THE SHINING Ending Explained: The Final Shot's TRUE Meaning

[Music] thank you you've made tonight [Music] welcome back to the Overlook Hotel I'm your host Paul and this video are breaking down the ending of The Shining after our initial breakdown in the film hit 1 million views I thought I'd return to one of my favorite films to discuss the final shot in detail throughout this video we'll be going over what it really means all the theories behind it and hopefully finally giving some closure to one of Cinema's most haunting shots if you enjoy the video please hit the thumbs up button and also don't forget to subscribe for breakdowns like this every day by the way huge thank you for clicking this now let's get into the shiny [Music] now this is something that's had people scratching their heads for the best product for decades in case you don't know the book takes place in the year 1975 with a 1980 film taking place roughly around the same time it follows the Torrance family as they move into the Overlook Hotel to act as caretakers over the winter Jack ends up going seemingly insane and after he tries to kill a family they managed to escape leaving him lost in the hotel's vast hedge maze overnight he succumbs to the elements but we close out with a big mystery in the hotel hanging up is a photo with Jack seemingly in attendance at the July 4th ball in 1921. this roughly puts the event as something had happened almost 60 years prior seemingly cementing that Jack's always been the caretaker there you've always been the caretaker when discussing the ending Kubrick preferred to keep things ambiguous but he did give a little insight to what might be going on the director stated the ballroom photograph at the end suggests The Reincarnation of Jack as we know throughout the film we get lots of lip service given the idea that Jack's always been part of the hotel and it's possible his final shot shows him from a past life working there as the caretaker this is Meredith and Albert Grady as well who we meet at one point in the film The Great is a Delbert Grady now then she would discover that he in fact killed his children because they were attempting to destroy the hotel he did this with an ax and the twins at haunt Danny are of course meant to make us instantly think it's them the story about the murder is told early on when Jack goes for the job and that should kind of explain everything right well on rewatches you might notice that not everything lines up and in fact there are some inconsistencies when the manager is telling Jack this story he refers to Grady by a slightly different name and also gets something incorrect with the twins my predecessor and his job hired a man named Charles Grady is the winter caretaker he came up here with his wife two little girls who think about eight and ten killed his family with an ax although he says they're different ages when we see them they are clearly twins cubic hired twins to play the role and I think it's a mistakeable that these are the same age but why would kibra get such an important detail wrong and why did nobody catch the differences in the names when they were writing the scripts well I believe that's because it's intentional and it further backs up this idea of reincarnation there are likely two different gradies at the hotel at some point or another with them potentially both being called there through fate or a higher power that's what it feels the case with Jack as well and potentially the two spirits of them are trapped in a cycle involving it if we're sticking with this idea I think the life of one of the quote-unquote caretakers is that they're born they live to a certain age one they hear of a job at the Overlook and apply for it and upon getting it they end up murdering their family and are then born again and repeat the cycle I believe that the hotel retains some of their Essence similar the ghosts we see floating around but I'll talk about this absorption Theory later on in the video now if this is the case then not fully formed almost like burnt toast whilst the newborn version of them's out there in the world upon them returning to the hotel they somewhat feel whole again and slowly the visions of their past life come back this is why Jack Witnesses a party not too dissimilar to the one he attended as that's an element of his past life that's coming back to him now due to them being a certain age by the time they get to the job the hotel would likely need another to feed on it in the interim this is where the other comes in and the cycle continues rather than having 34 years in between the characters being born and then getting to a point where they're old enough to take the job they have another running alongside them who's probably in their early 20s when the others being born hope that makes sense as it's a little difficult to understand but both characters are clearly operating at different times and carrying the murders out at different times too the idea of cyclical violence is something that the hotel is very much built upon so it makes sense it would operate in this manner too it was built on a Native American burial ground and this would have likely been conquered through Bloodshed Charles and Albert Grady both killed their families with an ax and Jack was attempting to try and replicate it and the buck talks about olive oil and acts that have happened there and at one point Jack even finds a scrapbook detailing everything involved in the hotel's entire history in the burger goes on for chapters and chapters and they phrase it in a way that he's researching it to write his own book on the hotel however what it tells the reader is that this is a violent place where lots of evil things have gone down at we see the ghosts throughout the film and lots of them appear in the Final Act especially this shows that these apparitions become almost trapped in the hotel for eternity with Jack likely suffering the same fate which this photo demonstrates now when going back through the film it's clear that Jack has The Shining and this is made even more apparent by the movie Dr sleep like his dad Dany shares his alcoholism which we learned is actually used as a way to do his Visions this is why I think Jack drank as well and it also explains how his a able to see the ghosts now this time around the hotel wants to take not only him but also Dany as well because judo's shining abilities this will make him even more powerful this kind of bells off the back of the absorption thing that we talked about before and constantly taking the essence of people could help it grow and stay alive although like to sleep hadn't been dreamed up at this point we did see something similar happening in that in the film we meet the true not who feed off the steam given to them by powerful psychics they retain some of this in a steam jar and breathe it in in order to keep themselves young that could be the case here too with a hotel constantly draining the live from Jack and its guests May constantly call them back and then Feast off the new life that they've been given it's also important to bear in mind that Jack appears as the bartender in doctor sleep so Matt could again cement this Theory again I know it's kind of retroactively changing the ending but it's clear that at least Mike Flanagan thought the hotel absorbed him too and there are theories at those in the photos could be the victims that the hotel has taken and rather than this being a photo of 1921 Jack's just been absorbed into the images here and it's now showing his face to the world this would explain why the family never walked past the photo and noticed it though to be fair they might just have not been paying attention to it it is kind of terrifying to think though that Jack Souls trapped behind that photo screaming for eternity whilst outwardly his face is Forever Frozen in this unwavering grin now if the absorption theory is incorrect then The Reincarnation thing could mean that this version of Jack was just snapped at the party and then years later he showed up back there in his new life either way what this represents is that the hotel has had and will continue to have violent events attached to it it doesn't matter how long it takes it will eventually happen and the same sorts of people and mindsets will be pulled in by its Allure whether it's the isolation or the rage bubbling over the top of them people the hotel will learn those who can manipulate and eventually they'll fall victim to it Jack's a broken mind due to his alcoholism and he's been fired from his job teaching due to a violent Outburst that happened against the student we also know that he's hit Danny as well and he's clearly someone the hotel has and will sink its teeth into in order to get What It Wants It chooses victims like this because they have their weaknesses but also filing our specs of their personalities that make them the perfect bit to be someone to carry out its misdeeds it's kinda scary to think about but I think that's what makes the movie so Everlasting now the original photo itself actually has an innocent story behind it and it was just taken at a ball during a party in 1923. this was originally shown in a book discussing how superimposition was carried out and it discussed the techniques used to replace heads before computers existed anyway it's crazy how well Photoshop existed but it's crazy to think how this Final Shots remain in the mind of viewers over the last 43 years this is a film that arguably has one of the most haunting funnel frames of a film ever and I really hope you've enjoyed us going back through it to discuss what it could actually mean and of course love to hear your thoughts on the film as well so make sure you comment below and let me know please drop a like on the video and if you want to support the channel as a member of the spoiler Society then please click the join button you'll get early access to videos like this every week and it goes such a long way to helping us out we also have a midge store over at shopzeroedition.com which sells lots of nodian spy t-shirts at some more just launched the secret Invasion slash Pulp Fiction spy t-shirt so if you want to head over there and help us out then the Link's in the description if you want something else to watch then check out our full breakdown of The Shining which will be linked on screen right now because you every single aspect of the movie talk about the making of the the history behind it and all the hidden symbolism and details that you might have missed by the way huge thank you for saying to the video I've been poor I'll see you next time take care peace

Channel: Heavy Spoilers

Views: 322,870

Keywords: the shining, the shining ending explained, the shining hidden details, the shining breakdown, the shining things you missed, easter eggs, hidden details, things you missed, stanley kubrick, stephen king, the overlook hotel, jack nicholson, ending explained, the shining theories, movie breakdown, the shining stanley kubrick, the shining jack nicholson, the shining stephen king, the shining 1980, the shining photograph, the shining final shot, the overlook caretaker

Id: VsasvNMxJa4

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 22 2023