What is donnie darko about?

Answer 1

Basically About a Boy, Donnie Darko, who has a six sense, he knows the future. But this creates a paradox which would cause time itself to collapse, as you'd be able to make a choice, effectively changing a future that was pre-destined.
Therefore, Donnie sees his visions in a really confusing way: He has all the images already in his head, but he just can't see them all. Or at least in the way that they happen; he only sees glimpses here and there.
His visions are of a giant bunny rabbit named Frank. You see the boy Frank, when he runs of Gretchen and at the the end when all the characters are shown. It makes sense that this is what he sees because throughout his life, the absolute pinnacle of Donnie's emotional state is when his girl-friend Gretchen dies. He generally couldn't care less about anything in life, he gets suspended and beaten, none of which taking any effect on him, the only time we truly see him care about anything, is when Gretchen is run-over, and Frank is the one who runs her over.
At the end, when the world is ending Donnie makes a choice. He decides that he's going to sacrifice himself. Let himself die, for Gretchen, the girl he loves.
I think at that moment then the plane that Donnie's mum and "Sparkle Motion" was on was given the necessary speed by a sudden onset of turbulence, and at the precise moment, one of the 'worm holes in the fabric of time' that they discussed earlier in the movie, opened up, in front of the engine. The engine fell into that worm hole, and travelled back in time, back to the 2nd of October, crashing into Donnie's bedroom. The plane obviously didn't go at the speed of light like previously discussed, but it is possible that the scientist got it wrong.
The above it pretty much wrong. He doesn't have a sixth sense, he's a paranoid schizophrenic and most of the story only exists in Donnie's mind.
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Although Donnie is thought to be a paranoid schizophrenic, some people view the movie from a religious point of view. They see the beginning as a troubled kid, falling into temptation- and Frank's (who is sometimes explained to be Satan) grasp. His life is saved, but at what cost? From this series of events Donnie is suddenly sent into a tangent universe- where everything that should have happened is turned upside down, and suddenly he is told that his world is going to end. (Yet- what they mean by this is that 'His' world is going to end because everyone he loves around him is going to die because of him trying to cheat death)

Donnie spends the whole movie calling himself crazy, and refusing to believe that God had any part of this- yet that this is just all a game his mind is playing. He begins to accept it midway in the movie- thinking that Frank is a form of appeasing God for telling him to do things that could save people's lives. (Ex: Flood the school, burn the house down.) It isn't until his emotional breakdown when he's under hypnosis, that he learns Frank's true identity.

The movie from then on spirals out of control, and the one's that he love begin to die. By this point Donnie realizes to save these people's lives he needs to undo what he had done, so he kills Frank by shooting him in the eye. (Ultimatley, some say Frank knew this was going to happen, but that he was hoping that Donnie would do the opposed with his free will) But before he does that Donnie says something in Latin like "The lord is my savior."

After that Donnie is given the chance to relive his death, and this time, instead of taking the easy way out- he dies with a smile, cause he knows how many people he's saved in the process.

And at the very end of the movie, everyone begins to wake up. They had all been stuck in tangent universe- and while some just remember it as a distant dream- other's remember it like it was yesterday. (Which is why his mom wasn't crying at the end.) No one knew exactly what happened, but some saw would could happen, most likely changed their ways- and other's found that Donnie was a savior. (Or as some say, a modern form of Jesus Christ.)

I'm not sure if that helps, but I just put my knowledge in there. (:

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Donnie Darko, a mentally disturbed teenager, appears to suffer from a variety of mental illnesses. His parents and sisters are concerned about him. One night, on October 2, Donnie sleepwalks and meets Frank, a man in a menacing rabbit costume. Frank tells him that in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, the world will end. While he is outside, a jet engine mysteriously crashes through the roof of Donnie's bedroom.
As Eddie, Donnie's father, drives him to the office of Dr. Thurman, Donnie's therapist, Eddie nearly runs over Roberta Sparrow, also known as "Grandma Death": a senile old woman who spends her days walking back and forth from her house to the mailbox across the street. Grandma Death whispers in Donnie's ear that "every living creature on earth dies alone."
Donnie meets a girl with a troubled past, Gretchen Ross, and reveals his own troubled past as well as his intelligence. Frank continues to appear to Donnie and tell him that he can do anything and will not get caught. Frank also tells Donnie about time travel, further confusing him. Donnie commits several acts of violence against property, apparently at Frank's urging, including torching the home of an inspirational speaker, Jim Cunningham, whose methods have been much admired by Kitty Farmer, one of the teachers at Donnie's school.
Gretchen and Donnie grow closer. She is one of the few people he opens up to about his time-travel visions. Dr. Thurman increases Donnie's medication and begins hypnotherapy with him. Frank continues to appear to Donnie.
With the inspirational speaker, Jim Cunningham accused of running a kiddie porn dungeon, Kitty Farmer asks Donnie's mother to accompany the schools dance team to LA for an appearance on the Donnie's sister Elizabeth and Donnie decide to throw a Halloween party while their mother, Rose, and younger sister are away. The night of the party, October 30, Gretchen comes to Donnie's house for safety because her mother has suddenly disappeared.
At midnight, Donnie realizes that the 28 days have passed, and that only 6 hours remain until the end of the world. Convinced that Grandma Death is in some way connected to Frank, Donnie persuades Gretchen and two other friends to leave the party and go with him to her house. There, they are assaulted by the high school bullies. Gretchen is knocked unconscious and thrown into the street. An approaching car scares the bullies off, but as the camera turns, Grandmother Death is standing directly in front of the speeding car, which suddenly swerves and runs directly over Gretchen. Stopping the car Frank gets out and starts yelling at Donnie, who lifts his father's stolen pistol and shoots Frank, dead center, through his right eye (a wound we have seen earlier as the 'menacing rabbit' Frank pulled off his mask).
Grandma Death tells Donnie (Director's cut) that he must hurry as a storm is forming and he has a lot to do. Donnie can't wake Gretchen and ends up carrying her lifeless body to his home. There he kisses his sleeping sister's forehead, grabs some keys and speeds awayin the family car with Gretchen. Above Donnie's house we see a strange, inverted, seed wart like, black cloud forming over Donnie's house. Next Donnie watches from some road in the hills above town a a tornado forms over the city. Donnie seems at peace now, as a vortex engulfs the jet his mother and sister are returning home in, apparently they are caught up in the storm above Donnie's home. Suddenly the jet is shaken violently and we see the engine torn from the wing and begin to fall, creating a whirling pathway through the sky. (a possible time tunnel)

EXPLANATION -- 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 have the ability 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. Secondly, 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. This living boyfriend is fatally shot by Donnie towards the end of the film, a killing which was foreseen by Donnie.

ok..have any of you actually seen these films or are you going by what critics are saying? lol essentially what is presented in donnie darko, as well as s. darko, is a simplified and mystical look at the string theory. this has also been done in films like the butterfly effect trilogy as well as more classic forms of literature like h.g. well's the time machine. essentially, in a nutshell the idea is that reality itself is built up of an intricate working of strings, almost like a loom. each string is connected to the others and each string represents a person, place or thing. if a person were to become aware of a catastrophic or simply life changing event (I.e. the death of a loved one, or one's self) they could trace the string back to it's origin and severe it creating a new reality altogether...unfortunately this would cause a catastrophe on a much larger scale for the rest of the network (much like pulling a lose string on a sweater can unravel the entire thing) in order to prevent the collapse of the entirety of reality, the one who severed or unraveled the string would have to continue to add new strings to support the structure. this is what Donnie was doing throughout most of the film with the help of frank, who had also caused a change by killing Donnie's girlfriend to prevent his own death, however Donnie was not aware of this until later on when he observed it himself because at the point when frank changed reality, Donnie was not the reality changer and therefore would not be aware of the change. the rest, the mental disturbances, the religious references, all of this was simply to fluff out the characters and make them simultaneously more human and real and more surreal....i always thought these films were relatively self explanatory compared to most metaphysical thrillers but i guess not lol

***VIEW DISCUSSION BOARD*****

Answer 2

The Dream Sequence begins with Donnie's Psych waking abruptly with terror in her eyes. As the person most connected with Donnie's mind, I feel this is important. And that she woke the moment the engine crushed him

As the camera pans over some of the key players in Donnie's life, some asleep, some awake, in deep thought, and even Frank shedding a tear.

Seeing Frank's actual artifact, which led to the design of his costume, which is how he "came" to Donnie, is key. It leads us to the conclusion that Frank is in fact an Old Soul and either has been handed down this artifact, or kept it through many lives.

For Frank to survive, having been shot in the Tangent Universe, Donnie had to die. Which also saved Gretchin (girlfriend) his Mother and Little Sam.

Cherita Chen (sp?) who had a crush on Donnie, who was the only person to take up for her, seemed content. While Swayze as the manipulative Perv was sobbing uncontrollably, the wicked witch of a teacher was seemingly in shock. My guess Swayze's secret was revealed in the Normal Universe as well as the tangent.

"What makes you think I am Not a Super Hero?"

"The dreams in which I'm dying are the best i ever had" coupled with Donnie's laughter right before he died tells me he found what he was so energetically looking for. And knew what must be done to make everything as right as it could be. In a not perfect world. The world frank, Donnie's Sister's Boyfriend has dragged him into.

5 years since I first saw this film. I still have so much to understand about it. My Humanity tells me it is a heartbreaker. But at the same time one of the oddest and most beautiful films known.

But discussing the end is not appropriate if you have not seen the Movie. At least a dozen times anyway. The End of the film is actually where the Movie should have started

Answer 3

the same thing through the younger sisters eyes!!!!!! Actually it is about the younger sister but its about her life being shattered by her brothers death while she and her best friend go through and see what Sam's brother,Donnie, saw and how to change the output of their deaths and of their future. If u see the movie u sould understand more throughly. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/User:72.64.108.169 DQ

Answer 4

First, read the fake book "The Philosophy of Time Travel" and it will explain what the things are that I am going to tell you. Here is my best theory....

I think that the Tangent Universe was created because Jim Cunningham (pedophile) Kitty Farmer (the crazy Christian teacher) Professor Kenneth Monnitoff (the one who gives Donnie the book) Cherita (the big Chinese girl) Gretchen Ross (the girlfriend) and Karen Pomeroy (English teacher) and the others' lives are going off track. All of these people are considered the Manipulated Living, except Gretchen Ross, who is the Manipulated Dead, along with Frank. Basically, they stepped (or will step) of the path or "God's Path" and it needs to be corrected. The Living Receiver, the one who must correct this path and prevent the Tangent Universe is Donnie. Which is why Frank (the rabbit) saves Donnie by making him get out of bed before he will be killed by the jet engine. If Frank did not get Donnie out of bed, then life would go on, and the people would continue to step off path, which would still end up leading to the Tangent Universe, the big black hole, and eventually the end of both Universes. So, Frank leads Donnie to do things that will eventually make Cunningham, Farmer, Cherita, Ross, Monnitoff, and Pomeroy realize where their paths are. Such as, calling out Kitty Farmer, telling her there are more emotions and paths than just Fear and Love. This has a huge impact on her later. At the school assembly, Donnie tells Cunningham how much of a fake he is, along with other things. Donnie helps the English Teacher and professor, which I haven't figured out how yet. He helps Cherita by letting her know everything will be okay, and helps Gretchen somehow, I haven't figured out yet. Maybe just by being there. Donnie is then directed by Frank, who tells Donnie to burn down Cunninghams house. Because of this, Kitty Farmer has to stay, and Donnies mother is on the plane with his sister instead of Kitty Farmer. This is where the jet came from earlier in the film (it was from the future, went through to worm hole, back in time, and landed on Donnies home) the plane actually looses it's engine at the end of the 28 days. Then, time rewinds back to the beginning, and Donnie wakes up in his bed, like the beginning of the film, as if it was just a dream. Donnie is meant to die, so he is in bed, woken up, and remembers everything that happened. He knows he has done his part, and waits for the engine to come. The manipulated living, who remember the experience of the Tangent Universe wake up at the same time Donnie does, and remember what happened in the Tangent universe as well. (I don't think all of the manipulated living remember. The ones who were bad (Farmer and Cunningham) remember.. The others just have this 'feeling' of assurance) Because they remember, Cunningham and Farmer are crying, Cunningham remembers what Donnie said about him being a fake. Kitty farmer remembers what Donnie said about her living in fear, and that Cunningham is a pedo. (on the website it says Cunningham later commits suicide) Frank remembers helping Donnie along, and being killed. Cherita is awake, and smiles, basically realizing that everything actually will be okay, as Donnie said. Monnitoff wakes up, and smiles. Im not sure what impact Donnie had on him yet, but there was one. Gretchen tells the little boy she didn't know the Darko family, and didn't know Donnie. This almost confused me, until I realized that she was just lying to the little boy, she really did know Donnie. Because they remember everything, and realize their paths are off course, they change themselves and get back on the right path.

Then you may ask, well the jet engine still fell, so that still means there is a Tangent Universe. Well yes, sort of. What I can gather, is that the world wont end. Since that morning everybody who needed to, changed. Thus, the Tangent Universe didn't happen. Say that Donnie never existed, and that room was just a spare room with nobody in it. Since there was no Donnie, no impact on other's lives because of him, the Tangent universe would still be created, because nobody would have realized they were on the wrong path. That is why the event doesn't just go around in circles. Because at the EXACT moment it would have been created, the people changed and made it stay stable.

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My Perspective Differs

I can agree to the Donnie Darko meaning of individuals in D. Darko's life entering the wrong path but let us remember that bad things happen due to D. Darko continuing to live after his missed brush with death.

The meaning of Donnie Darko is: he is in fact a paranoid schizophrenic who died on October 2nd, 1988, in death all the things he wanted or sought answers about such as old lady "roberta sparrow" were answered or received. His desperation for love, understanding, and questions of the afterlife are only answered with his demise. This is true of most religious beliefs stemming in all lifes answers, even death, being explained in our death. Donnie had to come to the realization that he was dead just as in "Jacob's Ladder". The question of time travel, well folks it exists. If you can believe in GOD, life after death, why not time travel. The film is less about accepting the existence of time travel and more about the fact that the existence of time travel should already be understood and accepted because it undeniably explains Donnie Darko's death. How else can a piece of a plane not already flown until October 29th kill D. Darko? Since Donnie already has trouble accepting the existence of GOD, a book explaining time travel is presented to him. This can be a representation of GOD's will to save his children through whatever instrument best allows them to accept their fates.

I'm not a bible pounding religious person but the film is undeniably splattered with religious undertones. If you give the film a superficial gander, he was a paranoid schizophrenic who died on October 2nd, 1988 and came to terms with the fact that he died.

Remember if Donnie Darko had died his English teacher would have never been fired, Jimmy Cunningham would have never been so intergrated in the school and exposed as a pedophile, Gretchen would have never died and Frank would have never been shot in the eye. He's dead folks period and from the moment he dies he sees what would have happended had he remained alive because remember his medications were just a placebo. It isn't that he had a choice to save anyone, its that the living have a difficult time understanding their own death and the reasons surrounding their death.

In death as he wished 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."

Answer 5

Donnie Darko is the main character in the 2001 movie of the same name directed by Richard Kelly. Played by American actor Jake Gyllenhaal, Darko is a troubled teenager who has disturbing dreams about an over sized rabbit.

Answer 6

a movie a bout time travel!!!!!

[[User:72.64.108.169|72.64.108.169]] 23:52, 16 May 2009 (UTC)~from DQ