a very comprehensive
and subjective view of the film 'donnie darko'
disclaimer//the author assumes you've seen the film and won't have it
spoiled by this site
Update (August 05, 2004)- Read new Director's Cut page.
background//Donnie Darko is the
main character of the aptly titled independent film by Richard Kelly [not to be
confused with Richard E. Kelly]. In the film, Donnie avoids being "smooshed by
a jet engine" because Frank, a 6 foot tall bunny rabbit calls out to him and
makes him sleepwalk out of his house. Everything after that is a mess. He
meets a girl, gets threatened by the school bully, performs many acts of
vandalism and learns the greatest truth of life- that everybody dies alone. In
the end, he even goes as far as to travel through time.. or so Kelly would have
you think...
mytheory//I believe that the whole movie was a dream. Well not all
of it, up until Frank saves him the first time. Donnie has sleeping
problems along with taking medication for his daylight hallucinations and
general mental disorder (delusions and depression) [in the deleted scenes, we
learn that they were really placebos, which makes him out to be truly
mad]. What I believe to have happened was that Donnie went through the
whole first two scenes of the film and everything else was a dream. Yes,
you didn't misread, I just said it was all a dream. It's the only way this
movie makes sense. All of his superhuman feats [using an axe to break
through a bronze statue, possessing high intelligence, being prophetic of what
everyone would do in the near future, etc.] are not possible. Dreams
really last for about 3 minutes in real time, but seem much longer. Donnie
could have dreamed up about 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds worth,
to be exact. Donnie didn't flood the school, he didn't tell Ms. Farmer to
stick a timeline up her anus, he didn't reveal Jim Cunningham as a pedophile,
and he didn't meet Gretchen and fall in love with her only to watch her
die. None of that happened. In the deleted scenes and commentary, we
learn that Frank is Elizabeth's boyfriend [Elizabeth is Donnie's eldest sister
for the forgetful few]. Knowing this from the start, the whole bunny
rabbit costume thing and making Frank a savior to promote the upcoming
Armageddon doesn't make sense. Frank is just a regular person. I
think that Donnie knew about the real Frank, the person Frank, and thus he
became a character in his dream. All of the other characters of his dream
he has met already, except Gretchen. This is where things get tricky.
The main point of this movie was to see if anybody can escape the ultimate fate
of dying alone. In the dream world, Donnie's love Gretchen is run over by
a car and dies alone. Somewhat before in the arms of Donnie, but albeit
alone. Donnie then supposedly goes back in time and gets crushed by the
jet engine purposely. However, I believe that the jet engine fiasco was
bound to happen and Donnie just found out about it through his dream rather than
experiencing it first [because he'd be dead if the latter occurred]. So
this brings up the whole time travel issue [discussed in the next
section]. But suppose my theory is true. And that everything Donnie
experiences would happen if he were to live instead of die, then that would mean
the whole character of Gretchen Ross would make no sense. It would mean
that he knew he would have a relationship with her before he knew she even
existed. This is the only instance I can think of where time travel isn't
a significant factor in my theory being true. So anyway, Donnie wakes up
and starts laughing. The commentary even acknowledges that he laughs
because he realizes that this was all a dream or that he knew that dying
wouldn't be so bad and that it would bring about good things. Donnie lets
himself die, 28 days before he dies in his dream. This, in turn, prevents
the end of the world from taking place. The jet engine killing him defies
the laws of space-time. But him dying would also do that. Donnie and
Dr. Monnitoff discuss how every living thing follows a set path that cannot be
changed because it is God's will [for the record, I don't believe in god(s)] for
them to do so. Then, following, or contradicting rather, this train of
thought, Donnie breaks the mold by deliberately letting himself die. His
set goal was his dream. Or, I could have it all backward and his set goal
was to die. Suppose his goal was his dream. His goal was to live and
cause misery to himself by letting his love die. And he can change all of
this by dying. But for this to occur, he would have to die before even
having met her. And he sees all of this in his dream from the future and
lets himself die in the present [when the jet engine initially falls into his
room], thus having two anomalies cancel each other out. The jet engine
coming out of nowhere breaks all conventional rules of existence and sets the
world off kilter. And Donnie dying instead of living [his set path] puts
the world back into alignment.
Donnie is very much like the characters in Graham Greene's "The
Destructors". He wants to see what happens when the world is torn
apart and thrown into chaos. His dream allows him to do so. Donnie is supposed to die but doesn't. By transcending the space-time continuum, Donnie is, for lack of better terms, fucking up all of that. And his open defiance of his set path that has already happened will change the end of the world for everyone with his single sacrifice of himself.
I pitched this theory to my friend, and while he agreed that it made sense, it
would mean that the whole movie in 'real events' was basically the famed
conversation about 'fuck-ass' and Donnie dying. This, to him, made the
movie 'pointless'. But it doesn't. It shows how one person can
really make a difference (as cheesy as that sounds) and can save the world, with
or without super powers.
update- I would like to compel everyone to take the word 'dream' or their
common predisposed notion of what a dream is and replace it with 'alternate
universe'. Donnie can reach this alternate universe through his dreams and
his madness, somehow. And an alternate universe should tie up any loose
ends. Just like "Deus Ex Machina". More on that in "Misc".
timetravel//But how does Donnie find out about all this? From
Frank. How does Frank know all of this? There is no answer to that
one. Frank is not a messiah, he's a high school kid and Elizabeth's
boyfriend. He's a normal person. A normal person that Donnie is
supposed to kill. With that said, Frank somehow traveled back in time and
told Donnie all of this and saved him so Donnie would kill him and realize that
it was wrong to do so and everything else was wrong so he would go back in time
and prevent it all from happening. That's how it happens in the
movies. But imagine for a second that time travel wasn't just for objects
(i.e. humans), but maybe ideas and thoughts too. His psychiatrist Dr.
Thurman does,
after all, tell him that if the world was sucked up into a hole in the sky all
that would be left would be him, his thoughts, and Frank [she assumes Frank is
in his head only]. So maybe the idea of what happens travels back in time
to the "chosen one" Donnie in the form of his dream. The movie
makes a big deal about how water and liquidity and time travel are
interrelated. Well, I believe that the fourth dimension in which time
travel is possible is sleep. This would mean that everything in this film
would be possible if it were all a dream. Think about it. All of the
things Donnie allegedly did would be possible in a dream, anything is. And
then traveling back in time before it all happened, well I think that that is
Donnie waking up. And all the events going backward in time at the end of
the film symbolizes the end of the dream and the opening of his eyes.
whatthisachieves//Donnie proves that he, and everybody else, does
not have to die alone. By dying in his house instead of next to Gretchen's
lifeless body, Donnie dies in his house with his family, the only people who
love him. And this means he doesn't die alone. Also, he doesn't have
to find a new love in Gretchen only to have her taken away in front of his
eyes. Donnie has done the impossible. He has lived twice. He
has died twice. And he has died in love instead of in solitude.
end//The end of the film shows all the characters that Donnie would have
influenced and changed if he lived to see those 28 days afterwards. In
order of appearance they are: Lilian Thurman, Karen Pomeroy, Kenneth Monnitoff,
Jim Cunningham, Kittie Farmer, Cherita Chen, and Frank in human form.
These characters, except for the sleeping Pomeroy, all experience an impact from
the instant of Donnie's death [the most noticeable are Thurman's waking up in a
cold sweat and Frank rubbing his eye that Donnie in the future shoots].
Here is a list of all the ways Donnie would have affected each of these
characters if he had lived.
Lilian Thurman: Out of everyone except Gretchen, she knew Donnie the
best. She analyzed his mind, probed into his thoughts, and even shared a
few private moments with him (or did those things really happen..?). She
cared about Donnie deeply and was the only one who could have predicted his
future accurately.
Karen Pomeroy: Donnie flooded the school, which caused an emergency PTA
Meeting. At this meeting Kitty Farmer reprimanded the teaching styles of
Pomeroy, and this eventually got her fired. Darko was also Pomeroy's best
student and the only one she felt confidence with.
Kenneth Monnitoff: He and Donnie shared controversial views on the world
that could have gotten him fired. Monnitoff was also the significant other
of Pomeroy, as they both laughed when he brought up Darko's name.
Jim Cunningham: Donnie called him the fucking antichrist and then exposed
him as having a kiddy porn dungeon.
Kittie Farmer: (note, I just realized, Kittie=Kiddy, hahaha) Donnie is
the only one who openly confronts her on her beliefs and how she imposes what
she believes in to her class. Kittie admires Jim, and Donnie brings it all
crashing down.
Cherita Chen: My friend thinks that she has no important role in the
film. But I see it this way: Cherita takes the abuse that she does so she
can be near Donnie, who she hides a desire for. When Donnie says that one
day everything will be better for her, he is right, because him dying makes her
life better in a way.
Frank: Frank is shot in the eye by Donnie because he runs over
Gretchen. Frank is the whole rabbit idea and the link between the whole
"time travel".
miscellaneous//I think that the movie didn't lose much when Kelly decided to
leave out some of the scenes and information that he did. But it did
allow for some more radical thinking about what really happened in
"Donnie Darko". I'm not insisting that my theory is correct, but
I've watched the film a countless number of times, and this is the only way it
makes sense. There would be almost no way to know some of the things you
find out from the DVD commentary and deleted scenes unless you knew what was in
the original script. Did the film lose anything from leaving out these
things? No, not really. Did it gain anything? Yes, by deleting
clues that allow the film to be pieced together more easily, thought is
lost. This movie makes the viewer think. And that is truly the mark
of a great film.
update- At first, I thought that "Deus Ex Machina" was in reference to
the car and the jet engine. Seeing as how Frank's car played the role of
God and took Gretchen's life and the same with Donnie's jet engine. That
was my understanding through literal translation. But there's more.
After reading Hamlet, one can clearly see the literary usefulness of "Deus Ex
Machina". Simply speaking, it is when something so horribly wrong has
taken place in a story where only God himself can fix it. "Deus ex Machina"
means "god from machine", and the "machine" would be anything so unexpected or
so wrong that it seems to defy logic. Basically, it's when the author of
the story creates a conflict that he himself cannot solve and writes it off to
God. Now, relating this to Donnie Darko. Just before Gretchen is run
over by Frank's car, he utters to the bully about to stab him "Deus ex Machina".
That no matter what happens from then on in the movie, it will be fixed by an
external force. And we see this happen. Gretchen is alive and in the
last scene of the film despite having died. The "machine" to fix all of
this is time travel. Perhaps Kelly is poking fun at himself by including
this line in the film.
I hope that has cleared things up some. E-mail me if you think there are
any more loose ends.
seconddisclaimer//Everything you have just read is my view of the
movie. There are many different theories in circulation around the web at
this very moment. In fact, I just thought up a new one which I don't feel
like writing out [about how Donnie said he had the power to make a time machine,
he could have created one and sent back the turbine to kill himself to prevent
his life of misery from occurring, but this leaves many plot holes...], so
please don't bash my thoughts because they are different from your own. My
contact information is at the bottom of this page. Feel free to contact me
for feedback, input, factual corrections, or to tell me what you think.
Thanks.
relatedsites//
Official Donnie Darko site
Full text of
Graham Greene's "The Destructors"
Metaphilm's version
and theories
More theories
Buy Donnie Darko on DVD
Donnie
Darko discussion
update-
Deus Ex Machina
contact//E-mail, AIM,
site. I'm always up for discussion.
Page created: July 05, 2003, 5:20 AM
Last updated: July 02, 2004, 11:01 AM