understand Donnie Darko

if donnie’s sister and mom are on the plane that crashed into donnie’s bedroom (to go to the sister’s dance recital thingg) why are they still alive in the sequel, S. Darko?

That’s it…. At least I think so….

The engine came from the plane that his mother and little sister were on in the alternate….. That makes perfect sense now.

Of course in the real “timeline/reality” those two weren’t on the plane…. But a plane having two less passengers wouldn’t stop it from taking off, so the plane flew no matter what, and it hit that “time storm” no matter what. Starting from those two unchangeables it makes sense.

During the planes flight it collided with that storm…. a storm in created by a hole in time… The engine was ripped off the plane by this storm and traveled 28 days 8 hours back in time killing poor Donnie. Even if the engine hadn’t gone back in time Donnie would have died, just 28 days and 8 hours latter….. And the whole movie an intriguing combination of “what could have been if he hadn’t slept in his own bed that night” and “his destiny, his death.”

it’s a crazy line of thought and I love it.

Now I must admit I haven’t read The Philosophy of Time Travel book Im only commenting on what I read from the statement blonde_santa made one year ago.
This statement….
“Think about it though, if donnie dies then he wouldn’t burn the perverts house meaning his mom wouldn’t take the early flight back meaning no jet engine would break off.”
The Jet engine and the wormhole Need to exist still in order for your explanation to be true.
If Donnie stays in bed to die…. the Jet engine needs to be broken off and transferred back in time through the wormhole and into his room. Otherwise there is no death.
If Gods plan for the universe is that Donnie must die and everything is carried out as usual ‘according to his plan’, and there is no alternate universe being created where Donnie goes along living; Then God’s Plan has included the wormhole and the jet engine, the alternate universe comes in the moment Donnie gets out of bed and carries out his life for the remainder of the Universe as a whole (primary and alternate) until it ends (in 28 days).
In that time everyone is explaining to him why he must die (in order to save the universe) teaching him the workings of God and his plan, so that by the end of the movie he understands how and why everything is working the way that it works, therefore he feels fulfilled and allows himself to die in bed. When he does this, there is no alternate universe (in which he carries out his life), setting balance back into God’s plan.
So if anything the film is about God talking to Donnie about life, so Donnie can learn the secrets in order to feel a part of something greater and fulfilled in order to allow himself to die.
If the wormhole and the engine doesn’t exist as was stated, then Donnie doesn’t die. But in the end of the movie it still falls into his room, meaning that the plane still takes off (without his mom) 28 days later, still coming into contact with the wormhole, still losing its engine in the wormhole and now killing Donnie. Therefore God’s original plan is back on track.
Everyone in the alternate universe from the very beginning starting with the rabbit (Frank) and so on, is there to communicate God’s message/plan…which basically means God is talking to him. Supporting the sentence:
“If the sky were to suddenly open up, there would be no law, there would be no rule. It would only be you and your memories, the choices you made, and the people you touched. If this world were to end, there would only be you, and him, and no one else”

I have read enough sites and FAQ’s to help me fully understand and create an idea that makes sense for me.
(Btw, FAQ’s do help, as well as the Philosophy of Time Travel. That book is the key.)

I don’t think this is all in Donnie’s mind. It’s more of an adventure story, showing how Donnie comes to realise his role and finally understand that he needs to save the universe. All the characters in the movie are Manipulated Living. They are all manipulated by ‘Future beings’ (A high-powered divine beings – hence the quote, “They made me do it.”) and everything they (The manipulated living) have ever done in the movie was to steer Donnie into the path in which he’ll set the world right again.
Firstly, at the start of the movie, the artifact (Jet engine) had somehow corrupted the time stream because it had no purpose to be there in the first place. The fact that it had no origin or reason. It was a coruption to the Primary Universe which is why a Tangent universe was created.
The second Jet engine only appeared because Donnie made it appear (after realising his purpose, his destiny.) Ultimately, giving it a reason to be there, thereby steadying the timestream and fixing all the problems it had created.

Why did Bunny-Frank wake Donnie up?
So that Donnie could survive and be able to restore the universes. I believe that before the beginning of the movie, there were other unseen universes where Donnie was meant to correct the world but the Manipulated living failed to guide him because he did not realise what he was meant to do. As in, they’d tried different ways to help him undrstand eventually. In one universe, Donnie must’ve ended up shooting Frank in his eye, So, future beings probably used that Frank to guide Donnie in the movie-tangent-universe we watch. So really, I think the world had ended previous times before. But, time looped so Donnie has to relive October 2nd until he corrects the corruption, and gives the jet Engine a reason to be there. Basically it had been a loop where previous attempts by Donnie had failed and we just happened to catch the one Tangent universe where Donnie realised what he had to do and did it, thereby restoring the time loop and universes.

Did Donnie have to die?
I believe he did. To balance the universe out. He was a fourth dimensional superhuman that, in a way, now that the mysterious artifcact jet Engine appeared, Donnie had to sacrifice himself so that there was only one universal phenomenon. If you can word it better go ahead.

I really cannot settle for a simple explanation, I always have to branch out different ideas. x]

In one last effort I will try.
There were previous failed Tangent universes before the one we watched. The manipulated death and living had failed to steer Donnie into his destined saviour path therefore the world did end. But the time loop allows Donnie several last chances. The Tangent Universe we watch is when the Manipulated living and dead’s actions actually work and Donnie figures out everything he needs to know. At the start of the movie, a Tanget Universe is only created because an artifact shows up with no reason or origin. A completely mysterious object just corrupted the time/space continuum and now everything was going to end. But, because the manipulated living and dead were successfull this time and the ensurance trap was done, Donnie gave the jet engine a purpose to fall into the primary universe 30 days prior to the Halloween night which we watch. Which made everything normal and because the Living reciever is most common to sacrifice, Donnie sat on his bed laughing at how he’d understood everything now, feeling fullfilment in his actions.
I really didn’t want him to die though. I guess is was one of those things where he’s not meant to be alive, he is meant to serve on purpose then, as he dies, he takes with him everything that could go wrong and leaves a better place.

There are alot of little questions which can be answered simply as well.
And, I must note this is purely my interpretations and what I think and of course it’s not exactly what the movie’s about.
Noone is wrong.

It really depends on how you look at the movie, either philosophically or psychologically.

Psychologically, Donnie has catatonic schizophrenia- Frank is the voice in his head- a non-developed character, a shadow in his mind. He never sleep walks. He dreams the whole month, he wakes up in his bed, starts laughing hysterically and then dies.

End of story.

That’s just ONE of the MANY ways to view the movie.
This movie is open to interpretation. Richard Kelly, the director, states this himself- as does Jake Gyllenhaal, the actor who plays Donnie.

Having understood this movie to me means having accepted the fact that this movie will always confuse your clear thoughts.

It’s just like feeling you have understood, but not being able to put the explanation into words…like a dream, right?

ok this is complicated so im going to dumb it down a bit, no offence lol.

Ok the book that Grandma death wrote is the most important thing in the whole movie, and to fully understand the film you will need to read it. It is available in some libraries and all over the net.

The Philosophy of time travel is a philosophical theory that branches off from traditional christianity. Where ‘God’ controls all of the universe including time. Therefore time is predetermined But because god has given us free will we are able to change our futures (watch the scenes between donnie and the male teacher they discuss all of this). Because we are able to change our futures and break from gods control it creates an inbalance in reality. On the night when the jet falls into Donnies bed in the beginning of the movie he had changed time and thus creating a tangent universe, not controlled by god. BEcause of its lack of godly control it will destroy itself withen 28 days and take the primary universe (the actual universe) along with it.
So donnie (referred to as the living reciever) must close the tangent unviverse before it implodes on itself. He is guided by two ‘angels’ or ‘agents’ sent via the forth dimension (water) this is Frank and Gretchin (and are referred to as manipulated dead) they have died inside the tangent universe, so closing the tangent universe would prevent their deaths.
Everyone else are manipulated living and help drive Donnie to his destiny. They will do anything to make sure their universe is not destroyed.
The only way to close the tangent universe is to die via the jet engine crushing him. Think about it though, if donnie dies then he wouldnt burn the peverts house meaning his mom wouldnt take the early flight back meaning no jet engine would break off.
There are more examples of occurances like this in the book, such as a mayan warrior dieing from a runaway arrow where there was no one around or a medieval knight being struck by a sword he was yet to make.
You cannot clump this entire movie into one simple phrase like, he did it to save his girlfriend or because he was scared of Frank. You cannot do this because Donnie tells us so, in reference to the ‘life’ line: “you cant just clump all of these emotions into two extremes (love and fear) and ignore the rest”

Throughout the entire movie there are many references to religion (namely christianity) almost all manipulated living are christian, he calls the pervert the anti-christ, the movie they watch is ‘christs final temptation’, Donnie: “I could spend my whole life debating over and over again, weighing the pros and cons, and in the end I still wouldn’t have any proof, so I just don’t debate it any more. (laughs) It’s absurd.”
Dr. Thurman: “The search for God is absurd?”
Donnie: “It is if everyone dies alone.”
“Do you mean God’s master plan? Do you now believe in God?”
“If the sky were to suddenly open up, there would be no law, there would be no rule. It would only be you and your memories, the choices you made, and the people you touched. If this world were to end, there would only be you, and him, and no one else.”

So there you go that is the directors intention.

I thought I was understanding this film until the last 10 minutes. Then I sat gobsmacked wondering what the hell was going on, replayed those 10 minutes 2 or 3 times. Thought for a while and came up with some theories but none of them explained everything; there were details which contradicted every theory I came up with.

So I googled it and found these 3 pages which explain everything.

The main Donnie Darko page on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_darko

The Wikipedia page for the (fictional) book in the film which Grandma Death wrote when she was young:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_Time_Travel

The book was called “Philosophy of Time Travel”. Wikipedia says that the contents of the book are “critical to the understanding of the movie’s many unresolved questions”, so it seems the film on its own doesn’t have everything that’s needed to completely understand it. The book is, apparently, included on the DVD. (It’s a very short book.)

And you’ll find masses and masses of explanation and info on the Donnie Darko official website including the full version of the book:
http://www.donniedarko.com

In a nutshell the story is about time getting damaged and repairing itself.

I understood this movie a really long time ago, it took me two or three times to understand Everything. Cause with this movie you watch it the first time and your like.. what the heck? but it’s a really good movie; my favorite!!

If you have any mind capacity at all and know English you can understand this film.

I won’t offer help. You need to be able to do this.
I can. You can.