15 Most Confusing Movie Moments Nobody Understands

12. The Picture - The Shining

Warner Bros. Pictures

The Scene: After Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) freezes to death, the movie ends on a close-up of a picture from the Overlook Hotel dated July 4, 1921, in which Jack appears with a group of party guests. This ending has confused audiences for decades, because after the relatively concrete ending of Jack dying, this allusion completely up-ends everything the audience thought they knew. How can Jack be alive in 1921? And why is he already at the hotel?

What It Probably Means: The theories are numerous, but one of the most popular suggests that Jack is reincarnated from the hotel guest (presumably the caretaker) from 1921, supported by the scene where the butler tells him, "You've always been the caretaker", as well as Stanley Kubrick letting slip that reincarnation is absolutely key to the mystery.

The other most popular theory is that when Jack dies, the hotel "claims" his soul, absorbing him back into the hotel's "furniture" by forever sealing his essence inside the 1921 picture. Whatever answer you subscribe to, it's clear that Jack is bound to the hotel in some way.

In this post: 
The Matrix
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.