70 thoughts on ““Donnie Darko,” Explained”

  2. myke

    Well,
    As to the question of whether or not Donnie’s death was necessary:
    Donnie was able to see what a possibility of his future was through the tangent universe, if he had lived. Closing the tangent universe wouldn’t mean anything if Donnie’s future in the real universe played out like it did in the tangent.
    And yes, one could say that Donnie, knowing his future, could change it in the real universe. But remember, this came up in the topic w/ the science teacher. The science teacher tells Donnie that he contradicts himself, b/c knowing one’s future means one can change his future. But Donnie retorts “not if you follow in god’s channel”, or something along those lines. So Donnie may not have thought he had a choice in changing his future in the real universe, and wanted the future to be different than the one in the tangent universe, and so, Donnie realized that he must die.
    Hope that somewhat makes sense….

  4. Turc

    yes the plane crashes because the engine kills donnie. this time it is happening “for real” so to speak. at the beginning of the movie when it happened the engine came through the portal and back in time creating the tangent universe. recall also that they could not find a nearby crashed plane. this is why donnie had to send it back. when he sent it back he closed the tangent universe and the normal universe resumed from where it left off – the plane crashing.

  5. adam

    so a plane crashed in the normal universe? why dont they show the plane crashed in the movie and who was on the plane since his mother and sister survived it??

  6. morgan

    am i rigt in thinking frank is an angel that is killed by donnie (in the future) so he haunts donnie and makes donnie save the world thus saving frank as donnie kills him in the future so frank saves donnie and donnie saves frank? wierd!

  7. Thor

    The plane were it shakes which causes the engine to fall did it actually crash and his mum and sister die? If so this is the reason that he stayed in bed and died because there are still always loose ends, the plane still crashed but some how it did come back in the time engine, but due to donnie dying his mum and sister were not on the plane oO

  8. Anonymous

    K, well here’s a brain teaser that’s bothering me. If Frank has never contacted Donnie, thereby creating the tangent universe, then Donnie would have never gone to Grandma death’s house that night, meaning Frank never would have hit Gretchin, and would have never been shot. So how did Frank die under circumstances that wouldn’t have happened unless he was already dead?

  9. Matt

    Even more of a brain teaser is if Frank never contacted Donnie, would Gretchin and Donnie have ever hooked up to begin with? Remember, it was only after Frank suggested that Donnie break the water main that Donnie and Gretchin were able to talk. Without this talk, they more than likely would not have developed the relationship so early in the timeline. Thus Frank would have not run over Gretchin.
    To the person who asked why Rose was just standing under the tree smoking instead of crying with her family—-I would think that the mother was one of the people who retained knowledge of what happened in the Tangent Universe. She was one of the people that was deeply affected by what went on.
    All in all, this movie is nothing more than speculation of a phenomena we do not understand or even have a reason to believe truly exists.

  10. mario

    well, from my understanding . to answer Thor’s question about the brain teaser. My understanding is that he was not just saving Gretchin but the entire human race. This was because without setting things right, the universe will collapse within a few weeks (according to what i read, this is outlined in the book)so although your right in a sense about him not being there if the bunny didnt tell him to. he had a higher goal, which was to save the universe from collapsing

  11. mario

    well, from my understanding . to answer Thor’s question about the brain teaser. My understanding is that he was not just saving Gretchin but the entire human race. This was because without setting things right, the universe will collapse within a few weeks (according to what i read, this is outlined in the book)so although your right in a sense about him not being there if the bunny didnt tell him to. he had a higher goal, which was to save the universe from collapsing

  12. Jam

    Frank was sent back from the end of the universe to make sure Donnie completed the circle, Donnie used his telekinetic powers to break off the engine and make sure the jet engine appeared in the first-place. Then everyone woke up back in the Primary Universe after having had “a terrible dream” and Donnie wasn’t moved again by Frank due to the fact the circle had already been completed(technically in the “dream”) the rest is also all part of Frank making sure Donnie saved the world, everyone else seemed to wake up affected by howthey had acted in the Tangent universe.

  13. tony

    Just watched Donnie Darko for the first time. I do understand it, but thought it really wasn’t that great. Like it has been said above, the movie was pretty good, until the end.
    The reason why I feel this is because of the B.S. ending. A deus ex machina is NOT a “brilliant” or ingenious” plot device, as some people have claimed. It is a suck out.
    A deaus ex machina is brought into a plot when the writer has found himself caught in a problem with no reasonable solution, so God comes down from heaven and saves the day, or something similair. (The main character can “manipulate” time.)
    If the writers of the movie wanted us to believe that Donnie was able to manipulate time-space, then I feel that the rest of the movie should have been a little more science fiction-ey. My point is- everything in the movie is somewhat believable, until the very ending. It really was a curve ball, even for this particular script. It just isn’t really believable, even within the context of the rest of the film.
    I don’t really think it was a BAD movie, just a crappy ending. And crappy endings kinda have a way of ruining movies.
    However, if any of you reading this ARE interested in similair movies, check out the movie Primer.
    Primer is an independent film, but i think they have it at most Blockbusters. Now THIS is a film worthy of time-travel scenarios. You will literally have to watch this one at least three times to BEGIN to understand all the complexities.
    Whether you agree with my opinion of Donnie Darko (that’s what it is-an opinion)or not, I do hope you check out Primer, because if you were at least interested in Donnie Darko, you should really enjoy it.

  14. Pasqually

    Im no Expert but after reading the “Philosophy of Time Travel” I started thinking about all the various elements. Being mostly led by speculation I started to think that the Plane Engine is not the said Artifact. I believe the book touches on it when it says “An Arrow Head”, “A Sword” things like these that would appear to be metal and then I realized that There it is the whole time–almost too obvious. The Artifact is the Mask. It links Frank to Donnie, It is made of Metal, It is on the Original Box Art Cover and In the end When frank is rubbing his eye, where he was shot by donnie, the mask sits alone, also drawings of it appear in the scene, maybe suggesting research or the like. But it seems more like the artifact, then an airplane engine which seems like a reaction caused by the rip in time. Also if interested there seems to be an influence based on the “Philadelphia Experiment” and the “Montauk Project” and speculation that a plane went down due to a rip in time. Both Phila. Exp. and Montauk had guys like Albert Einstien, Nikola Tesla, and John Von Nueman and are supposedly Real. Theres my 3 cents.

  15. Mark wala

    To all the people talking about why was the plane crash not found or did the place crash and if so, why does the mother and daughter come back alive etc.
    The plane DID crash yes, but you never get to see that because at the time of the engine coming off and going back in time to the primary universe, the film goes back to the point of 28 days before – so you see the engine go thru the roof and kill Donnie. BUT, now that he is dead, those events will never happen (the mother and daughter wont need to be flying on a plane etc) so that is why they are still alive and never got on any plane..
    As for understanding the movie, I’m not gonna say i get it as i only just finished watching it for the first time right now and I thought it was good and I also think I’ll find the true answers to the film.. some of which I think I have found on this thread..
    One theory of mine tho, is that maybe the film maker have made it so that there isn’t actually an explaination – like, if the bunny suit dude is an angel/god/ghost/being from another universe etc, did he exist first and THEN came to see donnie in the past OR was donnie’s actions a cause for the bunny guy to appear if you get what im saying!?! And when donnie goes back in time, the bunnie guy is there too with no bullet in his eye, so before he ever got to be some crazy being….
    pretty much a ‘which came first? the EGG or the CHICKEN?’ in which case, NO ANSWER!
    just a thought 🙂

  16. wes

    well the fact that we take what happened in the tagent universe as what happens in the main universe is a very big assumption seeing as the tangent universe is very unstable the events that happened there where for the purpose of reurning the artifact to close it didnt anyone notice that during the whole movie most of the things that happened seem to be unbelieveable such as him dating that girl so fast or how she was asleep in the movies the whole time while he burned down a house i would think that it implies the the whole tanget universe is on a seperate time stream in which places and events are subjective and manipulated to further push the living reciver to complete his goal so as far as his sister dying or the girlfriends mom leaving that wouldnt happen because the fact that donnie is not there to make those events happen the reason that the plane crashes was that the tanget universe opened up donnie closed it before it was created this sounds extremly complcated but think bout it how did the artifact come to be? it was made before the tangent universe was created and to further prove that point the artifact came from the “future” it was at the end of 28 days in the tangent universe that the plane crashed but in the main universe it was still oct 2 showing that the universe was closed at the exact point of impact with the house killing donnie continued the regular time stream at which the jet wouldnt of crashed or it would start over again so no the mom or sister wouldnt die and the girlfriend not coming into contact with donnie would not share the same time stream so she would not gone through the same chain of events that lead to her mom leaving i hope this makes sense to all of u just my thoughts on how people were confused on how he died and seemily didnt save anyone

  17. wes

    well the fact that we take what happened in the tagent universe as what happens in the main universe is a very big assumption seeing as the tangent universe is very unstable the events that happened there where for the purpose of reurning the artifact to close it didnt anyone notice that during the whole movie most of the things that happened seem to be unbelieveable such as him dating that girl so fast or how she was asleep in the movies the whole time while he burned down a house i would think that it implies the the whole tanget universe is on a seperate time stream in which places and events are subjective and manipulated to further push the living reciver to complete his goal so as far as his sister dying or the girlfriends mom leaving that wouldnt happen because the fact that donnie is not there to make those events happen the reason that the plane crashes was that the tanget universe opened up donnie closed it before it was created this sounds extremly complcated but think bout it how did the artifact come to be? it was made before the tangent universe was created and to further prove that point the artifact came from the “future” it was at the end of 28 days in the tangent universe that the plane crashed but in the main universe it was still oct 2 showing that the universe was closed at the exact point of impact with the house killing donnie continued the regular time stream at which the jet wouldnt of crashed or it would start over again so no the mom or sister wouldnt die and the girlfriend not coming into contact with donnie would not share the same time stream so she would not gone through the same chain of events that lead to her mom leaving i hope this makes sense to all of u just my thoughts on how people were confused on how he died and seemily didnt save anyone

  18. wazzupbently

    My take is that Donnie dies when the engine hits the first time. The whole movie basically is a sequence of dreamlike scenes that Donnie experiences, much in the way we dream and our dream fits with a noise that wakes us (e.g., book falls from my desk waking me up, but at the time it falls i’m this complex and lengthy dream and the sound of the book falling fits right in to my dream). Donnies dream sequence – basically the whole movie – is his “going to the light” so to speak and is dense with symbols from his life (e.g., his family, his sister’s boyfriend frank, a girl he sees and likes in school – gretchen – but really never met).
    That’s my take so far. I don’t believe in the sci fi stuff as an explanation of the story but do believe that it has symbolic value, as does everything else.
    At the end of Donnies journey, he accepts his fate and is ready – he stays in bed (and i think he smiles).
    This is just a start and in no way sums up the movie, but i think it is a much more reasonable approach than talking about tangent worlds and other such stuff as if these things were real physical realities.

  19. Rich

    I have just watched the film for a third time and contarary to popular opinion of those watching it with me I refuse to write it off as an ok movie with a crap ending…as is the case with most movies (besides a small handfull) if you think about it you can tell everything that is going to happen because you have seen it all before, but hey if Mediocrity rules your life then so be it, but try to think a little different every now and again!!
    One thing I want know is what about all the good deeds Donni carried out through out the film e.g burning down the house and flooding telling his teacher what he thought of her anal teachings is all this erased and will everything now go back to normal???

  20. josh nevett

    Basically i think that because the rabbit in Donnies vision prevents him from dieing and there fore creating the events of death and so on and so forth. Doesn’t that mean that if the rabbit never came to Donnie in the vision and saved him from the plane engine crashing into his home, non of the events would of happened … if ya get me ?
    all the stuff about tangent universe wouldn’t matter if the rabbit wouldn’t of lead donnie away from his death….
    so ultimatley the film means nothing if the rabbit never saves donnie from his death.

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