Donnie Darko – An Interpretation

Aug 11, 2009

I know that this subject has probably been beaten into the ground by numerous people, blogs, etc.  but for some reason I felt compelled after watching the movie again this week to write up some of my thoughts on how to interpret it.  Let me preface this post by saying two things:  First, I assume you have seen the movie so I am not going to write a synopsis of it, and consider this your spoiler alert.  Second, I do not feel that the movie should be viewed as what it has become, which is the cult “emo” movie.  If you really pay attention to it (most notably the directors cut version), it is really pretty much a pure science fiction movie, more than a psychological thriller.  I suppose you could put a different interpretation around it which would focus on insanity/madness/mental illness, but I believe the director has made it quite clear in the directors cut version of the film, as well as the commentary, that it is not a case of insanity.  It is not the typical “easy out” method of plot delivery where the protagonist is insane, or awakens from a bad dream at the end.

Donnie Darko

So allow me to center my interpretation around the book which is heavily referenced in the movie (especially the directors cut), The Philosophy of Time Travel.  If you take a few minutes to read this, the movie, and my interpretation will make a lot more sense as the entire plot of the movie can be explained by it.  I will segment my interpretation, chapter by chapter, to directory correlate to the above “book”.  All quoted items through this article are quotations from The Philosophy of Time Travel.

The Tangent Universe

… Incidents when the fabric of the Fourth Dimension becomes corrupted are incredibly rare.

If a Tangent Universe occurs, it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself no longer than several weeks.

Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence…

Shortly after the start of the film Donnie is awoken to a voice, the voice of the giant rabbit Frank.  From this point forward Donnie is living in the Tangent Universe.  The Primary Universe is the normal world.  The Tangent universe is the highly unlikely occurance mentioned in the above quote.  During his first encounter with Frank he is told that the world will end in approximately 28 days.  This is the length of time the Tangent Universe will exist for.

So this sets the stage for the rest of the movie.

The Artifact and the Living

When a Tangent Universe occurs, those living nearest the Vortex will find themselves at the epicenter of a dangerous new world.

Artifacts provide the first sign that a Tangent Universe has occured.

If an Artifact occurs, the Living will retrieve it with great interest and curiosity.  Artifacts are formed from metal…

The Artifact in this case, is the jet engine which crashes into Donnies house during his meeting with Frank.  The next morning when he wakes up and returns home, he sees that his house has been destroyed by this jet engine.  More importantly, it landed directly in his bedroom, and he should have been killed.  It is eluded to several times that the FAA has no idea where the jet engine came from.  Meaning that no plane crashed, nor landed, missing an engine.  This makes the item an item of great curiosity, as well as solidifying the existence of a Tangent Universe.

The Living Receiver

The Living Reciever is chosen to guide the Artifact into position for its journey back to the Primary Universe.

… The Living Reciever is often blessed with Fourth Dimensional Powers.  These include increased strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water.

The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams, visions and auditory hallucinations during his time within the Tangent Universe…

Donnie is the Living Receiver, meaning he was chosen to “guide the Artifact into position”.  This basically means that he is responsible for making sure the jet engine crashes into his house after 28 days and kills him.  Though he does not realize this fact for most of the movie.  If he does not fulfill this task, the Tangent Universe will consume the Primary Universe.  Basically, the Living Receiver has to save the world, but no one will ever know he did.

He is tormented by dreams/auditory hallucinations, seeing/hearing Frank, and he exhibits some of the other prescribed traits.  He somehow managed to lodge an axe into a solid bronze statue, and he “conjured” fire and water when he flooded the school and burned down Cunninghams house.  Although I think they could have done a better job with the “conjuring” since you don’t need special powers to use gasoline to light a fire.

Also, the watery tubes he can sometimes see coming out of peoples chests are his way of seeing into the future, which also appear as water, what the book claims the the Fourth Dimensional (time) construct is made of.  As well as using his powers of telekinesis to guide the artifact back into position at the end of the movie by using his mind to rip the engine off the aircraft.

The Manipulated Dead

The Manipulated Dead are more powerful than the Living Receiver.  If a person dies within the Tangent Universe, they are able to contact the Living Receiver through the Fourth Dimensional Construct.

The Fourth Dimensional Construct is made of Water.

The Manipulated Dead will manipulate the Living Receiver using the Fourth Dimensional Construct.

The Manipulated Dead will often set an Ensurance Trap for the Living Receiver to ensure that the Artifact is returned safely to the Primary Universe…

The Manipulated Dead in the movie are Gretchen (Donnies “girlfriend”) and Frank.  This is because at some point within the confines of the Tangent Universe they die.  This is how and why Frank can contact Donnie, independant of time.  Gretchen also plays what seems to be a more subconscious role in setting the Ensurance Trap.

The Ensurance Trap is basically the Manipulated Dead’s way of making sure the Living Reciever does what he needs to do, and is essentially given no other choice.  In Donnies case, the series of coincidences which occur leading up to Gretchen dying, and him shooting Frank.  After those events occur he either understands his purpose in the Tangent Universe, or he simply has no other reason to live, so he sacrifices himself to guide the artifact into its position in the Primary Universe.  That position of course, is in his bedroom, while he is still in it.

The Ensurance Trap is the sole purpose of the Manipulated Dead, and is the only reason those two characters are in the plot.  Every interaction Donnie has with them leads up to the ending.

  1. Frank tells Donnie world will end.
  2. Frank convinces Donnie to flood the school
    1. Donnie meets Gretchen, due to this.
    2. Consquently, his teacher is fired due to the book “The Destructors” she had them read.
    3. When she is fired she writes “Cellar Door” on the chalkboard.
  3. Frank shows Donnie the watery plumes from peoples chests, leading him to find his fathers gun.
  4. Donnie finds wallet, which leads to him burning down Cunninghams house.
    1. Kitty stays home to defend Cunningham, forcing Donnies mom to travel with the dance team.
  5. Due to Frank, Donnie becomes curious about time travel, science teacher gives him Philosophy of Time Travel.
    1. Donnie writes letter to “Grandma Death”
  6. Donnies mom leaves, enabling him and his sister to throw a party.
    1. Gretchen’s mom runs off, leading Gretchen to Donnies house.
    2. Gretchen and Donnie further solidify their relationship via sex.
    3. Frank is driving to the party with Beer.
  7. During Halloween party Donnie realizes how much time he has left.
    1. Suddenly something clicks in his mind, and he goes to Grandma Death’s house, notably into the “Cellar Door”.
    2. A quarrel happens with he and some thugs.
    3. Frank drives down the road, due to the quarrel Gretchen is in the street.
    4. Frank has to swerve to miss Grandma Death who is in the street, only to read the letter Donnie sent.
    5. As a result of swerving, kills Gretchen.
    6. Due to Frank killing Gretchen, Donnie kills Frank.
  8. Donnie realizes what is going on and fully understands the book now, goes home, and sets everything right by allowing the aircraft engine to kill him.

The Manipulated Living

The Manipulated Living are often the close friends and neighbours of the Living Receiver.

They are prone to irrational, bazaar, and often violent behavior.  This is the unfortunate result of their task, which is to assist the Living Receiver in returning the Artifact to the Primary Universe…

The Manipulated Living are everyone else in the movie, other than Gretchen, Frank, and Donnie.   They play a seemingly unconscious role in the Ensurance trap, whereby they act “bizzare” because they are somehow alert of the fact that the world is ending, and are acting irrational in order to save it, even though they are not conscious of any of this.

There are not really a weath of examples of the “bizarre/violent” behavior without stretching, but here goes.  Kitty, the health teacher, is obsessed with two things, one, the cult-like “fear/love” system by Cunningham, which ultimately results in her leading his defense team when he is found out as a child pornographer.  Which in turn, leads to Donnies mom having to leave.  Also, she is obsessed with the dance team, Sparkle Motion, winning the talent contest.  Because if they don’t, the artifact cannot find it’s place back.

Other small things are how his parents act, father being glad Donnie got suspended, mother asking for a divorce which never happens.  His shrink giving Donnie a placebo pill (which further argues that he is not insane).  Teacher writing “Cellar Door” on the chalkboard, teacher making Gretchen pick a seat “next to the cutest boy”, teacher making them read/watch very questionable material in class.

A lot of people just act a little “strange” throughout the film.

Dreams

When the Manipulated awaken from their Journey into the Tangent Universe, they are often huanted by the experience in their dreams.

Many of them will not remember.

Those who do remember the journey are often overcome with profound remorse for the regretful actions buried within their dreams, the only physical evidence buried within the artifact itself; all that remains from the lost world…

The movie ends, with the key cast members all waking up from what appears to be a dream, or in some cases, a nightmare.  The teachers wake up happy, they still have their jobs, and feel somehow content with their role in setting things right in their dream.  Cherita wakes up happy having remembered when Donnie promised her everything would be better.

Kitty wakes up remorseful after realizing that she devoted herself to a pedophile.  Cunningham wakes up horrified, remorsful of being a fraud and a pedophile (whom, according to the cryptic Donnie Darko website later commits suicide).

Frank wakes up rubbing his eye.

Others, such as Gretched and Donnies mom, seem ignorant to the occurances other than having a strange familiarity with one another at the end of the movie, even though they never actually met.  The therapist also wakes up in the middle of the night but I am really unsure as to why.

Summary and Conclusion

To summarize the above:  A rift happens at the beginning of the movie splitting the universe into a tangent.  The movie entirely takes place within the tangent, where everyone in the movie is, consciously or unconsciously, working toward closing the rift to ensure the real world doesn’t end.  Donnie is the unfortunate individual stuck in the middle.  In order to make things right, he needs to make sure the jet engine kills him before the rift sucks the real world into oblivion.  The entire movie is centered around setting up/making sure, Donnie does just that.  By the end he understands fully what is going on, and fulfills his destiny.  He dies, and the world goes on as it was supposed to.

I believe that the writer/director have made it quite clear at this point that The Philosophy of Time Travel should be taken as canon.  As such, the movie is a pure sci-fi tale of time travel and parellel universes.  While I think other interpretations are interesting to read, I do not believe that is how the movie was meant to be recieved.  Especially with respect to the “emo” crowd.

I do not believe it was a tale of a troubled young man, who saw the future.  Saw the future and saw himself causing all sorts of damage to the world, due to paranoid schizophrenia.  Later killing himself to save the world from his dastardly deeds.  I believe the addition of the scene where his doctor talks of giving him placebo pills further solidifies the fact that even she did not believe him to be ill.  So please, emo kids, pick a different movie to love so I don’t feel gay when I watch Donnie Darko.

Posted in: Entertainment, Thought Provoking
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Comments (44) Trackbacks (0)
  • Bryan Gerber on Aug 12, 2009 - 03:31:51

    Far too much effort has been put into the interpretation of this movie. That we’re asked to believe all this nonsense about tangent universes and living receivers all while not being sure if we’re even supposed to believe it, keeps the movie from taking on any significant depth with me.

    If I were him, I wouldn’t have believed anything about the book. It’s pure insanity. I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to be taking it seriously as I was watching it. Apparently I was.

  • werkkrew on Aug 12, 2009 - 03:56:03

    I suppose that is why I took the time to write my own interpretation, because I was still left unsettled with it. You are absolutely right that after watching it you are still not sure if hes insane, or if it was all real. I think the directors cut version did a much better job of making it obvious what direction the writers intended it to go in.

    As with most movies which are left very open ended “the audience should interpret it how they want” sort of things, I don’t like. I like a movie to have some sort of closure at the end.

  • Belalrone on Aug 13, 2009 - 10:42:03

    I just liked the movie because the music reminded me of my youth heh.

  • Sway on Aug 26, 2009 - 07:22:43

    I think this is a great interpretation and I also believe that Donnie was not crazy at all. But I think he may have had a choice to live and not do certain things that would lead to the death of his gf / mother / lil sister. If he had burned down the house and not had the party and told his mom to get on another flight everything might have been ok.

    Or its possible that if he did continue on the path of “righting his wrongs” that all of the people that had died still would have died or the world really would have ended.

  • Tom on Sep 11, 2009 - 18:03:37

    Very good interpretation. However I think you have made a mistake… in the end of the movie Donnie does not go back to his house and let the jet engine kill him. He goes back in time (notice the jacket his sister is wearing and the fact that his mom is alive- she should die in the crash together with his sister). So he is killed in the primary universe by an artifact from just collapsed tangent universe. I cant figure out one thing- there is still an artifact from the “wrong” universe. I dont know- maybe it should be interpreted that this is a loop with continuously developing new tangent universes after collapsing the previous- what do you think? Cheers, Tom

  • nate on Oct 14, 2009 - 02:36:17

    DONNIE DARKO ANALYSIS 10-13-09

    These are observations and thought trains of the movie.

    Seems extreme significance to character Frank. I am feeling Frank is always Frank and that he is a key

    figure to the whole story. Other theories are that Frank is the boy’s dead ghost but this one contradicts

    itself because why would the boy do everything in his power to lead Donnie to kill him? Makes no

    sense. And the theory that Frank is a greater power showing him the path to make everything right

    makes no sense because if that was Frank’s intent, he would have told Donnie that an engine was

    coming, move out of the way, not to go sleep on a golf course and commit acts of wanton violence and

    vandalism. The engine moving through the vector from the future puts a tricky twist into the story.

    Think about this: if Frank had not been evil and manipulating Donnie, the engine never would have fallen

    through the wormhole because the acts leading to it never would have taken place. Run the story

    without Donnie obeying Frank and everything changes. Let Donnie make the same conscious decisions,

    like arguing with the teacher and harassing Jim Cunningham. Jim would have still killed himself and his

    dungeon would have been discovered. The annoying teacher would have been discredited a bit and the

    teacher who was fired never would have been fired because she never would have been blamed for the

    destruction of the school because Donnie never would have done it in the first place. The whole story is

    a symbolic tale of following the evil as it manipulates you by tricking you that you’re doing good and that

    you “need to see this through” and the saving grace that intervenes, even up until the last possible

    moment seems impossible. Perhaps this is simply one interpretation but when weighed logically and

    scientifically against the events of the story, it’s the only theory that can hold its weight against any

    and every scrutiny.

    THEORY 1 Supernatural Frank is a supposed form by an evil entity in Donnie’s hallucinations working for

    dark forces trying to manipulate Donnie. He leads Donnie to destruction with deceit by telling him the

    world will end and acting like he’s showing Donnie things to do to prevent when really he is “tricking”

    Donnie into bringing about the events. Case in point: why didn’t Donnie refuse to burn down the

    house? If he hadn’t, yes, Jim Cunningham would have never been found to be a fraud but his mother

    wouldn’t have died. She never would have left. If she never left, they never would have thrown the

    party and Gretchen never would have died. The destruction of the tangent universe around Donnie

    was only brought to destruction and the brink not by unchangeable forces but by the manipulation of

    Donnie by Frank. Frank is a devil misleading him and Roberta Sparrow is an angel of sorts revealing the

    truth. Notice Frank does not ask Donnie about portals or time travel until after he has noticed the

    strange aquatic visions expanding out of people’s chests. Perhaps Frank is taking the current situation

    and putting his own spin on it to manipulate. Notice whose form Frank took: the body of the boy Donnie

    murders (his sister’s boyfriend) AFTER Donnie shoots him in the head. Frank supposed this boy’s form

    knowing that he would unfortunately run over Donnie’s girlfriend and built Donnie’s hate for him through

    the movie so that when the time came, Donnie would shoot this boy in rage, sealing his fate. The world

    may not have been ending. It may have been a lie. It was Frank’s lie that the world would end:

    actually, the time frame would have been the time until Donnie was arrested for the murder of his

    sister’s boyfriend Frank. Donnie then, knowing his mental illness and seeing the path of his destiny to

    end his visions and manipulation and further destruction, goes through the portal and chooses to die in

    his bed and the primary reality is altered, collapsing the tangent reality. The end of the world. Frank

    was trying to get Donnie to stop the collapse of the tangent universe. It would only “end” if Donnie

    made the righteous choice. This is also post-shadowed by the hint of the website featuring a

    newspaper story where Jim Cunningham commits suicide, struggling with the horror of the monster he

    has become. Killing himself to protect others and end the madness of the “mad world.” Think about it.

  • nate on Oct 14, 2009 - 02:40:07

    forgot to mention” this theory is based upon that Frank lied about the end of the world. the time travel still happens and all but that the world ending was a lie. did anyone else in the movie see the sky turn black? no, only donnie. this would support the idea that the tangent universe was an evil attempt to destroy the real one, much like the director intended but with a larger scope view.

  • nate on Oct 14, 2009 - 02:46:16

    further clarification upon review LOL. frank’s intent WAS to bring about the end of the world by continued chaos in the tangent universe with the hope that Donnie DIDN’T discover the worm hole. Perhaps Frank was hoping he would lose his reason and resolve when Gretchen died and he murdered boy Frank, evil Frank’s attempt to break Donnie. But Donnie remains strong. hope that helps. i know this wasnt the director intent, but i did notice this story exixts inside the movie also and makes it more interesting.

  • different Nate on Nov 07, 2009 - 23:44:27

    Great summary, it really cleared up the movie, though I still want to see it again now that I know what the crap happened.

    Also, I think my evil twin may be overanalyzing it a wee bit.

  • Roshan on Feb 07, 2010 - 01:08:17

    This is the final interpretation after so many reads and thinking from me.
    What has original poster said is all true except adding this..
    Donnie must find a course to appearance of jet engine(the artifact)the artifact marked the bigging of tangent universe.In real universe there is no way en engine appear suddenly.Since it has come, tangent universe has appeared.
    Now he walks out to find rabbit guy at the same moment.From now on real universe time is hold still and the movie continues with the tangent universe.
    After all these above mention actions form the original poster,Donnie has found a cause to appearance of the artifact.which is, his mother’s and sister’s jet crashes and engine fall down. Since he has found the path to appearance of the artifact he has successfully found a cause of the artifact, to real universe as it was described earlier in notes from “The Philosophy of Time Travel”
    by connecting the Existence of artifact to real universe, forming of the black hole is avoided and tangent universe was stopped.
    In tangent universe his mother and younger sister dies of jet crash.The tangent universe’s things are the real things what has happened.Since tangent universe was end, by following the path by Donnie,primary was universe continued..otherwise it also would have been destroyed along with tangent universe according to the book.
    final seen of director’s cut shows mother is alive.This means primary universe is continued,because of Donnie’s act.In order to continue it,Donnie and all people surround him had gone in tangent universe and made a cause for the artifact’s existence.
    So primary universe is going on.That mean Dionnie killed because of the jet engine, which is unavoidable since actually tangent universe had appeared and ended.When it was end Donnie was in tangent universe.Since it ended he was in primary universe and unavoidable death..

  • Bob on Feb 09, 2010 - 20:23:32

    It mentions in the movie that the manipulated dead use the ‘fourth dimensional construct’ to manipulate the living receiver. The construct is made of water. Donnie’s been taking these pills, which at first seems to cause him to sleepwalk/talk to Frank. Everyone assumes this is disproven through the fact that they’re actually placebos. But placebos are essentially water, yeah?

  • Bryan Gerber on Feb 14, 2010 - 17:15:32

    Placebos are merely suggestions. You could give someone water and claim it to be medicinal but it would be the suggestion that the water is medicinal that makes the water a placebo.

    Roshan, I did not understand pretty much everything you said. But it seemed interesting nonetheless

  • outofphase on Feb 28, 2010 - 14:33:29

    I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head about the movie. I had sort of knew before but then read the Philosophy of Time Travel and it makes sense.

    Also I’m now going to watch it for the billionth time. :P

  • Andrew on Apr 12, 2010 - 06:21:17

    I find it odd that from all the site’s I have been on, with meanings behind the greatest movie of all time… they never mention when Gretchen walks with Donnie and says “Donnie Darko…sounds like a super hero” and Donnie replies with “what makes you think im not” which is so ironic for him to say considering he really is saving the world.

  • Tim on Apr 23, 2010 - 05:14:38

    I loved the movie, but for the life of me I can’t seem to wrap my mind around it. For starters, how in the heck did Donnie ever find the portal at the end of the movie? All it shows is him and dead Gretchen in a car overlooking the town with the sky ripping open, he says he’s going home, and then all of a sudden he is in a portal. Where and how did that happen? Secondly, if this artifact being in the wrong place and wrong time has started a tangent universe, then when the moment the jet engine went back in time doesn’t that mean it would have started all over again? Just because Donnie dies doesn’t change the fact that this jet engine has just created its very own paradox. Could someone, please, shed some light on this?

  • Becky on Jun 07, 2010 - 12:46:33

    Really enjoyed reading this, thank you :)

  • Walter on Jul 27, 2010 - 16:48:37

    Here’s my take on the movie, which is very similar to the one posted here. In the timeline of the primary universe Donnie Darko has to die to trigger all the events that lead to the airplane hitting the time portal and loosing an engine to it. Donnie “sleep walks” outside the night the jet engine hits his bedroom, and in the normal timeline of the primary universe (one in which there is no jet engine hitting his house) Donnie gets killed that night, maybe run over by a car. The reason Donnie did not die that night is because the jet engine falling in his house has disrupted the chain of events leading to someone driving over Donnie. A piece of evidence that supports this idea is the first scene of the movie which shows Donnie waking up in the middle of the street and then he smiles realizing how lucky he got by not being hit by a car. So this creates a highly unstable and inconsistent tangent universe: Donnie must die to trigger the vents that lead the plane to hit the time portal, but the jet engine falling back in time triggers a set of events that “save” Donnie from death.
    So Donnie is now in this unstable, tangent universe and because he is the “un-stabilizing” factor he has “time powers”, i.e. he can see into the future and he can change the past (a recurring theme in the movie, especially in his conversations with Gretchen). The airplane hits the time portal at the end of the movie just because Donnie Darko has already decided on changing the past and dying when the jet engine hits his bedroom, which solves the problem that has caused the “space-time” inconsistency that created the tangent universe. If Donnie had not made the decision to die and fix the problem, then eventually the problem would have destroyed the universe.
    Lemme know what you guys think…

  • Rachael Cole on Sep 14, 2010 - 21:58:47

    Did anyone ever think that the plane crashing in the end of the movie with his mother and sister in it somehow was part of the plane that crashed into his house intended to kill him? Showing that Donnie was destined to die either way. I dont know if that has any relevance, i just think that the use of 2 planes is sortof interesting. Just wondering.

  • kathryn on Oct 27, 2010 - 01:00:04

    Great interpretation! I’m glad I will understand what is going on in the movie now!

  • Andrew on Nov 25, 2010 - 04:12:26

    I think maybe he died in the real universe and frank is sent by god to explain to Donnie that he has a choice. If he dies, Gretchen will not die. If he decides he wants to live then cunningham will be caught but Gretchen will die. So for Donnie it’s an obvious decision that he prefers to save Gretchen over sending Cunningham to jail. However, whether he chooses to live or die, his mother and little sister will die anyway because they were in the plane and in both scenarios the plane engine falls regardless if Donnie gets hit by it or not.

    Or maybe he died by accident when the tangent universe came in contact with the real universe creating a rift, tearing off the engine and killing Donnie and god is giving him an explanation of how he died by letting him live in the tangent universe for 28 days so he can figure out how and why he died. And in the end he comes to term with his demise and goes to sleep knowing that he is going to die. The whole movie was just an instance in donnies mind where he sees into the future and sees his own death and awakes from his travel to find himself in the time and place where he dies. He knows he has no way of stopping it and laughs at his insignificance to control his fate. If he decides to get up and leave the house so that he doesn’t die, the events that he foresaw will keep reoccuring until he is killed.

  • ken on Dec 24, 2010 - 01:25:23

    There appears to me be a hole in the story unless i’m just interpreting this wrong, but if the jet engine traveled from the future and killed Donnie then it would create another tangent world. This would be becuse the jet engine from the future altered the past so there are two tangent worlds, the one where Donnie dies from the jet engine and the one where the rabbit allows him to live. The only real world would be one with no jet engine and no time traveling rabbit, therefore Donnie lives and goes on with his life unaffected by the future.

  • Broll on Jan 05, 2011 - 12:25:10

    I agree with Ken. While this analysis seems complete, it doesn’t answer the question of “where does the engine come from”, even at the end of the movie. Somehow Donnie “guided the engine ‘artifact’” from Nov 1st back to Oct 2 through a wormhole. THAT CAN’T HAPPEN in a normal, primary universe. So we now have a new tangent, with Donnie being dead in this one. He really achieved nothing aside from a new tangent without him in it.

    Also, why was Donnie not in his bed during the start of the original tangent? Was there a previous tangent where he tried to escape this fate by sleeping outside? Maybe its like Groundhog Day and these events keep replaying… in some tangents he avoids the engine, in others he lets it hit him.

    It seems like he’s insignificant. The problem is the jet engine jumping back through time by 28 days. A problem, which was not resolved.

  • Steve on Jan 11, 2011 - 02:06:29

    Broll, your comment is my thoughts exactly. That small gap in the plotline is what really makes me annoyed because other than that the story is brilliant and makes perfect sense according to The Philosophy of Time Travel.

    To Andrew – you can’t assume that his mother/sister dies in both scenarios because it is unclear if the jet engine is part of a reccuring line of tangents or if the primary universe is somehow unaffected by the artifact after Donnie chooses to go back in time and let it kill him. If so, the jet engine in the primary universe is only from this one single tangent universe, and there would possibly be no crash at all in the primary universe. This is my theory I like to believe although it contradicts the book just because at least it gives some sort of closure to all the events that conspired. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

    P.S. – Rachael, it wasnt a plane that crashed into his house it was a jet engine. And yes its implied that its from the same plane at the end of the movie, when he realizes what is actually going on. Given those facts, “showing Donnie was destined to die either way” just doesnt make sense. Who let you out of the kitchen?

  • Loch on Jan 13, 2011 - 09:59:34

    I agree for the most part with the poster.The only thing that bothers me is what happens if Donnie just keeps on avoiding the Jet engine?I know it says the alternate universe restarts.Why kill yourself if it restarts?I would just keep living those 28 days.Everybody comes back to life when you wake up.I know it says the TU only lasts a couple of weeks but,this 28 days must have happened a couple of times in order for Frank and his Girlfriend to be manipulated dead.It says that the real reality will be destroyed but,if this has happened b4 when is the deadline?Is there really a deadline?I could be wrong and maybe this is the only time these events happened and the manipulated dead are like future ghosts who haven’t died yet but,because they know what will happen it’s like it already happened.whoa.

    AS far as the plane,the engine,his mother and sister.His mother and sister weren’t on the plane in the real reality or primary universe.The only reason they were on the plane at the end is because of the events with Patrick Swayze,being a pedophile.The engine fell because it was on a real plane but,it was the artifact from a time warp created by the hole in reality.The plane went thru the time warp making the engine fall but,it’s real purpose was just to be an artifact to get things back right.My theory is that maybe the FAA can’t find the evidence is A. their hiding the fact a engine fell off their plane or B.the plane itself went into the time warp making it disappear.IDK but,basically a time warp just happened and Donnie was the person chosen to fix it.I just want to know if these events happened over and over until he got it right or was this the only set of 28 days he had been thru?If it happened over and over it kills the theory of the univers ending in a couple of weeks
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  • Loch on Jan 13, 2011 - 09:59:53

    I agree for the most part with the poster.The only thing that bothers me is what happens if Donnie just keeps on avoiding the Jet engine?I know it says the alternate universe restarts.Why kill yourself if it restarts?I would just keep living those 28 days.Everybody comes back to life when you wake up.I know it says the TU only lasts a couple of weeks but,this 28 days must have happened a couple of times in order for Frank and his Girlfriend to be manipulated dead.It says that the real reality will be destroyed but,if this has happened b4 when is the deadline?Is there really a deadline?I could be wrong and maybe this is the only time these events happened and the manipulated dead are like future ghosts who haven’t died yet but,because they know what will happen it’s like it already happened.whoa.

    AS far as the plane,the engine,his mother and sister.His mother and sister weren’t on the plane in the real reality or primary universe.The only reason they were on the plane at the end is because of the events with Patrick Swayze,being a pedophile.The engine fell because it was on a real plane but,it was the artifact from a time warp created by the hole in reality.The plane went thru the time warp making the engine fall but,it’s real purpose was just to be an artifact to get things back right.My theory is that maybe the FAA can’t find the evidence is A. their hiding the fact a engine fell off their plane or B.the plane itself went into the time warp making it disappear.IDK but,basically a time warp just happened and Donnie was the person chosen to fix it.I just want to know if these events happened over and over until he got it right or was this the only set of 28 days he had been thru?If it happened over and over it kills the theory of the universe ending in a couple of weeks
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  • Loch on Jan 13, 2011 - 10:42:11

    @broll the 1st thing to remember about the engine is that the engine was never supposed to fall in the 1st place.The engine only fell because of the rift in time.The time warp happened over Donnie’s house where the plane was flying.If Donnie would have been in bed the 1st night then the tangeant would have still existed w/out a chosen one to stop it so Frank woke him up to send the engine to the right course 28 days later.it took that time to make Donnie do things that would lead him to the conclusion he had to die to set things right.He was a living receiver as the book said who had to receive the artifact in primary time not tangeant time to set the universe back right.The answer to where the engine came from is simply it came from a plane that passed thru the time warp over Donnie’s house.those 28 days really never happened and time was set still until Donnie realized what was happening.In truth no 28 days after the crash really happened.It was a time warp.It only happened in the other fake universe.The time warp made the 28 days.the other theory is Donnie already died the 1st night of the crash but,because he died was made the chosen and had to set the universe right because he was the closest to the artifact,making him the chosen.the 28 days are like purgatory for Donnie and death was always his only option but,he could save others who shouldn’t have died due to the time warp.Donnie may be the ultimate manipulated dead.he may be just as dead as Frank but,Frank can come back because he didn’t die in the primary universe.Donnie’s only purpose in life is to set the universe straight.He shouldn’t have dided because there shouldn’t have been a time warp but,it was and the only way to fix it was to receive the artifact fusing time back together.If he had stayed in bed the 1st time it wouldn’t have changed things because that would have been a TU but,when he realized his power he went back in time to primary,just b4 the time warp and died in primary time.wowzers.Either way Donnie would die because he was always destined to get hit by that engine because that time warp was going to happen no matter what.Maybe Donnie waking up was just him waking up in the tangeant universe after dying.He’s just like Frank but,as the closest to the artifact/engine making him the chosen one
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  • Follow on Jan 15, 2011 - 02:46:29

    It’s the whole, get on the cross or get off the cross Jesus thing.

  • Frank on Feb 27, 2011 - 13:28:30

    Nice, clean analysis. One additional point which I always found intriguing comes from a couple of things that Frank says. At one point he tells Donnie, “I can do anything I want, and so can you,” and at another point Donnie asks him why he is wearing that stupid bunny suit, and Frank asks, “Why are you wearing that stupid man suit.” I’ve always wondered if maybe the Frank that talks to Donnie isn’t the human Frank, but rather someone from outside that universe who was stepping in to set things right. Kind of like a technician who repairs 4th dimensional rifts. Not saying that there is any concrete evidence for that, but those two quotes do seem to lead in some other direction, beyond the more obvious (ha, ha, ha) things noted above.

  • D Burns on Mar 02, 2011 - 21:31:03

    This is an awesome board and I hope people are still posting on it to answer one final question I haven’t quite found answered:

    Does the movie address the reasoning behind WHY Donnie Darko has to die in the parallel universe for the primary universe to be able to continue? What would have happened if Donnie has not gone into his room and survived the jet engine? Was he not allowed to travel back to early October, start over again, and arrange some kind of situation where everyone survived? I guess I just don’t understand why it was necessary that he died. It’s almost like a strong reference to Christianity and the need of a sacrifice to meet the demands of justice. Thoughts? Help?

  • Mike on Apr 06, 2011 - 12:45:13

    This was a great interpretation and I agree with pretty much everything. One question still haunts me tough. In the movie, they mention that the vessel must travel faster than the speed of light. There is no commercial airline to my knowledge that is able to go that fast. So how did the “time machine”, as Donnie Calls it, work at all?

    To address D Burns, I’m not entirely sure, but my guess is that the artifact had to be guided back into the exact location that it was supposed to be in and have the same effect as it was supposed to have in the Primary Universe. Donnie was SUPPOSED to die. Him living would simply create another disturbance in the Fourth Dimension, causing another Tangent Universe.

  • Isabelle on Apr 26, 2011 - 01:39:24

    Forgive me if I’m wrong about anything I’m about to say, but this is what I think happened after long consideration, and reading a few interpretations.

    No matter what, the plane’s engine hits the portal, despite Donnie’s mom and sister being on it or not. Portals are rare but they happen. This one just happened while the plane passed over his house. Note that this is all in the primary universe: that the engine traveled from the point in time of when the plane flies over, to when Donnie’s lying in bed that night. Still in the primary universe, Donnie was meant to die in that accident.

    The fact that he didn’t, created the tangent universe. Let me explain why. In the tangent universe time travel and other type of energy manipulation are possible that wouldn’t be in the primary universe, simply because the TU’s instability causes them to be possible. So you need to see the TU as linear or spatial and measuring 28 days in length. Frank moved through time like you would space, going to the point the engine appears, but before it hits, and lures Donnie away, which then creates the tangent universe.

    By Donnie choosing to stay in bed after time loops back to the beginning, he lets the primary universe go on as intended. By allowing his own death, he doesn’t kill Frank, who then can’t travel back through the tangent universe, because it no longer exists. A TU is the same as an alternate reality. It is theorized that alternate realities are created by possibilities of “what ifs”: What if I had made another decision? The TU was created by Donnie’s choice and/or possibility to be lured away by Frank. If it wasn’t possible for him to be lured away by Frank, then the TU could have never existed.

    It could be argued that Frank wasn’t there the 2nd time around, but knowing the future changes it. Just by Donnie having foreknowledge, he would have left the bed only because of that, thus still created a TU. So you see with out knowing the future, or listening to Frank, the natural course would have been his death.

    How the TU got created in the first place was only the possibility of it. Frank was only able to come back and create it due to a possibility. When time reset, Donnie took that possibility away and voila, time goes on as intended.

    On a side note, When Frank said the universe will end, he didn’t specify which universe, did he? He only implied it was the primary, which Donnie thought he was in anyway. Why the TU was created, I can only guess. Maybe it was just one of those things that just happens, like the random time portals.

  • Isabelle on Apr 26, 2011 - 01:50:49

    While it could be argued after what I said that the engine’s time travel should have created a TU itself. Only Donnie has powers because somehow he was the receiver. Perhaps because he had the closest contact with the artifact. So without Donnie, time would go on as normal, because no one else would be able to perceive the artifacts travel.

    At the point in time it falls in Donnie’s bedroom becomes the past, in the future when it disappears, it goes back to that point, but no one has the ability to perceive that. So for everyone else times goes forward only.

  • Jim Francos on May 02, 2011 - 02:51:32

    No offense to the interpretation of this movie, but i think this movie is insanely retarded as the author who wrote it. This is my first time ever seeing this fucken flik after all these years of hearing it. To be quit honest, you would have to be mentally disturbed to sit and ponder something like this. Above all, there seems to be no fuckin plot in this movie.

    Though the interpretation done here made me realize what they were tryin to depict, which was better explained than this retard of a movie. Otherwise, i wouldn’t be on here tryin to get an explanation for what i just fucking saw because it made me feel incredibly retarded. Anyways, thank you for reading.

  • Raoul Duke on May 13, 2011 - 01:38:35

    Don’t worry Jim, if you feel retarded it’s probably because you are.

  • Asiablu on May 21, 2011 - 11:59:34

    Crazy as this may sound, I just saw this movie for the first time, and was left wanting. Wanting an explanation about what happened. I thought that it was a case of dejavu for the protagonists and everyone else was insignificant. I think the therapist recalls the events that occurred, because her expression is that of anguish, the type from that comes from feeling deep pain. But Werkkrew your interpretation was great, it lightened many grey areas.

  • CFW on Jun 12, 2011 - 11:59:34

    Nice to see a movie which didn’t spoon-feed, but resulted in folks taking the time to provide their feedback.

  • bitsbite on Jun 25, 2011 - 15:54:19

    An alternative explanation:

    Donnie has a lame life, he goes to bed.
    He proceeds to have a heart failure or something like that and enters a temporary coma en-route to death. His body is now paralyzed, his subconscious is acutely aware of his imminent death and his conscious mind is racing to find meaning in his seemingly pointless life.

    The entire movie is his struggle to come to terms with death.
    That is to say the tangent universe exists in his mind alone.

    This idea stems from the movie Waking Life, which is also excellent.

    The girlfriend, the pedophile, frank, the engine, the fat girl with a crush on him, the schizophrenia itself, the philosophy of time travel and the reaction to his death are all constructs of his lucid dream state. As far as I can see this explains every detail in the movie and does away with all the pseudo science.

    Try watching the movie again with this idea in mind…
    Everything adds up, specifically his psychological battle and all of the unlikely coincidences.

    He tries to convince himself that the alienation and lack of love in his life was forgivable and to discredit the truth that his life was based on fear. Finally he sets himself up as hero and victim of circumstance, allowing him to die happily in his delusions.

    In fact if you watch the movie from this perspective it makes for an honest, dark and thorough character study.

  • Jacob on Jul 18, 2011 - 20:56:14

    Question about frank. His name is repeated a few times throughout the movie. At the start, right after the crash donnie’s dad tells his mom while in bed about how this guy “frankie” was in high school and seemed cursed to die. What frankie were they talking about?

    Later, the pedophile mentioned a frank who was lost to fear due to his searching for love in all the wrong places. What frank was that talking about? Is it all the same frank? Is it perhaps three generations of franks ie. Frank, franks father and franks father father before me?

    The movie starts with donnie’s sister looking like she just had sex with frank, the religious theme in this movie is very against premarital sex could that be the searching for love in all the wrong places? Is frank doomed to die even though Donnie will no longer be shooting him as punishment for his sexual indiscretion against god?

  • Christian on Aug 03, 2011 - 20:26:11

    I share the same question that many others here do. That is, why the mug is that jet engine there the second time around? I understand how it got there, but if an artifact from the future enters the Primary Universe, then this signifies a rift which will, once again, lead to the end of the world.
    One of the mistakes I believe a lot of people are making is that they see the jet engine as the cause of the Tangent Universe when Philosophy of Time Travel states it is “the first sign.”
    Here is my best explanation, but even I don’t believe it.

    Donnie is not supposed to die the first time. He is supposed to live so he can not only save the world, but bring personal redemption or condemnation to the people of the town (Dreams). His 28 days in the Tangent Universe are used to touch the lives he needs to and realize his own destiny. He does this despite his own ignorance because of Frank’s guidance. Once his mission in the Tangent Universe is complete, he must go back to the point where the Tangent Universe is created and stop it from forming. He can do this since he can “do anything he wants.” But, since he is a product of the very thing he must stop, he has to kill himself. He, being the Living Receiver, cannot exist in the Primary Universe. I submit that the jet engine that kills him is not from the future. It is not from the plane containing his mother and sister. It is, instead, from some random plane flying overhead. Perhaps he chose to bring about his own death in same way the rift was first signified to satisfy an ironic sense of humor. He saves the world with the very thing that threatened to destroy it. Perhaps that is why he is laughing with such satisfaction before it strikes his home. This may beg the question, why then, did his mom’s plane crash in the Tangent Universe since it appears neither her, nor Samantha experience the “Dreams.” Firstly, just because their dreams are not confirmed does not mean they don’t exist. Secondly, it could have been watching the plane crash in the distance that gives Donnie the idea and helps him realize his final task.

    That was really long, but as I typed it, I became more and more convinced of my own correctness. Interpretation lies with the receiver rather than the sender anyway. Hope that helps!

  • Grace on Aug 25, 2011 - 16:09:01

    Excellent analysis, thank you! And for everyone who seems to denouce the psuedo-science aspect of this analysis, the fictional book “philosophy of time travel” is shown and referenced several times throughout the course of the theatrical film and then throughout the director’s cut. It has been made somewhat explicit that said book is canon to the film. Whether you want to interpret the material differently or not, is fine, but it is silly to just say that the pseudo-science it stupid. It is an integral part of the film.

  • Willow on Sep 01, 2011 - 08:55:54

    The only moment which was truly bemusing was my attempt to discern the paradox which Tim stated above mentioning the the jet engine (Artifact).
    When Donnie traveled back in time theoretically the artifact could not have fallen out of the sky from nowhere since the jet engine which crushed Donnie existed in the tangent universe and as such could not exist in the primary universe once the tangent world had ended…
    The existence of a tangent universe IS in itself a logical paradox which speculates that in order for it to manifest it must travel through a vector in time/space at the speed of light, it would be crucial in postulating whether the jet engine was in fact a major plot hole based on a lacking of understanding in astrophysics or if it was an attempt at creating the Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory which was alluded to when Donnie spoke to the science teacher…it may even be that the Director/Writer interpreted this as a means of perpetuating that it HAD to occur in order for the tangent universe to collapse and the primary universe to resume from the moment that it split. This movie presents major theories on time/space travel which essentially are hard to understand even with most intelligent people but logically speaking, and in my opinion Tim is correct in saying the jet engine (The Artifact) is quintessentially a looping paradox which suggests that, in a slightly off-handed way, the tangent universe has to still exist otherwise the artifact would not be present in the primary universe. This theorizes that Frank MAY have actually been lying to Donnie as a result leading up to such a scenario (Both universes existing [parallel universes]) In its own manner of conveyance the movie can easily suggest to the audience that just as everything went right in the primary universe that all things in the tangent would exist for Donnie as a reality, idealizing that Donnie dying in the primary universe was a result of Donnie’s selves perhaps meeting in some way at one time in the same universe(s).
    Either way it gives me a bad headache but the movie is wonderful in its way of making people think. Not many movies attempt to make the audience interpret things as hard as this, and Donnie Darko is a true masterpiece of cinema.
    Another note:
    I know that a good amount of people will iterate that the tangent universe was a reality but the manipulation of time to the beginning of when the primary universe paused still perpetuates the logical conclusion that the jet engine was merely a means of conveyance as the Director/Writer wanted it to be, although it is illogical in a manner that reversing time would result in the Artifact (Future/Tangent Universe) NEVER existing prior to the Tangent Scenario as such its a really big problem with me to be honest since there’s a few reasons behind this flaw:
    1.lacking in understanding of time/space and tangent/parallel universes
    2.Looping paradox
    3.The ending was left BROADLY WIDE OPEN there isn’t a way to narrow it down even when giving it the singular label of science-fiction (Sorry you just cant do it, there are too many causalities which can lead into multiple interpretations [which is probably why the director/writer made it this way, they didnt want us to think it was a cult/emo film but a science fiction which actually makes you think])
    Anyways enough said, come what may i still love this movie.
    one more addition to my final comment:
    Every science-fiction movie/show which employs the use of a wormhole or Einstein-Rosen Bridge to portray inter-universal travel is inaccurate since Einstein AND Rosen themselves never considered the idea of passing an object through the bridge larger than the size of an electron, so to be “frank” about it, the whole deal with passing The Artifact into the primary universe or Time Traveling using the Einstein-Rosen Bridge goes against both THEIR equations (since they never theorized passing objects larger than electrons through this bridge) AND Schwarzschild’s work on solving Einsteins equations [circa 1916]
    (see also ‘Einsteinian causality’)

  • Connie on Sep 05, 2011 - 20:34:40

    I love this interpretation. It opens the mind. The movie is pretty deep and I love the fact that someone has taken the time to give another view point that is different from everything else I have read.

  • Amanda on Jan 14, 2012 - 21:11:16

    Last sentence well said. I believe some of the points you made here, but telekenesis? Not so sure. Some other points you made also seemed unproven. Like the other characters knew “the world” was going I end. Even though it really different. But thank you for clearing some things up for me.

  • Alma on Jan 30, 2012 - 15:39:43

    I really enjoyed reading this. While watching the film the first time, I thought it might be about two different universes but I couldn’t completely understand why Donnie’s death was so important. After reading this though, everything makes sense now. I wish they would have included some of the quotes in the movie that you used here because then it might have made more sense.

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