Complete listed story — includes the ending
The Shining
Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer, is hired as the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, an isolated resort hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Jack is a recovering alcoholic with anger issues, which previously caused him to accidentally break his son Danny's arm and lose a teaching job after assaulting a student. Jack hopes that the hotel's seclusion will help him reconnect with Danny and his wife, Wendy, and give him the motivation needed to complete his unfinished manuscript.
Unknown to his parents, Danny possesses psychic abilities known as "shining", which include reading minds, premonitions, and clairvoyance. While moving into the hotel on closing day, the Torrances meet the chef, Dick Hallorann, who possesses similar abilities to Danny's, and forms a connection with him.
As the Torrances settle in alone at the Overlook, Danny sees ghosts and frightening visions. Danny does not tell either of his parents about his visions because he senses that the caretaking job is important to his father, and he dissuades Wendy from leaving Jack at the Overlook by himself. However, Danny soon realizes that his presence at the hotel amplifies the supernatural activity, turning echoes of past tragedies into dangerous threats. Apparitions take solid form, and the garden's topiary animals come to life. The winter snowfall leaves the Torrances cut off from the outside world.
The Overlook has difficulty possessing Danny, so it turns its attention to Jack by frustrating his desire to work and enticing him with the hotel's dark history through a scrapbook in the basement. Jack begins to develop cabin fever and grows increasingly unstable, destroying a two-way radio and sabotaging a snowmobile. After a fight with Wendy, Jack sees the hotel's bar fully stocked with liquor despite being previously empty and finds himself attending a party of ghosts. As he gets drunk, the hotel uses the ghost of Delbert Grady, a previous caretaker who murdered his family, to urge Jack to do the same to Danny and Wendy. He initially resists but ultimately succumbs to his dark side and the hotel.
Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack after he attacks Wendy, locking him inside the pantry, but Grady's ghost releases him after he makes Jack promise to bring him Danny and kill Wendy. Jack attacks Wendy with one of the hotel's roque mallets, seriously injuring her, but she escapes to the caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom. Jack attempts to break the door with the mallet, but Wendy slashes his hand with a razor blade to deter him. Meanwhile, Hallorann, having received a psychic distress call from Danny while working at a winter resort in Florida, rushes back to the Overlook, only to be attacked by the topiary animals and severely injured by Jack.
As Jack pursues Danny through the hotel and corners him on the top floor, he briefly gains control of himself and implores Danny to flee. The hotel retakes control of Jack, making him violently batter his own face and skull into ruin with the mallet, leaving his body under the hotel's control. Remembering that Jack has neglected to relieve the pressure on the hotel's unstable boiler, Danny informs the hotel that it is about to explode. As Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann flee, the hotel-creature rushes to the basement in an attempt to vent the pressure, but it is too late. The boiler explodes, killing Jack and destroying the Overlook. Fighting off a last attempt by the hotel to possess him, Hallorann guides Danny and Wendy to safety.
The book's epilogue is set during the next summer. Hallorann, who has taken a chef's job at a resort in Maine, comforts Danny over the loss of his father as Wendy recuperates from the injuries Jack inflicted on her.
The Shining
Jack Torrance takes a caretaker position to look after the remote Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rocky Mountains while it is closed for the winter. On arrival, hotel manager Stuart Ullman informs Jack that a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, killed his wife, two young daughters and himself in the hotel a decade prior.
At home in Boulder, Jack's son Danny has a premonition and seizure; Jack's wife, Wendy, tells the doctor about a past incident when Jack accidentally dislocated Danny's shoulder during a drunken rage. Jack has been sober ever since. Before leaving for the seasonal break, the Overlook's head chef, Dick Hallorann, informs Danny of a telepathic ability the two share, which Hallorann's grandmother called "shining". He tells Danny that the hotel also "shines" due to its residual and unpleasant history and warns him to avoid room 237.
A month passes, and Danny starts having frightening visions, including those of the murdered Grady sisters. Meanwhile, Jack's mental health deteriorates; he suffers from writer's block, is prone to violent outbursts, and has dreams of killing his family. Danny gets lured to room 237 by unseen forces, and Wendy later finds him with signs of physical trauma, for which she blames Jack. Jack defiantly sulks in the ballroom, where ghostly bartender Lloyd entices him back to drinking. Wendy tells him that Danny was attacked by a "crazy woman" in room 237. Jack investigates and encounters a hideous female ghost in the bathroom, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. He blames Danny for inflicting the bruises on himself and reacts angrily when Wendy suggests leaving the hotel. Danny enters a trance and telepathically contacts Hallorann. Returning to the ballroom, Jack finds it filled with ghostly figures, including waiter Delbert Grady, who urges Jack to "correct" his wife and child.
Wendy finds Jack's manuscript written with nothing but countless repetitions of the proverb "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". When Jack threatens her life, Wendy knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat and locks him in the kitchen pantry, but she and Danny are snowed in—Jack previously sabotaged the hotel's two-way radio and snowcat. Back in their private apartment, Danny begins to chant, from a murmur, "red rum" more and more loudly ("red RUM") and writes it out in lipstick on the bathroom door. Wendy sees the word in the mirror which shows that it spells MURDER in reverse, and she panics.
Grady frees Jack, who goes after Wendy and Danny with an axe. Taking shelter in the bathroom, Wendy fights off Jack with a knife when he tries to break through the door; Danny escapes out the bathroom window. Hallorann, having flown back to Colorado from his winter home in Florida, reaches the hotel by snowcat. Jack ambushes and murders him with the axe, then pursues Danny into an expansive hedge maze on the hotel grounds. With trepidation Wendy runs through the hotel looking for Danny, encountering the hotel's ghosts, Hallorann's bloody corpse, and a vision of cascading blood from an elevator similar to Danny's premonition. Danny carefully backtracks in the snow to mislead Jack and hides behind a snowdrift. While Jack rushes ahead without a trail to follow and becomes lost, Danny exits the maze and is found by Wendy. The two depart the Overlook in Hallorann's snowcat, leaving Jack to freeze to death in the maze. Meanwhile, a photograph in the hotel hallway pictures a man, by all appearances Jack, standing amidst a crowd of party revelers from July 4, 1921.
Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer, is hired as the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, an isolated resort hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Jack is a recovering alcoholic with anger issues, which previously caused him to accidentally break his son Danny's arm and lose a teaching job after assaulting a student. Jack hopes that the hotel's seclusion will help him reconnect with Danny and his wife, Wendy, and give him the motivation needed to complete his unfinished manuscript.
Unknown to his parents, Danny possesses psychic abilities known as "shining", which include reading minds, premonitions, and clairvoyance. While moving into the hotel on closing day, the Torrances meet the chef, Dick Hallorann, who possesses similar abilities to Danny's, and forms a connection with him.
As the Torrances settle in alone at the Overlook, Danny sees ghosts and frightening visions. Danny does not tell either of his parents about his visions because he senses that the caretaking job is important to his father, and he dissuades Wendy from leaving Jack at the Overlook by himself. However, Danny soon realizes that his presence at the hotel amplifies the supernatural activity, turning echoes of past tragedies into dangerous threats. Apparitions take solid form, and the garden's topiary animals come to life. The winter snowfall leaves the Torrances cut off from the outside world.
The Overlook has difficulty possessing Danny, so it turns its attention to Jack by frustrating his desire to work and enticing him with the hotel's dark history through a scrapbook in the basement. Jack begins to develop cabin fever and grows increasingly unstable, destroying a two-way radio and sabotaging a snowmobile. After a fight with Wendy, Jack sees the hotel's bar fully stocked with liquor despite being previously empty and finds himself attending a party of ghosts. As he gets drunk, the hotel uses the ghost of Delbert Grady, a previous caretaker who murdered his family, to urge Jack to do the same to Danny and Wendy. He initially resists but ultimately succumbs to his dark side and the hotel.
Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack after he attacks Wendy, locking him inside the pantry, but Grady's ghost releases him after he makes Jack promise to bring him Danny and kill Wendy. Jack attacks Wendy with one of the hotel's roque mallets, seriously injuring her, but she escapes to the caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom. Jack attempts to break the door with the mallet, but Wendy slashes his hand with a razor blade to deter him. Meanwhile, Hallorann, having received a psychic distress call from Danny while working at a winter resort in Florida, rushes back to the Overlook, only to be attacked by the topiary animals and severely injured by Jack.
As Jack pursues Danny through the hotel and corners him on the top floor, he briefly gains control of himself and implores Danny to flee. The hotel retakes control of Jack, making him violently batter his own face and skull into ruin with the mallet, leaving his body under the hotel's control. Remembering that Jack has neglected to relieve the pressure on the hotel's unstable boiler, Danny informs the hotel that it is about to explode. As Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann flee, the hotel-creature rushes to the basement in an attempt to vent the pressure, but it is too late. The boiler explodes, killing Jack and destroying the Overlook. Fighting off a last attempt by the hotel to possess him, Hallorann guides Danny and Wendy to safety.
The book's epilogue is set during the next summer. Hallorann, who has taken a chef's job at a resort in Maine, comforts Danny over the loss of his father as Wendy recuperates from the injuries Jack inflicted on her.
The Shining
Jack Torrance takes a caretaker position to look after the remote Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rocky Mountains while it is closed for the winter. On arrival, hotel manager Stuart Ullman informs Jack that a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, killed his wife, two young daughters and himself in the hotel a decade prior.
At home in Boulder, Jack's son Danny has a premonition and seizure; Jack's wife, Wendy, tells the doctor about a past incident when Jack accidentally dislocated Danny's shoulder during a drunken rage. Jack has been sober ever since. Before leaving for the seasonal break, the Overlook's head chef, Dick Hallorann, informs Danny of a telepathic ability the two share, which Hallorann's grandmother called "shining". He tells Danny that the hotel also "shines" due to its residual and unpleasant history and warns him to avoid room 237.
A month passes, and Danny starts having frightening visions, including those of the murdered Grady sisters. Meanwhile, Jack's mental health deteriorates; he suffers from writer's block, is prone to violent outbursts, and has dreams of killing his family. Danny gets lured to room 237 by unseen forces, and Wendy later finds him with signs of physical trauma, for which she blames Jack. Jack defiantly sulks in the ballroom, where ghostly bartender Lloyd entices him back to drinking. Wendy tells him that Danny was attacked by a "crazy woman" in room 237. Jack investigates and encounters a hideous female ghost in the bathroom, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. He blames Danny for inflicting the bruises on himself and reacts angrily when Wendy suggests leaving the hotel. Danny enters a trance and telepathically contacts Hallorann. Returning to the ballroom, Jack finds it filled with ghostly figures, including waiter Delbert Grady, who urges Jack to "correct" his wife and child.
Wendy finds Jack's manuscript written with nothing but countless repetitions of the proverb "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". When Jack threatens her life, Wendy knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat and locks him in the kitchen pantry, but she and Danny are snowed in—Jack previously sabotaged the hotel's two-way radio and snowcat. Back in their private apartment, Danny begins to chant, from a murmur, "red rum" more and more loudly ("red RUM") and writes it out in lipstick on the bathroom door. Wendy sees the word in the mirror which shows that it spells MURDER in reverse, and she panics.
Grady frees Jack, who goes after Wendy and Danny with an axe. Taking shelter in the bathroom, Wendy fights off Jack with a knife when he tries to break through the door; Danny escapes out the bathroom window. Hallorann, having flown back to Colorado from his winter home in Florida, reaches the hotel by snowcat. Jack ambushes and murders him with the axe, then pursues Danny into an expansive hedge maze on the hotel grounds. With trepidation Wendy runs through the hotel looking for Danny, encountering the hotel's ghosts, Hallorann's bloody corpse, and a vision of cascading blood from an elevator similar to Danny's premonition. Danny carefully backtracks in the snow to mislead Jack and hides behind a snowdrift. While Jack rushes ahead without a trail to follow and becomes lost, Danny exits the maze and is found by Wendy. The two depart the Overlook in Hallorann's snowcat, leaving Jack to freeze to death in the maze. Meanwhile, a photograph in the hotel hallway pictures a man, by all appearances Jack, standing amidst a crowd of party revelers from July 4, 1921.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Exact listed stories combined in catalog order. Sources retain their stated license; formatting and headings adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Shining (novel). Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Shining (film). Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license