Post by Reed on Aug 18, 2004 0:15:08 GMT -5
Hi all. I just found this forum last night, and just watched the movie for only the second time. I watched it once a long time ago with someone who was telling me to pay attention, to try to figure it out, that there were websites about the movie, yada yada yada. I wasn't in the mood at the time, so I didn't pay much attention.
Anyway, last night I caught the last 15 minutes on cable, and it piqued my interest. Did a little searching on the internet, found the Donnie Darko site (which I didn't waste much time on), found the Philosophy of Time Travel, and of course, this place.
So I d/led and watch he original movie tonight, with some things to watch for I read here. My take on the movie is a lot different than a lot of what I've read here. Here's my first stab at it... forgive any major errors (I don't even remember all the characters names yet) or use of disproven theories, repetition of other's thoughts, etc.
How to start? Okay, let's start with the original flow of time. No jet engine crashes into Donnie's room. He is not meant to die. He's gotten into trouble with fires, etc. He meets Gretchen and falls in love. They are boyfreind/firfreind. I'm pretty sure, not 100%, that he sets fire to Patrick Swaze's house, as he does later in the movie.
His sister goes on Star Search, as in the movie, and her mother goes with her. (would've gone anyway).
On the fateful night, Donnie's girfriend Gretchen is killed, probably by her father, or the scumbag kids. His sister and mother are killed in a plane crash (but no engine goes through time). The next day, he is arrested for arson (or maybe murder), and goes to jail. In one day, his entire world is destroyed.
So thus, the reason for the time travel is a mission to save his world, to keep everyone from being killed. The start of the movie is the beginning of the alternate universe, a universe created when he went back into time. He wakes up and smiles, realizing it worked, where he is. The metal bicycle is his vehicle; when he stands up the first thing he does is look to the water.
If the jet engine falling was the beginning of the alternate universe, then how was it that Donnie was woken up by the rabbit, and brought to safety. The rabbit wouldn't have existed until the alternate reality began. If the engine were the source of the new universe, then there wouldn't have been time for him to wake up DOnnie and get him far enough away from the house that he'd sleep through the crash, after the engine appeared in the sky.
And why the hell would a falling jet engine just happen to travel through time? And a jet engine from a plane carrying his mother and sister, just happens to travel through time and land on top of him? There is no way, no how, that this happened by chance.
There are many clues that Donnie has seen the future. First off, there's the schizophrenia. This is the result of his adulthood; his purpose for traveling through time, coexisting with his teenage personality from 1998. He exhibits a maturity not expected from a tenager, like when he challenges the teacher, etc. And when he calls Patrick Swayze the antichrist, he's not just talking out his ass. He knows. Subconcously, perhaps, but he knows the truth.
And when he grabs the earmuffs off the chinese girl who's in love with him, he promises that everything is going to be better for her in the future. That's because he knows. Later on, she'll be successful and happy. Dancer, maybe?
And when he's hypnotized and tells his shrink about the vandalism and the fire, he says he's going to be caught in a couple of days. But we never see him get arrested. So why would he say that, unless he was remembering his experiences from the original timeline?
And when Gretchen waves to the mother at the end? There was a familiarity, right? But did we ever see the two of them meet in the movie? No. But in the original timeline, they did know each other.
I don't think the world is really going to end. His world, the alternate reality, is, but the universe overall is not. The course of the alternative reality, the temporal loop, is predestined from the outset.
So anyway, he goes back in time. I'm not sure of the chronology yet. Either he sent the jet engine back first, or he came back first, but the violent acts, the vandalism of the school, the setting of the fire, they were, at least in part, adjustments to the timeline. Think about it; you go back in time to change something, and other changes are going to happen as a consequence. If you go back with an agenda, you might have to tweak things to get where you want to go. So the vandalism at the school might have been to make sure he met his girfriend. The fire might have been to make sure their was a party, to protect his girlfriend from her father. I need to watch the movie again, but I'm pretty comfortable in the idea that the course of time had to be fine-tuned.
Another reason I'm fairly confident in my original scenario;
Frank, who was killed in the alternate reality, became the manipulated dead and contacted Donnie. But what of everyone else who died in the alternative universe? His sister, his mother, his girfriend. Did any of them contact Donnie in his dreams? No. Why not? Because they didn't just die in the tangent dimenison; they died originally in the primary dimension. They were meant to die, so they didn't haunt his dreams.
They were meant to die, but Donnie sacrificed himself to save them; he destroyed himself to recreate what was important in his life. He may have hoped to save them without sacrificing himself, but eventually he understood the price and accepted it.
The theories of time travel were wrong; at least in our universe. There wasn't any "sending of the artifact to the primary universe". The engine was sent back in time, and would create a paradox in any timeline.
Anyway, last night I caught the last 15 minutes on cable, and it piqued my interest. Did a little searching on the internet, found the Donnie Darko site (which I didn't waste much time on), found the Philosophy of Time Travel, and of course, this place.
So I d/led and watch he original movie tonight, with some things to watch for I read here. My take on the movie is a lot different than a lot of what I've read here. Here's my first stab at it... forgive any major errors (I don't even remember all the characters names yet) or use of disproven theories, repetition of other's thoughts, etc.
How to start? Okay, let's start with the original flow of time. No jet engine crashes into Donnie's room. He is not meant to die. He's gotten into trouble with fires, etc. He meets Gretchen and falls in love. They are boyfreind/firfreind. I'm pretty sure, not 100%, that he sets fire to Patrick Swaze's house, as he does later in the movie.
His sister goes on Star Search, as in the movie, and her mother goes with her. (would've gone anyway).
On the fateful night, Donnie's girfriend Gretchen is killed, probably by her father, or the scumbag kids. His sister and mother are killed in a plane crash (but no engine goes through time). The next day, he is arrested for arson (or maybe murder), and goes to jail. In one day, his entire world is destroyed.
So thus, the reason for the time travel is a mission to save his world, to keep everyone from being killed. The start of the movie is the beginning of the alternate universe, a universe created when he went back into time. He wakes up and smiles, realizing it worked, where he is. The metal bicycle is his vehicle; when he stands up the first thing he does is look to the water.
If the jet engine falling was the beginning of the alternate universe, then how was it that Donnie was woken up by the rabbit, and brought to safety. The rabbit wouldn't have existed until the alternate reality began. If the engine were the source of the new universe, then there wouldn't have been time for him to wake up DOnnie and get him far enough away from the house that he'd sleep through the crash, after the engine appeared in the sky.
And why the hell would a falling jet engine just happen to travel through time? And a jet engine from a plane carrying his mother and sister, just happens to travel through time and land on top of him? There is no way, no how, that this happened by chance.
There are many clues that Donnie has seen the future. First off, there's the schizophrenia. This is the result of his adulthood; his purpose for traveling through time, coexisting with his teenage personality from 1998. He exhibits a maturity not expected from a tenager, like when he challenges the teacher, etc. And when he calls Patrick Swayze the antichrist, he's not just talking out his ass. He knows. Subconcously, perhaps, but he knows the truth.
And when he grabs the earmuffs off the chinese girl who's in love with him, he promises that everything is going to be better for her in the future. That's because he knows. Later on, she'll be successful and happy. Dancer, maybe?
And when he's hypnotized and tells his shrink about the vandalism and the fire, he says he's going to be caught in a couple of days. But we never see him get arrested. So why would he say that, unless he was remembering his experiences from the original timeline?
And when Gretchen waves to the mother at the end? There was a familiarity, right? But did we ever see the two of them meet in the movie? No. But in the original timeline, they did know each other.
I don't think the world is really going to end. His world, the alternate reality, is, but the universe overall is not. The course of the alternative reality, the temporal loop, is predestined from the outset.
So anyway, he goes back in time. I'm not sure of the chronology yet. Either he sent the jet engine back first, or he came back first, but the violent acts, the vandalism of the school, the setting of the fire, they were, at least in part, adjustments to the timeline. Think about it; you go back in time to change something, and other changes are going to happen as a consequence. If you go back with an agenda, you might have to tweak things to get where you want to go. So the vandalism at the school might have been to make sure he met his girfriend. The fire might have been to make sure their was a party, to protect his girlfriend from her father. I need to watch the movie again, but I'm pretty comfortable in the idea that the course of time had to be fine-tuned.
Another reason I'm fairly confident in my original scenario;
Frank, who was killed in the alternate reality, became the manipulated dead and contacted Donnie. But what of everyone else who died in the alternative universe? His sister, his mother, his girfriend. Did any of them contact Donnie in his dreams? No. Why not? Because they didn't just die in the tangent dimenison; they died originally in the primary dimension. They were meant to die, so they didn't haunt his dreams.
They were meant to die, but Donnie sacrificed himself to save them; he destroyed himself to recreate what was important in his life. He may have hoped to save them without sacrificing himself, but eventually he understood the price and accepted it.
The theories of time travel were wrong; at least in our universe. There wasn't any "sending of the artifact to the primary universe". The engine was sent back in time, and would create a paradox in any timeline.
