I finally get it

[Jay]

heres what i always assumed, donnie missed his death which most ppl would consider a blessing sent form above but it turnes out that becaus ehe missed his time to die, it measnt living in a real life hell! Shooting his m8 (FRANK) and girlfriend dieing. Frank saving him allowed donnie to see what had happened and make a choice between all this stuff happeneing to the ppl he cared about and himself dieing. i assume that he saw that the engine was goin to go through a wormhole thorugh time and get his room again because of him missing his time. so he went home and excepted his death. The theory about all this was just him seeing into the future b4 the firts engine wen t through the roof and gave him the option b4 it happened is very interesting, if anyone cud give me the actualy plot of the story without any theoies i wud gr8ly appreciate it.

[Jarv]

Sorry but I myself though what you thought, but how did Donnie go from being in his car on the mountain side to being in his bedroom 28 days earlier, as he was on the mountain side, and the rupture in the time occurs only at his bedroom, where the engine from a future event falls? (sorry if terminolgie used no accurate)

[angela d]

i don't know if this makes sense at all but i'm going to try and answer your question jarv.

at exactly midnight on oct 2nd they enter this tangent universe. that's when donnie's summond out of the house by frank and all of this begins. at the end of the movie when donnie's sitting with gretchen on the hill and you see the plane his mom and sister are in flying into the ring at the end of the movie the tangent universe disappears and he's sent back to his bed, on oct 2nd. he's laughing because he knows that everything's going to be "ok" and that he saved the one person that he loved.

richard kelly talks continuously about the fact that donnie's a "superhero" and how he's been chosen to save everyone from distruction. i liked watching the movie with the commentary. maybe you should watch that. it might make everything clearer.

there's also a cool website that i saw that you might want to look at. i thought the ideas presented there were cool.

www.metaphilm.com/philms/donniedarko.html

have a merry christmas everyone.

[Geester]

i think ur all missing the point
;D

[worn out faces]

wow that article really helped alot..thanks:D

[Donie Big Dick]

ok, i just saw the movie and have no clue what went on..I have been reading everyones thoughts and have a few suggestions.. what i found most weird about the movie was that after the double movie that donnie went to see, when he left the second time, the movie board showed that he had seen 'the last temptataion of christ'. first of all, that is not a scary movie, and like what you have been saying, in this movie, Jesus christ is given the option of NOT dying on the cross and living a normal life.. after experiencing it, Jesus does not wish to leave, but to die on the cross for a better cause.. think about that one.. peace out.

[Evan]

well all i can think of is that Frank was actually just sent back because he was probably the person most affected by Donnie's decision to avoid the plane...

and since donnie was prone to sleep walking and not staying in bed, frank was sent back by 'god' or whomever to say 'hey..this is what's going to happen if you keep doing this'

frank was obviously someone donnie knew, because as soon as he took off his mask in the theater, donnie looked away and said 'what happened to your eye?'...he didnt stare or anything...he was just like 'ohhh THAT Frank..'

i think that basically frank was just probably the person most affected in the long run by Donnie's possibility of avoiding God's plan, so he was used by the higher powers to convey the message to Donnie.

did anyone notice in the beginning, when donnie is bicycling through his neighborhood, that the Red camero or whatever that Frank drives goes right by him?

also...i'm freaked...my birthday is october 2nd, 1983

[JC]

Ok i have read all the postings and i think my reply may have some uderlying elements previously mentinoed but here i go anyway:P. I think richard K has a set idea and that to fully understand you would need to have an indepth discussion with him and untill then we could be right or wrong, unless of cource its just his oppinino and everone elses matters just as much as his.(run on senteces, gotta love them). I think that the whole story is supposed to be that God controlls all of space and time and that what happens is (refering to said twilight zone episode) all the events are visons from God which show donny that if defies death and goes against Gods pre ordained will that he will in effect destroy the life he knows. This may be a way of saying that if u could choose your path God is non existanat and then this means that there is no order and you would die alone. So what it comes down to is that he is recieving these visions to show him that dieing is the way in which he becomes a "suppper hero" b/c he is able to save the people he loves. I think that god sends the engine through the portal and kills him, but then wouldnt his sister die and wouldnt other ppl die as well on the plane? I also dont believe frank is anything special, he is after all jsut a human...and when donny sees him in the theatre his eye is shot out so if he time travels then somehow he survived a bullet to the face. Or when his sister hears him talking to someone, she would have seen frank if he were there. I believe that although it is an elaborate way to get killed god opened up a portol and sent the engine to kill donny but showed donny first the reason for death and that he is not alone but has God after he loses the comfort of having human fellowship.

[angela d]

evan, i noticed franks car in the beginning too. richard kelly also mentions that when elizabeth is coming in the door right before the engine crashes that frank is the person dropping her off and honking his horn as if he knew what was about to happen. something like that. he talks about it in the commentary.

i never even thought about the movie "the last tempatation of christ." i remember seeing the title in the movie, but because i haven't seen the movie i thought nothing of it. that's an interesting point though.

there's so many different points that could be made. that's a reason i love this movie so much. i love hearing what other people think about the movie and the interpretations that they've made. i don't think that one person's interpretation is better than anothers. bring on the discussions!

[ME]

i am surpised no one has said anything about franks eye
could it be possible that his bleeding eye is a result of donnie shooting him? why else would his eye be messed up?

[amoeba]

Then there's something I don't get. Ok, suppose "God" did want to show donnie that by going against his plan, he'd ruin his life or the lives of others. It wouldn't really make sense, because all the bad stuff that happened, only happened thanks to frank interfering with donnie's life

[amoeba]

Frank wouldn't have even benefited from it, since he was the one who told donnie about time travel. If donnie hadn't known a thing about it, he and gretchen wouldn't have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, she wouldn't have gotten hit by the car, and he wouldnt've put a bullet through poor frank's eye

[jesspal]

hey, i think that everyone has made a lot of really good points. i just watch the movie last night, and i can't help but think...

does anyone think that there might be a possiblility that if donnie doesn't die, everything just happens again? that time just keeps repeating itself over and over again until "Gods plan" for donnie (which is his death) is complete.

oh, and at the endwhere you see frank in his room with all the pictures...do you think he remembers or something, because he looks kind of weird at the end.

[goosewad]

reading the stuff you have all written has mader me even more intrigued by this film. so much can be taken from it, it's just unreal. attention to detail, every bit matters. down to intitials in Jim Cunnigham's name. JC, could be in relationship to the hypocracy of the church? i don't know... what i believe is that donnie is saved because he needs to see and experience all these things. if he died that first night he would not have. his destiny is that he is going to die but he's been given a little extra time so i believe. also, i think the things he does during his extra time-the effects of these still stay with the various people even when he goes back in time. i think he laughs at the end because he realises why all of it happened. he knows going to die, he's ready. he's done what he needs to do.

[goosewad]

i do believe that donnie is a sort of superhero. as i said above donnie had been given 'extra time', to experience love etc... when he dies in the end, it's destiny-it's meant to happen. he is saving his mother and sister, as well as so much more. gretchen too. cherita though, she puzzles me. she's alone in life right? but... i dont know. how will things be better for her? when donnie kills frank at the end, he tells frank's friend to 'go home and tell your parents everything's going to be alright'. maybe donnie's dying has some strange kind of effect on the world. his world... he has saved it in a way. yes, no, maybe?!