End Theory and a Question

I thought as soon as the engine went back to the PU, the world was saved. When (at the end of the movie), the engine crashed through Donnie's roof and smote him, that was the PU. How would Donnie have known that the engine was about to come through the roof and kill him? After the TU is closed, the people in the PU (donnie included) only "remember" the TU through dreams, and even some have no memory whatsoever. There is no reason to suggest that Donnie was aware he was about to be killed and did nothing about it. He may have had a dream and remembered some stuff about the TU.. perhaps his laughter was due to him remembering a particularly nice part of the TU (kissing gretchen, hugging him mother, etc.).

To sum up, I think an equally logical (if not more so) explanation as to why Donnie died at the end was that he had no idea a jet engine was about to crash through his roof!

Am I missing something here?

Right. With this question, we're firmly in the world of interpreting, so there's no "right" answer. (In fact, the only definitive statement on the end -- why Donnie laughed -- was just more ambiguity from Kelly.)

For me, viewing the movie only, minus the other canon texts (web site and PoTT), I'd guess Donnie laughs then gets squished because he's just awakened from the darndest dream. Gretchen was there, and Frank the rabbit, and Auntie Em ... isn't that something? *Splat* In this version, no awareness whatsoever of a grander scheme or his role in it.

Viewing the movie through the lens of all canon, the end looks different to me. I see Donnie as completely aware that he has just successfully completed the Living Receiver cycle. He has connected with the divine by participating in its beyond-human plans, and knows we are all interconnected and interrelated in a way that ensures none of us can ever truly be alone. [He also understands that he has a choice to make: conclude the cycle appropriately, by dying ... or live and violate the system. One leads to enlightenment, the other to alienation. He makes the "right" (according to the system) choice.] He is pleased, relieved, amazed, filled with awe ... and laughs sweetly as the end comes.

The bit in the brackets above is particularly contentious -- being almost entirely conjecture around the community drawn from trying to guess at who Sparrow is -- which is why I separated it from the rest. Otherwise, that's how I see the split of whether Donnie's aware and making a choice or unaware and just getting smooshed.

I'm not suggesting at all that Donnie had to die to save the world. In fact, I'm wholly in the camp that says once the artifact was returned, the world was safe regardless of how or when Donnie's lifeline ended.

What I am saying is that there's a theory that the Living Receiver cycle is not complete until the moment some object of death falls from the sky (see the reference in the PoTT to mysterious sword/arrow deaths). The PU is safe from the threat of the TU, but the Living Receiver him/herself still has a choice to make: to die or not.

As the theory goes, the reward for concluding the cycle appropriately (nice euphamism for dying) is "finding out what this is all about," to paraphrase Donnie. The Living Receiver who trusts that s/he is not alone and ends the cycle by dying after saving the PU, so the theory goes, comes to understand God's grand plan.

But, as you point out (and as I have, and many others), he doesn't have to die. The PU is safe. No swirling black hole of doom to collapse it. So Donnie -- or another LR -- could get out from under the crashing vehicle of death and go right on living. However, the theory says, life after the cycle isn't all it's cracked up to be. What happens is, you become a Roberta Sparrow. You're confused. Eccentric. Alienated by your weirdness. You act out bizarre twitches and repetitive behaviors, like going back and forth to the mailbox -- echoes of a future you already know in a dreamy recollection because of your LR experience. You're doomed to watch for the rest of your life for the LR for whom you will play a key role.

Anywho, that's the theory. And as you can see, it resides in a metanarrative that's grown up out of pretty sparse grasses -- Sparrow's unique role, the fact that Donnie dies at all, his laugh at the end -- and lots of community discussion to try to piece the story together. I like it. There's not much evidence to point to that it's "right" ... but of course, show me a part of DD that's "right," and someone else will quote the movie, the web site, the PoTT or an interview with Kelly to counter the point.

Other spots for interesting reading on Donnie's death here include:

darkomovie.proboards24.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=psych&thread=1069002456&page=3

darkomovie.proboards24.com/index.cgi?board=ending&action=display&thread=1114312592&page=1

darkomovie.proboards24.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=ending&thread=1095872475&page=1

that's right. the idea that he died because he simply didn't know what was going to happen is exactly how some people see it. others see it as a more complex expression of the LR cycle.

as is the magic of Darko, it could be either -- or neither, and something totally unrelated.

yes, Primer is an interesting, well-engineered movie. we've discussed it briefly in the "Other Great Movies" thread, if you'd like to continue the conversation. Now-occasional visitor GrandapaDeath is particularly a fan, and I spent some time untangling it after I watched it, too.