Sunday, August 24, 2008

What do the Numbers Mean?

Why does Stanley Kubrick have so many of the same numbers (12, 21, 24, and 42) showing up throughout The Shining on Danny’s sweaters, room numbers, movie titles, dates, times, etc. etc.?

He wants the audience to notice them and they’re key to explaining the date in the last shot of the movie. They are quite obvious; Room 237 adds up to 12, the 21 pictures on the wall in the final shots, the numbers of the date 7/4/1921 added together equal 24, and Danny wearing the number 42 on his sweatshirt in their bathroom.





What's the significance of the four shots filmed entirely in the reflection of a mirror, and why does Stanley Kubrick have Danny wear an Apollo sweater with the number 11 on it?

Mirrors or so important in Stanley Kubrick’s “Shining”. If you read the novel it’s obvious he’s holding Stephen King’s novel up to a mirror and in the movie we are seeing that reflection.
The time codes of the four unique shots where a cast member is filmed entirely in the reflection of a mirror are part of a code that Stanley Kubrick wants us to notice throughout the movie. Just as we would never know Redrum is murder if we didn’t see it in the reflection of a mirror, we would never know of the number 11’s significance (a mirror image of itself) if we didn’t look at the time codes of the four mirror shots. Mirrors are the key clue that leads to the explanation of what the puzzling date at the end of the movie, “July 4th 1921”, actually means.

Danny’s reflection as he talks to Tony in the bathroom mirror (the duration is :24 seconds exactly and the time code is :11 minutes).


Jack’s reflection in the bedroom mirror as Wendy gives him breakfast (the duration is 1:21 minutes exactly and the time code is :35 minutes, :24+:11).


Jack’s reflection in the bedroom mirror as Danny comes in for his truck (the duration is :24 seconds exactly and the time code is :53 minutes, :42+:11).


Wendy’s reflection as she sees Redrum reflected in the bedroom mirror (the duration is :04 seconds exactly and the time code is 2 hours and :01 minute, 1:10+:11).






Why does Stanley Kubrick have an enigmatic date on the screen in the final shot instead of what you see there in thousands of classic movies, The End?

The date on the screen, 7/4/1921, is meaningless unless you add up its component numbers. It’s put at the very end of the movie as a clue to another date he has in mind, an ancient Mayan Indian prediction of the end of the world just a few years from now. Stanly Kubrick wanted us to wonder about this fictitious date while giving us numerical clues throughout the movie to the real date he believes to be a prediction of the Apocalypse. The end of this movie is a metaphor for The End of everything and he even gives us the date positioned in the most perfect spot; the end.


To get the month, take the mirror image of 21 (the number of pictures on the wall in the last shots).



To get the day, add up 7/4/1921.



To get the year, count the 20 people in the second to last close-up picture of the movie.



... and add that to the number 11 on Danny’s Apollo sweater (or 2, 1’s (twins) from the last two digits of the year 1921).



The hidden date is 12/24/2011.


By now you’ve probably already made up your mind about how wrong I am about the Mayan Indians. After all they’re never mentioned in the movie so how could this be right. The Mayan Indians never being mentioned in the movie doesn’t mean anything. They’re there, just look at how subtly he included them. For almost 30 years viewers have looked at this shot and not seen what it actually is.






There’s a perfect depiction of an ancient Mayan pyramid (top, sides and stairs) in Jack’s dream of the hedge maze and it’s proof positive that I’m correct about the Mayan date 12/24/2011. The many American Indian references throughout the movie are obvious and hold no mystery at all. The real mystery here is the date in the last shot of the movie. The inclusion of a hidden depiction of an ancient Mayan pyramid in Jack’s dream of the hedge maze (in conjunction with the mysterious numbers) has no explanation other than that it has something to do with Mayan Indians and not American Indians as is a popular belief held by some.

If this isn't enough maybe seeing the actual numbers of the date 12/24/2011 hidden in the picture will be. They’re all there and quite obvious if you know where to look.

12 is represented by adding up the three 4’s formed by the center shadows.



24 is represented by multiplying the number 12 from the center shadows by the 2 Mayan Temples that are shown in the picture.



20 is represented by adding the four 5’s on the left and right of the number 12 in the center ( the bottom 2 are inverted).




Adding the Roman Numerals X and I also hidden in the picture represents the number 11.



12/24/2011, it’s unbelievable how much was hidden in plain sight in this one picture.





12/24/2011


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