Why It's Super Creepy That THE DARK TOWER Made $19M on its Opening Weekend

The long-awaited Adaptation of Stephen King's Magnum Opus topped the weekend box office. The Dark Tower barely edged out Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk pulling in more than $19M dollars. That's great news for fans of the movie, but for true Stephen King fans that number 19 might raise a few eyebrows.

That's because the number 19 is important to The Dark Tower series, especially in the last three books. In the books Roland Deschain and his group start seeing the number everywhere: names that have 19 letters, numbers whose digits add up and total 19, and branches that spell out the numbers, etc.

These instances are pointed out on the Dark Tower Wiki:

  • Eddie Dean flys in Delta flight 910 to New York. 9 + 10 add up to 19.
  • Alice is told to tell Nort nineteen to find out what is on the other side after death.
  • When Jake Chambers visits Calvin Tower's bookstore, The Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind, there are 21 books on the table when Jake buys 2 from it leaving 19 behind.
  • One of the books Jake buys is Charlie the Choo-Choo and is written by a Beryl Evans when he buys it. Later, it changes to Claudia y Inez Bachman, which totals 19 letters. This is even more interesting when the fictional Stephen King says that Claudia Inez Bachman was the "wife" of his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. However, he states that he did not add the y. Ka must have added the y to make the total 19 and to signify the Keystone World.
  • The character Stephen King lives in the nineteenth house on Turtleback Lane.
  • Charles Champignon became a full gunslinger at the age of nineteen.
  • There are only nineteen oil derricks at Citgo work.
  • There are 19 steps between each door inside the Dark Tower.
  • Jamie Jaffords was nineteen when he made a stand against the Wolves of Thunderclap.
  • Castle Discordia has 595 doors to different whens and wheres. 5+9+5 totals 19.
  • The North Central Positronics device called Daria is run with a code called Directive 19 which stops it giving certain information to the user. Overriding the commands causes the device to stop working.

And it gets weirder.

Stephen King started writing his Dark Tower series at the age of 19. This may be why he ended up choosing the number to be so important in the books.

19 is also a significant number in most of King's other works of fiction. Here are a few examples of where it shows up:

11/22/63

  • Jake Epping sees a Plymouth Fury the license plate number is 90-811 which adds up to 19
  • His license plate also adds up to 19, 23383IY.
  • The for rent sign in New Orleans says to call MU3-4192 and that adds to 19.
  • The Dunnings live at 379 Kossuth St. in Derry. This address adds up to 19 .
  • While teaching Jake how to play cribbage, Andy Cullum refers to a hand that he calls "mystic nineteen".

The Shining

  • Wendy counts 19 stairs.
  • Room 217 (2+17=19)

Duma Key

  • Pam's email is pamorama667 (6+6+7=19)
  • The Delta flight his daughter takes home is number 559 (5+5+9=19)
  • Edgar's email is EFree19
  • The digits of Pam's hotel room also add to 19.

Under the Dome

  • Colonel James Cox reports that the Dome hit the ground at 11:44 (11+4+4=19)
  • The radio station's security code, found with the spare key, is 1693 (1+6+9+3=19)

The Tommyknockers

  • King started writing The Tommyknockers on August 19th 1982 and finished on May 19th, 1987 (cited on the last page of the book)

The Dead Zone

  • The first time Johnny Smith predicts the wheel of fortune will land on a number through premonition, the number is 19.
  • Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (a novella from Different Seasons)
  • The rockhammer that Andy uses to escape wears down and he needs a new one from Red. It takes 19 years for this to happen.
  • It's also mentioned that the original hole Andy escapes from was made in 19 years.
  • Chris from The Body graduates 19th in his class in high school.

Christine

  • The climax of the story takes place on January 19
  • Doctor Sleep
  • A character is revealed to have died on 19 January 1999

Revival

  • Charles Daniel Jacobs' name is 19 letters long (7+6+6=19)

Mr. Mercedes

  • Bill Hodge's screen name given to him from the Mercedes Killer is kermitfrog19.
  • Similarly, Olivia Trelawey's screen name from the Mercedes Killer ended in 19.

Cell

  • The numbers 6904 in the tail number (LN6409B) on the plane that crashes in Chapter 1 add up to 19. Also, L = 12, N = 14 = 5, B = 2 --- 12 + 5 + 2 = 19.

Some think the appearances of 19 in his early works are coincidence, but is seems to be intentional in his later work. It is unclear, however if the repeating appearance means that all these stories take place in the Keystone World or are echoes of that world.

SOURCE: Dark Tower Wiki

 

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