This major reveal about The Shining's legendary ending is something we wouldn't even end up guessing

If only the late, cast of The Shining (1980), including Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, Philip Stone, and more, could see this (they probably knew). Over four decades after that head-scratching ending of the film—now we are getting to know that the ballroom photograph was an alteration of an original one.

However, that doesn't change anything about the ending—only the original photograph was found, not the final scene's meaning. So go on, keep whipping your brainy horses to churn out a new theory for the film's ending; it is still one stimulating cinematic discussion.

The New York Times investigative journalist and former trainer at Bellingcat, Aric Toler, has been looking into (and outside) the photograph used at the end of The Shining alongside Alasdair Spark, a retired British academic, for about a year.

Turns out it was taken at the Empress Rooms, the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington, by Topical Press Agency at a St. Valentine's Day Ball, 14 February 1921, as Spark notes. In the one we saw in the film, Jack Nicholson's face replaced the man named Santos Casani, who was previously identified via facial recognition.

The Shining's ending gave the audience head scratches for a lifetime

We shouldn't really say "lifetime," because someday, it may be solved for good, or, well, maybe never, whatever. But at least we need to thank Aric to at least solve one mystery around it.

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Even today, one can find hot discussions around the Stanley Kubrick film, especially about the photograph, and many are likely to keep emerging in the days to come. There are several loose ends and tying them into one is a near impossibility.

The best someone has done analyzing not just The Shining's ending but the entire film would be Rob Ager. In chapter 15 of his MAZES, MIRRORS, DECEPTION AND DENIAL, 'THIS IS OUR GOLD BALL ROOM,' he writes about conducting extensive research for the year in the photo—1921—and found a couple of themes, connecting it to President Woodrow Wilson.

Anyway, the point is, even he couldn't tie up all the loose ends. Maybe that ending isn't meant to be tied at all.

The absorbing theory is the most absorbent one

While Stanley Kubrick may have wanted to keep it that way it remains a hot topic for decades to come (he succeeded if that's the case). But there is this theory that the hotel absorbed Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson). To this, Film critic, Jonathan Romney writes:

"Is it just that, like Poe's purloined letter, the thing in plain sight is the last thing you see? When you do see it, the effect is so unsettling because you realise the unthinkable was there under your nose – overlooked – the whole time."

That's certainly one of the most logical answers to this ambiguity.

One thing that could have made the ending of The Shining certain was its 2019 sequel, Doctor Sleep, based on King's 2013 novel of the same name. But then Mike Flanagan, the film's director, decided to do some scraping and add the ending from Stephen King's 1977 novel, which wasn't added to The Shining, and add it to the 2019 film.

The Overlook Hotel we saw in Doctor Sleep never stood there in King's 2013 novel. It seems like certain creators overlooked it. But that happened with King—who previously mercilessly criticized the Kubrick film when it was released—being Flanagan's partner in crime.

For Mike Flanagan's movie, he said (via Entertainment Weekly):

"I read the script to this one very, very carefully. Because obviously I wanted to do a good job with the sequel, because people knew the book The Shining, and I thought, I don't want to screw this up. Mike Flanagan, I've enjoyed all his movies, and I've worked with him before on Gerald's Game. So, I read the script very, very carefully and I said to myself, 'Everything that I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here."

Finally!