Why did Donnie have to die? - I figured it out.

[questionsunknown]

ok based on several hours of research and watching the movie twice, I have come to believe that Donnie chose to die because of several reasons.

First of all, Donnie did not open the wormhole, it was open to begin with. The wormhole created a loop starting from the time his sister walked through the door (or so) to the time when Donnie killed Frank, more or less. Because the loop is moving in a clockwise direction, the jet engine from the plane was pulled at extreme speeds to the beginning of the loop and fell upon Donnie's room.

The giant bunny rabbit visiting Donnie was in fact, Donnie's sister's boyfriend. Who was comming back from the future to haunt Donnie and manipulate him into, when he comes back to the beginning of the loop, let himself be killed. The time the bunny tells Donnie at the beginning is merely the length of the loop.

Donnie takes into consideration several reasons why he should chose to be killed. 1. To prevent killing Frank and getting haunted by him. 2. to alter the loops time continuum making it unstable and releasing middlesex, and the world for that matter from its grasp 3. and to most importantly, save his girlfriend, the one true person he loves, from death ^{Frank gets Donnie to break a water pipe. Break in water pipe gets school-day cancelled which leads to Donnie talking to Gretchen and asking her out. Donnie and Gretchen go to movies where Donnie encounters Frank. Frank tells Donnie about portals and also tells him to burn down Jim Cunningham’s house. After the house is burned down, Cunningham’s “kiddy porn dungeon” is discovered. Because Cunningham gets arrested, Mrs. Farmsworth asks Donnie’s mother to take her place when going to the dance competition finals. Having both parents out of town, Donnie has a party. During the party Donnie and Gretchen form an even stronger emotional bond and make love. Donnie also begins having visions and gets more anxious about the fact that Franks prediction is so near. Donnie realizes that he must go to Roberta Sparrows cellar door because there may be answers for him there. This event leads to Gretchen’s death and to Donnie killing Frank.}

Some people portray Donnie as the antichrist or demon, I see him as a lover, a savior to the world, and a confused and scared adolescent



he is the Messiah, sacraficing himself for the world

[ProvidencePortal]

questionsunknown said:

Donnie is the Messiah, sacraficing himself for the world

This theory (including your description of Donnie "ending the loop") is popular with people who have not worked through donniedarko.com and read the Philosophy of Time Travel ... both of which indicate Donnie has saved the world the moment he drops the engine into the past. That means his death has no bearing on whether the world is saved.

With that additional information, how do you explain Donnie dying in the end?

[Bigboy]

Because the loop is moving in a clockwise direction

Huh?!?

[outside of the box]

what about when Gretchen says..."Donnie Darko..what the hell kind of name is that?" "Sounds like a superhero." and then Donnie replies....
"What if i am?"....

i think this is why donnie dies...
he sacrafices himself in order to save Gretchen...
and frank...

thus knowing he saved the world....
returning to the TU

laughing because he is a superhero...when everyone thought he was a menace

just a thought like the million others i've read..lol

[Bigboy]

laughing because he is a superhero...when everyone thought he was a menace

That's cool - I like that. And it works regardless of how you interpret the movie.

he sacrafices himself in order to save Gretchen...
and frank...

Poetic and romantic and all, but it only works if the movie is about a repeating period of time, and events are predestined to repeat exactly... but the movie literature (website+poTT) point towards the parallel universes interpretation.


_{NB. He returns to the PU.}

[Out Of The Box]

>:(N.B....he returns to the PU....

lol thats what i meant

got the TU and the PU...

mixed up..

i need to see the directors cut...i've only seen the movie 2 times...

peace

[still out of the box]

a couple more points i'd like to add is that...

during a scene where donnie runs into that little chubby girl...
he tells her..."I promise after this your life will be better."
or somewhere along those lines...

and when he says "i only have a few more days...before they catch me."

do you think he could of been talking about the bullies?
thus leading to....

taking gretchen to grandma deaths house?

he knew their paths...he wanted to reroute them...

by saving them...

[Bigboy]

I think he was referring to the police - he'd flooded the school and burned down a house;
the police's inevitable arrival was one of the preassures of the "ensurance trap", forcing Donnie to take action and remove the engine from the TU (sending it to the PU).

Again this is from the Multiple Universes view rather than the Repeating TIme view point.

[Reed]

[quote author=questionsunknown board=ending
he is the Messiah, sacraficing himself for the world [/quote]

I'm starting to look at it in a different way. His death was foretold from the very beginning. FOr whatever reason, a jet engine went through time and killed him (Probably sent through time with the intent to kill him). Frank told him how long the alternative universe was going to last, to the second. Didn't say "maybe", didn't say he had a choice. POTT also told him his fate. Donnie's death was inevitable. The decision was already made by whoever sent the engine back (perhaps Monitoff or Donnie of the future). Donnie knew, too. He just needed to understand it, which he finally did right at the end (laughter).


Was that the point of the whole 31 days, then? To help him understand his own death? And maybe it was to use people's dreamlike memories of those 31 days to alter future events.

[Bigboy]

I suppose the question is, is the time gievn by Frank (28 days etc. etc) rweferring to the moment the Donnie closes the TU by sending the engine back, or to the moment the black hole would swallow the world should he fail?
The formaer suggests predetermination or fate, whilst the latter leaves the possibilty of failure.

[psycho]

Well here are some theorys I have on the movie and some questions as well,sorry if this has all been brought up before but i wanted to see what you all think.

Well the first thing i will touch on is that most people say that sequence when everyone woke up from the dreams of the TU at the momment donnie dies...if thats the case it cant be possible because Frank was outside donnies house honking his horn when it happend. I also read about people asking why Frank would make donnie do the things he did,well thats because like everyone said he is a MD...he was helping donnie get to the point where he sends the artifact back into the PU...for example when he flodded the school he would have never met gretchen,if he didnt burn down J.C's house his mother would have never left for the sparkle motion thing...and the fact that she did made it possible for the party,and the plane. Now heres a few questions I have, If frank is a MD then isnt gretchen also? if so how come only Franks MD form contacts donnie and not hers. As for the end I think that Donnie knew what was going to happen and he chose not to get up because of what somone told him before...he didnt want to be alone...If he got up he would have probably never met gretchen (the flooding of the school caused them to meet) hence he would have been alone...and remember the scene where me mentions that he doesnt want to die alone and he doesnt believe in God if everyone dies alone. Also I dont believe the movie had anything to do with him portraying Jesus Christ...Jesus died for people sins..Donnie did what he did to save his loved ones from death. As for some people who say at the end Gretchen and his mom wave because they remember each other..they never met once in the movie. O yes before I finish one more question...what happend in the part where after donnie and gretchen come out of the bedroom and donnie starts going into the kitchen and he all the suddon feels wierd and then the whole thing of his head in gretchens channel...Thanks everyone,i love the site

[vact]

It hurts my head to think about this movie some times... but rather than delve into theories about him being dead from the beginning, I like the original concept the best. I think the tangent universe and living reciever concept works the best and when I watch the film with that theory in mind, I enjoy the film the best. I like to think of Donnie as a star crossed superhero... eventually destined to give up his own life in order to save the whole world from being ripped apart.

[kevin]

I believe Donnie may have chosen to "die" because he realized that he had already lived his life completely. That is, he had done all that he wanted to do and all that he was "meant" to do. There was nothing left for him (on the "earthly plane"). He laughs with joy for what he has accomplished (the saving of the known, "real" universe) and in anticipation of what is to come for him (reunion with the guiding source: "God"). He may also be laughing at the great joke that all of existence represents: the illusion of separation from that source and from each other and the rest of creation (everything dies alone and yet together; all return to the same start and end).

[angie]

so i think donnie chose to die, but had the choice not to live out the events the same. if he didnt die, and didnt follow the course of the universe that hes in then he would die alone, without gretchen, like grandma death. i think grandma death decided not to die doing whatever it was that made her LR so she stays in her house all alone, which leads her to tell donnie that 'every living creature dies alone'. i like the question about would the world still end in 28 days, because donnie doesnt create the wormhole. also how did he go back in time? wouldnt the engine still go through the wormhole and kill the world then? he changes time so that his mother is not on the plane, but his sister still could be. Also could there be more than a PU and TU? grandma death goes to the mailbox everyday looking for the letter, but there is no scene where donnie mails or gives her the letter, so maybe there is another universe where donnie did get out of bed for a different reason, dies alone, and gives the letter?

[Ayashae]

I think the original post from Reed gives a good explanation to why Donnie MUST die at the end of the movie, let me explain my reasons:

- Being the living reciever, he's the only one who seems to remember all happened in the TU, it means that he's already met Gretchen and fell in love with her...she's his 'twin soul' it's logical that he'd like to meet her again in the primary universe (because she'll start attending to Donnie's school in the next days anyway, so he could look for her and force the meeting someway). For me, it makes no sense that he 'chooses death' since he's solved his misunderstanding with his family etc...
He's only 16 y/o, sad, confused and with emotional problems...but he could meet Gretchen, enjoy her love back in the primary universe..why chosing death just when something so beautiful might happen? I think if he dies it's because he must die to save the universe. Or am I too romanticly thinking??

-During the TU, he's proved himself god exists, we don't die alone, someone takes care of us all. Wouldnt it be something wonderful to know? It'd relieve his inner confusion, make him feel safe and erase the fear of death...Why choosing dieing when he should feel better than ever? In my opinion, the most logical thing would be choosing life, enjoy it to the fullest until he dies (the thought of dieing alone won't torment him anymore!) What do you think? Am I missing some point?

Greets and smiles!