Can anyone explain the ending?

[Nathan]

I've seen this movie like 5 times and i think it is the greatest movie ever made, but im still a little fuzzy on the ending. Can someone explain exactly what happens at the end? I am just a little confused about how exaclty the jet engine comes back again. Does he use some sort of power to travel back in time?

[thebaz]

Nathen

This is just my opinons and don't believe every thing you read...

The jet engine was always from the future and was always destined to crash into his room through the time portal. Donnie does travel back in time but i'm a little sketchy on the mechanics of that myself.

Hope this helps

[Ndawg]

I have watched the DVD about a million times and watched it with comentary from Richard Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal and right before the jet engines falls in Donnie's room in the begining you see a clock strike 12 and Richard Kelly says that when the clock srtikes 12 the "tangent universe" is entered. Then at the halloween party, before Donnie and his friends go to see Grandma Death, you see the clock strike 12 again and I am assuming that once that occurs the movie no longer takes place in the "tangent universe" and is back to reality. There is also the theory that in the scene where donnie has gretchen in his car and drives away he is traveling back in time (Prof. Monitoff says earlier that all you need to travel back in time is a metal craft of some sort and a portal). Those are just some of my ideas. I hope they help!

[zebob]

His mission is to return the artifact(engine) to the ordinary wourld, not the tangent..so he travels back in time when gretchen is in the car with him. And return the engine to the house and since the clock stroke twelve at halloween its no longer a tangent world..but from where did he get the engine from? and was his intention to return the engine or save gretchen? and gretchen being some kind of manipulated dead (i say some kind since sparrow in her notes had wroten hur under the catogory where the manipulated dead was but she also had some notes at the right side of her name wich i couldnt se what they said) did she seduse darko and got herself killed just so darko would return the artifact?

[Futurist]

Well after seeing this movie dozens of times it all comes down to destiny. That jet engine was going to kill Donnie no matter what. I believe....and don't quote me on this, that at the beginning when the jet engine crashed into Donnies bedroom and he wasn't there because of the rabbit guy calling him, I believe that he got a chance to see what would happen had he not have been killed. Now, there is a lot of symbolisms in this movie which all lead up to the climactic moment when he does die. Donnie realizes to himself that everything had played out exactly as it was meant to, though it was a big shock, since his girlfriend gets killed by Frank-the evil bunny rabbit, and in turn is killed by Donnie. At that point it all fits together. Remember what Donnie talked about with his teacher? everything follows a path that it is made to fullfill. Frank even said that once the days are up, the world will end. He was talking about DONNIES WORLD! the life he knows will be shortly extinguished with his death. There you go, I hope I made things a little more understandable.

[darkmystic]

To understand the ending you must figure out what happens that is not shown. Check out my clues post.

[Chris T]

In the end of the movie, Donnie is left with a choice that is shown to him by god . He can either end his life or save the world. He uses his 'living reciever' powers to guide the artifact back to its original entrance in reality. This portrays what Donnie meant when speaking to his science teacher about choosing 'gods plan'. This allows for both predestination and free choice. The exact way this happens is in my opinion suppose to be a gray area.

[darkmystic]

I explain it in my post 'the answer'.

[greedy]

oh yeah thats right RESURECTION BABY

[randolph89]

What i think is that Donnie has relived this life befor this is his second time. his world and the tangent univers r looping in and out and the way 2 stop it is 2 burn down the guys house and flood his school as frank said. frank is like a guid through out donnies journy and at the end donnie is succesful with his journy and saves his girl friend. the loop in the 2 universes r the reasons y the clock is at 12 when the engin falls and when he enters another univers at the party 2 go back in time. at the end of his journy he discovers the last mision of his journy to save his girlfriend and the world is 2 kill his self. the engin is the key 2 this whol thing and in 28 days he will go back in time. there is another theory that he has a dream of what will happen and finds it funny and ends up dead. its ironic...

[Guest]

By far one of the most interesting movies, but one missing link for me is how the two teachers connect to the ending. When they are meeting together and discussing Donnie, its like they know something. I mean Barrymore tells him Cellar Door is the most beautiful word and then there he is going down one. Do they transcend both realities?

[lucca]

from the moment donnie is in bed after calling his mom a bitch he he is seeing the future the entire movie from that point in my opinion is donnie seeing the future,after he sees himself surviving the engine crashing into his room he continues to look ahead.in so doing he realises that him being alive causes the death of his girlfreind and potentially his mother and sister.so he in his ow mind devides to allow himself to die under the falling engine. the engine passing back through time is probably caused by the same flux that allows donnie to see the future.
this is all my own opinion of course.

[lucca]

frank is donnie

[lucca]

donnie never travelled back in time he just looked ahead the snake like guides that donnie sees which indicate he path through time that people take (water like snake things that donnie observes during the football game). donnie is looking forward on this to see what is going to happen. frank is the voice and physical embodiment of his own water like guide to remind him that he is looking into the future.end of the world refers to how long donnie has left to live.

[oghuz]

i can't understand that "mission thing". first, the engine came from future of the tangent universe, fell to the normal universe right? and then it happened again(i mean the film chronology actually it happened once, and donnie died in reality), so donnie couldn't get back it to anywhere, it was just, death was donnie's destiny and he had no choice like the others, because of the engine comes from tangent universe to ordinary universe it made an anomalie and let donnie to live in a parallel universe for some time. frank says how much time left for him, and after that time he returns to normal universe and dies, so this is just an adventure of alternate universes.
but i don't find that theory convincing because it makes everything meaningless, and the most part of the film has no difference from a dream. and it doesnt fit with the tpott that says alternate universes destroy the real universe and someone should fix things.
but donnie didn't fix anything.
and i see some people cant understand that tangent universe thing, it is not something that you go future or past, it's like donnie's 1 second in real universe was 28 days in tangent universe(that's and example of course), so the speed of time is different in alternate(tangent, parallel [they're all the same anyway]) universes.
i drew this to make it more understandable coz my english not so good to explain