The events start normally but quickly spiral down from the clock counting down to an hour, to apparitions attacking John, to the room freezing and then flooding, to what he thought was an escape only to be brought back in the room, to something impersonating his daughter appearing to him and then dying in his arms. Jackson) he gets to stay in the room which he is warned that there have been 56 deaths in and no one has survived more than an hour. After much pleading with the hotel’s manager (Samuel L. An anonymous sender mails him a card warning him not to visit the Dolphin Hotel and stay in Room 1408 which he accepts as a challenge. His motivation comes from remorse over his daughter’s death, Katie, and a resentment that if something divine did exist then it let her die. Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a skeptic that has made it his personal mission to debunk supposedly supernatural hot spots through various, seldom-read novels. He does make an appearance in the hotel room, but it appears to be just a hallucination)
Jackson’s role is essentially an extended cameo at the start. He plays the tape and, much to his wife’s shock, hears a conversation he had in the room with his dead daughter. Mike finds his tape recorder in a box of items recovered from the room.
Mike finishes his book about the hauntings in 1408 and we find out the hotel is currently closed down (probably as a result of the fire). Firefighters come and pull him out of the burning room and Mike is reunited with his estranged wife Lily (Mary McCormack). Mike decides to send the room down with him, so he sets it ablaze. Mike Enslin (John Cusack) survives the hour within the room, but realizes the evil force within the room will just keep repeating the hour of hauntings until he “checks out” (kills himself).