Jay Weidner

Secrets of The Shining:

Or How Faking the Moon Landings Nearly
Cost Stanley Kubrick his Marriage and his Life.

By Jay Weidner

page 2

Finally the ball bounces away from Jack and disappears into the darkness of the hotel. Jack walks over and looks down at the model of the maze. He sees Wendy and Danny caught in the middle of the maze, totally unaware of the nature of the deal that he has cut with the Overlook.

A cold winter storm has now blown over the Hotel. The oncoming storm is a symbol of the Cold War between Russia and the United States. Of course the Cold War is also one of the driving forces for the entire reason for faking the moon landings. It was necessary to hide the advanced U.S. saucer technology from the Soviet Union. We were living in a very dangerous world and it was shrewd to hide our advanced technology from the Russians. This is the reason for the bears that are seen all over The Shining. The Russian Bear, and its competition for the race to the Moon, was a driving force behind having to fake the Apollo Moon landings.

Jack, his family, and the Overlook Hotel, are trapped in the Cold, just as America was trapped in the Cold War with Russia. The stuffed bears, seen through out the film, are the Soviet Empire's symbol.

Symbolically the Bears seen through the film are also the representation of the pressure that the Russians put on the USA to get to the Moon. They had to fake the moon landings and cover up the real truth behind the flying saucer craft and machinery that the US government actually has created and employed since World War Two.

Danny is riding his bike through the halls of The Overlook when he comes upon the twin dughters of the previous caretaker. They stare at Danny and together they say: "Come play with us Danny. Forever and ever." Danny turns and wheels it out of there.

At this point in the film we graphically discover the nature of the deal that Jack really cut with the Manager of the Overlook:

It is the most crucial scene in the film. Danny is in a hallway playing with his trucks. Suddenly, out of nowhere, The Project, the Overlook Hotel, rolls the tennis ball, from nowhere, at him. It is a gesture that says: "Wanna play?" It is here that we discover what happened to Jack's tennis ball that was previously swallowed up by the darkness of the Overlook. We also discover what game it is that the twin daughters of the previous caretaker were inviting Danny to play.

Mystified by where the ball came from, Danny stands up, and the audience finally sees what the nature of the Project really is about:

As Danny stands up, the answer is revealed in an instant. Danny is wearing a sweater with a crudely sewn rocket pictured on the front. On the rocket clearly seen on Danny's sweater are the words: APOLLO 11.

The audience watching the film literally sees the launch of Apollo 11, right before their eyes, as Danny rises from the floor. It isn't the real launch of Apollo 11, it is, of course, the symbolic launching of Apollo 11. In other words - it isn't real.

What happens next is crucial to understanding everything else that happens in the film.

Danny, bewildered, walks down the hallway. He sees that Room 237 - the room that Halorann warned him about - has a key in the lock and the door is wide open.

It is important to note that the room in question was numbered 217 in the Stephen King version of The Shining. For unknown reason's Kubrick changed it to 237.

Those unknown reasons are about to be come known.

Danny is literally carrying a symbolic Apollo 11, on his body, via the sweater, to the Moon as he walks over to room 237. Why do I think this?

Because the average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 237,000 miles.

The real truth is that this movie is really about the deal that Stanley Kubrick made with the Manager of the Overlook Hotel (America). This deal was to get Kubrick to re-create, in other words, to fake, the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Danny represents the artistic side of Kubrick. Because of the complexity of the artistic realization of the manner in which the lunar landings needed to appear, Kubrick needed to trust his artistic side.

Room 237 represents the fake lunar set that Stanley had to create to make the lunar landings appear factual. But really, on this set, and in this room, nothing is real.

As the film will soon reveal, Room 237 has to be lied about. It cannot be understood at all … ever.

Nothing real ever happens in room 237.

For a moment, in the film, it looks like Danny is actually going to enter Room 237. But we are never sure.

Kubrick told the press that he changed the room number from 217, as in the King book, to 237 because the owners of the hotel which was standing in for the Overlook did not want customers shunning room 217. Therefore Kubrick changed the number to one that was not in the hotel. So I called up the Timberline Hotel on Mount Hood in Oregon and asked if I could have a reservation for room 237. I was surprised when they said 'yes'. I asked if this room was in a newer part of the resort and was told that the hotel had always had a room 237!

In the next scene Jack has a bad dream while he is working. He tells Wendy that in his dream he has killed Wendy and Danny.

Meanwhile Danny enters the scene and it is obvious that some mysterious force has physically hurt Danny. This mysterious force has also torn his Apollo 11 sweater.

Wendy, horrified, thinks that Jack did it.

In a way she is right because Danny got hurt because of the deal that Jack cut.

Frustrated, Jack goes to the bar located in the Gold Room. Obviously stressed, Jack whispers to no one that he would sell his soul for a drink.

It is then that Jack meets the real manager of the Overlook Hotel. A mysterious man suddenly appears behind the bar. His name is Lloyd and he is the bartender of the Overlook Hotel.

Clearly Stanley Kubrick shows Lloyd in a Satanic light.

Lloyd seduces Jack with a drink.

Jack has sold his soul to the Project, to being the caretaker of the Overlook.

Jack and Lloyd's conversation is interrupted by Wendy's entrance. Lloyd and Jack's glass of Scotch suddenly disappear. Wendy tells Jack that someone else is in the hotel.

Jack then goes to Room 237 and sees the manifestation of a young woman into an old woman.

Because Room 237 is, symbolically, the Lunar Set for Apollo 11, Jack has to lie to Wendy about what is going on in the room. He tells her that nothing is going on in Room 237. It is apparent that Danny must have hurt himself.