Has any one seen donnie darko?

[GhostThatWalks]

can you explain. just got done watching it and it makes no sense.

[PinkTiger]

1. It's been awhile.

But my take on it was, he sacrificed himself to save the girl. I think.
He was able to do it over.

[chicaloca]

3. yeah, it's confusing...

I've only seen it once and didn't pay much attention, so I might not be much help. I think it was something like there was some malfunction in some space-time continuum, and Donnie was _supposed_ to die when the jet engine or whatever it was hit his house, but he didn't because the psycho bunny screwed it up by luring him out of his room when that thingie hit his house. (I want to say it was a jet engine, but it doesn't seem plausible to me that a jet engine would fall off and the actual plane would be okay, which I think was what happened.) Therefore, everything that happened after that point was _not_ supposed to happen, like his girlfriend dying. Somehow when his mother and sister went to that awful dance competition, things rearranged themselves when some part of their plane fell off, went through that loop in time thing, and landed in his room when he was there. I don't know if his being in the room at that time had anything to do with the fact that he'd told the psycho bunny off after his girlfriend died, but I can't think of any other reason. (Although that still doesn't make any sense because he told the bunny off long after the airplane part landed in his house.)

I can't help but think how amusing/bizarre this post must look to people who've never seen the movie. :)

[democracyindanger]

4. Yeah it was an engine

And jet liners are supposed to be able to remain in the air if an engine fails--but I dunno about an entire engine falling off.

Let's hear it for Sparkle!

[ButterflyBlood]

6. there are "manipulated dead" and "manipulated living"

if you read the bonus features on that book it explains it a little. Donnie had to get the jet engine back to the other time frame, hence the world he was in did end. The bunny was the "manipulated dead", after he killed his sister's boyfriend he could travel through time to help him. Everyone else was the manipulated living. Even though they didn't know it, they were guiding him. His mom and sister didn't have to be on the plane, they just had to be gone so he could throw the party. Every event in the movie led to him killing his sister's boyfriend so he could come back and guide Donnie (for example by flooding the school he met Gretchen, on and on...) and then at the end he apparentely returns the jet engine, makes everything normal, the world DOES end, it goes back to the normal time frame, where apparentely he was supposed to die.

[Tripper11]

2. I loved it....

but my take on it was his mental illness. Turns out I was way off base.

http://www.donniedarko.com/

According to the web site it's about alternate universes etc.

First time I saw it I didn't lke it, but I kept seeing it over and over (HBO) and it really grew on me. Now it's one of my favourite movies.

[ButterflyBlood]

5. he had no mental illness

in one of the crucial scenes that was deleted, his psychiatrist tells him that he can stop taking the pills because they're placebos and there's nothing wrong with him.

[Tripper11]

7. Didn't know that......eom

[ButterflyBlood]

8. do you have the DVD?

watch the deleted scenes. they took a lot of important stuff out.

[Tripper11]

12. Thanks...will look for it

I just really enjoyed the whole tone of the movie.

[chicaloca]

9. his pills were placebos?

:o You'd think that would be a kind of important thing to leave in the movie! (Not blaming the editors here, because I know they've got a tough job and deleting scenes is the result of commercial constraints.) I wonder what else in that movie would make a lot more sense if I saw the deleted scenes?!?

Also, the thing that disturbed me most was that I wondered whether, in that alternate universe where Donnie died, would anybody find out about the child porn stash that Patrick Swayze's character had? Grrr!! I really hope so!!! :mad:

[ButterflyBlood]

10. if you go to the website...

www.donniedarko.com

it's WAY confusing, but it gives sort of an epilogue to the movie. But you can find a news article where it turns out that shortly afterwords Patrick Swayze's character turned himself in.

but yeah, if you have the DVD, watch the deleted scenes.

[minkyboodle]

11. My original interpretation

Was that the whole thing was about fate. How Donnie's fate was to die that night and the scary bunny had disrupted the timeline/universe by sparing donnie from his death. I thought that it was about how your fate can affect others (i.e. donnie's girl) and even the universe itself. After looking at the website and reading the posts I'm not so sure this is really what it was about. Although the great thing about movies like Donnie Darko is that it its open to all of our interpretations. The alternate universes angle seems like the most likely one now that I have read the website. Makes me think of String theory I just watched the Elegant Universe the other week. Fun stuff to ponder.
Scott

[Lindsey]

13. I saw it for the first time a couple of weekends ago and ended

up watching it four times! I loved it. I think it's about parallel/and the concept of the alternate universe as well as fate - if you do this, then this happens, if you do that, then that happens. I guess Donnie realized that he needed to die and so he went back and changed everything. I thought it was an incredibly thought provokign film (and it was written by a 26 year old!).

[minkyboodle]

14. I agree

It is a great movie. Also it really gets the atmosphere of the late 1980s down with frightening accuracy (I was about Donnie's age in 1988)
Scott

[neverborn]

15. Sucked.

Yeah, the movie's premise was cool, but the ending sucked HORRIBLY.

[kid shelleen]

16. I agree that the alternative universe

theory goes a long way in explaining the premise. The part that still has me scratching me head is in the end when Donnie's family is outside trying to cope with the shock of his death, Gretchen rides up on her bike and asks a neighbor boy what happened. He tells her someone was killed and asks Gretchen if she knew him. She replied no and then waves at Donnie's mother like they're old friends, as does the boy she's talking to. Um, what's up with that sports fans?

[Selwynn]

17. I enjoyed that film :)