Let's Talk About Donnie Darko

[BuddMan]

Yes, indeed. Your thoughts on the movie. Did you like it? Do you know what it all means?? Hehe, I won't give out my thoughts yet, I just want to see what other people say. And if you haven't seen it.....you should be stoned to death.

[Wombat]

The website tried to be cool, but kinda missed. I hear the movie is not even as good as that.

[BuddMan]

You heard wrong.

[KeiFront]

It's a good movie, I just watched it last thursday. It's a movie that lets you wondering from start to finish.

[The PIT]

Never eard of it.

[dZeus]

it's pretty well done from the point of view of creating a movie with a 'special' atmosphere as they did.

I didn't like it particularly for the story, and the ending sucked.

[thop]

The rabbit is nice, some other parts are nice. The theme song is great. Other than that a bit above average.

[BuddMan]

Heh, I am surprised no one knows much about the movie.

Ok, let me explain a bit about it. A lot of it is explained in the book in the movie, "The Philosophy of Time Travel," by Roberta Sparrow. The movie is all about time travel and the 4th dimension. The book talks about a Living Receiver, the Manipulated Dead, Manipulated Living, etc..

The book explains that Donnie is what is known as a Living Receiver, chosen seemingly randomly, and that he has special 4th Dimensional powers (Those of increased strength (remember the axe in the Mongrel's bronze head?), supposed Mind Control (I'm not sure), telekinesis (moving things with the mind, which he uses to open the portal and send the engine back), and the power to conjure Fire and Water (The flooding and the burning of Jim Cunningham's house)). He uses these powers (some are very subtle in the movie) to basically save the universe.

What happens is that there is a rift in the 4th dimension. Where this rift comes from is questionable. Is it an act of God, does it just happen, etc? We don't know. All we know is that it happens, and that's where the engine comes from.

So now comes Frank (the rabbit). Frank is the Manipulated Dead (he has died, he has a bullet in his eye), who knows pretty much everything (cause he went through it all) and comes back in time to try to fix things and guide Donnie to repair this rift in the 4th dimension. He creates a Tangent Universe by waking up Donnie (Tangent Universe meaning that it is not the Primary Universe, it is a parallel universe not meant to exist). In fact, the whole movie is about the Tangent Universe, not the Primary Universe.

Now, Donnie is the hero in this story. Frank "saves" Donnie's life so Donnie can send the artifact (the fallen engine) back into the primary universe to fix the rip in the 4th dimension. If Donnie dies in the Tangent Universe, then the Tangent Universe is destroyed because of the rupture in the 4th dimension (the worm hole at the end, the sky opens up, etc) and the fact that Donnie cannot send the engine back to the primary universe. If the 4th dimension and the Tangent Universe are destroyed, then the Primary Universe is destroyed as well.

So why does Donnie have to send the engine back in time to the Primary Universe? To correct things. He was meant to die on October 2nd, 1988, when the movie begins, but Frank has changed this so he can fix the rupture in the 4th dimension. So Donnie has a choice. He accepts his fate and sends the engine back to the primary universe, saving everyone and repairing the rift in the 4th Dimension (but killing himself), or he decides not to do this, and everything is destroyed. The only thing left is him and Frank (remember the quote, we are all alone when we die and where Donnie says "I have to obey him...or I'll be all alone...").

Some have also argued that Gretchen is one of the Manipulated Dead, but I don't believe that. The rest of the people around him are Manipulated Living, and are more responsible for being barriers in his journey. Frank pretty much knows exactly what's going to happen, and since he's a Manipulated Dead, he's able to travel through time to save Donnie's life so he can fix the paradox. The whole reason the engine fell in the first place was a "glitch" in the universe. This was caused by a Tangent Universe that was created. It is said in the book that Time is a stable construct, but is not impenetrable, and that incidents can occur that create Tangent Universes.

Anyway, it's all way out there for sure, and most people will never get any of that without doing a little research. I haven't even touched on everything, but that's a little summary for those who don't understand the movie. Hehe....discuss.

[Jammrock]

Sounds like someone was smoking something fierce when they wrote the book/movie.

I thought the movie was interesting, but didn't do a great job of conveying all the afore mentioned hubbub. THe ending did suck, though I did kind of pick out why that happened.

Jammrock

[Technoid]

Jammrok's right, BuddMan explanation of the film is beoynd weird....

[BuddMan]

If you understood the movie, you'd know the ending is.....well, it has to happen. He laughs at the end because he knows that he has to die to save it all. He's enlightened, he has saved the universe. It's wierd, but that's what it is really about. If you ever listen to the director's comments about the movie, he talks about all of it.

[dZeus]

You don't have to not understand the movie to agree that the ending sucked.

[BuddMan]

No, you have to understand the movie to know that the ending did not suck. What sucked about it? No one has said specifically what sucked about it, I mean come on. If you're gonna comment about the movie at least make half-intelligent remarks about it...

[KeiFront]

I tought the ending was pretty good.

[PowerHungry]

I was a little confused about the movie, but your expaination answers so many of the questions, and I am supprised I didn't see some of this when I saw it. I'm definately buying a DVD (instead of keeping the, er, backup copy I watched on someone elses my computer)