In the shot near the end of the film where Donnie grabs the keys for the station wagon, you can see a Blockbuster Video member card in a cup. That card design wasn't used until the mid to late 1990's. This movie is set in 1988. Deliberate as it's a product placement, but still wrong. See more...
When Donnie is about to enter the car with Gretchen near the end of the film, he clutches at his stomach as if in pain. Near the end of the film, we see Frank touch his eye after Donnie dies. Both of these are forward memories of pain: one of the deleted scenes features how Donnie dies - a pole goes through his stomach right where he clutches it. And where does Donnie shoot Frank? All together now - the eye. See more...
starring Jake Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze (add more)
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
When Rose Darko is talking to her friend about Jim Cunningham, her friend says "I can't believe he's single" But when Jim Cunningham is speaking at Donnie's school on the "Fear and Love" program, 'Patrick Swayze' is wearing his "wedding" ring. [Some people still wear wedding rings even after they divorce. People do it for a variety of reasons.]
Corrected by Lummie
In the scene at the end where they take Donnie's body to the ambulance, under the white sheet he's got shoes on. But if he was in bed asleep, shouldn't he be barefoot? [Looking through the scenes there is no way to see whether he was wearing shoes at the end, so it's just an assumption that he went to bed without his shoes. It's also hard to even confirm whether he was wearing shoes when he was being wheeled away at the end.]
Corrected by Lummie
Donnie's sister receives a letter, accepting her into Harvard. However, acceptances for Harvard do not come out until November at the earliest and the film is set in October. [We are in the Tangent Universe at this time, which is unstable and about to collapse on itself in a couple of days. It was probably a fluke in the Tangent Universe that got Elizabeth's letter to her early.]
When Cherita holds her lifeline card, it reads "In order to keep from failing he class..." It should read "her class..." though. [This is a typo on the lifeline card, which can be attributed to a character mistake, therefore not a movie mistake.]
There is no point to having the students give an in-person sample of their handwriting, because any one of them could alter their writing if they wanted to. It would make more sense to collect previous examples, like homework. And anyway, the original graffiti was made with spray paint and was in very large text, both of which would affect a person's handwriting style and make finding a match very difficult. [The point of the handwriting sample here has less to do with matching the handwriting and more to do with watching how each student reacts to being under the eye of the police. If they react in a suspicious manner, the cops will examine those students further. They circle Donnie's name based on behavior, not handwriting.]
In the scene where the teacher talks to Donnie about time travel theories, he hands Donnie a book, which Donnie takes with his right hand. However, throughout this scene both of Donnie's hands are holding a coloured slinky around his neck. [Donnie plays with the slinky throughout this scene, taking it off at least once and then putting it back on. He could easily have let go of the slinky, in order to take the book.]
Corrected by STP
In the scene where the principal is asking the students to come up and write "They made me do it" on the board, he calls Donnie up to write. After Donnie writes the phrase, the principal puts a check mark next to Donnie's name on the clipboard. If you look at the phrase on the ground and on the board, there is a distinct difference in how it was written, so Donnie should have been totally ruled out. [The principal puts a question mark, not a check, meaning Donnie's not totally ruled out, but it's not definite that he's the perpetrator either. Plus, the principal could have been suspecting him based on Donnie's behavior, rather than just on his handwriting.]
When Donnie Darko returns to the cinema after throwing gasoline all over Jim Cunningham's room and setting it on fire, surely when Gretchen awakens she'd smell it on him? I also find it hard to believe she's slept through the soundtrack of a horror movie yet awakens at the sound of Donnie taking popcorn from her. [Donnie could have cleaned up to get the scent of gasoline off him. Regarding Gretchen waking up, she may have been a heavy sleeper, and perhaps Donnie bumped her when he sat down or she woke up plain on her own.]
When Donnie and Gretchen are on Carpathian Ridge talking about Grandma Death, Donnie appears to sit down on the green couch behind him. In the long shot of them both, he's sitting in a normal chair with a high back; even if he had sat down in the chair, the back still would have been visible. [He is sitting on the couch, but the angle of the chair and the fact that he is sitting crooked make it sort of look like he is in the chair in the long shot. The depth is off, though.]
In the scene where Kitty Farmar asks the students to rank events on the Fear-Love lifeline she has drawn on the blackboard Cherita Chen is first up and marks an 'X' near the Fear end of the line but when Donnie Darko steps up Cherita Chen's X has disappeared. [The X is still there, it is just difficult to see due to the angle.]
You may also like: The Dark Knight | Batman Begins | Cloverfield | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl | 300
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