So... Donnie Darko...

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by GR4V3mind117, Feb 15, 2010.

  1. GR4V3mind117

    GR4V3mind117 Ancient
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    I didn't get the plot. This is what I did get from it.

    These are spoilers, for those of you who haven't seen it yet.
    Donnie Darko falls asleep, he is woken up by Frank (The rabbit/demon creature) in the middle of the night who takes Donnie outside to a golf course, Frank tells Donnie when the end of the world will be, (28 Days, 6 Hours, 42 Minutes and 12 Seconds. AKA. October 30th, 1988.) and Donnie wakes up with that information written on his arm. He goes home, and finds that a jet engine somehow fell and demolished his room shortly after he left with Frank. Realizing that he would be crushed if Frank didn't wake him up.
    Then stuff happens, Donnie goes psycho, embeds an axe in a statue in front of his school, and writes 'They made me do it.' on something with spray paint whenever he does that, burns down some guy's mansion, and throws a halloween party with 6 hours remaining on Frank's End-Of-The-World timer. world begins to end, something happens and Donnie is thrown back in time to October 2nd, 1988 when Frank first woke him up. Frank fails to show up and Donnie gets crushed in his sleep by the jet engine... Girls cry, Mad World starts playing, End.

    Anything I missed?
     
    #1 GR4V3mind117, Feb 15, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2010
  2. Creeping Death

    Creeping Death What's a Halo?
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    That's the gist of the story, or actually, just the facts. Underneath it all is a meaningful story of love. Let me put it this way, by going back in time Donnie was able to save the one he loved by sacrificing himself. When Frank spoke of the world ending he wasn't referring to the world itself, but rather Donnie's world.
     
  3. GR4V3mind117

    GR4V3mind117 Ancient
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    But... Wait... What did Donnie do that threw him back in time to just before the jet kills him?
     
  4. Aschur

    Aschur Wubba lubba dub dub
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    He went back in time through that rift or whatever it was at the end in an airplane and thats where the random jet engine came from... might be wrong but i know someone was in a plane that went through. anywasy he goes back in time to save pretty much everyone he knows from dying by dying himself, its actually quite touching. Frank is just the spirt of the guy who accidentally runs over the one girl.
     
  5. GR4V3mind117

    GR4V3mind117 Ancient
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    No, the guy runs over the girl with a car on the 30th of October, Frank appears on the 2nd of October. And I'm pretty sure Donnie was in a car when he went back in time
     
  6. ukilledkenny7

    ukilledkenny7 Ancient
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    Donnie cheats death. He was supposed to die from the jet engine but he dodged death; shown by the father when laying on the bed as he talks to the mother.
    However, cheating death led to many loved ones dying. In the end his girlfriend dies, his mom dies, and his sister died; and frank dies.
    So in the end he is a hero by allowing himself to die. The end shows him when he dies from the jet engine. He sacrificed himself to save his loved ones.
    The whole movie suggests that he understands his few extra days are only temporary.
    Also after watching the director's commentary, I learned that he is almost supposed to be seen as a type of super hero. Doesn't the name Donnie Darko sound like a super hero name? He is saving the world.
    It is definitely an incredibly complicated movie. I have seen it a million times and still learn more and more every time I watch it.
     
  7. Aschur

    Aschur Wubba lubba dub dub
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    yeah, i knew i was probably wrong about him being in the plane but i know someone important was... and the frank thing i know is right, because i think he takes the bunny head off at some point and it shows the normal dude but like bloody and dead... i think
     
  8. Wood Wonk

    Wood Wonk Ancient
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    yeah frank was donnie's sister's boyfriend.
     
  9. buddhacrane

    buddhacrane Ancient
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    Yeah it's pretty much a non-traditional super hero film, a bit like "Unbreakable". I don't get where the heck that "time-rift" came from though; it seems like it was just a convenient plot device for him to undo his mistake of not dying.

    Time travel though, it's a confusing beast, because he originally dodged the jet plane piece that would've killed him, which came from the future that was created because he survived, which he then went and changed by going back in time.

    So one presumes that the world was in a kind of "time loop" where the very first time around there was no plane piece (and thus, no plane piece for Donnie to "dodge"), so a time rift was created to put a plane piece into the past (to kill Donnie) but he kept surviving, perhaps this looped many many times, dooming the universe to forever loop through this period of time. Eventually though, in one of the loops, Donnie figures out he has to die (The loop we're seeing in the film), so in the final iteration he is killed by the plane piece and the universe is saved from looping through time forever!
     
  10. ukilledkenny7

    ukilledkenny7 Ancient
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    I think it is saying time was doing this (intersecting)
    X
    rather than this (parallel)
    =
    So when the two times crossed; certain artifacts crossed with it; such as the plane.
     

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