Donnie Darko

Kiwi_fan

I'm a little pisspot
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So what the hell is this movie all about then? I've spent the last half an hour searching the internet trying to find an explanation to this movie after watching it tonight, and all I keep finding is stuff about tangent universes and worm holes? It's certainly a head scratcher. :wenger:
 
Haven't a clue to be honest. I did enjoy the film but it wasn't as good as everyone made it out to be imo. just didn't make enough sense really. I did like the murdering of Patrick Swaize though
 
Kiwi_fan said:
So what the hell is this movie all about then? I've spent the last half an hour searching the internet trying to find an explanation to this movie after watching it tonight, and all I keep finding is stuff about tangent universes and worm holes? It's certainly a head scratcher. :wenger:
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:lol:

Yep that's Donnie Darko alright, head scratcher is spot on.

I'm not even gonna begin to try and explain it here, just watch it again, and again, and again etc and eventually, when it all finally sinks in, you will still have no idea what the feck is going on.

Great film though, I love a film that fecks with me.
 
i watched it once, fell asleep, watched it again, felt like killing myself. watched it a 3rd time, fell asleep again. so now i've given up.
 
I thought it was more about some guy’s death, and how he finds albeit through a dream that him dying in the accident early in the film is the best thing to happen rather than him living. It addresses his fear of death, or morality and the viewers.

Whatever it means, you can't deny it has one hell of a soundtrack.
 
The Rabbit did it, it was the Rabbit
 
One of my favourite films ever. Top 5, without a doubt.

I think it depends on whether you like a movie to tie up the loose ends, or give you something to think about. The genius of the film is that it allows you to interpret it anyway you choose, and almost everyone has a different definition.

The movie theatre scene gives me chills whenever I watch it.
 
There are no full correct answers to it. Every time I watch it, I pick up a new meaning, and a new bit of understanding of the film. There are all sorts of very well hidden messages and meanings.

The main part I guess is the idea of destiny. We all have a built in bunny to help us change ours.
 
Spoonez el Grande said:
It's a very good film, dickheads.
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Wonder Pigeon said:
feck em Spoony, I like it.
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Bilbo said:
One of my favourite films ever. Top 5, without a doubt.

I think it depends on whether you like a movie to tie up the loose ends, or give you something to think about. The genius of the film is that it allows you to interpret it anyway you choose, and almost everyone has a different definition.

The movie theatre scene gives me chills whenever I watch it.
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Is right.
 
RedNome said:
Is right.
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It's odd. It all comes down to how you interpret films if you like. I believe I have a well trained movie understanding as a result of my studies, my girlfriend just watches films to be entertained and perve at the leads.

I loved it, and love to keep rewatching it, the scene about Smurfs has me in stitches every time.

She hates it, doesn't get it, and justs wants to flick the bean of Jake Gyllenhall.
 
Saints RL MUFC said:
It's odd. It all comes down to how you interpret films if you like. I believe I have a well trained movie understanding as a result of my studies, my girlfriend just watches films to be entertained and perve at the leads.

I loved it, and love to keep rewatching it, the scene about Smurfs has me in stitches every time.

She hates it, doesn't get it, and justs wants to flick the bean of Jake Gyllenhall.
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It's brilliant, I must have watched it 20-30 times now and still come out thinking something completely different each time.
 
One of my all time favorites too.

At the end its about him saving the world from an infinte repetative loop of those 30 days by fixing the discontinuties in space-time by putting the aircraft part back in the wormhole and choosing to accept fate and die,atleast that's what i think it is.
 
It's a well made, multi-layered movie, but it's a bit too much like hard work for my liking.

Read its wikipedia page to get an idea of what it's all about. I'm not surprised that watching it cold left you all confused.
 
RedNome said:
:lol:

Yep that's Donnie Darko alright, head scratcher is spot on.

I'm not even gonna begin to try and explain it here, just watch it again, and again, and again etc and eventually, when it all finally sinks in, you will still have no idea what the feck is going on.

Great film though, I love a film that fecks with me.
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:lol:
 
Veron said:
One of my all time favorites too.

At the end its about him saving the world from an infinte repetative loop of those 30 days by fixing the discontinuties in space-time by putting the aircraft part back in the wormhole and choosing to accept fate and die,atleast that's what i think it is.
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How did he "put" the aircraft back in the wormhole? Was it when he burnt down the pedo's house, that forced the mum to go to New York? But he was told by the bunny to do it, which theoritcally is deadomg this movie doesn't MAKE ANY SENSE!!

And what's so good about the word cellardoor :confused::wenger::eek::annoyed::boring:
 
*This Post Contains Spoilers*


The way i saw it was that it was about fate and moral choices. If you could look into the future and see how your choices were to affect those around you would you change them if it ultimately meant your death? If you had the power would you change your fate? In Donnie Darko he sees what would have happened if he did not take his pills and he was not killed by the plane engine. In the end he finds out that the love of his life would die if he was not crushed by the plane. So is it better for him to die for her to live?

Also as a side note Patrick Swayze would continue to look at images of children because as Donnie died his house was never burnt down. These are the choices that Donnie has to make. Would it be better if he had not survived or is it better that in fact that he is not killed by the engine? I think this is the main point of the film. You decide whether his choices were correct or not (in your morally subjective opinion).

In the end he decides life for everyone is better without him so he takes his pills and is crushed by the jet engine. The look he gives in the mirror (if i am correct as i have not seen this in a while) as he takes the pill seems to suggest he knows what he is doing and the consequences it will have on him and those around him.

Apparently the fake book that is in the film is based on many other books and can explain the time travel part of the film but i think that time travel, worm holes and paradoxes are simply a different (and possibly more interesting way) to deliver the moral message of the film.

This is just my take on it. Make of it what you will.
 
Kiwi_fan said:
How did he "put" the aircraft back in the wormhole?Was it when he burnt down the pedo's house, that forced the mum to go to New York? But he was told by the bunny to do it, which theoritcally is deadomg this movie doesn't MAKE ANY SENSE!!

And what's so good about the word cellardoor :confused::wenger::eek::annoyed::boring:
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I saw the movie a few years ago and remember prolling over the internet trying to understand that bit but any explanation i read didn't make sense and you just have to accept that that's part of the writers imagination.

My question is even if he sends the part back to the future and dies by the future part falling on him like it did,wouldn't that still ensure that the future plane has a missing part thus crashing,so the bunny will have to once again guide him to save the world,how does he ever save the world as the loop keeps playing over and over.
 
Kiwi_fan said:
And what's so good about the word cellardoor :confused::wenger::eek::annoyed::boring:
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The word Cellar Door is the most beautiful word in the English Language according to Tolkien. He stated that if you take away meaning from all words cellar door is the most beautiful just based on the way it sounds. Its called phonoaesthetics.

"Most English-speaking people...will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful. Well then, in Welsh for me cellar doors are extraordinarily frequent, and moving to the higher dimension, the words in which there is pleasure in the contemplation of the association of form and sense are abundant."

J.R.R Tolkien
 
SPOLIERS - DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN"T SEEN THE FILM
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In effect it is a film about the paradox of time travel.

Donnie avoids being killed by a falling jet engine (from where?) by going sleepwalking in response to a voice telling him to do so. The rest of the film involves various odd and mysterious events, often involving Frank a man/thing in a metal mask who tells Donnie the end of the world will occur in 28 days time, that gradually begin to explain themselves (at least to some degree) as events unfold. Donnie flees the ever increasingly chaotic events and watches from a hilltop as a wormhole/portal/thingumy opens above his house damaging a plane and sending it's engine back 28 days. This time Donnie stays in bed and the paradox loop is broken with his death.

I saw the director's cut first and didn't enjoy it as much I hoped. People tell me the original is better because it leaves far more unsaid which makes it harder to pull the story apart but also makes it more satisfying if you like the film and more frustrating if you don't.
 
Veron said:
I saw the movie a few years ago and remember prolling over the internet trying to understand that bit but any explanation i read didn't make sense and you just have to accept that that's part of the writers imagination.

My question is even if he sends the part back to the future and dies by the future part falling on him like it did,wouldn't that still ensure that the future plane has a missing part thus crashing,so the bunny will have to once again guide him to save the world,how does he ever save the world as the loop keeps playing over and over.
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I think that Donnie's death would stop them travelling i.e. they won't be on the plane even if it crashes.
 
And the chaperone for the original trip only didn't go because Donnie burnt the house down.
 
Do you not reckon its more about the moral choices that Donnie has to make rather than an infinite loop of events. Really just my opinion the film more than anything. What you reckon?
 
London_Red said:
*This Post Contains Spoilers*


The way i saw it was that it was about fate and moral choices. If you could look into the future and see how your choices were to affect those around you would you change them if it ultimately meant your death? If you had the power would you change your fate? In Donnie Darko he sees what would have happened if he did not take his pills and he was not killed by the plane engine. In the end he finds out that the love of his life would die if he was not crushed by the plane. So is it better for him to die for her to live?

Also as a side note Patrick Swayze would continue to look at images of children because as Donnie died his house was never burnt down. These are the choices that Donnie has to make. Would it be better if he had not survived or is it better that in fact that he is not killed by the engine? I think this is the main point of the film. You decide whether his choices were correct or not (in your morally subjective opinion).

In the end he decides life for everyone is better without him so he takes his pills and is crushed by the jet engine. The look he gives in the mirror (if i am correct as i have not seen this in a while) as he takes the pill seems to suggest he knows what he is doing and the consequences it will have on him and those around him.

Apparently the fake book that is in the film is based on many other books and can explain the time travel part of the film but i think that time travel, worm holes and paradoxes are simply a different (and possibly more interesting way) to deliver the moral message of the film.

This is just my take on it. Make of it what you will.
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Also i believe the reason the 'bunny' has a hole in his eye symbolizes that donnie had already shot him before in a previous loop but decided to live instead of die thus triggering it again and again till a time comes when he realises he's already done this before and save the world.
 
Wibble said:
I think that Donnie's death would stop them travelling i.e. they won't be on the plane even if it crashes.
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Doesn't matter if they die or not,the plane still crashes on thier house killing donnie,how is the paradox fixed.
 
Presumably because the chain of paradox is created by him not being killed the first time around. The portal that transports the engine is not a paradox in of itself (apparently). Him not being killed causes ripples and increasing disturbance in the space/time continuum which is only resolved/closed when things go around again.
 
The writer/director is more specific.

Writer/director Richard Kelly does not deny personal interpretations, but has expressed his own theories through the extra commentary on the two DVDs, his own (fictional) book The Philosophy of Time Travel, and in various other interviews.

According to Kelly and his Philosophy of Time Travel, at midnight on October 2 a Tangent Universe branches off the Primary Universe around the time when Donnie is called out of his bedroom by Frank, immediately before the appearance of the Artifact, the faulty jet engine. The inherently unstable Tangent Universe will collapse in just over 28 days and take the Primary Universe with it if not corrected. Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the Living Receiver, Donnie, who wields certain supernatural powers to help him in the task.

Those who have died/will die within the Tangent Universe (and would not have died otherwise) are the Manipulated Dead (Frank and Gretchen Ross). Manipulated Dead Frank, at least, is also given certain powers in that he is able to subtly understand what is happening and have the ability to contact and influence the Living Receiver via the Fourth Dimensional Construct (water). All others within the orbit of the Living Receiver are the Manipulated Living (e.g. Ms. Pomeroy, Dr. Monnitoff), subconsciously drawn to push him towards his destiny to close the Tangent Universe and, according to the Philosophy of Time Travel, die by the Artifact.

There are two "Franks" in the story: the living boyfriend of Donnie's sister Elizabeth, and the Manipulated Dead Frank who appears to Donnie as a premonition from the future in the disturbing rabbit suit (the second Frank is dead, or undead; at the end of the film he is killed by Donnie). Dead Frank is aware of Donnie's fate and destiny.

The director has also said that the depiction of the high school in the film was meant to reflect his own personal experience during his high school years.
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