| Donnie Darko Theories and Discussion Points |
| Donny Darko Theory from San Antonio, Texas: I think that the worm-hole opened at the beginning of the film and Donny re-lives the day. But, like the psychiatrist stated when he was in her office and the "Bunny" appeared and he said that the world was ending and he could see the sky opening up, she said that if the sky opens up he really would be alone, and it would just be him and his memories. So, I think that the "Bunny" doesn't really time-travel. I think that Donny is just using the image of the "Bunny" when he remembers how things "played out" before the world "rewound". I think the fact that he is remembering how things were is why he sees the "path" that emanates from peoples' chests...cause they've already taken that path. Why I think the "Bunny" doesn't really time-travel: 1. If he was really time-traveling the worm-hole would have to open each time he appeared, but it only opens at the beginning and the end. 2. The kid gets shot in the head and is dead in the current reality, so to time-travel from the future which is following the same path as the present, then the kid is dead there too, and it's one thing for a "Bunny" to time-travel and a whole other thing for a dead "Bunny" to time-travel. 3. And why would the "Bunny" lead Donny down a path that he knows will end with him killing the girl and then being shot in the head? So, I think that all his schizophrenic moments are his memories of the day he already lived mixing with the current day. And that's why when he shoots the "Bunny" he tells the kids' friend to go home and tell his parents that everything is going to be okay, cause he decides to sacrifice his own life the next time the worm-hole opens so that all the bad stuff doesn't happen again. If he dies: 1. His actions won't be blamed on the reading list of Drew Barrymore, so she won't be fired. 2. He won't burn down Patrick Swayze's house, so he'll never be discovered as a pedophile. 3. If he isn't found to be a pedophile then the crazy lady doesn't lose her belief system. 4. His little sister probably won't be in "Sparkle Motion" cause she'll be grieving, so "Charita" will win the talent show. 5. If his sister doesn't win the talent show, she and her mother won't be on the plane headed for "Star Search". |
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| Donny Darko Theory from Alex: First I have to say that Frank does keep time traveling. He goes back in time and stays back. One explanation is that Roberta Sparrow sent him back and another is that he was able to go back because he was dead- his soul was sent back. The reason that Frank shows Donnie where the gun is hidden and the reason he sends Donnie to Roberta Sparrow’s house is to give Donnie a choice. Before Donnie finds the gun, things were not too bad for Donnie. This choice is symbolized when Donnie’s teacher told Gretchen to sit next to the cutest boy. Frank wanted to give Donnie that chance, except that he was doing it in a more dramatic way. He was telling Donnie that his choices were either to live in this world with the tragic events that have happened or to die which would save the lives of everybody he ever cared for. In the director’s cut there are parts from the book that says that some people will wake up and remember parts of what happened in the future while others won’t. That is why we see Drew still sleeping but Noah awake. Noah remembers but Drew does not. Dr. Thurman awakes and realizes the role she would have played in all of this. Patrick is seen sitting on the side of his bed crying. Now there are two things to consider here. One is that he is a pervert and likes kids and he is crying cause he sees the bad in this or the other is that he isn’t a pervert, but seeing that had such an emotional impact on him that it brought him to tears. That stupid lady Kitty is so hurt that she would follow someone that was a pervert and then not believe that it was true. Cherita is happy to finally have her moment of peace. She put up with people’s shit during the whole movie and only Donnie would help her so she will miss Donnie but perhaps his friends won’t be such dicks to her now. Frank is the greatest. He is seen sitting by his bed crying and at the end he touches his eye. He knows that it was him who caused Donnie to die. He has to live with the fact that he killed his girlfriend’s brother. We also see Gretchen wave to Donnie’s mom. Gretchen remembers the future as well as Donnie’s mom. The rest of his family does not remember and that is why they are taking it so hard. His mom knows that he cheated death and that she would have died and the rest of the world had Donnie not died. So instead of feeling sad, she feels proud. Donnie dies alone. This is a very big one. Donnie was so afraid to die alone and in the end he does. In a sense you can say that he does not die alone because he has all the memories of the people he loved and who loved him with him but he does die alone physically, the only question left is, “Is there a god?”. |
| Donny Darko Theory from Liz in Indiana: Alright, so upon viewing this movie five times within one weekend, I had plenty of opportunities to really wonder what in the world was happening in this movie. I had a lot of ideas, but one question always stumped me: "Why would Frank lead Donnie down the path that eventually gets himself shot?" I couldn't figure out if Frank was trying to screw Donnie over for killing him, or what was going on. I finally applied all the characters and situations to the book "The Philosophy of Time Travel", and it made sense. The Artifact is something that traverses from the Primary Universe through a wormhole, creating a Tangent Universe. The jet engine is the Artifact, and it comes from Rose Darko's plane in future. The moment that the jet engine passes through the wormhole is the moment the Tangent Universe is created. Donnie, who is closest to the wormhole when the Artifact is "delievered", becomes the Living Reciever. The Living Reciever possesses super human abilities, such as increased strength and control over water, metal, and time. That is how Donnie is able to get the axe stuck in a solid bronze statue, and why he sees predestined paths as water and is able to flood the school. You can argue that Donnie has had these abilities all his life, being prepped for this moment, or that they are only for this occasion. Either way, it is his job to send the Artifact (jet engine) through the wormhole again. Everybody in the movie plays a vital role in the aid to Donnie, whether they know it or not. The obvious guide to Donnie is Frank, or the Manipulated Dead. The Manipulated Dead is anyone who dies in the Tangent Universe, also making Gretchen the Manipulated Dead briefly. Frank is aware that a parallel universe has been created, and that is why he calls Donnie out in the middle of the night, so Donnie can save the Universe. Yes, Frank will die in the Tangent Universe future, but in the Primary future, after Donnie saves everybody, he lives. And yes, Frank does time travel. The Manipulated Dead are able to contact the Living Reciever through the Fourth Dimensional construct (water). Also, he sets an Ensurance Trap with all Donnie's destruction so that it is certain the Artifact will make it back to the Primary Universe. Donnie floods the school, so he meets Gretchen. They fall in love, and they go to a movie. Donnie sees Frank, and burns the Cunningham house down. Jim is revealed to be a pedophile, and Kittie Farmer must appear at his arraignment. This leaves Rose Darko taking Sparkle Motion to L.A., putting the people and the Artifact in the correct positions at the correct time. Roberta Sparrow, Ms. Pomeroy, Prof. Monnitoff, Gretchen, and Cherita are the Manipulated Living, all aiding him (unaware to most of them) in saving the Universe. Roberta, throughout the entire movie, has been telling Donnie to write her (by checking the mailbox). She has been waiting for Donnie to read the book and send her a letter her entire life. She was enlightented all those years ago when she left the church and wrote the book. She knew this would happen. Ms. Pomeroy gives Donnie a huge clue with "Cellar Door". She's telling him to look in Ms. Sparrow's cellar door that Halloween night. You could even go as far to say that the writer who said that "cellar door" was beautiful was telling Donnie to go there (you have to put faith in predestination and that all things happen for a reason to get the full effect of this movie.). Monnitoff is obvious; he gives Donnie the book that makes him question and write Roberta Sparrow. Gretchen and Cherita are there to let Donnie know he won't die alone, which is his fear. But what is going on during the end when everyone wakes up? You could say that Donnie impacted each person's life so much that they all (with the exception of Ms. Pomeroy) wake up the moment he dies. Or, you could view that each person had a dream or "deja vu" of the Tangent Universe. Of course, at that moment, the Tangent Universe is a bad dream. It never existed. Dr. Thurmond wakes up because she's seen what Donnie did, shared those personal moments with him. Jim Cunningham because he may have a "bad feeling" about the discovery of his secret (it's possible that's why he kills himself later). Maybe Jim's "bad feeling" will help him cope with his fear, if only for a little while. Cherita smiles peacefully, the only smile we see from her, knowing true peace for a moment. Karen Pomeroy is still sleeping, indicating that she has no memory, no feeling, nothing concerning the Tangent Universe, but Monnitoff does. Kittie Farmer seems to wake up in shock, possibly from the knowledge that Jim is up to no good. Frank, though, is different. You see him crying, huddled in fetal postion. It's clear that he remembers everything. A hint to this is when Frank drops off Elizabeth just before the jet engine appears via the wormhole. He honks loudly, assumingly at Elizabeth, but is actually trying to tell Donnie they succeeded, but Donnie stays in bed. Symbolically, he touches his right eye, indicating his knowledge of the parallel universe. But then, the obvious question: "Did Donnie have to die?" I thought that he did, that the Living Reciever had to sacrifice himself to save others. But I don't think that's the case. All the Living Reciever had to do was guide the Artifact back through the wormhole before the black hole in the Primary Universe destroyed everything. Donnie did that. It seems he could simply go back outside (and there would be no Frank this time), and wait for it to crash again. If you think, if Donnie lived, would the same things happen? It doesn't matter though, Donnie chose to stay in bed. It's possible he did because he was enlightened and he knew his sacrifice would save everyone, or that he simply thought it was all a bad dream and saw no need to wander outside. In the deleted scenes, Donnie realizes that the medication was placebos, so the thought that he wasn't insane could've been a reason to Donnie's laughing fit. There are a lot of theories surrounding this movie, a lot of unsure things, but one thing is certain, that it must be viewed mulitple times before you can come to a conclusion, logical or not. I mean, we're talking about time travel and parallel universes. It can only be so logical. |
| Donny Darko Theory from Pearce: So, while watching the movie my 3rd time, I realized that Donnie was suffered from paranoid scitsophrinia ..... this means he saw & heard things that werent really there... so then entire movie may not have even happened... but I'm sure most of yall wont agree because all of that stuff was shown happening & why would they do that? To make you think. The movie is already weird enough, so why not do this to jsut confuse you even more... this just throws another twist into the movie to make you think even more. |
| Donny Darko Theory from Michael D: I think that Donny was trying to escape himself. Frank was his evil side, and that's why only he could see him. The alternate universe that he's living in is himself, and he has to make a choice to either live inside himself with himself (Frank), or die alone and save everyone else from the destruction of Frank. I believe that being stuck inside himself was tearing him apart, and the time travel happened at the beginning was him wanting to die so he didn't have to hurt anyone, but he didn't want to die alone. I think we all have to make the decision to live with our selves or die alone. In my opinion, I don't think any one truly dies alone. We all have the hearts of others, and there IS a God. Just look around you. Not at the people, at the stars. At the flowers. At the sky. At who loves you. Some of us don't have many of those, but when you have someone that truly loves you (I'm not talking about just girl friends and boyfriends, what about your other relationships?). I don't think the Frank time traveled, I think, like I said, it's Donny, and he's trying to escape himself. |
| Donny Darko Theory from Ben C: I think that the "Frank" we see at the start of the film, is God. Showing Donnie a different timeline, and that dying isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. I think that he was showing donnie, that his town would be better off if he didn't survive the accident. And I think, in the end... Donnie makes the choice. Sacrificing himself, to save the town and his girlfriend. (Much like what Jesus did) I don't really consider myself a religous person, but that is what I think. |
| Donny Darko Theory from Luis P: I think the movie...Donnie Darko...just shows two views. One view is what his life would've been like if he was not dead. The other view is how everyone else is if he died. The movie just takes us along the life when he didn't die...I mean...if not...it would've been a short movie. The "Bunny" is on the same path he is. Because the actual person, Frank, dies in one part then is alive in the other part. I think they were both going through the same thing and it appears that the Bunny always controls Donnie's life but maybe Donnie is controlling Frank's life in another view. We only see Donnie's side but I believe the side of Frank is going through the same thing Donnie is going through. |
| Many THANKS!!! to all of you that took the time to thoughtfully write out and contribute your ideas!! It is great proof of the incredible power that this film posesses to evoke a myriad of emotions and thoughts. I don't believe that there are any wrong theories. I am not trying to be inoffensive. I think that Donnie's struggle in the film can be interpreted universally and across many borders, both literally and intellectually. I never tire of watching it or of hearing someone else's perspective. Thank you! |