donnie darko help

D

da king

New member
Hi,

I'm sure I read on here a few months ago a really good link to a Donnie Darko explanation. Thing is, I've forgotten what it said...

Does anyone have the answers?

My friend has just watched it and was having the whole 'is Frank Donnie from the future?' and 'why did he have to die at the end?' dilemma
 
off the top of my head and bearing in mind i havent seen it for about a year-he has to die to save his girlfriend and sister/mother but at least he has the benefit of experiencing love,knowing his sister would win the competition and that older sister would get into college etc

i havent heard that frank is donnie from the future before
 
Frank isnt donnie from the future. We know this because Donnie shoots Frank in the eye when he runs over his girlfriend. The whole movie is about time travel and different dimensions colliding together. Donnie has to die to save the world, if he didn't die the two dimensions wich have merged would be destroyed, thus ending the world.
 
well my understanding is that when the engine dropped through the sky (an unexplained metal object) it was the sign that the tangent universe began (which will only last for around 28 days). donnie was the "living reciever", chosen to guide the artifact back to the primary universe... Frank was killed within the tangeant universe (by donnie) and therefore became the "manipulated dead" and he, along with everyone around him(the manipulated living) guide donnie to his goal of returning the artifact in order to close the tangeant universe (eg frank told donnie to flood the school...school was closed...then he met gretchen). once he uses the "special powers" he inherited by being the living reciever to send the artifact back to the primary universe the timeline goes back to the start but does notfall into the tangeant universe
 
Well I'd heard that the writer (director?) has come out and said that it doesn't have a meaning - any meaning that has been derived from it is a product of seeing the film rather than anything that existed in it before. In short, it's meant to confuse you, because there is no explanation :)

It's still a good film, though...
 
[QUOTE/]'why did he have to die at the end?' dilemma[/QUOTE]


It was Donnie's destiny to die when the bit of the plane fell on his house, but because he heard the voice of Frank he left his bed, and didnt die. This meant that a tangent universe opened up in which things Donnie wouldnt have been able to do if he had died occured, to the dead frank, who visits donnie, the school has already been flooded, and Swayze exposed as a child molester, so he instructs donnie to do these things in Donnie's visions of him.
But Donnie's obsession with Frank and his instructions lead to the death of Gretchen and Drew Barrymore losing her job. Donnie has to go back in time through the wormhole to a time when he hadnt met Gretchen so that she doesnt die. Though it could be argued that Gretchen was manipulated dead anyway as she is living under a false name and without Donnie she would have nowhere to run when her stepfather reappears.
The final scene in which people wake up as Donnie dies indicates that all the occurences of the tangent universe were not in vain, as the people involved have "dreamt" of them. The religious teacher realises the truth about Jim, Donnie's shrink realises he doesnt have schizophrenia etc, Gretchen recognises Donnie's mum and has a place to run to.
It says as much in the Donnie Darko book available from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571221246/qid=1110447058/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-6870721-911823

The most complicated thing in my view is the fact that the bit of plane which falls on Donnie in the ordinary universe to begin with has come from the tangent universe he created now THAT wrecks my head
 
quote from "The Philosophy Of Time Travel"

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



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

We are told that these things occur for a reason. "
 
hmmm. So hearing Frank's voice means that Donnie gets out of bed and isn't killed by the peice of the plane. Because Donnie is alive, Gretchen dies and Drew Barrymore loses her job. Donnie has to do a loop in time, so that he can correct the fact that he didn't die, by staying in bed, dying and consequently saving Gretchen and Drew. Ok


BUT, Frank leaRAB him to be able to do the time loop. BUT it is Frank's fault that he gets out of bed in the first place!! If there had been no Frank, Donnie would have died and all is well - yes?? Who is Frank and why did Donnie have to get out of bed, live for an extra 28 days, then die?? What purpose was served for allowing Donnie to live??
 
Are you lot studying Media Studies by any chance?

I struggled with the plot to Team America: World Police so i'm guessing Donnie Dark may be lost on me
 
so the only reason he was allowed to live was to experience love?? SounRAB a little soppy to me. Gretchen would have been alive if Frank didn't appear and Donnie died... So why did Frank appear??

I think it's something to do with being stuck in a perpetual loop as I appear to be!!
 
and also to know his mother and younger sister would live,and his sister would get into college and to have the fun maybe of rebelling against the teacher and the patrick swayze character
 
There was a scene in it where he is talking to his teacher about time-travel. He talks about something like time being a tunnel or tube or summat like that and that you can see down this tunne (the tunnel is represented by the watery tunnel/ tube thing that flows through him in a couple of scenes. Anyway, Donnie saw into the future, saw that he was going to shoot Jack so rather than let this happen, he decides to die via the falling engine. That why Jack bothers him throughout the film - because Donnie has to make the choice of whether he lives or dies?
 
This is one of my fave films and I think the plot has been explained substatially for the first posters.

About the directors cut though- I dont like it as much. Its rubbed off all the ambiguity and some parts with the book seemed very clumsy.



Better, film studies. :)
 
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