"A masterpiece of modern horror."
The Shining - Movie Quotes
Memorable Quotes
Heeere's Johnny!
— Jack Torrance
Context:
After chasing Wendy into the bathroom, Jack uses an axe to chop through the wooden door. He smashes a panel, shoves his face through the opening, and delivers the line with a maniacal grin before attempting to unlock the door.
Meaning:
This ad-libbed line, a reference to Ed McMahon's introduction of Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," is a moment of terrifying, psychotic glee. It signifies the complete destruction of Jack's identity as a husband and father, replaced by a monstrous, pop-culture-spouting killer. The line's jarring mundanity in a moment of extreme horror makes it profoundly unsettling and iconic.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
— Jack Torrance (written)
Context:
While Jack is away from his typewriter, Wendy nervously approaches his desk to see what he has been writing for months. She picks up the manuscript and discovers that every single page contains only this one repeated sentence, arranged in various layouts.
Meaning:
This proverb, typed over and over on hundreds of pages, is the physical manifestation of Jack's descent into madness. It represents his creative sterility, his obsessive fixation, and the complete breakdown of his rational mind. The discovery of these pages is the moment Wendy realizes the true depth of her husband's insanity and that he has been consumed by a repetitive, meaningless task instead of writing his novel.
Come play with us, Danny. Forever... and ever... and ever.
— The Grady Twins
Context:
While riding his tricycle through the hotel's corridors, Danny rounds a corner and sees the ghostly twin girls standing at the end of the hall. In a series of quick cuts, he also sees a bloody vision of their murdered bodies lying in the same spot.
Meaning:
This chilling invitation is a direct supernatural threat. The twins, ghosts of the hotel's violent past, are attempting to lure Danny into their spectral world, promising an eternity of ghostly existence within the Overlook. The phrase highlights the hotel's desire to consume innocent souls and add them to its collection of ghosts.
REDRUM
— Danny Torrance / Tony
Context:
Danny falls into a trance, repeatedly chanting the word "redrum" in a guttural voice. He takes Wendy's red lipstick and writes the word in capital letters on the bathroom door. A terrified Wendy later sees the word reflected in the mirror, revealing its true meaning: "MURDER."
Meaning:
"Redrum" is the film's most direct and terrifying premonition of violence. As a palindrome of "murder," it functions as a psychic warning from Danny's subconscious (or his entity "Tony"). Its meaning becomes clear only when seen in a mirror, symbolizing how the truth of the situation is hidden and must be viewed from a different perspective to be understood.
You've always been the caretaker.
— Delbert Grady
Context:
Jack confronts the ghost of Delbert Grady in the red-walled men's room. When Jack says he recognizes Grady as the previous caretaker who murdered his family, Grady calmly denies it, insisting that Jack is, and has always been, the caretaker.
Meaning:
This statement from the ghostly butler solidifies the film's theme of a recurring, inescapable cycle of violence. It implies that Jack is not the first, and that his identity is being subsumed by a role the hotel requires him to play. It can be interpreted as evidence for the reincarnation theory—that Jack's soul has occupied this role before in a past life.