I'm an 21-year-old man and the end wrenches my heart. P.S. I mean the scene where Jack breaks free of the possession of the Hotel and tells Danny to run away quick. Plus when Danny and Jack are communicating telepathically while Derwent and Grady try to get the unwilling Jack to dump the boiler. Jack Torrance is my favorite Stephen King character.
shareI know what you mean, man. My father had cancer and the medication he was given changed his mindset and personality. Turning him from a great father to an angry, paranoid being. I have memories of him screaming at an 8 year old me. Not knowing who I am one minute, and the next returning to his normal self. Crying and begging me to forgive him for what he had become. After 3 years of cancer my father passed away. The last half hour of The Shining really hits home for me.
shareI get the feeling King believed he didn't emphasize the fact that Jack Torrance was not the true bad guy strong enough in the book, and wanted to make it clearer in the mini series.
shareSorry that you had to go through that SuperExtraCool, it must have been a very difficult time for you. At least your Dad is in peace now.
shareWhat got me about the ending was---- In the book as I recall, Wendy and Danny escape in a snowcat. Then a shot of Jack frozen in the Maze,and he appears in a picture from the 30s.
In the mini-series version,----flash forward 10 years---The kids graduating from some upper-class prep school, and mom runs her own art gallery, and someone is re-building the Overlook
Now this seems like the typical alternate reality forced on us by the networks
The reality-----Wendy and the kid, in therapy for years or locked up as crazy, she'd be working at a Waffle House, he would probably graduate from a public school,and enter show business as The Amazing Kreskin.
In a world where a carpenter can be resurrected, anything is possible.
a bit OT but what' the name called out before Danny's in the graduation scene, sounds like Rebecca Janice Towan?
shareWhat got me about the ending was---- In the book as I recall, Wendy and Danny escape in a snowcat. Then a shot of Jack frozen in the Maze,and he appears in a picture from the 30s.
That's not the ending of the book, that's the ending of the Kubrick film.
The ending of the book is basically the same as the mini series, except that Jack does not come back for a moment to help destroy the hotel nor is he contacted by Danny telepathically. In the book Jack is essentially dead before the explosion and his body is totally under the control of the Overlook, the Overlook in Jack's body goes down to the basement to try and dump the boiler same as the mini series. Unlike the mini series though, in the book Jack is totally gone, he just doesn't make it in time to dump the boiler. In the mini series he makes it on time to dump the boiler but deliberately destroys the hotel instead. Also the spirits of Grady and Derwent were not present in the book at the boiler urging Jack to dump it. They might have been there, but like the other spirits were strictly controlling Jack's body.
Another interesting tidbit from the novel that wasn't in the mini series is after the hotel explodes it makes one last ditch effort to kill Wendy and Danny by possessing Halloraan, and it almost succeeds, as Hallorraan for a moment actually contemplates murdering them, figuring eh Wendy is messed up anyway and Danny was a bad little boy for leaving his own daddy in there to burn and that it was all his fault. But Hallorraan regains his senses and is able to resist and get Wendy and Danny to safety. I thought was creepy and neat, but for whatever reason King chose to leave it out, my guess is it would have been hard to show.
Also, there is an epilogue in the novel, but it only takes place a year or two after the events of the novel rather than ten years into the future like the mini series. It just has a conversation between Hallorraan and Danny and Dick telling Danny he'd always be there for him at this lodge back in New England where Wendy and Danny go back to. So theoretically, they both could have happened.
In essence, the endings of the book and mini series had the same end results even if the particulars were a little different. Like I said before I would say King changed this to emphasize stronger Jack's redemption and that the Overlook, not Jack was the story's true villain.
StarintheZenith Jack did recover for a moment at the end of the book. Jack told Danny to run away quick and remember how much he loved him. The Hotel took over Jack's body again, though, smashing Jack's face with the mallet, finally killing the real Jack.
shareYes, you're right. I knew about that time Jack came back long enough to tell Danny to escape and he loved them. Was referring to the basement scene which was different from the book and the mini series.
I guess when the Overlook made Jack hit himself with the mallet, it did fatal damage to Jack's brain making him brain dead, thus killing him. But the rest of Jack's body was alive enough to where the Overlook was still able to use it. It didn't need Jack's brain anyway, the Overlook itself became the brain controlling Jack's body, and once Jack's brain was dead it had full control.
Right. I still wonder where the real Jack was the whole time the creature was attacking Wendy and coming for Danny, beating Hallorann, etc. Passed out? Too crazed from the cabin-fever and too drunk to fight it?
shareRight. I still wonder where the real Jack was the whole time the creature was attacking Wendy and coming for Danny, beating Hallorann, etc. Passed out? Too crazed from the cabin-fever and too drunk to fight it?
I wonder this too. Most likely you answered your own question, but some of the captions in the novel that go into Jack's mind, like when he was locked in the pantry are strange.
At one point Jack is thinking about how his son was an ingrate, and how he could sympathize with his father. And how when he got out of the pantry he was going to teach Danny a lesson, so that Danny himself would know better what to do when he grew up with his own kids. But how would Danny grow up if Jack was going to kill him?
And he is thinking in the pantry to that he had tried to reason with Wendy in the hotel's lounge, but he tried to kill her, and he was thinking like he didn't even remember trying to kill her.
That's one of the interesting differences between the mini series and the novel, given the captions in the novel, it was hard to exonerate Jack completely from his actions towards the end of the movie and say well it was the Overlook. It seemed like in the mini series Stephen King wanted to emphasize stronger Jack wasn't the villain here. But in the novel Jack had to bear some responsibility for what happened. Even when he was sober his thoughts were becoming more and more negative towards his family.
Ya. Jack was heavily intoxicated. You still figure that Jack would know something was wrong when the Creature/Hotel took control of his carcass.
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