Jake Chambers' (Tom Taylor) “shine” inThe Dark Toweris the source of his psychic powers, and it also connects to Danny Torrance’s powers inThe ShiningandDoctor Sleep. Jake’s “shine” was a major plot point in the movie adaptation ofThe Dark Tower. Walter Padick (Matthew McConaughey) believed Jake’s shine was so pure that it could single-handedly destroy the Tower that supported the entire universe. It was also what allowed Jake to see Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) in the first place, and what allowed him to speak directly to the gunslinger through telepathy.
What was most confusing about Jake’s shine, however, didn’t come fromThe Dark Tower, but anotherStephen King movie adaptation,The Shining. InThe Shining, Danny Torrance also has psychic abilities called shine, yet he only experiences the horrors of the Overlook Hotel, rather than the visions of Mid-World that Jake saw. Still, however, the fact that two of Stephen King’s child characters have psychic powers that are both referred to as shining seems like a deliberate choice, and it certainly was.
Jake Chambers' “Shine” In The Dark Tower Is The Same As Danny Torrance’s In The Shining
The Shine Is A Type Of Psychic Power Common To Stephen King’s Novels
Jake Chambers' abilities inThe Dark Towerdon’t just sound similar to Danny Torrance’s inThe Shining, they’re the same thing. In theDark Towerbooks, Jake’s psychic abilities were called “the touch,” but they still bear a more than coincidental resemblance to Danny’s ability to shine.Both Danny and Jake are able to speak telepathically and see things normal people can’t, in Jake’s case, Roland, Walter, and Mid-World, and in Danny’s, the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel. Theshine is basically a version of ESP, or psychic abilities. Though Jake’s was stronger than Danny’s, they both had the shine.
How The Dark Tower Ties The Entire Stephen King Universe Together
The Titular Dark Tower Is The Nexus Of The Entire Stephen King Universe
The shine isn’t the only wayThe Dark Towerconnects to the rest of Stephen King’s oeuvre. In fact,The Dark Toweris quite literally the nexus that connects everything King has ever written.The eponymous Tower inThe Dark Towerliterally holds the universe together, and it connects different “levels” of reality that King writes about. Stephen King himself declared that everything that happens in his books happens on some level of the Tower. In the afterword ofWizard and Glass, King wrote, “I am coming to understand that Roland’s world (or worlds) actually contains all the others of my making.”
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
From a Buick 8
The Long Walk
Hinted At
All of King’s writings are part of the same universe, and they all share the Tower as their center. As such, there’s a huge number ofStephen King’s books that tie intoThe Dark Tower.Father Callahan, a major character inSalem’s Lot, travels to Mid-World and becomes a part of Roland’s ka-tet. Stephen King himself even appears inThe Dark Tower, and Roland and Eddie Dean speak to him. The Man in Black, otherwise known as Randall Flagg and the secondary antagonist ofThe Dark Tower, also appears under several different names throughout King’s work.
There’s Evidence To Suggest Other Stephen King Characters Also Have The Shine
Everyone From Carrie White To The Losers Club & John Coffey Likely Has The Shine
Since all of Stephen King’s works are connected throughThe Dark Tower, many of his stories share things in common, most notably the shine. There’s a huge list ofStephen King characters that have the shine, and essentiallyanyone who exhibits any kind of supernatural or psychic powers in his novels likely has the shine.
How To Read Stephen King’s Dark Tower Books & Stories In Order (Chronologically & By Publication Date)
The universe of The Dark Tower is sprawling and vast and it can help to know how to read the books & in which order to read them before jumping in.
That means characters like Carrie White fromCarrie, John Coffey fromThe Green Mile, Mother Abigail fromThe Stand, and Johnny Smith fromThe Dead Zoneall have their own versions of the shine. While they may be from different realities, they all have the shine in common. The many different characters who shine in Stephen King’s novels also highlight just how versatile and hard to define shining is.People who shine can have powers that range from Carrie’s pyrokinesis to regular telepathy, like Bill and Beverley inIt.
The shine is also used by both villains and heroes of King’s stories alike, as Randall Flagg likely has the shine himself, while Jake Chambers was able to share some of his shine with the other members of his ka-tet. The shine, likeThe Dark Toweritself, tiesThe Shiningand most of Stephen King’s body of work together.
The Dark Tower
Cast
Idris Elba, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, and Matthew McConaughey star in The Dark Tower, a Western Sci-Fi film directed by Nikolaj Arcel. Released in 2017, The Dark Tower follows a young boy with visions of an apocalyptic future in which a powerful man, dubbed The Man in Black, lays waste to the universe. The film is based on the Stephen King book series.
