More than 40 years after its release, The Shining quotes prove that the scary horror movie is still as popular as ever for fans. Often regarded as a pioneering effort in the art-house horror movement that has come to define many modern releases in the genre, The Shining paved the way for increased narrative innovation and intellectual stimulation of horror at large. While Stanley Kubrick’s film altered several aspects of Stephen King’s novel, particularly The Shining‘s horrific ending, the acclaimed filmmaker, along with lead actors Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson, were able to create an original and captivating horror story in their own right.
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Many iconic details in The Shining were crafted just before shooting or were improvised, including Jack Nicholson throwing a tennis ball and his most famous line in the movie. Kubrick was a known perfectionist and demanded a lot from his cast and crew, notorious for his multiple retakes until capturing the perfect shot. For example, it took roughly 148 takes for Kubrick to film the scene with Hallorann describing the Shining to Danny. Duvall and Nicholson were reportedly exhausted by the filming process, but their collective efforts resulted in one of the most brilliant horror movies ever made, with the iconic lines to prove it.
15 “Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said, I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in!”
Jack to Wendy
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One of the more underrated aspects of The Shining was the dark, arguably black, humor that Stanley Kubrick injected into the dialogue. Most of the humor came after Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance descended into complete madness, possessed as he was by the Overlook Hotel and egged on by the twisted spirit of Delbert Grady. Several of his lines had a humorous twist as Jack explained to Wendy all the horrific things he was going to do to her and Danny in an incongruously reasonable tone, exasperated as though Wendy were being unreasonable for not wanting to be murdered.
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Every Actor Who Has Played Jack Torrance |
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Jack Nicholson |
The Shining (1980) |
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Steven Weber |
The Shining miniseries (1997) |
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Henry Thomas |
Doctor Sleep (2019) |
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Bryan Cranston |
Mountain Dew Super Bowl ad (2020) |
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The humor of the matter-of-fact manner in which Jack’s insanity manifested made his descent into madness even more chilling. By the end of The Shining, he was so far gone that he couldn’t see how gone he was, lost as he was to the hotel. Wendy and Danny, who he had loved with everything he had until the Overlook, were now nothing more than obstacles to be removed to please the hotel, adding an extra layer of tragedy atop the already tragic ending.
14 “I’d give my godd**ned soul for just a glass of beer.”
Jack
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Throughout The Shining, Jack grapples with two demons calling to him: the Overlook Hotel and his alcohol addiction. While The Shining is about a man’s descent into madness as he becomes possessed by the ghosts of a malevolent place, it’s quietly just as much a story about struggling with addiction. It’s even more sobering when you realize that Stephen King wrote Jack Torrance as an avatar of himself when he was in the worst throes of his own addictions, putting the ugliest parts of himself when drunk or high into Jack.
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Jack, like King was in his younger years, is an addict. Even though he’s supposedly sober at the start of the movie since a drunken incident when he hurt Danny, he’s still an addict, and his first instinct is to seek out alcohol when stressed. On its own, the “what I wouldn’t give for X” line is usually a throwaway line. But for Jack, it’s not: he means it. There were times in his life before The Shining, and certainly during, in which he’d have done terrible things simply for a sip of liquor, and the Overlook Hotel uses that volatility to get its claws into him.
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13 “Your wife appears to be stronger than we imagined, Mr. Torrance. Somewhat more… resourceful.”
Mr. Grady to Jack
The ghost of the evil Delbert Grady says this to Jack after Wendy, deeply alarmed by her husband’s violent and erratic behavior, tricks Jack into the pantry and locks him in. It would be easy to say that the Overlook Hotel has warped Mr. Grady like it warped Jack, except Grady’s own admissions about his life reveal he was a monstrous person even before the hotel got ahold of him. He’s the avatar through which the hotel speaks to Jack, and by the time he says this to Jack, the writer is so far gone that he now sees his wife as a threat to be eliminated.
In 1997, Stephen King wrote and adapted his own version of
The Shining
as a TV miniseries starring Steven Weber and Rebecca DeMornay as Jack and Wendy Torrance.
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The irony of the quote is that one of the reasons Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining so much was the character of Wendy Torrance. King has been on record multiple times over the past few decades explaining that he deeply disliked how Kubrick made Wendy so much more hysterical and timid than she was in the book. In a BBC interview prior to Doctor Sleep’s release, for example, he said that Kubrick’s Wendy Torrance was “one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film. She’s basically just there to scream and be stupid.” It’s a real surprise, then, that Kubrick apparently saw his version of Wendy as “resourceful.”
12 “Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It’s just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn’t real.”
Tony to Danny
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Danny’s character was introduced in The Shining as having an imaginary friend, which at first seems relatively harmless, though as the movie went on, it was less clear what he was. Whether an imaginary friend or some sort of spirit that has attached to Danny as a passenger, Tony seems to serve as a protector of sorts. He shelters Danny, mentally, when Danny’s Shining threatens to overwhelm him, and speaks for Danny in moments Danny can not.
Related The Shining: Danny’s Imaginary Friend Tony Is [SPOILER]
Danny’s imaginary friend Tony in The Shining is actually someone surprising, as revealed not in the film, but in Stephen King’s original book.
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In this scene, it’s one of the sweeter moments between Tony and Danny, as the imaginary friend or spirit helps Danny to keep from letting his fear get the better of him as he is subjected to horrifying visions of the spirits in the hotel thanks to his psychic abilities. Tony reminds Danny of Mr. Hallorann’s words, like a mantra meant to be used as a mental security blanket, and Danny remembering this makes him stronger and better able to withstand the onslaught of things he sees thanks to his Shining abilities.
11 “I think a lot of things happened in this particular hotel over the years… and not all of them was good.”
Dick Hallorann to Danny
Dick Hallorann is a life raft for Danny in The Shining, the only person who understands what he’s going through as he’s the only other person with the Shining just like Danny. It’s a careful dance Dick navigates in the scene where he talks to Danny about his abilities and the hotel. As someone who also has the Shining, he can sense the evil of the hotel and knows it will threaten to overwhelm Danny’s sensory ability, if not his entire family.
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Danny is still a very little boy, and it’s impossible for Dick Hallorann to lay the burden of that knowledge on Danny.
On the other hand, Danny is still a very little boy, and it’s impossible for Dick Hallorann to lay the burden of that knowledge on Danny. Instead, he tries to prepare Danny for their stay at the Overlook Hotel as best as he can in a way a little boy would understand without being overwhelmed. He’s understandably concerned, and leaves visibly troubled and worried that he hasn’t done enough, but it’s his brief mentorship and his advice that gets Danny through the horrific events of The Shining. In the end, he did give Danny the protection he so desperately needed.
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10 “Come Play With Us, Danny.”
Grady Twins
Danny’s ability to “shine” quickly becomes nightmarish once he moves into the Overlook Hotel with his parents. Danny begins to see visions such as the iconic river of blood in the hallways coming out of the elevators, which remarkably was achieved in three takes despite taking a year to execute. Danny also saw the ghostly reincarnation of the Grady twins, daughters of Delbert Grady, who previously killed his family and died by suicide while living at the hotel.
Lisa and Louise Burns, real-life twins, played the Grady twins in
The Shining
.
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The strange invitation from the Grady sisters implies that they are more than just the hauntings of the young boy’s mind; they are spiritually attached to the hotel itself. The tone of voice in which they deliver the lines is almost as creepy as their appearance in the halls of the Overlook, standing together in their blue dresses before viewers ever saw their mutilated bodies. This moment showed why Danny had every reason to remain terrified of the ominous hotel.
9 “Wendy, I’m Home!”
Jack To Wendy
As Jack begins to truly descend into madness as if transfixed by a dark spell, he sinisterly makes a reference to the 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy as he smashes a door with an ax. The line “Honey, I’m home!” was often used in I Love Lucy as a term of endearment but when Jack said it as he attempted to murder his wife, there was malice and a sense of cruel irony behind it.
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Related Every Hidden Pop Culture Reference In The Shining
Director Stanley Kubrick filled the 1980 horror classic The Shining with pop culture references, from “Here’s Johnny!” to more obscure moments.
It’s one of the most memorable lines in the most famous and most terrifying scene of The Shining, which features a point of no return for Jack and the authentically horrified response from Duvall’s Wendy. This moment comes right before Jack’s most iconic quote from the movie, which Jack Nicholson famously improvised. However, while Kubrick was unfamiliar with Jack’s second quote, there is no chance he isn’t familiar with this first reference.
8 “Hi, Lloyd. A Little Slow Tonight, Isn’t It?”
Jack To Lloyd
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When The Shining introduces Lloyd for the first time, he seemingly appears as a ghost behind the bar. Jack’s first words to Lloyd initially reveal that Jack is beginning to see and speak with entities that aren’t actually there but are really extensions of the haunted Overlook Hotel. Jack’s coy introductory question to Lloyd offers a glimpse into the cracks of his exterior shell that are beginning to further break.
The cold and skeletal Lloyd appears accommodating but in actuality, he’s gently encouraging Jack to proceed with the dark intentions that make up the third act of the film. Lloyd is an ominous force, always smiling and always giving Jack what he wants (not what he needs), and it is clear Jack is ready already to turn himself over to the hotel with this quote. In some ways, Lloyd acts as something of a driving force at times.
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7 “Danny, I’m Coming!”
Jack To Danny
As the last part of Jack’s humanity drains from his character during the maze chase scene, he yells out to his son as if he were going to protect Danny from the very danger that he is presenting. Nicholson’s delivery of “Danny, I’m coming!” is spot on, masterfully twisting the seemingly protective words with a dark and primitive threatening nature. As Danny runs through the snowy hedge maze, the limping and increasingly decrepit Jack eventually reduces to animalistic grunting. It’s yet another sign of how far gone Jack and his mind have become.
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Related The Shining Theory Suggests Jack Torrance Had The Shine
One theory believes that Jack Torrance may have actually had similar abilities to his son Danny, and it would explain much of The Shining’s story.
Despite Kubrick’s brilliance, scenes like this make The Shining unthinkable without Nicholson’s performance. Nicholson played a very different Jack in the movie than the Stephen King book introduced, and while the movie version was nowhere near as sympathetic as King’s version, seeing him lose complete control here was a striking moment.
6 “Danny’s Not Here, Mrs. Torrance.”
Tony To Wendy
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Though he at first seemed to be an imaginary friend, the audience begins to realize that the imaginary Tony might not be so imaginary and is actually a spiritual or ghostly messenger. Tony’s most disturbing line in the film comes when he apparently completely takes over Danny’s mind and body, eerily telling Wendy that her son is “not here” in one of the strangest twists of The Shining.
Stephen King reveals in the original
The Shining
novel that Tony is actually Danny’s future self and that Danny’s middle name is Anthony, which is where the name Tony came from, but this is never explained in the movie.
One thing that the book emphasizes more than the movie is Danny’s Shine. Halloran explains it to him in the film, but this scene really shows how Danny can let it take hold in a way he understands as a child. Danny has no idea what is happening, and his childhood trauma heading into this movie forced him to find a way to comprehend the voices and images no one else could see and hear. His voice, when he delivers this quote, says it all regarding his mentality at this point.
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5 “Some Places Are Like People: Some Shine And Some Don’t.”
Dick Hallorann To Danny
The concept of what “shining” means in the film is briefly explained in the first act, in which Dick Hallorann explains to Danny that some people have the ability to shine and some people do not. The term “shining,” as described in both Kubrick’s film and King’s novel, refers to Dick and Danny’s mutual talent to perceive things in a psychic realm as well as communicate telepathically.
Danny’s ability to “shine” is what informs a lot of his haunted visions of the Overlook Hotel and the fate of his father, Jack, and is how Dick figures out that something is terribly wrong. One of the big differences between The Shining movie and the book is that Halloran remains a huge part of Danny’s experience and survives in the novel, going on to help Danny into adulthood. He dies in the movie, but his quote here is just as impactful for Danny’s future.
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4 “You Have Always Been The Caretaker.”
Delbert Grady To Jack Torrence
One of the biggest twists in The Shining is when the ghost of Delbert Grady has a conversation with Jack Torrence, reminding him that Jack has always been the caretaker at the Overlook Hotel. This scene is a critical factor in the various interpretations of The Shining as a whole and has sparked much debate. Some viewers believe that Delbert is telling the truth that Jack had truly been the caretaker all those years.
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However, others think that as the last person to kill his family at the Overlook, Delbert is lying and sinisterly passing on the idea that Jack has always been the caretaker, thus assuming all the responsibilities of that role. The biggest difference between the novel and the movie is that King made the hotel the villain, while the movie demonizes Jack. This quote hints that the hotel is influencing Jack, and the photo at the end shows that Jack and the caretakers are at least connected spiritually.
3 “All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy.”
Jack
While this quote only appears in written form in The Shining, it is easily one of the most memorable lines in the entire film. To her horror, Wendy discovers that during the time that she, Jack, and Danny have been living at the Overlook Hotel, Jack hadn’t actually been working on his writing but instead had been repetitively typing the same line over and over.
Jack likely has no idea what he has been writing this entire time.
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“All work and no play makes Jack a full boy,” is written in several formats on dozens of pages, the first true sign that Jack has descended into an unstable and potentially dangerous place. This moment is a huge one in the novel as well, as it shows that Jack’s entire reasoning for going to the hotel, to find a chance to finish his novel, was for nothing. It is worse because Jack likely has no idea what he has been writing this entire time, as he has been losing his grip on reality since walking through those doors.
Related The Shining: What “All Work And No Play” Means (& Where It Comes From)
In The Shining, Jack feverishly types “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over. Here’s the proverb’s meaning and origin explained.
2 “Redrum! Redrum! Redrum!”
Danny
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Danny yells “Redrum!” repeatedly through his strange raspy Tony voice, which is discovered to be “Murder!” in reverse. Although Tony could clearly speak through Danny in plain English, Danny’s alter-ego repeatedly says “Murder” backward for reasons that aren’t entirely clear at first. Looking at “Redrum!”through a mirror reveals what it actually means, a caution against the immediate threat of Jack and his impending ax.
The book has Danny seeing a vision of the word Redrum early in the story, but he doesn’t know its significance. This changes when he finally sees it right when “a huge clock in a glass bowl materialized in front of” the bathroom mirror. The movie changes things when Danny writes “REDRUM” on a door, and Wendy has no idea what it means until she sees its reflection in a mirror. Everyone who has seen The Shining knows the iconic “Redrum!” line as the most popular catchphrase from the film.
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1 “Here’s Johnny!”
Jack Nicholson
Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury.
The best quote in The Shining was completely improvised by Jack Nicholson, referencing the popular late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Kubrick, being British, wasn’t familiar with the American late-night show and didn’t understand the reference that would become one of the most legendary horror movie quotes of all time.
In fact, Kubrick nearly cut the line from his final version of The Shining because he didn’t understand the darkly comedic brilliance of the line when Nicholson first offered it during production. At the time, audiences all knew what the term meant, as they were familiar with Ed McMahon introducing Johnny Carson with that line. Jack’s twist on it being something menacing is what truly sells it.
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This line, when Jack Torrence poked his head through the hole in the bathroom door, has been parodied more than any other The Shining quote in the movie. Everything from The Simpsons and Seed of Chucky to the Stephen King adaptation It: Chapter Two has parodied the moment and line.
10/10 The Shining R
Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall tells the story of the Torrance family, who move to the isolated Overlook Hotel so that father Jack Torrance can act as its winter caretaker. Stuck at the hotel due to the winter storms, the malevolent supernatural forces inhabiting the building slowly begin to drive Jack insane, causing his wife and psychically gifted son to be caught up in a fight for their lives when Jack is pushed over the edge.
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*Availability in US Director Stanley Kubrick Release Date June 13, 1980 Cast Danny Lloyd , Shelley Duvall , Jack Nicholson , Scatman Crothers Runtime 146 minutes