The Shining (1980) What happend to jack at the end of the movie?

Question

Ok so I’ve just finished watching Stanley Kubrick's The Shinning with my girl and I’m a little confused with what happened at the end. For those of you that don’t remember. When jack finally freezes to death in the overlook's hedge maze the camera fades out and then you get a slow zoom in to an old photograph that’s hanging with some others on a wall back in the hotel. In the photo you see Jack in front centre of a huge crowd of people at the Gold Ball. At the bottom of the photograph it says it was taken on july 4th 1921.

I know some people have said they think it’s a reincarnation thing. Jack gets reincarnated every time he dies and gets pulled back to the overlook again and again. Which is why when he goes to the interview he says he feels like he’s been there before and saying it’s almost like he knows what’s around every corner. Also it may explain why Mr Grady tells jack in the gold ball that he’s always been the caretaker.

I think I’m more with the school of thought that say Jack wasn’t reincarnated he was just consumed by the overlook and added to the photograph. Along with anyone else who takes the unfortunate post of the caretaker of the over look. The thing with the de ja vu and knowing what was around the corner could be a hint of the shinning that jack had. I mean Danny his son has the shinning, who’s to say Jack didn’t have a little himself. Would explain how jack saw the ghosts as well as Danny.

Anyways i’m interested to know what your theories are guys : ).

Answer 1

As with Stephen King, I actually hated that version of the Shining- it really didnt make much sense to me- but not in the sense that you described- I just felt that many of the scenes were too random and didnt really make up any of the plot.

I think that your school of thought on this is correct, I think that Jack was just consumed by the overlook and added to the photo, and into the checkered history of the hotel.

You should watch Stephen Kings version of the movie- it goes for 3 times as long but actually follows a storyline.

Answer 2

For me it's more than that. This is not reincarnation, but a type of haunting. This person is doomed to repeat the same henious crime over and over. Danny and his mom break the cycle by not dying and by getting away. I'm not explaining it very well--it's hard to put it into words, but for me it's more sinister and more magical than you are saying.  

Answer 3

awesome movie. i think it was reincarnation

Answer 4

I would say that your interpretations, and those of people that related theirs to you, about the film are fully correct. Anyway, any theory is valid because Stanley Kubrick himself once said that he hated to explain his films to anybody, and would never interfere with what audiences took out of his movies. Thus, he would leave it to you to try to understand and ultimately think about what you saw in his work.

Jack could either be a recurrently reincarnated soul that would wreack havoc and commit crimes over the decades in the Overlook. Or he was overtaken by the ghostly spirits and powers of the hotel and absorbed into its fabric, and then appeared on that 1921 photograph.

But make no mistake, Jack has some of same 'shining' abilities of his son Danny, as he can see the ghosts and strange phenomena going on in there. Yet, he never acknowledges it and hides it from his wife because by then he'd started being possessed, and was led to pursue his own base ends.

Hope this helps.  

Answer 5

From what i understand, it was a dejavu thing.  Jack was there in 1921 and was reincarnated back again.  The whole chain was broken because his wife and son got away, so there will be no more hauntings at the Overlook.  It is hard to explain, but that is what i got from the movie...that he was there before, thats why the man in the bathroom told him HE was ALWAYS the caretaker there.  hope this helps...by the way, Stephen King does have a strange sense of humor.lol.  i like him though.

Answer 6

Jack is being manipulated by whatever power is in the Overlook Hotel, he is eventually possessed.

The picture represents Jack being absorbed in the house.

It is Daniel the house really wanted because of his psychic abilities (which is referred to as "the shining").

Answer 7

He dies and his soul is interred with the other lost souls in this haunted building