9 Legendary Deleted Film Scenes (You'll Never Get To See)
5. Hospital Epilogue - The Shining
Stanley Kubrick's classic adaptation of Stephen King's novel was originally released with a little epilogue. It shows Wendy and Danny recovering in hospital, having survived the horror of the Overlook Hotel. The Hotels manager comes to visit, making sure they're alright and also telling Wendy that the police couldn't find any trace of Jack Nicholson's character.
Kubrick added this scene so the audience would know the characters were OK, but quickly decided it wasn't needed and had it removed from every print. For good measure, every known copy of this scene was destroyed. The only evidence of it left are some script pages and a few grainy stills. While not strictly a necessary scene, it's only grown in legend over the years. Kubrick was something of a perfectionist, so the fact he let this scene make it into cinemas only to quickly change his mind gives it an air of mystery.
This epilogue also adds another layer of the supernatural to the story; Nicholson's character looked pretty dead in his final shot, so where did his frozen body go? Probably one question too far in a story already loaded with them.