Just found out the original ending for 'The Shining' was way different, saw it in a documentary

I was watching a film history thing on cable last night, and they said Stanley Kubrick cut a whole final scene from the movie. It was supposed to show the hotel manager finding Jack Torrance frozen in the maze on the morning after, and then it cuts to a shot of the photo in the hotel lobby, suggesting the cycle just repeats. They showed the storyboards. It's way more bleak and on the nose than the ending we got, which just fades out on the photo. Kinda makes you think about how much a final cut changes everything. What's another movie where the scrapped ending was actually better?

3 comments

3 Comments

harperjackson3mo ago

Wait, they had STORYBOARDS for that?

emery6032mo ago

Wait, you're telling me someone actually sat down and drew out the whole thing frame by frame? I mean, I knew studios did that for action scenes or big set pieces, but for that one moment it feels weird to think of it as something that needed planning like that. It's wild how much work goes into stuff we just watch and forget about.

robin_schmidt573mo agoMost Upvoted

I always liked the ending we got, but that sounds way more fitting.