Donnie Darko what do you think it meant?possible spoilers if not seen movie

[tifa:one winged angel]

what do you think?
it was all confusing but i thought what actually happened in the movie was he was a living receiver and there was too alternate universes one where he lived the other he had to die to close of the other world or the both worlds would end and that old grandma deaths book was about time travel which would help him to do this if you have the directors cut in between scene you can read it. at the end when they show donnie dying you hear frank honk his car horn before it happens to tell donnie he done it. what do you all think it meant?

[Dreddz]

Got the DVD, smurfing great ....
Had to watch it 3 times to get the full story though .........

[Craig]

I think maybe Frank was honking because he saw a huge motherfucking jet engine falling onto his girlfriend's house as he was driving away!

[tifa:one winged angel]

but he wasnt honking the first time but yes lol...

[Winter Nights]

Great movie.. Helps to watch both versions to get everything.

[fire_of_avalon]

Great movie.. Helps to watch both versions to get everything.
There's another version? :O

[Winter Nights]

Yup. They release the Director's Cut last year. While just as good as the original, it shifts the movie moreso towards sci-fi.

Watch both, as there is enough differences between the two that having both allows a better understanding.

[Dreddz]

I agree with AR, helps somewhat .....

[GooeyToast]

In case you guys haven't noticed, I'm a huge Donnie Darko fan. Easily one of the most original and though-provoking movies of the last 10 years. Just the way it all comes together, not to mention the great script and score, is something that really leaves a lasting impression on you.

As for the two versions, the original is better, simply because on the DC they changed the great Echo & Bunneymen song with INXS! They also changed the incredible theatre scene so they talk in not so much of a whisper, which sucks. The version they showed at Sundance is the one I want.

Richard Kelly is an amazing talent, and I simply cannot wait for Southland Tales. It's hard to believe this is a first effort for a director. Totally mind-blowing.

I admit the movie was hard to understand, but really it's not as complex as everyone makes it out to be. The movie is NOT about demonic bunnies, as so many people seem to suggest. I believe it has more to deal with the themes of love, friendship, and the pain of being a teen. All those people who think this movie is only for goths need to watch it a few more times. :)

[Yooniece]

Heh. I see some people are fanatics of this cult classic.

Yeah Tifa, you've got the main idea down (which believe it or not, is hard for a lot of people to absorb). It's a sci-fi thriller but, as GooeyToast said, it's supposed to also represent a number of "ordinary" themes... the angst and insecurity of being a teenager, a first love... think about all the tiny subplots and nuances of the film, not to mention how complex Donnie's character is. This is a guy who can talk of the philosophy of time travel and switch to smurf genitalia the next. You have a crazy inspirational scam ringleader brainwashing a community (not uncommon), a clueless, worried set of parents, a psychologist, two liberal teachers fornicating, a fat asian chick... there is a large amount of "normal" other storytelling going on in the shadow of the great alternate dimension plot, adding to the depth and complexity of the movie. It's fantastic.

[jrgen]

What in the movie implies that it is about alternate universes?

[Leeza]

As posted by Lindy in the last Donny Darko thread. I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing it. :cat:

I think it's confusing only if you make it so.


Basic idea of the film.

Frank warns Donnie about him dying when the jet engine falls on him.

Donnie doesn't die.

Life goes on, all sorts of things happen, terrible things like the girl he happens to like dying and whatever, and him killing Frank.

In the end, he goes back in time, somehow, in that giant vortex, finds himself back in bed in the past.

Chooses to die in the crash, the jet engine being sent back in time from the plane which his family were on and would have died in the crash.

Thus by Donnie dying, he prevented all the terrible things he would have caused from happening, since he was messed up already, and saw what would happen, he decided the world would be a better place without him.

That, my friends, is the story in a nutshell, no complicated junk or excess to it, there is no explanation to the time travel, the cellar door bit is just a sneaky excuse to work up to the scene where the girl Donnie likes dies.

[Yooniece]

What in the movie implies that it is about alternate universes?

To make this as simple as possible, there were two possible worlds created from the beginning of the film. One where Donnie stays in bed, one where he doesn't. All the other events branch out from that defining moment.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

I dislike this movie. A lot. There's no rhyme or reason to why things happen, it's just stuff happening in a pseudointellectually appealing manner. A lot of it strikes me as either really overwrought, rediculously so, or extremely cop-out (or both, on several occassions). Lindy's description that Leeza quoted is certainly one I would use.

[tifa:one winged angel]

i agree its about all the teen troubles and insecurity of being a teenager but when i read on of the pages they are the muniplated dead which are gonna push Donnie to his goal hits gretchen dying in one of the worlds i think she knew all along what is going on and what he has to do, same for frank running her over .but the teen troubles are trying to get in his way

[Squall7]

The entire movie is an arguement for Theism, specifically Christianity. Frank is God. Donnie is Jesus. Frank shows Donnie the things that will happen if he doesn't die, but Donnie is afriad to die because he isn't sure if God is real. Frank shows Donnie how everything in life is predetermined (the wormholes coming out of characters' chests). Donnie believes this predetermination is God and decides to die.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

The entire movie is an arguement for Theism, specifically Christianity. Frank is God. Donnie is Jesus. Frank shows Donnie the things that will happen if he doesn't die, but Donnie is afriad to die because he isn't sure if God is real. Frank shows Donnie how everything in life is predetermined (the wormholes coming out of characters' chests). Donnie believes this predetermination is God and decides to die.

A major tenent in Christianity is the idea of free will (ironic, yes, but no less true). Calvinists are the ones that believe in predestination. Christians do not, or at least aren't supposed to.

[Squall7]

A major tenent in Christianity is the idea of free will (ironic, yes, but no less true). Calvinists are the ones that believe in predestination. Christians do not, or at least aren't supposed to.

That is why Frank gives Donnie the choice to live or die.

[edczxcvbnm]

Donny Darko is a stupid movie. There...I said it! I only watched it once and I don't get why people say it was so hard to understand. What I don't understand is why Donny is so fucking stupid. Frank showed him the future and let him live it out. BUT since Donny knows the future he can change it. He can choose not to burn the house down and thus his mom wouldn't go away and thus no halloween party at his house and it just changes everything. The future is changed. Donny choose the pussy way out of everything. He could have saved everyone and lived.

The movie was interesting in certain ways but it is way to simple to understand.

In the end this is the opposite of its a wonderful life.

*YAAAAAWN*

[jrgen]

Too simple to understand?

[GooeyToast]

Donny Darko is a stupid movie. There...I said it! I only watched it once and I don't get why people say it was so hard to understand. What I don't understand is why Donny is so smurfing stupid. Frank showed him the future and let him live it out. BUT since Donny knows the future he can change it. He can choose not to burn the house down and thus his mom wouldn't go away and thus no halloween party at his house and it just changes everything. The future is changed. Donny choose the pussy way out of everything. He could have saved everyone and lived.

The movie was interesting in certain ways but it is way to simple to understand.

In the end this is the opposite of its a wonderful life.

*YAAAAAWN*

No. Donnie has to do all of that stuff in order to save the Primary Universe. If he would have simply not done all of those things, he would not have realized he had to send the engine back to save the people he cared about. He did not take "the pussy way out" of anything. And as for him dying, he most likely had very faint recollection of the Tangent Universe, hence him not remembering the engine, and hence Frank not being there to save him.

Oh and BTW, Donnie DOES NOT know the future, and Frank did not show it to him. Frank is simply there to insure Donnie fufills his destiny. Donnie does kind of see what he must do, but he does not know exactly the effects it will have. But as the movie progresses, he slowly begins to piece things together. He trusts Frank's words, because he saved his life, and thinks that Frank is there to guide him. If he disobeyed Frank, he would'nt have closed the Tangent because he never would have gotten to that point when the engine falls off the plane, which is how the whole movie begins anyways. Everything happens for a reason.

Sorry for the rant but I just wanted to clear things up.

[Germ Hamee]

Hehe. It's funny that almost every time I hear somebody hated that movie, they make it clear they didn't get it at all.

It's my favorite movie, and I rarely single out favorites. I actually just watched it tonight, and was delighted to see a new thread on it here. When I first saw Donnie Darko, a lot of crap was going on in my life that seemed entirely random but all effected each other in the most profound ways... so I resonated. I'm attached.

I must admit, I really don't like the Director's Cut. Everything is explained and turns out to be very simple. I much prefer the theatrical version that promotes nothing but chaos, which actually is anything but. I liked how open it was. Oh well.