Movie discussion - Donnie Darko

[tiga]

I have been a fan of this film for some time and discussing its plot with others can be quite interesting. (Spoiler Alerts a plenty so leave this thread if you haven't seen the movie and want to)


What's the deal with Frank?

Why did Roberta Sparrow say to Donnie that "All living creatures die alone"

What caused the Jet engine to fall into Donnie's room?

etc...etc...

Discuss.

[dwaino]

Yessss big T, stuffing love this movie  have seen it so many times now.

I remember having all the same discussions over doobies (long time ago ) trying to work the same things out, but if you get a director's cut copy of the film (has some extra scenes that basically tell you what is going on) and with extra features like the pages from Ms Sparrow's Philosophy of Time Travel the answers are actually all there. I was a little disappointed because IMO it took away some of the magic for me. I just did a quick google to find somewhere showing the book and found this site

http://www.donniedarko.org.uk/philosphy-of-time-travel/

This came up too which made me delete everything I just typed because this tells it better and probably more accurately.

http://www.donniedarko.org.uk/explanation/


As for what Sparrow said, I always interpreted that as exactly that. Donnie is basically saving the universe and that doesn't change the fact he still dies alone. Sometimes I think maybe it is that we are only in one of possibly an infinite of universes and to die in one means buggery. Like in the end where it shows a universe (I interpret that as the original universe, and the movie is the tangent universe where Donnie is saving the future of the original) in which Gretchen didn't know who he was. It would seem only his family in that universe would be affected.

[Judge Roughneck]

Thought was shyte

[tigs2011]

I have been a fan of this film for some time and discussing its plot with others can be quite interesting. (Spoiler Alerts a plenty so leave this thread if you haven't seen the movie and want to)


What's the deal with Frank?

Why did Roberta Sparrow say to Donnie that "All living creatures die alone"

What caused the Jet engine to fall into Donnie's room?

etc...etc...

Discuss.

I'll presume you're studying this for English class? And no I will not write your essay for you. 

[tiga]

What was interesting dwaino was the knowing glance at the end by Donnie's mum to Gretchen. It was almost as if there was some sort of residue floating between the two universes. A bit like how De Javu operates.

I also think that the storm was very significant as I believe it was a tornado from the storm that sucked up the jet engine from a manufacturing plant and hurtled it the distance required to hit Donnie's Room. This would explain why there was no plane crash reported or any other aircraft debris to be found.


To tigs, thanks for the compliment. I didn't know I looked so young. If I was still studying English at my age, I'd be supporting Collingwood and not Richmond! 

 

[dwaino]

The jet engine was the artifact though referred to in the Philosophy of Time Travel. It came from the aircraft that Donnie's mum and sister were flying home from the talent show on in a different universe. One universe was slightly forward in time. The manipulated dead (Frank) were able to warn Donnie. The manipulated living were subconsciously helping Donnie probably for the reason that the universe typically seeks order from chaos since the universe was going to destroy itself if Donnie didn't save it (because the artifact/jet engine crossed over, wasn't meant to be there. It's like what happens in the show Fringe by JJ Abrams). It reminds me of the great quote from the legendary Carl Sagan, "we are a way for the universe to know itself."

[tiga]

Wow dwaino, I'm going to have to pop into a Hyperbaric chamber after that post. 

So with the engine or artifact coming off the jet in a different universe and ending up in both streams of time that Donnie encountered, does this mean that Donnie's Mum and Sister died in a plane crash in one universe yet they were very much alive in both of Donnie's time streams?

[dwaino]

Not sure because the movie takes place in the tangent universe 

You have to remember the movie is a work of fiction which created its own physics but reading the philosophy of time travel that comes with the movie gives the entire mystery away.

Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman often has episodes with a similiar theme though if you're into that sort of thing