Donnie Darko Explained

I found this on article on Tumblr and thought it was a good explanation as to what is going on in the movie 'Donnie Darko' which is one of my all time favorite movies.

I have posted my theory before and this article only increased my fascination with this picture. It's one you either really really hate or really really love because it challenges the viewer to pay attention to every word and every image and rewards you for your effort each time you see it if you are just willing to go along with it's unique style.

I understand how people can hate that though. Throughout the film you are always thinking there is something you are missing so it demands repeat viewing and rewards you with new insights each time you see it.

'Inception' and 'Momento' (both written and directed by Christopher Nolan) worked like this for me too.

Donnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller-fantasy film directed and written by Richard Kelly. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell, and depicts the reality-bending adventures of the title character as he seeks the meaning and significance behind his troubling Doomsday-related visions.

Writer/director Richard Kelly does not deny the validity of personal interpretations, but has expressed his own theories through the extra commentary on the two DVDs, and in various other interviews.

Some viewers theorize, at midnight on October 2, a “Tangent Universe” branches off the “Primary Universe” around the time when Donnie is called out of his bedroom by Frank, immediately before the appearance of the Artifact, the faulty jet engine. The inherently unstable Tangent Universe will collapse in just over 28 days and take the Primary Universe with it if not corrected. Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the “Living Receiver”, Donnie, who wields certain supernatural powers to help him in the task.

Those who die within the Tangent Universe and would not have died otherwise are the “Manipulated Dead” (Frank, Gretchen). Frank, at least, is also given certain powers in that he is able to subtly understand what is happening and to contact and influence the Living Receiver via the “Fourth Dimensional Construct”, water. All others within the orbit of the Living Receiver are the “Manipulated Living” (e.g. Ms. Pomeroy, Dr. Monnitoff), subconsciously drawn to push him towards his destiny to close the Tangent Universe and, according to the Philosophy of Time Travel, die by the Artifact.

Frank appears in the story in two guises (three guises if we assume that he “never” dies on account of the restoration of the Primary Universe through the negation of the Tangent Universe). First, there is the Manipulated Dead Frank who appears to Donnie as a premonition from the future of the Tangent Universe in the disturbing rabbit suit. Dead Frank is aware of Donnie’s fate and destiny, and impels him to realize it so that the Primary Universe can be restored at the point where/when the Tangent Universe branched off from it. Second, Frank appears alive as Donnie’s sister’s boyfriend, whose fate unfolds within the Tangent Universe by means of Donnie’s successes in realizing his mission.

Donnie: How can you do that?
Frank: I can do anything I want. And so can you.

——

Donnie: I made a new friend today.
Dr. Lilian Thurman: Real or imaginary?
Donnie: Imaginary.

——

Donnie: [reading poem in class] A storm is coming, Frank says / A storm that will swallow the children / And I will deliver them from the kingdom of pain / I will deliver the children back the their doorsteps / And send the monsters back to the underground / I’ll send them back to a place where no-one else can see them / Except for me / Because I am Donnie Darko.

——

[from the Extended and Deleted Scenes. The class is discussing Watership Down]

Karen Pommeroy: This could be the death of an entire way of life, the end of an era…
Donnie: Why should we care?
Karen Pommeroy: Because the rabbits are us, Donnie.
Donnie: Why should I mourn for a rabbit like he was human?
Karen Pommeroy: Are you saying that the death of one species is less tragic than another?
Donnie: Of course. The rabbit’s not like us. It has no… keen look at something in the mirror, it has no history books, no photographs, no knowledge of sorrow or regret… I mean, I’m sorry, Miss Pommeroy, don’t get me wrong; y’know, I like rabbits and all. They’re cute and they’re horny. And if you’re cute and you’re horny, then you’re probably happy, in that you don’t know who you are and why you’re even alive. And you just wanna’ have sex, as many times as possible, before you die… I mean, I just don’t see the point in crying over a dead rabbit! Y’know, who… who never even feared death to begin with.