Jack Torrance

""All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...""

- ~ Jack Torrance's papers in The Shining. "Heeere's Johnny!"

- Jack Torrance

Jack Torrance was the primary antagonist in the 1980 film The Shining, adapted from the novel of the same name written by Stephen King.

Jack was a writer and a redeemed alcoholic who lived with his wife Wendy and his son Danny, who wields a special psychic power known as the Shinning. Jack eventually got possessed by a demonic spirit.

He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson.

Role in the movie
At first, Jack was the fairly likeable protagonist and a loving husband and father. He was a writer who accepts the job of winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, despite being informed of the building's grisly past and reputation as a cursed place (which he shrugs off as superstition) and he takes his wife Wendy and son Danny with him to the hotel, thinking that the solitude of the place will help him in his writing as well.

However, Jack soon descends into madness that is never fully explained, depending on the view of the audience he could either of suffered an intense mental breakdown or he was possessed by the spirits of the Overlook Hotel -- whatever truly happened to the unfortunate Jack is never fully explained. Yet, the demonic possession is further implied by all the ghosts that haunt the hotel, especially the ghosts of young kids who frequently appear to Danny as well. The ghosts are apparently attracted by the boy's power and seemingly try to drag him into the underworld.

At any rate, Jack soon loses his mind completely, becoming increasingly abusive towards Wendy and Danny while holding conversations with a ghostly bartender (who appears to be the ghost of the previous caretaker) that apparently one he can see -- he also has a traumatic experience with a ghastly phantom in a hotel room and ultimately descends into a murderous psychosis in which he tries to kill his wife and son with an axe (much as the previous caretaker had done years previously).

However, Jack was outsmarted by his family after a fearsome manhunt, and ultimately left to freeze to death in the giant maze outside the hotel. It's unknown if he truly died or not, even though it is very likely given his vulnerability and the intense cold.

Differences between the novel and the movie
In the original novel, it is made quite clear that Jack slowly fell under the influence of the unspeakable evil force that appears to be the Overlook Hotel itself, or the demonic entity that took complete control of it and commands its ghostly population. The ghost of the former bartender often appears to Jack, explaining that he murdered his family upon the hotel's request and serving as the spokeperson between Jack and the hotel, which/who tries to hire Jack as well and make him do the same.

At the end of the story, when Jack is completely controlled by the demonic entity, the narration no longer calls him "Jack," but as "the creature" or "the monster." It is clearly stated that the unfortunate Jack underwent an awful metamorphosis and is no longer human. "Jack" attacks his family with a club instead of an axe and is destroyed alongside the hotel itself, which Danny, Wendy, and Halloran (the cook who works in the hotel, who also wields the shining) manage to destroy by detonating the heating system.

Jack's possession is fully proven during the final confrontation between Danny and "the creature," when the boy manages to awake the spirit of his father with his shinning. Jack then bids a moving farewell to Danny and lets him escape.