The Shining Multiple Choice Quiz | 10 Questions

Answer: Boulder

The story opens with Jack at a job interview at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado's Rockies. After being hired by the owner, Mr. Ullman, he is taken on a short tour of the hotel to learn of the various maintenance-type tasks he will have to perform. His wife, Wendy, and his young five-year-old son, Danny, remain in Boulder, awaiting the news. The family, desperately in need of cash after a few horrible incidents in their old home in the northeast states, is excited (and possibly a bit nervous) about the plan. While Wendy is worried about the isolation, and the obscure idea of spending an entire weekend alone in a vacant hotel, Danny, (with the help of his invisible friend, Tony) has been seeing things which could prove to be prophetic, up to and including his angry father, chasing him down a dark corridor with a large wooden club. The word REDRUM flashes before his mind, and although he can't put his finger on it, he knows it's a bad word- worse than the word DIVORCE, which he heard on the mind of his mother after the accident.
Back in Maine, Jack had hurt Danny after he found that his son had nearly destroyed a play he had been working on. Somewhat drunk, Jack went to grab Danny's arm, but broke it instead. Wendy had nearly tried to ask for a divorce, but luckily, after an odd accident that Jack had with his friend, Al Shockley (who got Jack the Overlook job), the situation was avoided, and to top it off, Jack stopped drinking. Unfortunately, shortly after this, Jack cut a student from his debate team in a school where he had a teaching job, and the student, George Hatfield, slashed his tires. The incident was described as Jack 'losing his temper', but after the fact, a board of directors voted 6-1 for him to be suspended indefinitely, with Al being the single vote against.
So they moved to Boulder to start anew, and Jack earned his job at the Overlook, still sober. The family begins to pack for the winter.

Answer: Florida

The Torrance family arrive at the Overlook Hotel in their VW Beetle (although it barely makes the trip) and they are surprised to see many of the guests still checking out of the hotel. While they wait to be 'checked in' for the winter, they are shown around the grounds, passing the hedge maze, a playground, various rooms, and a roque court, which Danny finds particularly eerie. Danny realizes that the roque club was what his father dragged around the corridors in Tony's vision.

He hides his true feelings to his parents, who begin to like the idea of staying in the hotel. Shortly after, the family is introduced to Mr. Hallorann, the Overlook Hotel's friendly chef, who shows them around the overstocked pantry.

After a quick meeting, Danny is surprised to find that he can speak with Mr. Hallorann through his mind.

As he takes his things to the car, Hallorann (Dick, to his friends) tells Danny of 'the shining', which may be the ability to see into the future, and may be the ability to read minds. Hallorann warns Danny to stay away from a certain room, and if he needs help, to just call.

Answer: On the roof

After the staff of the Overlook departs for the winter holiday, Ullman takes it upon himself to give the Torrances a tour of the hotel they will be residing in. They continue along, even stopping within the Presidential Suite, where Danny sees a horrific scene in the bedroom. A man sits splayed against the wall, riddled with bullet holes and covered in blood. He speaks nothing of it as they continue to their living quarters. After this, Ullman leaves them at the front door, alone.
While Wendy and Danny head to Sidewinder for supplies, Jack decides to begin work on the roof, fixing the shingles and preparing for winter. While doing this, he comes along a wasp's nest, lodged under the old shingles. Using a bug bomb, he defeats the bugs and takes a piece as a souvenir for Danny, who places it in his room next to his bed when he gets home. Wendy also notes that she's made doctor's appointments for the family so that they can be checked up before winter hits.
That night, Danny wakes up to find three wasps on his hand, and after they sting him, Jack and Wendy run in to find the wasp's nest crawling with live insects. Jack quickly gets the nest out into the cold, then later incinerates it. They make a note to have the stings checked at the doctor's shortly after.

Answer: Room 217

After the wasp incident, the family goes to Dr. Edmonds in Sidewinder, who examines Danny physically, and mentally. He asks Danny about Tony, his invisible friend, and deduces a few conclusions, also revealing the fact that Danny knew what his mother was thinking about in the waiting room. Edmonds later tells Jack and Wendy that Danny is, mentally, very advanced for his age. He tells them about Tony, and relates it to the idea of their thoughts of divorce back when Jack was drinking. Wendy describes their current situation the happiest she's ever been in her life.
Jack later begins rooting through the boxes in the basement of the Overlook, an event Danny foresaw earlier, and he finds an old scrapbook outlining the dark past of the Overlook, including its shady owners (all seeming to have a connection with a billionaire, Horace Derwent) and a few dealings with unfriendly mobs. Jack decides that his next project will involve a history of the hotel.
Danny, meanwhile, stops outside the door to Room 217, the room that Hallorann said not to enter. He nearly goes inside, but decides against it. Now frightened, he rushes back to the kitchen, what he feels is one of the safer rooms in the hotel.
When the family heads back into Sidewinder, Jack makes an angry call to Ullman, stating that he wants to make a book about the Overlook. Ullman considers firing Jack over the situation, claiming that such a book would tarnish the hotel. Jack leaves it at that and the family returns to the Overlook as snow begins to fall.

Answer: Excedrin

As the family begins to settle into their winter home, Wendy begins to notice that Jack is displaying symptoms that he had when he used to drink (such as wiping his mouth constantly and chewing Excedrin pills). She brushes it aside as she and Danny are assured that he hasn't had a drop. She considers the stay a blessing, as she'd rather be with Jack than with her verbally abusive mother. Danny agrees with this as well.
While Danny and Wendy head to Sidewinder to pick up supplies before the bad snowfall hits, Jack takes the opportunity to trim the hedge animals on the grounds. It is at this time he decides to sit on the old playground, and as he looks to the hedges various times, he notices that they may be moving into different positions. He attributes this to hallucinations.
After snow flies, the family takes to the inside of the hotel, and on one afternoon while Jack is in the basement and Wendy is napping, Danny returns to Room 217 with the key and intrudes. In the bathroom, he finds the dead body of a previous tenant who reportedly killed herself a few years earlier. He tries to flee, but is blocked by the locked door. The woman follows him as he blacks out.
Jack, meanwhile, dreams about his father in the basement. During this, however, he sleepwalks to the family's CB radio, their only communication with the outside world (with the telephones out). He ends up unknowingly destroying it before waking up.

Answer: Snowmobile

After destroying the radio, Jack begins to feel the isolation of the hotel and he makes his way to the Colorado Lounge. Upon entering the bar, he thinks that he sees the faint glimmer of bottles on the shelves, but when he turns on the lights, he finds nothing there.
After this, Jack and Wendy find Danny at the top of the lobby stairs. They take him to the kitchen where Danny tells the story of Room 217 and the lady in the bathtub. Jack takes the opportunity to check for himself while Wendy can't help but think that Jack was the one who hurt their son, bruising his neck. When Jack goes into the room's bathroom, he sees nothing out of the ordinary, even after pulling back the shower curtain to look into the bathtub. When he begins to leave though, he notices a bathmat on the ground (which should have been removed before the family arrived). It's at this moment that the shower curtain swipes closed and Jack makes a break for the door, only to find it locked. As he hears footsteps behind him, he races out and locks the door with the key that Danny left behind, somehow feeling that someone is still on the other side. When he returns to the family's residence, he claims that he saw nothing in Room 217.
Wendy feels that the family (at least, she and Danny) should leave, so he checks in on the snowmobile to take them back to Sidewinder. However, he soon decides that the family would be better at the Overlook, and he takes out crucial pieces, stranding them there.

Answer: A mask

After Jack works with the snowmobile, Danny puts on his snowshoes and hikes to the playground, which he hasn't had an interest in until that time. When he decides to hide in the cave-like structure (now covered in snow), the tunnel he entered through closes in on him. Frightened, he hears the sound of crunching leaves behind him as he struggles to tunnel his way back out. He narrowly escapes, running out of the playground. Looking back, he thinks he can see a hand waving and a meek voice asking if he'll come and play (forever...and forever...and forever...). Unfortunately, Danny's ordeal doesn't end there. As he turns around, he hears the soft sound of snow falling in a large clump behind him. The hedge animals begin to chase him across the grounds, moving every moment he isn't looking. As he makes it to the patio, one of the hedge lions gnaws his ankle and Jack rushes outside to find his son at the door. He blames the injury on the crust of the snow, but Danny knows his father knows the truth. When Danny tries to tell his parents that his father is lying, Jack hits Danny, and Wendy takes him away from Jack.
That night, Wendy lets the idea slide with Jack, and they all go to bed. In the middle of the night, however, they are woken up but a loud humming and thumping noise. As they look through the halls for the source of it, they find that the elevator, which hasn't been used through the winter (save Jack's exploration of Room 217), is in motion. Before Jack stops it with a key, both Danny and Wendy think they hear dance music and party chatter, and Wendy decides to face her claustrophobia to jump into the elevator. Here, she finds a piece of streamer and a sequined party mask. Frightened, she tells Jack that there's something wrong with the hotel.
When the first day of December hits, Danny waits in the lobby, staring at a clock. Worried, he tries to talk to Tony, and he does. He sees a vision in the hallway outside the presidential suite involving the mysterious word, REDRUM, and the man with the roque mallet. He also sees Hallorann, dressed in his chef outfit and decides to call him for help with his mind. Before leaving the vision, he spies the clock again. On the glass dome of the timepiece, the word REDRUM flashes, but reflected in the orb, it shows the reverse of the image: MURDER. After this, the date December 2 appears, and he falls into unconsciousness.

Answer: Oranges

In Florida, while heading to work from the grocery store, Hallorann begins to smell oranges, which he assumes is natural having spent his time in a market. However, he nearly swipes a car after Danny's voice pounds in his head, asking for help. Hallorann quickly makes the decision to head to Colorado to help the Torrances, especially Danny as he feels that they share a bond. Hallorann leaves work, claiming to be visiting a relative in the hospital, and rushes to catch a flight. He is stopped by the cops, and is forced to catch a flight the next morning.
On the night of December 1st, Jack stands at the boiler, watching it reach 220 psi, near the point of a dangerous explosion. Having been digging through papers regarding the Overlook and its shady past, he had forgotten to make the boiler creep back down. When he fixes it, he knows that the Overlook will reward him for saving the hotel, so he goes for a drink at the bar. He is surprised to find a party in the ballroom and lounge, and he pulls up to the bar for a drink.
Before this, Wendy finds Danny in the lobby, having fallen off the chair (he thinks Jack may have hurt him again). Before they make their way to bed, she grabs a knife from the kitchen and hides it in a dishtowel under their mattress. That night, Danny wakes up, knowing his father is in the ballroom. As he makes his way out of the residence, he sees a savage man in a dog costume at the end of the hall, and he is chased back to his room. He knows that the hotel is preventing him from stopping his father, and he resigns from his objective.
Jack continues to mingle at the party and he finds Grady, the former caretaker (who killed his wife and daughters) serving drinks. Grady states that Jack has always been the caretaker of the Overlook, and in order for them to succeed, Jack must 'correct' Danny. He (and others) allude to the idea that Danny may be the one that the Overlook is after, but Jack assumes that he is the powerful one.
At midnight, the party 'unmasks', and Jack witnesses the clock striking twelve. Two clockwork figures emerge from the clock; one, a man with a mallet, and the other, a young boy. As the man begins to beat at the wooden child with the mallet, blood begins to hit the sides of the glass dome, and Jack wakes up at 8:30am. Still feeling the after-effects of the drinking, he crawls behind the bar and continues to fall off the wagon.

Answer: The pantry

Wendy decides to search for Jack, and when she finds him behind the bar in the lounge, clearly drunk (though she wonders how, as no alcohol is to be found), he attacks her, nearly strangling her. Danny is able to distract him while Wendy takes a bottle and knocks her husband unconscious. They quickly drag him to the pantry and lock him inside for safety, knowing that both parties will be able to survive with the food they have until the weather is better and a ranger can stop by. When they return to their room though, the Overlook comes to life around them- they can hear the ballroom's loud music, and the elevator running.
Hallorann, meanwhile, arrives in Colorado and decides to take the journey to the Overlook. When he takes the dangerous highways to Sidewinder, he trades in his car for a snowmobile and continues on his way.
Back at the Overlook, however, Jack awakens in the pantry to hear the voice of Grady outside the door. After reassuring the 'ghost' that he will chastise his son and punish his wife, the door unlocks, and he walks out to find the butcher's block with a glass of gin on the top, and the roque mallet to the side.
Wendy gets an odd feeling though. Laying in bed, listening to the sounds of the Overlook, she thinks she hears Jack talking about escaping in the kitchen (through the vents). She decides to go downstairs and check, leaving Danny in the bedroom. She pockets the knife she had earlier and heads to the lobby. When she arrives, she finds it deserted, and when she looks to the clock, she finds that it is striking the hour. In all righteousness, it should be 8pm, but instead, it strikes midnight, and the ghosts in the ballroom exclaim the unmasking. At this point, Jack ambushes her with the mallet, hitting her in the stomach and grazing her face. As she flees for the stairs, she uses the knife she has to stab him in the lower back, bringing him down. Thinking he's dead, she slowly climbs the stairs to the residence to reach Danny, but when she gets about halfway up, Jack rises again, and picks up the mallet to finish her off claiming that she killed him.

Answer: Razor blades

He hits her a few more times down the hallway, but she manages to crawl into the residence and lock the door. She doesn't find Danny in bed though, and she decides to hide away in the bathroom as Jack breaks down the door. As he tears the place apart, she finds razor blades to defend herself from her maniacal husband. As they fight at the doorway, a motor is heard in the distance, and Jack scrambles away, leaving Wendy helpless, alone, and bloodied in the bathroom.
Hallorann, meanwhile, pulls up to the Overlook on the snowmobile to find a hedge lion waiting for him. The lion pounces on him, clawing at him and forcing him away from the vehicle. Using gasoline and a lighter, he lights his arm on fire and punches the topiary, setting it ablaze. He drives past the others and enters the Overlook to find the trail leading upstairs. Here, while investigating the bloody floors, Jack jumps at him from within the elevator and hits him in the face with the roque mallet, bringing him down. Jack continues on to look for Danny, who he finds upstairs outside the presidential suite. Danny explains that even if he is killed, the Overlook won't win because Jack forgot to watch the boiler all this time. Jack quickly runs down to the basement while Danny gathers his mother and Hallorann from the hallway and they race outside before the clock in the lobby strikes midnight and the Overlook explodes.
The three survivors make their way to the shed to get some blankets to protect them from the cold, and Hallorann realizes that the ghosts of the Overlook may not have left quite yet. He quickly rushes the mother and son away as the shed, hotel, and hedges slowly burn away. While they drive down the mountain, a rescue team rides up, and they are brought back to Sidewinder, safe at last.