A few thoughts on the movie

[chrisa]

I have read through most of the threads here but havnt seen this mentioned. I might have overlooked it, if this is the case I appologize. Just ignore me

From my understanding, Frank is showing Donnie the way his life would be if he does not die when the engine falls into his room. Which ends up killing his girlfriend, sister and mother. But, the reason for these things all have to deal with Frank and time travel. So I've been thinking about this today (I just watched the movie yesterday, so havnt stopped thinking about it hehe) if Donnie avoided his death at the end of the movie again, whos to say that everything will play out like that again? He wouldnt have Frank telling him to flood the school, which in return wouldnt have allowed Donnie to have that conversation with the girl when he did. However, they still would have met because they were in the class and already showing interest in each other. If Donnie wouldnt have burnt that house down, his mother wouldn't have had to get on that plane in the first place. His sister still would have, so I don't know what to say about that lol. But what do you think? Does Frank exist in Donnie's mind outside of the tangent world and showing him what will happen if he escapes death? I have only watched the movie once so I know that I have missed alot of things, so sorry if it'ss just a stupid question that is answered in the movie. Also I know there is no real answer to this, seeing that it is in fact just a movie. But I still think it is interesting to hear everyones take on the subject Take care!

[BigTony]

I think Donnie could have avoided his death, theoreticaly. There are a few posts on time travel which mention how when a person returns from doing so, they might not have any memory of it. It seems that Donnie comes back and forgets about the engine and dies, which was meant to happen to him anyway. In my opinion, Donnies expierience in time travel is a chance for him to find faith, love, and possibly himself. Maybe im wrong, maybe its cheesy, but thats what I got out of it.

[pilotpickles]

Hi! I think that Donnie comes back, remembers, and decides to die anyway, not only for his love for Gretchen but also, if you notice, the only time he looks truly happy and peaceful is when he is lying in bed near the end waiting to escape the materialistic narrowminded world that does not understand him. I think he realized that to achieve peace, he needed to die.

[BeenaBobba]

Hi Tony,

I agree with you. I think that he learnt how much he was loved during his time in the Tangent Universe. Because of this (and because of his finding faith in God), he understood that he would not die alone and unloved, which gave him the courage he needed to send the Artifact back and possibly lose his life.

I don't think he chose to die in the Primary Universe. He knew he was loved in the Tangent Universe, so if he really did have memories of his time there, he'd know he would have been loved - - and it would seem he'd want to experience that in "real life," too. I don't think he would have been worried about causing all the mayhem that happened in the Tangent Universe, since most of that happened/was provoked for the purpose of getting Donnie to return the Artifact. In a way, if there was no Manipulated Living and Dead, Donnie probably wouldn't have caused the mayhem he did. So, I think Donnie would have realized that - - therefore, worries over causing it wouldn't have been a factor in his dying. I simply don't think he remembered enough to escape his death in the Primary Universe.

Take care,

Jen