MovieChat Forums > The Shining (1997) Discussion > Major Plot Hole

Major Plot Hole

posted 10 years ago by rabiddog67
14 replies | jump to latest

I love THE SHINING and I prefer this version to the Kubrick one, but there is a major plot hole that needs to be laid at the feet of Stephen King himself. We are told that the previous caretaker Delbert Grady killed himself and that he was alone in the hotel because he had no wife and kids (unlike Kubrick version). We are also told that the boiler needs to be dumped every day to avoid blowing up. Who dumped the boiler when Grady killed himself via shotgun? Are we to believe that his body was discovered in less than a day so the boiler could be dumped? I just watched the miniseries today and this detail bothered me from the previous times (I guess it did not occur to me when I read the novel years ago), but I had forgot about it until watching again.

[–] frobandit 10 years ago

Hmm...never thought about it. I'm going to reread the book again, for the first time in like 20 years, so maybe it'll give an explanation. But probably not.

Maybe he killed himself AFTER he dumped it? I'm not an engineer or whatever so I don't know how that would affect the hotel, but that's all I got.

[–] Grandizer74 10 years ago

That's a good point. A possible explanation is maybe Grady turned the boiler off before he killed himself?

[–] JoanaMonteiro 10 years ago

That's a great question. In the book there's also that problem. There, Grady has a wife and two daughters living with him but still, he kills them and then shots himself so no one would be able to dump the boiler. I guess that either Grady remembered to turn it off before or the Hotel did, since in my opinion it happened to Grady the same it happened to Jack, so it's possible that that time the Hotel did remember to dump the boiler or to turn it off...

[–] bartlett247plus 10 years ago

I just finished reading the book today and it was the exact question that popped into my head at the end. It's an annoying detail since the hotel is able to send Grady to release Jack from the pantry, but it can't send him to deal with the boiler while Jack kills his family?

[–] briand10 10 years ago

I don't have any idea how boilers work, but could it be that a type of release valve worked when Grady was there and had simply worn out, and was too expensive for the "cheap pr!ck" Ullman to replace?

[–] sfmar 10 years ago

Granted King didn't address the issue, but it's reasonable to assume that if the hotel controlled Grady in the same manner it controlled Jack the hotel itself would have "instructed" Grady to shut the boiler down before he killed himself. The hotel wanted and needed to preserve itself, so it had to prevent the boiler from exploding.

[–] scripe 10 years ago

Yes. Danny remembers what his father and the hotel forgot. No plot hole, The hotel simply didn't forget about the boiler when Grady was the caretaker because Grady had no trouble correcting his family like Jack did.

[–] Floss-Is-Boss 10 years ago

Although not stated we have to assume one of two things, Grady shut the boiler down then killed himself, we don't know the time frame of deaths, he could have killed his family then spent weeks doing his caretaker duties, including turnng the boiler of completely then killing himself.

Or the hotel was able to do it itself, as for why it didn't do it when Jack was trying to get Danny was because it was Jack, and it had an all consuming desire to get Danny and simply forgot until it was too long

[–] star_in_the_zenith_79 10 years ago

I haven't read the book in years but I've seen both movies. Now I may be crazy but isn't it said the hotel is alive? With all the ghostly things happening at the end is it possible the hotel was it's own care taker?

This is more or less implied, in fact right before the hotel explodes the entity controlling Jack's body is referred to as the manager/caretaker.

As to why the boiler didn't explode in Grady's time I think there are several possible reasons people have brought up, legit enough to where you can't really call it a plot hole so much as a curiosity. Without it being addressed by the author there is no way of knowing. Grady may have shut it down before he killed his family, the Overlook may have possessed him same as it did Jack and shut it down..... only that time it made it on time.

From bits and pieces from the book, I get the feeling Grady was more of a loose cannon then Jack, so it was probably easier for the Overlook to control him. Grady in fact layed in a supply of booze unbeknownst to Ullman, so the hotel didn't even need to make any liquor materialize in that instance. Things may have went smoother for it in that era than it did the Torrance era, and as a result it was able to shut down the boiler in time.

Of course, it was more powerful during the Torrance era since it had Danny's abilities to tap into.

[–] prayingfordaylight 9 years ago

I did just read the book, and I believe at one point Watson said something along the lines of "he put his family in the west wing and then killed himself. the bodies were found frozen in the spring". So assuming that, he turned off the boiler before he did the deed. Still, that doesn't answer the question why no park ranger decided to drop in and see why no one was answering the CB radio. I found little plot holes like this strewn through the book, but remember King wrote this book while he was suffering from the influences of drugs and alcoholism. Great book regardless.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1178151/Stephen-Kings-Real-Horror-Story-How-novelists-addiction-drink-drugs-nearly-killed-him.html

[–] 10 years ago

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