Diane Johnson, Kubrick's co-writer on the 1980 film, explained than the director wanted audiences to "know that they [Wendy and Danny] were all right." Kubrick, says Johnson, "had a soft spot for Wendy and Danny and thought that, at the end of a horror film, the audience should be reassured that everything was back to normal."
But just before the film's American premiere, he changed his mind: "After several screenings in London the day before the film opened in New York and Los Angeles, when I was able to see for the first time the fantastic pitch of excitement which the audience reached during the climax of the film, I decided the scene was unnecessary," said Kubrick, adding that "It had not been possible to change all of the New York and Los Angeles prints before opening." Since then, fans of the movie have been searching for a print that still contains the deleted scene—superfan Unkrich says it's "rumored that one surviving copy may exist." Without it, all that remains of the scene are the script, a few continuity polaroids, the costumes, and two names in the cast credits: Burnell Tucker played a policeman in the hospital scene and Robin Pappas played a nurse.
In an interview on CBC Radio's As it Happens Unkrich says that Kubrick may have been motivated to delete the scene after hearing the audience snicker at some of the early screenings. But if you read the script, you'll find that it's not very funny, nor is it as reassuring as Diane Johnson described it. As the hotel manger leaves the hospital, he tosses Danny a ball that's identical to the yellow one that tempted him to enter the Overlook Hotel's notorious Room 237, making it seem as though the manager may be in league with hotel's cast of evil characters—and this is the guy that Danny and Wendy are going to stay with? I am not reassured.
