Summary: Donnie Darko, a film by Richard Kelly is about a schizophrenic teen who lives in the American suburb of Middlesex. When an unidentified giant plane engine crashes into his room, a chain of mysterious events are triggered. {draw:rect} Donnie Darko, a film by Richard Kelly is about a schizophrenic teen who lives in the American suburb of Middlesex. When an unidentified giant {draw:frame} plane engine crashes into his room, a chain of mysterious events are triggered. Donnie is plagued by visions of a evil-looking rabbit named Frank. ho makes Donnie commit acts of violence. and tells him the world will end in 28 days. Frank is the boyfriend of Donnie’s sister Elizabeth. The Frank who speaks to Donnie is a kind of ghost Frank – a remnant of Frank who, because Donnie shoots him in the eye within the Tangent Universe’s 28 days and can move freely in time throughout {draw:frame} the Tangent Universe. Frank’s purpose is that he’s been chosen to serve as Donnie’s guide through {draw:frame} the Tangent Universe, leading him toward clues and offering tasks that will ease Donnie’s way toward his goal.
In the early stages of the film, Frank lures Donnie from reality and introduces him to a tangent universe where Donnie observes what would’ve been his own death in reality, where he is crushed {draw:frame} plane engine that crashes directly above his bedroom where he sleeps. In {draw:frame} the tangent reality though, he is just a witness, confused and frightened by the same dream-like atmosphere via other medium. “The Philosophy of Time Travel” by {draw:frame} Roberta Sparrow an elderly woman who attended the same school as Donnie explains that time, while usually stable, will occasionally become corrupted for reasons unknown to all.
When this happens, a Tangent Universe is created -an alternate reality parallel to the primary universe in which we all live. “If a Tangent Universe occurs,” Sparrow writes, “it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks. Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence. ” During that collapse, a time-space vortex will form that leads back to the birth of {draw:frame} the Tangent Universe. At midnight on Oct. , 1988, a Tangent Universe is spontaneously created.. This Tangent Universe threatens the existence of life. It’s up to Donnie to bring the world back to normal and keep {draw:frame} the Tangent Universe from destroying the real world when it collapses. Along with the creation of a Tangent Universe is the unexpected appearance of an Artefact. This artefact (engine) will mysteriously show up near the centre of {draw:frame} the Tangent Universe. In order for disaster to be prevented, the Artefact must be sent back to the Primary Universe.
In order to save the world Donnie picked to return the Artefact to the Primary Universe in order to prevent the disaster had to go through a wormhole and go back in time of the engine crashing into his room and die in order to end the parallel universe and restore stability to the primary universe. By not waking up and sleepwalking out at night, he changed destiny and died to {draw:frame} save the world. At the end of the movie after we go back to the point where the jet engine hits the house we see the therapist wake up suddenly and look troubled, Jim Cunningham sobbing, and Frank touching his eye.
Gretchen, Donnie’s girlfriend and Rose Darko, Donnie’s mum seem to remember each other, waving at the end of {draw:frame} the film. They remember {draw:frame} the Tangent Universe in dreams and remember what happened from the future, but now closed, Tangent Universe. Donnie Darko is on a journey of knowledge of the universe, the notion of existence and the idea of God. Frank tells him that the world will end in 28 days. At first he doesn’t believe it but then starts to and tries to {draw:frame} save the world by trying to find answers.
He asks his teacher and he gives him a book “The Philosophy of Time Travel” by Roberta Sparrow or otherwise know as Grandma Death. He realises the things {draw:frame} Roberta wrote in her book are the things he is going through and tries to figure out a solution to his problems. At the end of {draw:frame} the film he jumps into the bed and laughs just before the engine falls. He is happy knowing that is going to die for love. Love of his family and his girlfriend Gretchen who died earlier on. Kelly uses Irony to show that they characters are the evil that they try to defeat.
The characters are weak minded and are easily influenced into conforming, because of fear, the teachings of Jim Cunningham, an author and public speaker. Human beings are afraid of what they don’t know. Since the people of this town don’t know anything, Cunningham’s answers are the only things that they have to hold onto to give their lives meaning. Because the people of this town are searching for a way to maintain normalcy, they listen to him which gives the status as a God in the suburbia. draw:frame} The tangent universe scenes in {draw:frame} the film are in slow motion, and filmed from an aerial view. This shows the viewer the imitation of {draw:frame} the tangent universe. Donnie is portrayed as a Christ-like figure that will eventually travel back in time not only to correct his actions, but the actions of those he has affected. When Donnie dies he becomes a sacrificial victim and saves the world. This film showed me that journeys aren’t always simple. They take time, effort and sacrifice.
It shows us that even a teen such as Donnie could go through inner journeys that would change their lives forever. In {draw:frame} the film Donnie gives up his own life to save the ones he loves and this shows a strength in humanity and how far humans are willing to go to save mankind. As Donnie sleepwalks he is taken on a journey to places, such as the golf course and the park cliff. This is the journey that prevents him from dying in {draw:frame} the tangent universe. He then goes through an inner journey trying to understand himself and the things around him.
He learns of love, existence in the universe and the idea of God. {draw:rect} Recall that during his talk with Dr. Monotoff (Noah Wyle’s character) they discuss the formation of wormholes in space-time. They can form at complete random, and the only “artifacts” that can move through wormholes without being destroyed are metal vessels of some sort (such as a jet engine… ). As Sparrow describes it, “The Fourth Dimension of Time is a stable construct, though it is not impenetrable. ” The wormholes form as a result of this marginal instability.
Bear in mind that time is just another dimension by which the universe is measured, and it is not mere philosophical fantasy to talk about it being manipulated like any other dimension (consider the observed case of time passing more slowly for one object with movement relative to another object–inconsistencies exist that are difficult to understand). {draw:frame} On October 2nd, 1988, an artifact from out of nowhere landed in what Sparrow calls the “Primary Universe”–life as we know it.
The origin of this artifact, the jet engine, is a “Tangent Universe”, created when the jet engine blew through the wormhole and into a day that had already happened, October 2nd. The artifact marks the arrival of the Tangent Universe. If you’ve been observant you’d realize that this introduces paradox–the Tangent Universe from which the jet engine came did not exist until the jet engine exited its domain via the wormhole, hmm. These paradoxes are inevitable when dealing with time travel.
They don’t fully discount the possibility of time travel, they just mystify it beyond any sort of simple comprehension. I find that it’s easier to visualize the two universes if you imagine the Tangent Universe actually “happening first”. After 28 days of a turbulent existence, the Tangent is erased when the story jumps back to October 2nd in the stable Primary Universe (of course, this is just a model for visualization, these universes existed concurrently). The instability of the the Tangent Universe meant it would collapse within weeks, destroying all existence with it (as Sparrow explains).
Ultimately, Donnie Darko closed the wormhole by ensuring the artifact’s passage through it, back to the Primary Universe (which would seem to be the “second” time it happened, but again, time travel presents paradoxes). In doing so, the jet engine was sent back hurdling toward the Darkos’ house, except this time Donnie knew it was coming. Donnie just smiled, because he knew that he had restored the world to its proper state, and in doing so, saved Gretchen, his mother, and his sister (an airplaine missing an engine doesn’t stay in the air too long).
Donnie was only able to find the courage to accept death because he knew he wasn’t dying alone. By his brief but profound relationship with Gretchen, Donnie overcomes his fear of dying alone. Recall the dichotomy of fear/love theme (complemented by the Primary/Tangent dichotomy) that was r einforced by the role of self-help guru, Jim Cunningham, throughout the film. Donnie fights this battle and ultimately overcomes his fear by finding love in Gretchen. In the end, Donnie not only saved those closed to him, but the world and all of existence. It appears that in some way he understood all of this.
More light will be shed on why shortly. {draw:frame} Gretchen: “Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It’s like some sort of superhero or something. ” This was a bit of a foreshadowing. The Philosophy of Time Travel makes it clear that this movie is more than just a strange journey for one boy; it’s a story of heroism and even martyrdom. Was it necessary for Donnie to die? It could be argued that Donnie could’ve avoided the jet engine to save his own life and still have ensured the stability of the Primary Universe, as The Philosophy of Time Travel would suggest.
I suspect it just made for a better story and a better hero if Donnie were to die. Seeing Gretchen asking about who died is pretty mindblowing, afterall. It also makes it very clear to the viewer that setting is an entirely new branch of space-time. ) But why did Donnie contain the sole power to “save the world”? This question is actually answered in detail in Sparrow’s book. Donnie was the closest to the artifact when it came through the wormhole. This means he must become “The Living Receiver”, whose mission is to guide the artifact back to the Primary Universe.
Being the Living Receiver affords Donnie a few actual “super powers”, including “strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water”, according to the book. In the case of strength, consider that he wedged an axe into a bronze statue. As for water, his mind seemed to set off the sprinklers at Cunningham’s house upon finding the wallet out front. This could be considered a foreshadowing of his torching of the house, perhaps even ironic (fire/water). draw:frame} Without knowing it, Donnie is being guided by invisible forces that are willing him through his mission to restore the artifact to the Primary Universe. The book also describes people known as “The Manipulated Living” that are unknowningly aiding the Living Receiver in his task. The Manipulated Living are those that were near Donnie and the wormhole when the artifact appeared. Like Donnie, they are under the control of an indetectable force (as if the Universe was willing itself back to normal, or perhaps it was the will of God? All people, living and dead, that were in the proximity of the wormhole become unknowingly adherent to a predestiny that will restore the Primary Universe. In this sense, I think that Donnie only becomes a true hero when he dies upon returning to the Primary Universe, because all time spent in the Tangent Universe seems to be without true free will, acting under the spell of being the Living Receiver (if we take Sparrow’s words to be factual). Also affected by the Tangent Universe are “The Manipulated Dead”.
These people are said to be more powerful than the receiver himself, but can only manifest themselves in water. Anyone that dies in the Tangent Universe can contact the Living Receiver. Their motivation is to guide the Living Receiver in his task, because they aim to escape their oblivion (which will be finalized if the receiver fails). The mysterious liquid that seemed to pull people about can be explained as the presence of the Manipulated Dead, provoking Donnie and others around him to follow the path that ultimately will lead to the restoral of the artifact.
It’s an infinitely complex series of causes and effects that carry Donnie through the 28 days, but somehow all of the manipulated persons carry some innate, subconscious understanding of it, and facilitate that exact sequence of actions that will allow restoration of the Primary Universe. Clear large-scale examples of these causes and effects can be observed throughout the movie, such as Frank telling Donnie to burn down Jim’s house, which ultimately causes his mother and sister to ultimately get on the plane that would fly into the wormhole and return the artifact.
As for Frank, he is indeed a hallucination of Donnie’s. The Living Receiver is “tormented” by such hallucinations, according to The Philosophy of Time Travel. Frank represents a manifestation of the invisible impetus that is pulling Donnie along his path toward restoring the Universe. This is all made more intriguing given that we know Donnie Darko is schizophrenic. Furthermore, in the DVD’s deleted scenes you can discover that the psychiatrist was only giving Donnie placebos, so Donnie was at the mercy of his condition during the story.
This introduces an array of new possibilities, such as the scenario in which the entire movie is only some vivid hallucination of an intensely troubled individual. I think that it’s more exciting to try to discern what Donnie’s actually experiencing, knowing that he is both schizophrenic and under the influence of some sort of cosmic spell. Another scenario would be that Donnie’s not schizophrenic at all, because that diagnosis is only made within the Tangent Universe (when Donnie has revealed his hallucinations about Frank).
I don’t suspect this is the case, because when Dr. Thurman asks about Donnie’s new friend, she prefaces it with “Real or imaginary? “. This would suggest Donnie was pretty mentally disturbed prior to October 2nd. At the end of Sparrow’s manuscript, she describes the effects after the restoration of the Primary Universe on those that were among the manipulated. Most don’t retain any knowledge of it. When they do, they suffer immense pain and sometimes regret from the events. On donniedarko. om, you can discover in an epilogue revealing that Jim Cunningham commits suicide 10 days later, which seems only logical if he somehow retained some of the events of the Tangent Universe (he didn’t kill himself in the Tangent Universe, so what other cause could their have been? ) Furthermore, the story says that nothing was found in his house, regarding the children’s pornography. These seem to be strong clues supporting the fact that the manipulated living retain at least some level of subconscious knowledge of their tangent existence in the alternate universe.
In Jim’s case, he was consumed with so much shame and guilt, he took his life {draw:frame} Not to be overlooked, are the emotional themes throughout the movie. As mentioned, themes of fear and love compete throughout the movie. Toward the end of the film there is an interlude during which “Mad World” by Gary Jules plays, a very somber piece. I think this part is a strong reminder that this film is about more than a bizarre time travel story. It really casts light onto the human experience and just how much so many of us suffer but just continue to go through the motions of our every-day lives. _All around me are familiar places, worn out faces_” – this line from the song seems a perfect account of life in the Tangent Universe. “_I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad, the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had. _” – this certainly seems like something Donnie Darko would say, doesn’t it? “_The tears are filling up their glasses, no expression, no expression at all. _” Wow, that just makes me want to run out and buy balloons or something festive….
In summary, the movie accounts a natural phenomenon, a wormhole and the formation of a parallel universe, through the eyes of the most signifcantly affected human figure involved, Donnie Darko. By virtue of some sort of cosmic law, Donnie is set into motion on a path to restore the extremely fragic, turbulent Tangent Universe back to the normal Primary Universe. The strongest actor in Donnie’s life is “frank”, a hallucination that has come into existence (in Donnie’s mind) to aid Donnie in his task. Through the eyes of (an assumed) schizophrenic, we can never really know for sure what Donnie experienced during those 28 days.
What we know with confidence is that during his tenure as the Living Receiver, Donnie finally overcame his fears of death and loneliness, finding love in Gretchen. In his death, Donnie finally found peace. In his own words, “I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to. ” Synopsis Donnie accepts his death, understanding what his continued life would mean. Most of the film takes place in a tangent universe, where Donnie is guided by Frank and others, and shown what will happen if he survives the jet engine.
Does Donnie choose to die? To me, this is hard to answer. At one point, Donnie asks his physics teacher about free will versus following the ‘path of god. ‘ We can actually see this ‘path of god’ for some people when their movements are predicted by some computer graphics. On a larger scale, Donnie has been marked for death as his path, and it is debateable as to how much choice he really ever had. I think to say he accepts it after losing Gretchen and killing Frank is the most accurate perspective. Another theme of the film is dying alone. Grandma Death says that every living creature dies alone.
In a way, Gretchen, Frank, and Donnie all do die alone. Donnie thinks about this doom in questioning the existence of god. He is often a lonely guy; the idea seems unfair. I think this theme is really about having to accept our own deaths. We need to see that the destruction of ourselves is just another form of creation — something Donnie himself points out (in his own way) in analyzing Graham Greene’s story in school. {draw:rect} Detailed Analysis In the beginning, Donnie wakes up in the middle of the road near the top of a mountain. He smiles in amusement at his own sleep-walking, which is how he got there.
At the dinner table we are introduced to Donnie’s family. Donnie doesn’t fit perfectly, but they still love him. If you include the deleted scenes, Donnie will say goodbye to each of these characters before he dies. In the final cut, we just see him kiss his older sister on the cheek before he drives away from his house with Gretchen for the last time. Donnie, feeling guilty about fighting with his mom, starts taking his medication again. This, it seems, will induce more sleep-walking. The deleted scenes mention that they were actually placebos the entire time, and we know Donnie actually sleep-walks either way.
Donnie’s dad wakes up in the middle of the night. The point is that these sleeping problems run in the family. In one of the deleted scenes, his dad says to him, “I used to be crazy… ” implying Donnie’s emotional problems are also genetic. We see the clock strike midnight. This helps us keep track of the time left until the end of the world. Donnie probably talks to Frank on the golf course between 1 and 2 am, which means the world ends around 8 am. We will see the clock strike midnight one more time. “Wake up, Donnie,” we are introduced to Frank as he awakens the hero for the first time.
Richard Kelly says this is the moment we enter the tangent universe. The writer (R. Kelly) suggests we take everything literally in a sci-fi fashion, but I prefer to think of this (the main/tangent universe) portion of the movie as a vision or dream of Donnie’s. Donnie talks to Frank in the golf course. The extended scenes on the DVD contain a longer conversation — this is how, for example, Donnie knows that Frank’s name is Frank. The end of the world can be viewed as the collapse of the tangent universe, which I like to think of as the end of Donnie’s vision.
We see Elizabeth (Donnie’s older sister) sneaking home. Her boyfriend, who is the pre-death Frank, drives away and honks. Watching the movie, even with the extended/ deleted scenes, I don’t think you could tell that pre-death Frank was supposed to be her boyfriend. I only know this from the director’s commentary. Boom! the jet engine crashes into the house. Scary stuff, dude. No one is hurt. When we return to the real (non-tangent) universe, it is still unknown where this engine came from. Kelly says the engine is the only physical artifact which survives from the tangent universe.
The website hints that in real life, the plane it came from remains unharmed, even after halloween. Donnie is found asleep on the golf course. We meet Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze), and Donnie catches the weird vibe. *ime Travel in Donnie *Darko By popular request, here is a brief analysis of time travel used in the movie Donnie Darko. As I’ve mentioned before, Donnie Darko is an enigmatic film and I’m not sure it makes total sense. At a very high level everything seems to fit, but when you start to drill down into the details things become less clear.
In the commentary track of the Directors Cut DVD, writer/director Richard Kelly attempts to clarify some of the more mystifying aspects of the film, but he still leaves a lot of wiggle room and ambiguity. He describes the time travel in the film as being driven by a “comic book logic,” which should give you an idea of just how scientifically rigorous the subject is treated in the film (i. e. not very). Time travel is essentially a deus ex machina; it drives the story, but its internal mechanics are unimportant.
So this analysis isn’t really intended to be very rigorous either, just a few thoughts and attempts to clarify or at least call out some of the more confusing concepts. Before I really get into it, I suppose I should mention that what follows contains many SPOILERS, so read on at your own risk. Another thing that might be useful is to go over other less than rigorous time travel theories that have been presented in film and literature. This list isn’t meant to be complete, but these four theories will help in dissecting Donnie Darko.
Again, many SPOILERS, especially in the case of lightning (as I’m assuming most people haven’t read it). The Terminator: The main timeline is set, and traveling back in time cannot change anything. Indeed, traveling back in time to change the present will sometimes cause the very thing you’re trying to avoid, as happens in The Terminator (for obvious dramatic reasons). This is among the more plausible time travel theories, as it avoids those messy paradoxes. As such, it is one of the more popular theories, used in many other stories (like 12 Monkeys and, funnily nough, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure). A more pretentious name for this is Circular Causation, but I think The Terminator gets the point across… Back to the Future: There are, I suppose, many ways to interpret time travel in this movie, but in this theory, there is still only one timeline, but you can change the past (and thus the present). In this theory, it’s possible to go back in time and kill your father (before he had you), and in such a case you will “disappear. ” This is also a common theory, but the presence of paradox makes it less plausible.
There are probably ways to explain this theory in terms of alternate universes (multiple timelines) as well… The End of Eternity: In Isaac Asimov’s novel, a group of people known as Eternals develop time travel and decided to improve upon history by introducing carefully calculated changes in the timeline. There is more to it than that, but the concept of a society using time travel to manipulate history is an important concept that is relevant to DD. Lightning: In Dean Koontz’s novel, time travel is only allowed in one direction: to the future.
This takes care of the “kill your father” paradox rather neatly. You can, however, change the future. There is a catch though, which is probably more for dramatic effect, but which bears importance in the Donnie Darko discussion essentially, fate doesn’t like it when you attempt to change something in the future: “Destiny struggles to reassert the pattern that was meant to be. ” Not particularly scientific, but interesting and again, relevant to DD. Donnie Darko sort of contains elements of all four, and since it includes the Back to the Future theory, it also sort of includes a paradox.
To start, here is a diagram that will help visualize the time travel present in the film: {draw:frame} It’s not really to scale, but you get the point. Basically, the main timeline is displayed in the line segment AD (and it is a thicker line, as it is the timeline that is meant to be). BC (the black line) represents the tangent universe, a sort of alternate timeline, and this is where the majority of the film takes place. CB (the grey line) represents the time travel in the film. More details listed below: AB – Point A is the start of the film, and the segment AB takes place before the tangent universe egins. BC – Point B is the point at which an airplane engine lands on Donnie Darko’s house. It is also the point at which the tangent universe begins. It is unclear as to why or how the tangent universe begins, but in the main timeline Donnie is killed, while in the tangent universe, Donnie is sort of called out of his room by a mysterious force and thus is not killed by the engine. As the movie goes, shortly after point C, the entire universe (I assume this includes the main timeline as well) is destroyed. This implies that tangent universes must be resolved and cannot be allowed to continue.
The film references a fictional book which describes the tangent universe thusly: If a Tangent Universe occurs, it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks. Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence. This particular information is referenced in the Directors Cut, but not in the theatrical cut. CB – This segment is represented by the grey line between points C and B. At point C, a jet engine falls off an aircraft and travels back in time, hitting Donnie’s house at point B.
I assume that this event is what causes the tangent universe to form in the first place, which is paradoxical – how can the tangent universe exist when it is caused by itself? BD – The period immediately following point B is shown in the film, but the rest of the segment is not. It is unclear whether or not the jet engine falls off the plane at point D (which parallels point C) or not. I get the impression that it doesn’t, but if it did, it might help resolve the paradox shown in CB. Even after all this, there are still many, many, many questions to be answered. There are a few other things we need to establish first.
First, does Donnie have some sort of superpower? Donnie is obviously different from other people. The film doesn’t show any sort of explicit references to his powers, but it is sort of implied by his visits to a psychiatrist and his visions. I suppose the water trails he sees (which show the future path of a person, sometimes including himself) could be an expression of his abilities (as it allows him to see into the future). It’s clear that Donnie made a decision near the end of the movie that he was going to “fix” the universe and allow himself to be killed by the jet engine, but it’s not clear how that happens.
Does Donnie actually cause that to happen, or is he just aware of it happening and going along for the ride? There is a sort of messianic theme in the movie, so I’m assuming that Donnie has some sort of power to send himself and/or the jet engine back in time and link the two universes together (and to collapse the tangent universe without destroying all of existence). Richard Kelly, in explaining his take on the story, indicated that he wanted to communicate that there was some sort of technology at work in the tangent universe, manipulating everyone’s actions, and attempting to set things right.
It is unclear what exactly this technology is, how it works, or who is using it, but his point is that someone is orchestrating events in the tangent universe so as to fix the universe (or to allow Donnie the opportunity to fix things). When he mentioned this concept, I immediately thought of Asimov’s Eternals, people who manipulated time and history for the betterment of mankind. In Donnie Darko, perhaps there exists a similar group of people who are tasked with ensuring that tangent universes are closed.
Or perhaps, Donnie himself is subconsciously manipulating events to help fix things. I also thought of Koontz’s Lighting and that infamous line “Destiny struggles to reassert the pattern that was meant to be. ” In that scenario, there isn’t really a technology at work, just fate, perhaps augmented by Donnie’s supernatural abilities. Indeed, it could be some sort of combination of these three explanations: Donnie Darko has powers which are augmented by some sort of technology and fate. What is Frank (the demonic looking bunny), and what role does he play in the story? This is very unclear.
He may be a ghost, he may be the result of Donnie’s unconscious awareness of the future, or he may be a projection from the technological puppet-masters. There are obviously a number of other explanations. What if the timeline actually follows a linear path (i. e. the linear presentation in the movie)? In that scenario, the timeline would go from A to B to C to D, except that B and D are essentially the same point in time (perhaps the main timeline stopped while the tangent universe worked itself out). So the time travel line would occur between CD. And of course, this doesn’t really take into account all the themes of the film.
I suppose I should also note that I’ve been analyzing the Directors Cut, which references a lot more of the fictional book, The Philosophy Of Time Travel by Roberta Sparrow (a character in the film). The Directors Cut gives more information on the guiding forces in the story, and it gives a more sci-fi bend than the theatrical cut, but both cuts are sufficiently ambiguous as to allow multiple interpretations, many of which end up being pretty silly when you drill down into the details, and some don’t make much sense, but in the end that doesn’t really matter all that much because you have to figure it out for
