Post by intrigued on Aug 16, 2016 20:38:26 GMT -5
Donnie Darko (DD) was filmed in 28 days during Fall 2000. It was first viewed at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2001. It was scheduled for theatrical release in the U.S. in late September/early October 2001, but was delayed for several weeks because:
1) a plot based on a jet engine crashing into a house was not popular after 9/11
2) The Arabic-style font on promo movie posters need to be changed (to Palatino) because the perpetrators of 9/11 were all from the Middle East (Arabic font was retained on the scene titles in the movie)
I cannot think of a more iconic omen for 9/11 than the slow motion scene of a jet engine ripping through an upside down (in distress) American flag on the ceiling of Donnie Darko’s bedroom ceiling near the end of the movie. It is quite intriguing that this scene was filmed about one year before 9/11. There is also the scene where students waiting for a bus look at each other in dread when they hear the roar of jet engine above them and when they look up no plane is visible.
Now let's do a more detailed comparison between Donnie Darko and 9/11 both respect to the time line and places of importance.
First the timeline:
DD: Based on the first sequence with Frank, the world is in danger of ending when the Primary Universe (PU) and Tangential Universe (TU) re-intersect at 6:42 am on 11/ 1,1988 as the result of a time space paradox created by a jet engine that falls through a wormhole into a house in the town of Middlesex, northern VA (see below). At the end of the TU, the engine falls from a commercial airliner flying from LAX to an undisclosed airport in northern VA. Note this date is one week before the 1988 presidential election (Bush, Sr. vs. Dukakis) and there are intimations in the movie that Bush and the Republican Party are evil and perhaps false prophets, especially their connections with the Moral Majority as represented by Kitty Farmer and Jim Cunningham.
9/11: Muhammed Atta enters Logan Airport, Boston at approximately 6:45 am and at 6:52 am confirms the mission is a go. 9/11 officially begins…
DD: As stated by Rose Darko in a telephone message the night before, Rose and Samantha Darko’s fateful flight from LAX to an unidentified airport in northern VA was scheduled to land “sometime around 8:30 am” on 11/1.
Lets look at major events around 8:30 am on the wiki time line for 9/11 (both at +/-15 and +/- 30 minute intervals)
ca. 30 minutes before 8:30 am
7:59: American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, departs 14 minutes late from Logan International Airport in Boston, its destination being Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California.
ca. 15 minutes before 8:30 am
8:14: Flight 11 is hijacked
8:14: United Airlines Flight 175, also departs from Logan International Airport in Boston; its destination was also LAX. Five hijackers are aboard. One of them communicated with Mohammed Atta shortly before Flight 11's takeoff.
8:20: American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with 58 passengers and six crew members, departs from Washington Dulles International Airport in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, Virginia, for Los Angeles International Airport. Five hijackers are aboard.
Closest event to 8:30 am: 8:26:30-Flight 11 makes a 100-degree turn to the south heading toward New York City.
ca. 15 minutes after 8:30 am
8:42: United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757, takes off with 37 passengers and seven crew members from Newark International Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport), bound for San Francisco International Airport, following a 40-minute delay due to congested runways. Four hijackers are aboard. Its flight path initially takes it close to the World Trade Center, which is 3 minutes away from being struck, before moving away westwards.
8:42 to 8:46 (approx.): Flight 175 is hijacked.
8:46:30 Flight 11 crashes at roughly 466 mph (790 km/h or 219m/s or 425 knots) into the north face of the North Tower (1 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 99.
ca. 30 minutes after 8:30 am
8:54: Flight 77 deviates from its assigned course, turning south over Ohio.
8:55: President George W. Bush is at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida as part of a scheduled visit to promote education when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who is with Bush, informs him that a small twin-engine plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. Before entering the classroom, the President speaks to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who is at the White House. She first tells him it was a twin-engine aircraft—and then a commercial aircraft—that had struck the World Trade Center, adding “that’s all we know right now, Mr. President.”
8:58: Flight 175 takes a heading toward New York City.
9:03:02: Flight 175 crashes at about 590 mph (950 km/h, 264 m/s or 513 knots) into the south face of the South Tower (2 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 77 and 85.
The only major 9/11 events that lie outside this interval are the inevitable collapses of WTCs North and South, the crash of AA 77 into the Pentagon, Bush leaving Sarasota in Air Force 1, and the crash of UA 93 near Shanksville Pa, the latter which failed to reach its intended target because of its delayed departure and passenger intervention. So virtually all the pivotal events of 9/11 happened around 8:30 am.
Donnie Darko and 9/11 Places (it get's even weirder):
DD setting and places
A Middlesex setting is inferred from Middlesex High School and other references to the town or county.There are multiple Middlesexes in the US, but based on the Washington Redskins football game on TV of which those viewing are obviously Redskin fans and numerous VA license plates the most obvious location is a fictional town in Middlesex County, northern VA. This is further supported by the assertion of 26-year old director Richard Kelly that the film setting is based on his teen life outside of Richmond VA.
The final party (Donnie's Last Supper) in DD before the TU closes is a celebration of Elizabeth Darko’s (Donnie’s sister) acceptance into Harvard while the Darko parents are conveniently out of town. Dad (Eddie) is in NYC presumably on business. Mom (Rose) and little sister (Samantha) are in LAX returning from Ed McMahon’s Star Search because Kitty Farmer couldn’t go so she could defend Jim Cunningham after the kiddie porn dungeon was discovered in his house by firemen putting out the blaze started by Donnie on Frank’s instructions. Rose and Samantha are boarding a redeye flight (2806 Gate 42 departing at 12 am) from LAX flying to an undisclosed airport in northern VA area at time of party. They are on the plane that will lose the jet engine in the TU that Donnie will return to the PU in an act of self-sacrifice, resolving the paradox. This party is critical to setting the “ensurance trap” for Donnie and set's up the movie’s Deus ex Machina-Gretchen’s and Frank’s sudden deaths. A drunken Frank needs to make his beer run and Roberta Sparrow needs to be in road in front of her mailbox (in her perpetual vigil for Donnie’s letter that finally arrives) at the precise time to make Frank’s car swerve, running over Gretchen which in turn causes Donnie to shoot Frank. Donnie actually says” Deus Ex Machina” and “Our Savior” immediately before this chain of improbable events.
The only other place names in movie are the Sarasota Heights Golf course owned by “False Prophet” Jim Cunningham who is at least indirectly tied to the Republican Party and Moral Majority through conversations of his main disciple, Kitty Farmer, the Washington Redskin’s FedEx Field on TV during Donnie’s trippy ectoplasm trajectory scene that leads to him to the gun, and the Aero Theatre where the classic final conversation between Frank and Donnie takes place. The latter has an obvious connection with the airplane theme, but no specific spatial reference. However, since the film was made in southern California and based on comments in the director’s cut, we know this is the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA. Indeed, a search of Google Earth lists this as the only “Aero Theatre” on record.
9/11 important places:
Logan Airport, Boston: origin of AA 11 (WTC-N) and UA 175 (WTC-S)-Harvard is less than 7 miles away
Dulles Airport: origin of AA 77 (Pentagon)-possible destination of Elizabeth and Samantha Darko’s doomed flight from LAX.
Newark Airport, NJ: UA 93-takeoff delayed by 40 minutes due to congested runways (aborted attack)-no DD connection
LAX: Destination of all three 9/11 flights that hit targets (AA11, UA 175, and AA77)-LAX is the departure airport of Elizabeth and Samantha Darko’s redeye flight that sends the jet engine Artifact back through the wormhole. The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica is less than 8 miles away from LAX.
San Francisco: Destination of aborted Flight UA 93. No DD connection
NYC: WTC 1 and 2 targets-Eddie Darko is in NYC presumably on a business trip, perhaps at the WTC and perhaps not, but at least a symbolic link to WTC as a commercial center
Washington D.C: Pentagon Target- Washington Redskins FedEx Field is 10.5 miles away
Shanksville, PA: closest town to UA flight 93 crash site-no DD connection
Sarasota, Florida: President George W. Bush reading to elementary school students-Sarasota Heights Golf Course is owned by George H. Bush/Republican supporting False Prophet Jim Cunningham.
Note that the only DD connections are with the flights that hit their intended targets and the location of President Bush. There are no connections with the passenger-aborted UA Flight 93 attack. This is complete list of the geo-referenced places and place names mentioned in the movie-some of which you really have to pay close attention to find. All the key locations directly associated with 9/11 events are listed at maximum detail. The only other place mentioned frequently on the 9/11 time line is Otis Air Force Base, Cape Cod. Mass. where two F-15s were scrambled and ultimately flew Combat Air Patrol over Manhattan, but these two fighters arrived too late and played no role in the events of the day.
More than coincidence.... Much better than Nostradamus.