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Donnie Darko is a 2001 drama/psychological thriller/science fiction cult film written and directed by Richard Kelly. It was rated R by the MPAA for language, violence and some drug content. The film had a small opening upon its release in the U.S., but gained new-found popularity upon its DVD release and a cult following over the years and currently ranks at #114 at the Internet Movie Database Top 250.




The story is set in the town of Middlesex, Virginia during the 1988 presidential election campaign. Donnie Darko is an emotionally troubled teenager who sleepwalks and visits a therapist with whom he discusses his deepest thoughts throughout the film. One night, an unidentified jet engine falls into Donnie's bedroom, which he unknowingly avoids by sleepwalking outside and following a voice in his head. This voice belongs to Frank, an (apparent) imaginary friend in a man-sized rabbit costume. Frank prophesies that the "end of the world" will occur in "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds."

Donnie is instructed by Frank to perform further acts, which cause a certain chain of events that allow the final scenario to take place: Donnie floods his school, which gives him the chance to court Gretchen Ross, a new classmate and potential love interest; he pursues the concept of time travel, leading to a talk with his science teacher who then gives him The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book by an elderly resident of the town named Roberta Sparrow (known as "Grandma Death" amongst children); he goes to the theater with Gretchen to watch The Evil Dead, she falls asleep and Frank appears, the audience is given the impression that Donnie is going to kill Gretchen but instead he leaves and burns down the house of a motivational speaker whom Donnie had ridiculed at a school assembly, thereby exposing a secret "kiddie porn dungeon." The arrest of the motivational speaker causes Donnie's mother to have to chaperone Donnie's younger sister and her dance group on a flight to Star Search.

Donnie also begins seeing "portals," wormholes that protrude out of people's chests and are described in the book by Roberta Sparrow. He is shown a "portal" by Frank in a movie theater, where Frank also reveals himself to be a teenager of the same age as Donnie, with a wound in his right eye. One particular portal eventually leads Donnie to a gun in his parents' closet, which he takes and keeps. On Halloween night, with Donnie's parents both out of town, Donnie takes Gretchen and two other friends to seek advice from Roberta Sparrow when they get ambushed by two bullies from school. In the ensuing struggle, Gretchen gets run over by a car and dies instantly, after which the bullies flee. The car that killed Gretchen stops and Donnie soon sees the driver. After realizing that the driver is Frank in a rabbit costume for Halloween, Donnie shoots him in the eye thus killing him and giving Frank the wounded right eye.

As the prophesied time of the world's end draws near, Donnie takes a car (a metal vehicle is needed to travel in time) and retreats with Gretchen's body to a hillside overlooking town, where a "portal" opens in the sky. Donnie's mother and sister experience turbulence on their return flight, and a jet engine detaches from their plane. The engine travels through the portal to 28 days earlier, crashing into Donnie's bedroom and causing a predestination paradox of time travel. This time, Donnie laughs and chooses to stay in bed.

The story ends on the morning following the jet engine accident. Donnie is dead and his body is removed from the house as his family mourns. Gretchen is alive and rides by on her bicycle. Never having met Donnie before, she just remarks with a neighborhood kid about the sad event. She waves to Donnie's mother and there is a sense of recognition between them.

Now I understand why everything happened and how it happened.