hotel hallway and zooms in on a photograph of a suited-and-booted Jack celebrating at an event dated July 4, Over the years, viewers have stated that the photo symbolises how the hotel has consumed Jack entirely, and absorbed him into its history.

According to Diane Johnson, however, there's more to it. While he dies in the novel, too, Jack's death plays out differently on the page.

In his final moments, the character who is tasked with ensuring the aging boiler doesn't overheat — a detail that doesn't feature in the movie — and the evil entities controlling him are "warned" by Danny that they've neglected the duty for so long, the boiler is on the brink of combustion. Possessed Jack hurries to the basement, before realising it's too late and getting killed by the explosion. She explained that the filmmaker saw the hotel as an antagonist in itself and by leaving it standing, it can haunt audiences long after the credits rolled.

Talking in Michel Ciment's Kubrick , Kubrick himself shared that he thought the ending of The Shining to be confirmation that Jack was a reincarnation and that, despite not believing in ghosts, he always viewed the paranormal events that took place at the Overlook as "genuine".

In the past, it has been suggested that the writer-director made his Jack nastier as a way of establishing the picture as an allegory for abuse, and to distance itself from more traditional spooks and scares — a theory he publicly rejected. He is married to a woman for whom he has only contempt. The film is complex enough because nothing is explained When the film [screened for critics] and wasn't well received, Warners quite rightly suggested, 'It's enough, just take [the hospital scene] out.

He's not stubborn, especially since this is a film mainly to entertain people. But Stanley was actually very sad that he misread the audience, that he trusted the audience to live with puzzles and no answers, and that they didn't like it. Would this extra coda have made the film scarier? Would it have explained too much?

Been more confusing? It's hard to tell, since all copies of this ending were destroyed at Kubrick's request. At least Stanley got the ending he wanted. Warner Bros. What Happens What it Means