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Does The Shining have a distinct location or is it like Springfield where you can make a good guess but it's never really described?

Napoleon Wilson
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Max Astall
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2 Answers2

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It looks like you're asking about the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie.

In that movie it's not clearly defined the exact location of the hotel. However we are given a few facts to narrow down the location:

The Overlook is located somewhere in the Colorado Rockies.

The Overlook is 25 miles from the nearest town; Sidewinder. Sidewinder however is a fictional town, so this doesn't provide any real help narrowing down the Overlook's location. (Thanks to Raidri for providing this information).

The Overlook is within driving distance from Boulder Colorado (where The family is staying prior to going to the Overlook).

onewho
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  • Is it any clearer in the bood do you know or is it just as ambiguous? Thanks for your answer! – Max Astall Oct 02 '17 at 13:52
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    The book is only slightly clearer. It's still located somewhere in the Colorado Rockies, but I know the book clearly names the town closest to it (though I'd have to do some digging to find the exact name). – onewho Oct 02 '17 at 13:55
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    The town is Sidewinder, but it is a fictional town, so no help in locating the Overlook. – Raidri Oct 02 '17 at 14:34
  • @Raidri Thanks for finding that; I hope you don't mind if I add that info to the answer. – onewho Oct 02 '17 at 14:36
  • Of course not. Go ahead. – Raidri Oct 02 '17 at 14:37
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    The exterior of Overlook was Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood in Oregon. – John Bell Oct 02 '17 at 16:15
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    The Overlook was based on a real hotel, The Stanley, located in the Colorado Rockies. – Lindsey D Oct 02 '17 at 20:23
  • Does the movie mention where Hallorann flies into? Or is it just a generic Colorado airport? – C.J. Jackson Oct 03 '17 at 00:03
  • I read it recently but i don't remember - are any further details given in Dr. Sleep? – Todd Wilcox Oct 03 '17 at 01:10
  • Technically, Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost point on South America, is driveable from Colorado. I have a friend who drove it (from a northern US state) – user151841 Oct 03 '17 at 03:30
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    ... except for the Darien Gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap – DaveM Oct 03 '17 at 03:55
  • Also in the book Doctor Sleep, a sequel to the Shining by King, it all ends on the roof of the world which is a place in Colorado and I believe they mention that the Hotel was around there before it burned down completely. They also mention in that book that as Danny remembers the hotel that from the dining room you could see the highest peaks of the rockies in the west and to the east you could see all the way to boulder. – AtheistP3ace Oct 03 '17 at 14:07
  • @DaveM The Darien Gap is, technically, drivable, in the sense that more than one person has driven an off-road vehicle across it. But anybody who reads up on the details of that will understand that I'm emphasizing your point, rather than contradicting it. ;-) – David Richerby Oct 03 '17 at 16:35
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According to this essay:

Kubrick's film claims the Overlook Hotel is built on an Indian burial ground, though this is only mentioned in passing. King's Pet Sematary (1983) does feature such a burial ground, but this novel does not.

We are given few hints to the root of the hotel's evil, if there is a root. King has suggested that the Overlook is a kind of extension of hell, or a pathway to it. By hell, we mean the idea of hell, whatever that means to you.

It's definitely intimately involved with the hell of the mind and the idea of hell on earth. How precisely the Overlook came to be such a place, or how the problems might be connected to the land, are up for interpretation.

Community
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Samuel
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  • Ah i remember the Indian Burial Ground throwaway line now. Seems interesting that they don't give it an actual location .Thanks for the comment! – Max Astall Oct 02 '17 at 13:40
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    I'm not sure how this answers the question. Saying that it's in the same place as some other unknown location doesn't help at all. "Where's John's house?" "It's right in front of his garden!" "OK. But, seriously, where's John's house?" – David Richerby Oct 02 '17 at 16:16
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    Additionally, this answer is plagiarized verbatim from https://www.shmoop.com/shining-stephen-king/setting.html. – Sam Hanley Oct 03 '17 at 16:21
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    If you copy another website wholesale, please remember to (1) put the parts that are not of your own origin into proper quote formatting to denote them as such and (2) include a reference to the original source, preferably with a link. – Napoleon Wilson Oct 03 '17 at 17:15