THE SHINING Fan Points Out That Jack Nicolson's Jack Torrance Breaks the Fourth Wall

Over four decades have passed since the release of director Stanely Kubrick’s classic horror film The Shining, but the discerning eyes of fans continue to unearth new revelations in Kubrick's chilling masterpiece. Amidst this ongoing exploration, writer, and Kubrick fan Filippo Ulivieri has shed some new light on a captivating aspect regarding Jack Nicholson, who plays Jack Torrance in the film. He believes that Jack subtly breaks the fourth wall not once, not twice, but multiple times throughout the film. These brief moments occur quickly which is why fans may have missed it. This is actually a cool theory that I buy into!

Ulivieri shared an extensive 50-part Twitter thread, which dissects the phenomenon. Breaking the fourth wall, a narrative technique typically executed only once in a movie or TV show, takes on an entirely divergent essence within The Shining. He explains: "What Nicholson does in The Shining is instead completely different. It does not feel deliberate, and it may well escape our perception. In fact, as I said, I’m not aware of anybody noticing it so far." 

Emphasizing the complexity and significance of this revelation, Ulivieri believes that dismissing such intricacy as mere oversight proves challenging. The amount of occurrences defies coincidence. He says: "it is difficult to dismiss this detail as a mistake. There are just too many, it cannot be accidental." There are examples shared within the thread that underscore the pervasive nature of this theory.es:

He continues: "My idea is that perhaps Kubrick used this unusually constant and imperceptible breaking of the fourth wall as another way of challenging movie conventions. What he has done here is formally wrong – it goes against dramaturgical norms and film grammar. 

"Moreover, I think The Shining is an extreme film in many ways. It’s so over the top that it places itself between the scary and the ridiculous. So maybe this is another over-the-top idea that Kubrick had. Like, why don’t we break the fourth wall, but we do it all the time?"

Here are a couple of examples: