Donnie Darko (2001) - 28 questions

Question: Near the end of the movie, when the characters are seen reacting to Donnie's death,what is Kitty Farmer's hand resting on?

Answer: Her bed.

Question: Couldn't the events of the movie have been avoided if Frank just let Donnie get hit by the jet engine and die from the beginning instead of waking him up and taking him out of his room?

Answer: In short: no. Because of the films themes of wormholes, time travel, alternative dimensions/parallel universes and meta-physics the events of the film had to happen the way the did or else they wouldn't have happened at all! It's very difficult to wrap your head around but it's one of the many many paradoxes caused by time travel (cause and effect becoming effect and cause).

Question: Does anyone have any thoughts on why at the very end of the credits, the national anthem is played? I found it interesting, i just wonder if someone else has any theories on how this ties in with the movie.

Answer: Back in the 80's most channels went off the air at a certain time at night. Right before the channel went off it would play the national anthem then go to static. This is an obvious homage to the 80's (twice the TV Donnie's dad is watching is showing static, indictating that the channel had gone off the air).

Question: When Gretchen arrives at Donnie's party she says that her mother was killed or committed suicide. Since Donnie was the guardian of the engine and it may have been necessary for Gretchen to be there,is it possible that Donnie killed Gretchen's mother?

Answer: No, it is not confirmed that Gretchen's mother died. She has simply disappeared, and her house is messed up. It can be concluded that Gretchen's violent step-father may have found her mother and hurt her in some way.

Question: It isn't that important to the plot but what does the back of the bus say? The second word looks like "rules" but I can't distinguish the "M" word.

Answer: It says, "Mongrels Rule," an allusion to their school mascot, the mongrel.

Question: What is the creepy opera-esque music playing when Donnie sees Frank in the movie theatre called? I can't find it in the soundtrack.

Answer: The track is called "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and it's composed by Steve Baker and sung by Carmen Daye. You're right, it's not on the soundtrack but it can be found through a search engine.

Question: I didn't understand where the engine that killed Donnie at the end of the movie came from. This plane belonged to the tangent universe right? So when Donnie gets back to his room where all has started, he gets back to the real world. Is this engine a residue from the tangent universe? Because they say in the movie that no plane has lost an engine in the real universe.

Answer: Yes the engine has come from the tangent universe or the alternate future so to speak. The reason they have trouble finding the engine is because it hasn't happened yet and it has entered a corruption in the universe. With that in mind the key difference from the start of the film to the end is that Donnie managed to send the engine through the wormhole as opposed to the engine entering the corruption at the start of the film.

Question: In the very last scene (I have only seen the original version, not the Director's cut), a crowd is gathered outside the Darko house and Gretchen comes along on a bike and talks to this little blond kid. When she asks him "What happened?", if you listen closely you will realize that the kid's response is not exactly standard English. It sounds, in fact, like complete gibberish, or just possibly something meaningful in a non-English language. What exactly is that kid saying, and what is its significance?

Answer: It is, in fact, English. He says "Got smushed by a jet engine".

Question: After watching "Donnie Darko" I watched another film which also featured a character identical to Frank. He too appeared in the dreams of the lead role and had all the traits of Frank. I am pretty sure it was not the film "Harvey", as I do not believe it was a film as old as that. Can anyone help me identify what the other film was?

Answer: I believe this film may have been 'Sexy beast' starring Ray Winstone. It's a British film, and is even listed on the IMDb as similar to Donnie Darko in this sense. In 'Sexy Beast' a human height sized bunny rabbit stalks the dreams of the lead character, played by Ray.

Question: Two questions I had about the cellar at the end. What was the point of Donnie and his friends going to the cellar towards the end? Was he looking for something in particular? And the second thing was why were those bullies from school there at the same time? Did it have something to do with the story told in the film about how kids would try to steal stuff from Sparrow's house?

Answer: By going to the cellar, Donnie has continued to set in motion the events that will return the engine to his proper time. He burns down Jim Cunningham's house, which causes Kitty to be at his trial, which causes Donnie's Mom to take the kids to California, which causes her to take the earlier flight causing the engine to fall back through the portal to the normal universe. In much the same way, his Mom had to leave so they could have a party, which is where Donnie and Gretchen make/fall in love. He takes her to that house to talk to Roberta Sparrow, and it is when he notices the cellar door that the events unfold to motivate him. If Donnie lives, Gretchen dies. He must sacrifice himself to return time to normal so that Gretchen will live. The boys were taking stuff from Roberta's house as referenced earlier in the movie, but played a key role in the events unfolding correctly.

Question: Why was the universe ending? I have watched the movie several times and I cannot find an explanation.

Answer: Donnie ended one universe/timeline by going back in time to save his girlfriend. The new one effectively started with his death.

Question: Donnie's purpose was to ensure that that the engine fell into the primary universe by sending his mother and sister on the plane. Why was it so important that his mother had to board the plane? Wouldn't it have gone down without her anyway?

Answer: No they didn't have to be on the plane and it would have gone down without her but Donnie and his sister had to have the party for the remaining events to work. In burning down Cunningham's house, Kitty would have to stay behind and help Cunningham. This would ensure Donnie's mother would therefore leave and the remaining events could occur.

Question: In the short scenes following Donnie's death, many of the characters are shown reacting to his death, I think. Why is Patrick Swayze crying? Does it have something to do with his regret of participating in child pornography?

Answer: It is either from the regret of participating in child pornography or guilt from having thoughts about it in the first place. (Since Donnie's Death 'reversed' many events, Swayze's character may have never actually made the room, etc.)

Question: What was the significance of Frank wearing the rabbit suit? Was it because the face was supposed to stick in Donnie's mind so he'd remember what he had to do? I can't think of any logical reason why he'd have to wear the suit to accomplish his mission.

Answer: According to the DVD special features, people who die in the alternate universe (the Manipulated Dead) have more power and self-awareness than those who live throughout. The supernatural force that appoints Donnie to end the alternate universe adopts Frank's face because a) he wants a form that Donnie can interact with and b) as a Manipulated Dead Frank has more understanding of what is going on and maybe wants to help. The costume is necessary because it's an essential part of Frank's character as a dead person - it's what he was wearing when he died - and also because it's so alien Donnie will understand that he's dealing with things beyond normal ken.

Question: In the Director's Cut, there is a scene where Drew Barrymore tells the students they will be reading Watership Down instead of The Destructors but there have been copies of The Destructors reserved at the Mall. She then turns to Donnie and says "perhaps you and Frank could read it together". Does she know about Frank and if not what does she mean by this?

Answer: There is a cut scene in which Donnie reads a poem he wrote in front of the class and he mentions Frank. Drew asks who Frank is and he states he's a 6 foot tall bunny rabbit. That is how Drew knows about Frank and since Watership Down's main characters are rabbits, this reference to Frank is appropriate.

Question: If Donnie was supposed to die anyway, why did Frank call him out of his house at the beginning? Please don't say it was his schizophrenia and the fact that he is "prone to wander at night", because it IS Frank who calls him out, he doesn't get up on his own.

Answer: Frank calls Donnie out because the airplane engine has fallen through a portal into an alternate universe, and at some point during his sleepwalk Frank guides Donnie through another portal to move him to the alternate universe (from the movie theatre we know that Frank can make portals at will). Frank appoints Donnie to be the guardian of the engine and make sure it falls through the alternate universe's portal into the original universe. Donnie cannot be allowed to die until the engine is escorted into the second portal, but if he dies before then the engine never reaches the second portal and remains in the alternate universe, causing the original universe to unravel. Once he and the engine return, he must die because his experiences of the alternate universe predict the future, potentially causing paradoxes.

Question: Why does Frank have Donnie burn the guy's house down, when at the end, Donnie goes back in time, dies, and therefore cannot burn the guy's house down?

Answer: Frank tells Donnie to burn down Cunningham's house because then Cunningham's kiddie porn dungeon will be discovered and he will be put on trial. If he's on trial, Kitty must be at his arraignment and cannot escort the dance team to Los Angeles, so Rose goes with them instead. Rose chooses to come home with the team on a different flight than Kitty would have chosen, and if they hadn't been on that flight the flight wouldn't have occurred (we don't know why not, but if it happened anyway Donnie wouldn't be necessary, and he obviously is or Frank wouldn't have called upon him). Because Rose takes the flight, the airplane engine passes through the portal and falls into Donnie's bedroom back in the original universe, closing the time loop.

Question: why was it the end of the world? what caused it to be the end of the world, and why did it change simply because donnie changed it so he died when he should have? how did the actions caused by him being alive amount to the end of the world?

Answer: The "end of the world" refers to the end of the alternate universe Donnie enters when Frank summons him out of bed at the beginning of the movie. The alternative universe will only last until the airplane engine is returned to the normal universe and Donnie dies. Donnie sets in motion events that lead to the airplane engine falling through a portal to the normal universe, and when it finally returns he defaults to his place at the exact point when Frank summoned him out of there to guard the engine.

Question: Why does Frank go back in time anyway, if it will result in him dying(saving Donnie) and how did HE time-travel? And why does he urge Donnie to do all those violent things?

Answer: Frank never goes back in time. In a special feature on the DVD called The Philosophy of Time Travel, there is an extensive discussion of what happens when an object slips out of the proper time continuum through randomly occurring portals. Forces exist to ensure that the object has a human guardian, whose responsibility it is to return the object to a portal in time that will send it back to the proper continuum, often sacrificing the life of the guardian. Frank, in the movie, is both a rather unimportant human figure and the adopted face of the force guiding Donnie to his destiny (returning the airplane engine) that exists outside of either time continuum and can speak to the inhabitants at will. The only thing he directly tells Donnie to do is to burn down Cunningham's house, which results in Cunningham's trial and causes Rose to take Kitty's place escorting the dance team to LA, and Rose chooses to take an earlier flight home. This is the only way the airplane engine would have been in the portal to be returned to the proper continuum. The other violent things Donnie did were merely satisfying his own issues with school, his girlfriend, and her death.

Question: What film/text/person does Kitty Farmer confuse with Graham Greene when she replies to Rose Darko: 'I think we've all seen Bonanza.'?

Answer: Lorne Greene was the star of Bonanza which aired regularly from 1959 until 1973. He played Ben Cartwright, the wise widowed father of Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe.