Donnie Darko

[TheArsenal]

Ok, so I just watched Donnie Darko for the first time. I thought I was doing ok, keeping up with the plot, which seemed fairly simple at the core, but dressed up with other bits and pieces to try and complicate things. Then I get to the last....ten, maybe fifteen minutes of the film. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about.

Can someone please try and explain the plot (particularly the stuff that happens at the end of the film)???

It would be gratly appreciated.

N.B. Might be a good idea to use spoiler tags.

[Ruckus]

I remember that a while back someone had typed up a big ass explanation of the end of the film. I think it should be on here somewhere, try searching.

[Tarheels.]

I've never even seen the movie. Anyone care to give me a little info on it.

[thuganomic]

I've never even seen the movie. Anyone care to give me a little info on it.

[Toe]

I've never even seen the movie. Anyone care to give me a little info on it.

If only there was something that could give you information about a movie over the internet.......

hmm....

Hmm....

http://www.imdb.com/

Hmm.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko

hmm.....

:google:

[Guest Helmed Horror]

Sorry, I very much doubt I'd be able to explain it properly. Good film, bad ending.

[TheArsenal]

In the spoilers is an explaination I found when searching the forum. It was creditted to Plankton, originally posted on EWBIII.

To understand Donnie Darko, you must read The Philosophy of Time Travel (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time1.htm). How about a quick overview? You should read the “book” yourself since it is very short. My paraphrasing is literally almost word-for-word.

And remember, some of this stuff is up to interpretation and some of it isn’t. I could be wrong on a few things and other I know I’m not. For the most part, I think I have the movie figured out.

First, let’s take a look at page 1 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time1.htm). There’s not a lot of significance here… yet. Let’s move on for now.

Page 2 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time2.htm) discusses the Primary and Tangent Universes. A Primary Universe is what we are in right now. It’s infested with peril, but it’s stable. Once in a while though, something happens that will corrupt the Primary Universe, bringing us into a Tangent Universe. Tangent Universes are unstable and will only last a short time until the world collapses under itself.

Page 3 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time3.htm) list two key elements to time travel: water and metal. Water is the barrier and metal is the transitional element for the artifact. This will make sense later.

Page 4 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time4.htm) discusses the Artifact and the Living. A vortex (I assume that is the black hole for which the world will eventually collapse under itself) will form hear the scene of the corruption. All of the Living near this will “find themselves at the epicenter of a dangerous new world.” The chapter then goes on to explain that an artifact is the first sign of a Tangent Universe. Although I want to stray from tying everything together until later, I think it’s best to realize that the jet engine is the artifact in Donnie Darko. An artifact’s existence has no logic surrounded by it and the Living out clueless and curious as to how it came to be. In the end, divine intervention is their only solution.

Page 5 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time5.htm) concentrates on the Living Receiver. The Living Receiver is chosen (no one knows how or why) to guide the artifact where it needs to be. The Living Receiver is usually granted four powers to complete his task; strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to summon fire and water. “The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams, visions, and auditory hallucinations during his time within the Tangent Universe. Those surrounding him/here are known as the Manipulated.

Page 6 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time6.htm) explains the first half of the Manipulated, the Manipulated Living. They are usually close friends or neighbors to the Living Receiver and often act irrational and bizarre (subconsciously, I believe). There job is to assist the Living Receiver in sending off the Artifact.

Page 7 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time7.htm) tackles the Manipulated Dead. These are people who die within the Tangent Universe. They are more powerful than the Living Receiver and are able to contact him through the Fourth Dimensional Construct (which we will address soon). We also learn about the Insurance Trap which is set up by the Manipulated Dead. If they are successful, the Living Receiver is left with no choice but to send the artifact back in time using his Fourth Dimensional Powers.

Page 8 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time8.htm) talks about dreams. After the Living Receiver does his job, the world is set back into place. Most (remember that; not all, but most) will not remember anything that occurred in the Tangent Universe, but will be haunted by dreams. Some will not even remember at all. Those who do remember will be haunted by their knowledge forever. Some may even question their sanity since the Artifact is their only proof that such a world existed.

“Ancient myth tells us of the Mayan Warrior killed by an arrowhead that had fallen from a cliff, where there was no army, no enemy to be found.

We are told of the Medieval Knight mysteriously impaled by the sword he had not yet built.

We are told these things occur for a reason.”

Page 9 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time9.htm) shows pictures of the Fourth Dimensional Construct, which is made of water.

Page 10 (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/time10.htm) is back pages of the back. We don’t need to guess or interpret here. Some scribbling tells us that Donnie was in fact the Living Receiver, Frank and Gretchen were the Manipulated Dead, and everyone else in the movie was the Manipulated Living.

So where to start? First off, let’s make sure that we know what a Tangent Universe is and how it happened in this movie. God plays a huge role. No matter what your religious views are, in this movie God’s word is everything. If something is meant to happen, it happens. If not, it doesn’t. Donnie Darko was supposed to die on the night the movie begins where he wakes up on the road. I am not sure of this, but I’ll explain later why I think it’s true.

Because Donnie was supposed to die, but didn’t, the world was corrupted, thus making it a Tangent Universe. The next night Frank contacted Donnie to help guide him. While we’re on the subject of God and Frank, let’s calling the Manipulated, shall we?

Who exactly are the Manipulated manipulated by? God. God used Frank as a messenger to steer him the right way. Remember, these people are being manipulated by God to save there on skins. Now how exactly could Frank be dead and alive at the same time (since he was killed near the end of the Tangent Universe)? Because any of the Living who dies within the TU, whether at the first or last second, are the Manipulated Dead the entire time. Any doubt that Frank was God can be cleared up in this (http://www.ruinedeye.com/cd/dscenes/dsee1.htm) description of a deleted scene.

But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. We’ll discuss Donnie mission for now. Donnie’s mission as the Living Receiver is to ultimately send the Artifact (the jet engine) back in time and kill himself. Obviously he doesn’t know this, and no one else really does either except for God. The Manipulated Dead, Frank and Gretchen, set up an Insurance Trap. Both have two very important and very different roles. Frank is more or less being “possessed” by God while Gretchen is being used much more subtly. The Insurance Trap is very simple; have Donnie fall in love with Gretchen, have Gretchen die, and then have Donnie go back in time to kill himself so that he can save her life. While Gretchen is being used very heavily, she never even knew it.

The first thing Frank has Donnie do is flood the school. Remember, the Living Receiver has the ability to conjure water. So Donnie floods the school, which immediately sets up a chance for him to meet Gretchen. Listen to their conversation. It seems awkward, doesn’t it? Donnie even seemed taken off guard when Gretchen agreed to date him so easily. In reality, if anyone else would have asked a girl like that out how Donnie did after the weird conversation they had, she would have said no. But remember, Gretchen was being heavily manipulated.

We’re going to change gears for a little bit again and discuss the Four Dimensional Construct, or “those weird water things coming out of people.” That, my friends, is Frank. It was just another way for him to communicate and guide Donnie. Very simple.

Now that we’ve pretty much cleared up the Manipulated Dead’s roles, let’s go back to Frank. Frank next has Donnie burn down Jim Cunningham’s house (ability to conjure fire). It’s realized that there Cunningham has a “kiddy porn ring.” Remember this; we’ll discuss it later. Because of this occurrence, Kitty Farmer cannot go to the Star Search trip. Instead, Donnie’s mom must leave to take the children to the trip. This leaves Donnie and his sister alone to throw a part. This is essential because it’s at this point that Donnie can have sex with Gretchen and become closer to here. This also gives them opportunity to go to the Cellar Door so Gretchen can be killed by Frank (who didn’t literally mean to do it, but was definitely meant to).

So that clears up the Manipulated Dead’s responsibilities, now let’s see what roles the Living played. Remember, the Living are known to Act irrational and bizarre in the TU. They are going to do things that they normally wouldn’t. The bullies, for instance, act extra mean. Jim Cunningham very well may not have even been into kiddy porn until the TU. I’ll explain why this might be later. Karen Pomeroy set up that awkward (and very unprofessional) situation for Gretchen so that she would sit by Donnie and an interest would be ignited.

So now we can understand how and why all these things happened before the death of Gretchen. But everything else after that was all Donnie. I hope you didn’t forget Donnie’s other two powers, telekinesis and mind control. Donnie wanted to save Gretchen’s life and somehow, through telekinesis, mind control or something like that, knew what he needed to do. He waited by where the plane would fly (he may have even guided it there) and created the gateway. This, along with the water and metal that was required of time travel, made this possible. The jet engine flew back in time and killed Donnie, setting things back to normal. I can only assume that Donnie somehow was able to place the other end of the vortex above his house. Remember, it was important that Donnie set things right in the Primary Universe. It would have done him no good to commit suicide in the TU. I also don’t know if there was any significance to his mom and sister being on the plane.

Depending on how abstract your mind is at thinking about time travel, it’s easy to realize that the whole jet engine debacle didn’t actually occur until the end of the events, although it seemed like it was really the starting point. Weird, huh?

Now onto one of the last parts of the film, the Mad World scene. Here we’re shown several shots of people’s faces after Donnie’s death. These are the Dreams that were discussed earlier. Most people seemed bothered, signifying that they could not exactly remember what happened, but still had nagging memories that they just couldn’t pin down. The psychiatrist jolts up in the middle of her sleep. This is because she remembers everything. It can be assumed that this was because, although she wasn’t the closest to Donnie, she was the one absorbing the most information from him.

Karen Pomeroy and Kenneth Monnitoff, the married couple who were teachers (played by Drew Barrymore and Noah Wyle) also knew. In fact, they knew about the Tangent Universe before Donnie fell into it. From the Philosophy of Time Travel we know that these Tangent Universes happen several times. And we know that some people remember. Well this couple was in one ad remembered. Pay close attention to the subtle scene where Pomeroy says “Donnie Darko, huh?” after Monnitoff tells her about his meeting with Donnie. And in that meeting too, notice that Monnitoff seems to know exactly what’s going on. He probably knew that he was in a TU and was glad to help guide Donnie.

From this it’s easy to figure at that Grandma Death also was in a TU before and remembered. If you read the first page of here book it says “I pray that this is merely a work of fiction.” She probably was not sure if what had happened really had happened, but wrote the book anyways. Whatever life altering sequence of events happened after this TU too, probably caused her to leave the church as a nun. From this we can also make sense of her telling Donnie that we all die alone, although she probably was not aware that Donnie was the Living Receiver.

Tying up some loose ends here, the cellar door reference was probably implanted in Donnie’s head to remind him of Grandma Death’s house. It was to influence him to go there at a certain time to seek out her help. Of course the reason why he went there and it’s purpose was not the same.

I cannot think of a time that Donnie used his power of increased strength. I am either missing something obvious or he never used the power.

I promised I would go back to Jim Cunningham and the whole kiddy porn ring. It’s possible that Cunningham was never involved in that until the TU. All the Manipulated living are subject to irrational and bizarre behavior if you remember. He may have done this to help set up the final events. The only justification for this is Cunningham cries at the end. It’s possible that the memories of something he technically didn’t do haunted him. It’s also possible that he was always involved, but feels guilty near the end because of the memories of being caught and defamed.

The real tragedy, in my opinion, isn’t in the fact that Donnie dies. It’s that although everyone else has at least a light memory of what happened, Gretchen has none. His father can remember their bonding (a deleted scene), his mother can remember their mending, and his sister can remember the same thing. Gretchen, however, remembers nothing. He died for her and she will never know. It’s probably for the better though.

And finally, why did Donnie laugh at the end? Well, I’ll let the director handle that one.

“You can interpret the ending in two ways. That when he's in bed, he's laughing because he thinks it's all a dream, and he's just going to roll over and go to sleep because he thinks it's all a dream. Or he's laughing because he's enlightened because he's seen the potential, and he's had a vision, and he's accepted…. He's had a religious experience. And that's greater and better than anything that we could comprehend. So, ultimately, I hope that it would be about enlightenment, more than anything else.”

(I believe I have covered all of my interpretations. I will more than likely add some more later, so check back if you’re really interested.)

[Benji]

Sorry, I very much doubt I'd be able to explain it properly. Good film, bad ending.

Thanks for adding absolutely nothing to the thread.

[TheArsenal]

So where to start? First off, let’s make sure that we know what a Tangent Universe is and how it happened in this movie. God plays a huge role. No matter what your religious views are, in this movie God’s word is everything. If something is meant to happen, it happens. If not, it doesn’t. Donnie Darko was supposed to die on the night the movie begins where he wakes up on the road. I am not sure of this, but I’ll explain later why I think it’s true.

Because Donnie was supposed to die, but didn’t, the world was corrupted, thus making it a Tangent Universe. The next night Frank contacted Donnie to help guide him. While we’re on the subject of God and Frank, let’s calling the Manipulated, shall we?

Donnie’s mission as the Living Receiver is to ultimately send the Artifact (the jet engine) back in time and kill himself.

[Tarheels.]

ok, I just watched the movie and I thought it was great. I'm not sure if I entirely get the whole thing though. The "Frank" guy. I know he was the rabbit who basically led him through the entire time-travel path to find out about Sparrow and everything, but what did the real guy have to do with him. Like what did he really have to do with it other than he being the one who killed Gretchen and then being the one who like I said led him through the entire movie. Other than that I got the movie and don't see what is the confusing part of it.

[TheArsenal]

Frank is one of the Manipulated Dead, just like Gretchen.

Edited February 20, 2006 by TheArsenal

[Tarheels.]

ok, so let me get this straight. Frank was of course dead from where Donnie shot him, that was where the eye wound came from in the theatre. Gretchen of course died near the end, only for him to go back into time to go to where he was supposed to be (his bedroom) to die and save her life. So Frank was just there to kill Gretchen? I'm still confused as to how Frank was in his dreams when in the world he was actually a guy, which would be how he was the Manipulated Dead.

Edited February 20, 2006 by TH4L

[TheArsenal]

ok, so let me get this straight. Frank was of course dead from where Donnie shot him, that was where the eye wound came from in the theatre. Gretchen of course died near the end, only for him to go back into time to go to where he was supposed to be (his bedroom) to die and save her life. So Frank was just there to kill Gretchen? I'm still confused as to how Frank was in his dreams when in the world he was actually a guy, which would be how he was the Manipulated Dead.

Edited February 20, 2006 by TheArsenal

[Damian WayLNKe]

ok, I just watched the movie and I thought it was great. I'm not sure if I entirely get the whole thing though. The "Frank" guy. I know he was the rabbit who basically led him through the entire time-travel path to find out about Sparrow and everything, but what did the real guy have to do with him. Like what did he really have to do with it other than he being the one who killed Gretchen and then being the one who like I said led him through the entire movie. Other than that I got the movie and don't see what is the confusing part of it.

Edited February 20, 2006 by LNK

[Tarheels.]

ok, I just watched the movie and I thought it was great. I'm not sure if I entirely get the whole thing though. The "Frank" guy. I know he was the rabbit who basically led him through the entire time-travel path to find out about Sparrow and everything, but what did the real guy have to do with him. Like what did he really have to do with it other than he being the one who killed Gretchen and then being the one who like I said led him through the entire movie. Other than that I got the movie and don't see what is the confusing part of it.

Frank is also Elizabeth Darko's boyfriend. There are many references to him throughout the film. At the beginning, you see his red car going down Donnie's street while he was leaving. Elizabeth talks to him on the phone during the movie telling him that she took a year off to be with him. Also, there is a note left on their fridge during the Halloween party that says "Frank went to get beer" or something like that.

[TheArsenal]

ok, I just watched the movie and I thought it was great. I'm not sure if I entirely get the whole thing though. The "Frank" guy. I know he was the rabbit who basically led him through the entire time-travel path to find out about Sparrow and everything, but what did the real guy have to do with him. Like what did he really have to do with it other than he being the one who killed Gretchen and then being the one who like I said led him through the entire movie. Other than that I got the movie and don't see what is the confusing part of it.

Frank is also Elizabeth Darko's boyfriend. There are many references to him throughout the film. At the beginning, you see his red car going down Donnie's street while he was leaving. Elizabeth talks to him on the phone during the movie telling him that she took a year off to be with him. Also, there is a note left on their fridge during the Halloween party that says "Frank went to get beer" or something like that.

[Damian WayLNKe]

ok, I just watched the movie and I thought it was great. I'm not sure if I entirely get the whole thing though. The "Frank" guy. I know he was the rabbit who basically led him through the entire time-travel path to find out about Sparrow and everything, but what did the real guy have to do with him. Like what did he really have to do with it other than he being the one who killed Gretchen and then being the one who like I said led him through the entire movie. Other than that I got the movie and don't see what is the confusing part of it.

Frank is also Elizabeth Darko's boyfriend. There are many references to him throughout the film. At the beginning, you see his red car going down Donnie's street while he was leaving. Elizabeth talks to him on the phone during the movie telling him that she took a year off to be with him. Also, there is a note left on their fridge during the Halloween party that says "Frank went to get beer" or something like that.

[YI]

When good films come free with the paper then you know your weekend will be great. This weekend "Donnie Darko" the weekend before there was a pretty good Woody Allen film as well....forgot what it was called though.

So everyone who payed for Donnie Darko I laugh in your face.

Edited February 20, 2006 by YI

[Tarheels.]

I didn't pay for it........I got it by other means

[TheArsenal]

When good films come free with the paper then you know your weekend will be great. This weekend "Donnie Darko" the weekend before there was a pretty good Woody Allen film as well....forgot what it was called though.

So everyone who payed for Donnie Darko I laugh in your face.

Edited February 20, 2006 by TheArsenal