Opening Scene

[frankscuzin]

Ok first off....great f*ckin movie!!! As a person that is really into alternate deminsions and predestined paradox's, I would have to say this movie keeps you coming back for more and keeps your mind racing in multiple directions! Everything seems to have been analyzed and posted on this website and I have come to have a better understanding of this movie, except for one thing.....the opening scene. We see Donnie wake up at the exact location where he sent the TU engine back to the PU. He wakes up wearing clothes that I dont recall him wearing throughout the film. (or maybe the grey shirt he is seen wearing right before the engine is about to kill him?) Next thing you will notice is there is his bike that is lying next to him. (could this be another metal vehicle used to travel through a portal?) We never find out exactly when or why this takes place (or im just dumb) but the smirk and chuckle he makes gives you a reason to beleive he knows something. My personal explanation is that A) This scene takes place after everything supposedly happend and he awakes. Signifying that EVERYTHING was just a dream and he was just sleepwalking and dreaming?? B) After Donnie "dies" he wakes up at that specific location only to start the whole proccess over making him the center of an ever-lasting loop of events he can never escape. ? C) The scene is actually him waking up after he travels back in time from the TU which would put him back in the PU with no gretchen, no car, no skeleton suit and into the clothes he originally wore on Oct. 2 and now he must face his demise. I am very confused on this part ONLY and I need some opinions!!!! Please help!!

[artisticdarkness]

I believe the bike was what you used while sleepwalking and that the entire movie is him living two lives intermingling to create one eventual ending with two possible outcomes, the first, him living, but gretchen and frank dying. the second, him dying and frank and gretchen are saved, Roberta Sparrow gets the letter she was waiting for, he lives to breathe a sigh of relief because his death accomplished those three things. Thats my personal belief, the clothes, probably didnt mean anything at all but it was just the costume he put on, nothing in the script says anything about clothes at the end or the beginning.

[frankscuzin]

But that doesnt answer the ? or when or why........

[artisticdarkness]

When : Two Lives, One He Lives, The Other He Dies, The Clothes May Have Been From Different Lives, Kinda Like How The Mother Survived The Airplane Crash The First And Second Time, Maybe Donnie Changed Or Something

Why : So Much Fighting He Probably Sweat Like A Pig And The Stank Really badly

[Omnipotent]

The opening scene takes place BEFORE the Tangent Universe occurs. Donnie sleepwalks, there's even a scene in the Director's Cut where he tells Gretchen about it. That's all it was. He wakes up and rides home, and then later on Frank leads him to the golf course and prevents his death. After this the Tangent Universe occurs and Donnie begins his mission.

[frankscuzin]

its pretty clear though that Donnie knows SOMETHING...he looks at the exact spot and laughs which implies some sort of irony to the events yet to come. Its also pretty convenient that he wakes up at the spot where the engine goes through the portal. I think there is way more to that scene than most people think. but then again it could be a scene deliberately put there to keep people like me going through soo many different scenarios until your head spins! but more opinions would help!

[Omnipotent]

If I woke up at the top of a hill, I would probably laugh too, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. Donnie looks disoriented at first, and then upon the realisation of where he is he then laughs, but maybe you're right, perhaps there's more to it than just being a simple prelude...

[Everburn]

I've never noticed that fact. Wakes up smiling, where the time travelling to place, with a metal object. While I don't think he did time travel and it is not CRUCIAL to the plot... I have to say it is pretty cool and Kelly may have even put it in there on purpose, but just as a little extra something.

[Omnipotent]

Turns out I was right. In the DVD commentary Richard Kelly states Donnie smiles because he is "simply amused at his situation."

[choaslight21]

In one of the deleted scenes he tells Gretchen about when he sleepwalks its like a dream that fades as time goes by . in the opening there is sounds of a storm but when he wakes up there is a clear sky.
I think that he has time traveled before and he cant remember completely the events that are going to happen because as time goes on he forgets more of it . That would explain some things like the smirk,and him stabbing frank in the eye when he was in the mirror.