Rewatchables Reference

• Opening credits helicopter tracking shot – 'I've never seen anything like that in a movie before or since.' Lost its effectiveness on square TVs for years but is amazing again on widescreen HD.
• Wendy discovers Jack's manuscript and the staircase confrontation – Bill calls it 'one of the best eight or nine minute scenes ever.' The all-work-and-no-play pages have different layouts, including a teardrop shape and a fake block quote indentation.
• Jack having a drink with Lloyd the bartender – Nicholson finishes the drink and his whole face goes blank 'like he had an orgasm.' Sean says it belongs in any two-minute montage of why Nicholson is a top-five actor.
• The bathroom/axe scene – the swivel shot of the axe going back and forward, the camera movement, Duvall screaming in genuine terror. Danny sliding down the snowbank afterward 'seemed like it was fun'.
• Scatman Crothers getting killed – 'one of the most shocking things I've ever seen in a movie.' Nicholson is hidden behind the last pillar and the axe cut is the fastest in the movie.
• The maze ending – Danny uses his boring time to figure out the maze like Belichick studying film, then retraces his steps in the snow to escape.

• Dick Hallorann's bedroom paintings – 'the greatest airbrushed naked lady art collection in film history.' He doubled down with two paintings, one above the bed and one by the TV. Bill: 'If he ever brings a woman back, it'll go great'.
• The Steadicam – invention that changed movies forever, makes the camera feel like a ghost character haunting the hotel. First used in 1976 (Bound for Glory, 'Rocky', 'Marathon Man').
• REDRUM in the mirror – 'I think you'd have to be pretty good to know instinctively that was murder backwards.' The cut when it flips to the mirror is so fast and the music hits so loud it shocks you every time.
• The 'correcting' euphemism – Grady doesn't say 'I killed my family,' he says 'I corrected her.' Sean: 'That's when the movie turns'.
• The maze – one of Bill's 'favorite man-built things ever in a movie'.
• The scary twin sisters – 'whoever cast them, give them the Oscar right now.' They seem angelic yet deeply creepy.
• The Overlook Hotel interior and exterior – the Timberline Lodge in Oregon for exteriors, with Kubrick building the entire interior on soundstages.

• The old scary naked lady in the bathtub – 'the back is really tough.' Has untapped meme potential though: 'hot naked lady / old scary naked lady' for before/after takes.
• The bear costume blowjob scene – remains completely inexplicable.
• The Shelley Duvall stories – knowing she became physically ill, her hair fell out, and Kubrick was intentionally cruel makes it hard to watch. She was never the same afterward, going straight to Popeye with Robert Altman.
• Dick Hallorann's extended travel sequence – three minutes of him calling Duke from 'Rocky', asking a stewardess about arrival times, driving to get the snowcat. Sean argues Kubrick needed to get you out of the hotel periodically, but it could lose a few minutes.

• Jack Nicholson wanted Jessica Lange for Wendy – Kubrick talked him out of it. Nicholson ended up doing The Postman Always Rings Twice with her instead.
• Harrison Ford was briefly considered – would have been a very different vibe.
• Robert De Niro and Robin Williams were considered – Kubrick decided Williams would be 'too psychotic.' De Niro not doing it meant he was free for Raging Bull.
• Harry Dean Stanton was originally cast as Lloyd the bartender but couldn't take the role because of Alien.

• Tony Burton – the guy Scatman Crothers calls to get the snowcat. 'That's Duke, Apollo Creed's trainer from the 'Rocky' movies'.
• Barry Nelson as Stuart Ullman – the hotel manager who delivers the setup by casually mentioning Indian burial grounds and the previous caretaker's murders.

• Nicholson in the maze chase at the end – already has frostbite even though Danny is running around fine in a sweater.
• Both leads are on 11 the whole movie – Sean argues if either had tried to be understated, it wouldn't have worked. The fact they're both going for it is what makes it special.

• Lloyd the bartender – 'Your credit is always good here, Mr. Torrance.' Really creepy with the downward look and weird smile.
• Philip Stone as Delbert Grady – has basically one scene but it's the most contained and chilling performance. The n-word drop is when 'the movie turns and you're like, this is evil'.

Young Meryl Streep as Wendy – Deer Hunter/'Kramer vs. Kramer'-era Streep. Her superpower at that time was quiet intensity, the exact opposite of Duvall's off-the-rails energy.

• Danny Lloyd's iconic finger movement as Tony was spontaneous during his first audition – Kubrick loved it and kept it.
• Nicholson said Duvall's performance was the most difficult role he'd ever seen an actress take on.
• The 'Here's Johnny' scene took three days to film and destroyed 60 doors.
• Kubrick was so protective of Danny Lloyd that they made him think they were filming a drama – he didn't know it was a horror movie until years later. Wendy carrying Danny in the Colorado Lounge scene is actually a life-size dummy.
• Filming was supposed to take 17 weeks and took 51, delaying other productions including 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
• The snow in the maze was 900 tons of salt and crushed Styrofoam.
• Shelley Duvall ran out of tears from crying so many days in a row and kept bottles of water on set to stay hydrated enough to cry.
• Shot at Elstree Studios in London. The Timberline Lodge in Oregon specifically requested Kubrick not use room 217 (as in the book), so he changed it to 237 – room 217 is now their most requested room.

• Shelley Duvall – though Nashville and Annie Hall are in the conversation. After 'The Shining' she went straight to Popeye, 'one of the all-time fiascos'.
• Caretakers – 'what is the best caretaker movie? This is a tough look for Airbnb'.
• Bartenders named Lloyd.

• Danny's neck bruises from room 237 clear up suspiciously fast – 'huge red splotches and scratches, gone immediately.' Though if you believe in the haunting, maybe it did go away.
• Danny not getting cold in the maze despite sub-zero weather while wearing just a sweater – 'maybe he's a little healthier than his dad'.

• What's the proper reaction if you're standing in a hallway and blood starts pouring out of the elevators? Bill: 'Usain Bolt' – Chris: 'vaulting off Scatman Crothers' dead body like it was a trampoline'.
• Was Danny sexually abused? The hosts didn't read it that way but acknowledge it's a theory. In the book, Hallorann is the one who was abused. Sean says go see Doctor Sleep for more mythology about what it means to shine.
• What does the ending mean? Jack is in a photo from July 4th, 1921. The theory: the hotel eats souls, absorbs them, and takes on a new person – the name Grady, the name Jack, they're all 'servants of the house' reincarnated across centuries.
• Why are there two Gradys – Charles (mentioned by Ullman) and Delbert (the ghost waiter)? Fits the reincarnation theory.
• What's the deal with the impossible windows? Ullman's office has a window that architecturally can't exist given the hotel's layout. Bill thinks it's a continuity error; conspiracy theorists say Kubrick doesn't make mistakes.

Stanley Kubrick over Jack Nicholson – Sean argues Nicholson is actually uneven in the first hour and gets better as he goes more insane. Bill: 'He's never able to play it straight enough because he's Jack Nicholson' – even in the car driving to the hotel, you can see the Nicholson edge that signals he might kill them later.