Doctor Sleep has a surprise cameo from The Shining’s Jack Torrance. Even though Jack does appear (although briefly) in the novel, the film gives him a different role. Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep was published in 2013 and is a sequel to his 1977 novel The Shining, which was famously adapted to the big screen in 1980 by Stanley Kubrick. Doctor Sleep follows the now adult Danny Torrance as he deals with the trauma from that winter at the Overlook Hotel many years ago as well as with a group of quasi-immortals that are targeting those with “shining” abilities.
The film was sold to the audience as a sequel to both The Shining novel and film, and it achieved this by bringing together elements from the two (essentially making Kubrick’s film canon, even if Stephen King still doesn’t like it). This also meant that the team behind Doctor Sleep had to sacrifice details from the novel in favor of those from The Shining, most notably the ending. However, one of the film’s strongest moments is one that is not in either books, and required some filmmaking tricks.
Many characters from The Shining returned for Doctor Sleep, but the most surprising one was Jack Torrance, who appeared briefly but had a big impact on both Dan Torrance and the audience, especially because of how he returned.
Jack Torrance Returns As The Bartender In Doctor Sleep
The Overlook Hotel was haunted. That’s very clear in The Shining novel but not so much in the film, as Kubrick took a lot of creative license. Still, the film established that the hotel is inhabited by the ghosts of those who have died there, and they won’t hesitate on manipulating those who arrive in order to claim more lives. The Shining featured the ghosts of Lloyd the bartender, Delbert Grady, Mrs. Massey (the woman in room 237), Horace Derwent, the man in the bear suit and the man in the tuxedo, among many other unnamed ghosts who were in attendance at the ballroom.
Lloyd was key in making Jack relapse by serving him alcohol, and witnessed the early stages of his breakdown. Jack froze to death at the end of the film, but the final shot of a photograph from 1921 proved that Jack indeed had “always been the caretaker” as he was a reincarnation, thus he was destined to go back to the hotel. In Doctor Sleep, Dan goes back to the Overlook as it’s the only way they can defeat Rose the Hat. He walks through the hotel in order to “wake it up” and stops at the bar, where he has a conversation with the bartender – except it’s not the Lloyd viewers met in The Shining, but the ghost of Jack Torrance. Just like the previous Lloyd did, Jack offered Dan a drink and insisted that he took it. Dan was an alcoholic, as was Jack, but unlike him, Dan didn’t fall for it, and the ghost of Jack didn’t seem to remember that he wasn’t Lloyd but Jack Torrance, just like Delbert Grady didn’t remember being the caretaker.
Henry Thomas Plays Jack Torrance In Doctor Sleep
Almost four decades have passed since The Shining was released, so the team behind Doctor Sleep had to recreate sets and scenes from the film the best way they could (or in ways that suited the story and its aesthetic). When it came to bringing back characters, most of them were simply recast, but it wasn’t that simple with Jack Torrance. Jack Nicholson played the role back then but he is now retired, so director Mike Flanagan brought Henry Thomas in. Thanks to some carefully planned angles and some post-production tricks, Thomas portrayed Jack Torrance in a respectful yet accurate manner that in no way looks to copy Nicholson’s performance. Having him as this iconic character also raises the question of how much viewers can trust what Dan is seeing, but the answer to that can be found in the source material.
Was That Really Jack… Or The Hotel Tricking Danny?
The Overlook Hotel works in mysterious ways, but what is known about it is that the evil forces in it are the result of past tragedies, and that’s why there are so many ghosts living in it. Those who died there never left, and the hotel uses them to claim more lives – case in point, Grady’s ghost manipulated Jack to kill Wendy and Danny. Doctor Sleep explained some details left ambiguous by The Shining, especially how the hotel took possession of Jack (and later Danny), proving that the source of Jack’s downfall wasn’t his own mind. Through Jack’s appearance as “Lloyd the bartender”, it also proved that the Overlook uses its ghosts as it pleases, and they aren’t exactly related to the roles they had when they were alive.
Now, in the Doctor Sleep novel, Jack does appear when Dan arrives at the location where the Overlook once stood (as it exploded at the end of The Shining), but not as the bartender. Jack’s ghost helps Dan kill Rose the Hat, and then waves Dan goodbye having finally found peace. Taking all that into account, Jack’s appearance in the film is both Jack and a trick from the hotel: physically and personality wise it’s Jack Torrance, the alcoholic aspiring writer who almost killed his family many winters ago, but it’s also a manipulation from the hotel as it’s presenting him as another person in order to break Dan. As mentioned above, the Overlook uses its ghosts at its convenience, and Jack Torrance was given the role of the bartender (just like Grady was a waiter and not the caretaker) as a way to finally get Dan.
The Importance Of Jack Torrance’s Doctor Sleep Cameo
Among the many changes Kubrick made was the source of Jack’s breakdown, as he made it seem like it came from his own mind and just needed a little push to lose his last bits of sanity. Doctor Sleep tried to fix Kubrick’s mistakes and bring some cohesiveness between the two novels and the two films, and that included shedding some light on what the Overlook Hotel truly does: possess those in it, manipulate them, kill, and feed from that (its initial plan was to possess Danny and feed off his “shine”, but it couldn’t take over him). The hotel’s manipulation doesn’t end there, and it has full control of the souls of those who died there.
Jack’s cameo as the bartender proves exactly that: how the hotel absorbs the deceased and takes over their spirits. If the Overlook wanted to finally get Dan (which, in the end, it did), a way to do it was by having his father convince him to relapse, and with that bring out his dark side (as it did with Jack) – that way it would have been easier for it to take control. Jack’s cameo is also important because it represents Dan’s addiction and how he’s not letting that control him anymore. Through a brief appearance like this, Doctor Sleep managed to give Jack Torrance an important role in the story without making him the protagonist again, and along with the Overlook Hotel, it’s what makes the film a sequel to Kubrick’s work.
Next: Doctor Sleep’s Ending Explained (In Detail)
