question abou the movie 'donnie darko'?

Question

i dont get it...tell me about it.

Answer 1

Donnie Darko is a 2001 feature film, the first by writer and director Richard Kelly. Set in 1988, the movie is a psychological thriller/science fiction film about the bright but troubled boy Donnie Darko, who, after narrowly escaping death has repeating visions of an eerie, 7-foot tall anthropomorphic rabbit named Frank who tells him that the world will be ending in 28 days.

Donnie Darko's themes include time travel, existentialism, nihilism, love, and personal sacrifice. The movie's plot suggests various paradoxes that are never fully explained and multiple interpretations of the film's storyline exist. There are some parallels with The Last Temptation of Christ.


The film is set in 1988, in Middlesex, Virginia during the 1988 presidential election campaign. After the viewer is introduced to the Darko family, Donnie Darko is awoken in the night from his sleep on October 2 and led out of his house by a strange voice, where he is confronted by a demonic looking man-sized rabbit named Frank. Frank tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Donnie later wakes up on a golf course the next morning and sees 28:6:42:12 written on his arm. He returns home to discover that a jet engine has inexplicably fallen from the sky onto his house, and has crushed his bedroom.

The next day Donnie goes to his (private) school. His English class is in the middle of a discussion on Graham Greene's short story "The Destructors", when a new girl named Gretchen walks in late and asks where to sit. Donnie's English teacher, Ms. Pomeroy, strangely instructs Gretchen to "sit next to the boy you think is the cutest." After a few moments Gretchen eyes Donnie and the teacher tells the girl sitting next to him to move.

That night Frank appears to Donnie and tells him to flood the school. Donnie obeys. While waiting for the school bus with his friends the next morning Donnie learns that school has been cancelled because of the flood. Meanwhile, the police and school officials are baffled because on top of the flooding from the broken water main, the school mascot, the mongrel, has an axe stuck into its head and the phrase "They made me do it" (in Frank's handwriting) has been scrawled on the pavement. While walking home Donnie spots Gretchen being harrassed by the two school bullies and she asks Donnie to walk her home; Donnie then awkwardly asks her to to "go" with him. She agrees.

Some time later Frank asks Donnie if he believes in time travel. Donnie then questions his science teacher about the idea, and the teacher gives him a book entitled The Philosophy of Time Travel, written by a Roberta Sparrow, the 101 year-old woman nicknamed "Grandma Death" who lives by herself in a decrepit house and spends all her time standing in the middle of the road checking her mailbox.

Donnie soon finds the wallet of Jim Cunningham while walking to school. Cunningham is a succesful motivational speaker whose methods Donnie had loudly denounced in front of a microphone at a school assembly. Donnie then goes to a movie theater on a date with Gretchen; Gretchen falls asleep in the empty theater and Frank appears. After being asked by Donnie to remove his rabbit mask, Frank reveals a human face with an apparent bullet hole in his right eye, and then commands Donnie to "burn it to the ground," implying the recently discovered home address of Jim Cunningham. Donnie obeys again. The arriving firemen soon discover a secret room filled with pedophilic material. As a result, Ms. Kitty Farmer, the school's phys ed/social studies teacher and fervent believer in Cunningham's methods, decides to defend Cunningham because she believes he has been framed. Farmer consequently asks Donnie's mother to chaperone the school dance group (of which their daughters are members) to California to perform on Star Search. Meanwhile, (rabbit) Frank has told Donnie to write to Grandma Death about his views on her book.

With both of their parents out of town and his older sister Elizabeth just accepted into Harvard, Donnie and his sister throw a Halloween party. During the (large) party, Elizabeth's (human) boyfriend Frank decides to drive off in a red Trans Am to pick up more beer.

After a brief romantic interlude Donnie takes Gretchen to the basement of Grandma Death's house to see her "cellar door"; there they come upon the two school bullies searching for the old lady's well-known gem collection. A struggle ensues between Gretchen, Donnie, and the two other kids, and Gretchen is thrown out onto the road. Meanwhile, Roberta Sparrow is standing in the middle of the same road -- reading Donnie's letter -- when (human) Frank comes driving around the corner in his red Trans Am. He swerves to avoid the old lady and accidentally runs over Gretchen, killing her. Donnie runs to her and sees that she is dead. Willing to do what needs to be done to save Gretchen, he shoots Frank in the eye.

Donnie then takes the dead Gretchen in his arms and eventually drives to the hilltop where the predicted storm is gathering strength. The plane at this moment (whose engine becomes the Artifact in the Tangent Universe), with his mother and sister returning from California, passes by the wormhole (or "timestorm" according to the DVD) and we see one of its engines tumbling out of the sky after being ripped off the wing; the engine is then thrust back through the open time-portal. Donnie now moves back in time, back to his bedroom on October 2 in the Primary Universe. Laughing, he lies down to fall asleep as the engine falls through the roof and kills him.

After the fatal accident, we see all the main characters alive and are led to believe that they (maybe some, maybe all) experience varying memories about certain events from the closed and future Tangent Universe (e.g. Gretchen and Donnie's mother wave to each other, even though they have never met in this universe).


"Straight" interpretation

After experiencing the Tangent Universe and seeing the paths that his loved ones follow, Donnie sacrifices himself so that Gretchen, his mother, his sister and Frank may live. A simple explanation of the movie is that Donnie had to make sure -- with rabbit Frank's guidance -- that the chain of events causing the engine to go through the portal do occur. If he had failed, the portal would have caused the end of the world (as Frank said it would).


Director's interpretation

Richard Kelly does not deny personal interpretations but has expressed his own theories on the story, through the extra commentary on the two DVDs, his own fictional book the Philosophy of Time Travel, and in various other interviews.

According to Kelly, at midnight on October 2 a Tangent Universe spins off the Primary Universe, signified by the appearance of an Artifact, here represented by the errant jet engine. Tangent Universes are inherently unstable and will collapse in less than one month, taking the Primary Universe with it if not closed off (i.e. corrected). Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the Living Receiver (Donnie), who is given certain powers to perform this task. Those who die within the Tangent Universe are the Manipulated Dead (Frank and Gretchen) -- but they are given certain powers in that they subtley understand what is happening and do have the ability to contact and influence the Living Receiver via the Fourth Dimensional Construct (water). All other people within the orbit of the Living Receiver are the Manipulated Living, who are subconsciously drawn to push and prod him towards his destiny to close the Tangent Universe and, according to the Philosophy of Time Travel, die by the Artifact.

If we follow Kelly's interpretation, the chain of events in brief is as follows: Frank (the Manipulated Dead) rouses Donnie (the Living Receiver) from his bed and compels Donnie to leave his house, starting a causal loop. There are actually two "Franks" in the story -- the living boyfriend of Donnie's sister Elizabeth, and the (same) dead Frank who appears to Donnie as a premonition from the future in the disturbing rabbit suit. [The second Frank is actually dead (or undead), since at the end of the story Donnie shoots him in the eye and kills him]. According to the Philosophy of Time Travel, dead Frank has the power to travel through time, and as Donnie is the only person who can save the world, Frank rouses Donnie out of bed before the jet engine crashes into his bedroom. If Donnie had died, the world would have been doomed because the paradoxical causal loop (caused by the portal) would have torn the primary universe apart.

The film carefully leaves open the possibility that the entire alternate-universe sequence of events is Donnie's hallucination, fantasy, or dream. Some of the backstory is explained on the official Donnie Darko website. It shows that Donnie was institutionalized before the events of the movie occur, and offers other helpful details, including the fates of some of the characters in the corrected primary universe after Donnie's death. The director's commentary on the DVD also gives other details, such as a clarification of the actual point of departure between the primary and tangent universe, which is not when the jet engine crashes through the ceiling, but instead a few minutes before, when Donnie is called out to meet Frank for the first time. Kelly's commentary also curiously leaves open the possibility that Frank may be either a representative of God, or that the entire Tangent Universe dilemma is being caused by an advanced future society dangerously experimenting with time travel.

Answer 2

Man, I saw that movie back in 2002 and still don't get it. I didn't like it, I can tell you that much. But one of my best friends(who I saw it with) loves it!
Tagline: Life is one long insane trip. Some people just have better directions.
Plot Outline A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.
Plot Synopsis: Donnie Darko is a disturbed adolescent from a semi-functional upper-middle-class family. After nearly escaping from death because he hears the voice of a 6-foot-tall bunny, Donnie is led by the bunny to create havoc that is both destructive and creative.

Answer 3

Whatz, Donnie Darko??? Never heard of it, sorry.