Unfortunately for McGregor’s character in The Shining sequel, he never gets the chance to ease the guilt he feels from the only event in his adulthood to haunt him as relentlessly as the Overlook, highlighting how the change fundamentally alters his character arc. While the character's written ending saw him released of his guilt over Deenie (Chelsea Talmadge) and her son, which he’d carried throughout the story, the film version of Dan still carries this shame to his death. Ultimately, Dan's death in Doctor Sleep undermined the resolution King wrote for the character in the original novel. Related: Every Stephen King & Mike Flanagan Collaboration (So Far)ĭan Torrance does not die in the Doctor Sleep book, instead going on to mentor Abra. Although the movie does give Stephen King the ending to The Shining that he never got with Kubrick’s film with the destruction of the Overlook Hotel, the way Flanagan attempted to bridge the gap between Doctor’s Sleep’s predecessor and its source material left viewers a little confused. What came as a surprise to audiences is that Dan Torrance dies in a darker ending as he stays behind while the hotel is consumed by flames. After defeating Rose, Dan manages to escape becoming an unwilling victim of the hotel by burning the building to the ground.

In the finale of the film, Dan and Abra lead Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) to the now-abandoned Overlook where Dan tricks her into going after him instead of Abra. They now live in the deepest corners of his mind in their own boxes. Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) teaches Dan to trap the ghosts of the Overlook who have continued to track him down since he escaped the hotel as a child. At the start of Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) is an alcoholic struggling with the memories and ghosts attached to the Overlook Hotel.

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