Ok, so I've watched the film and done some reading up and have a fairly decent grasp of what its about and the theory behind it, etc :)

However, something still escapes me (spoilers from here on). An error or rare occurance in the 4th dimension (time) causes an engine falling from a plane in the future to travel back in time and hit Donnys house. Why did this action create a transient universe though? Irrespective of what Donny did in the transient universe a plane would still fly the exact same course in every universe irrespective of whether Donny's mum and sister were on it so his actions can NEVER change the event which is an engine falling of a plane and going back in time.

So if (without interference from Frank) Donny would have been sleeping in his bed in the primary universe when the engine fell was a different universe ever created. The anomoly of the engine would never be solved but then it won't be solved after the film anyway as its still an 'artifact' from another time! I hope those who have seen the film get what I'm saying and can shed some light on it :confused:

It just seems that for all Donny's messing around in the transient universe (i.e. most of the film) he does nothing that wouldn't have happened anyway? :confused:

Sure feckin' hope so mate as I'm beginning to wonder about you ;)

Sorry Saxoboy can't help with that one, did you work out who or what the guy was in the red tracksuite (sure it was red), been doing my head in since I saw the film

Cheers,

Leigh

Keep takin the tablets SB!!

Only seen the film once so lots still to learn/pick up. The red tracksuit guy was very random though!

Very good film for those that haven't seen it :)

anyone know how donnie managed to embed an axe into a solid bronze statue?

As the selected 'Living Receiver' (i.e. the guy chosen to fix the bucked dimensions) he is gifted powers. The ability to summon fire and water (burning and flooding), telekinetics, super strength and the ability to open time vortex. This is explianed to a degree in the 'philosophy of time' book.

I had it sussed from the beginning, but one thing's still bugging me.

What happened to his pet bunny rabbit?

It has been a while since I have seen the film so I may of recounted some of the plot wrong. I don't claim to be an expert but this is what I think the film is about.

I don't think the film is about time travel. Is Donnie's story proof of his own consciousness or is it proof of his own Schizophrenia? If we take it that the story is told from Donnie's first and second person viewpoint. does it mean it is real or do we have to look for clues to validate the assumption that what transpires as recounted in the film is imagined?

If we take it as read that he is suffering from Schizophrenia due to the delusions, hallucinations and probably indifference to others opinions. Can it therefore be taken that it is a self fulfilling prophecy. In that he had observed planes flying over his house on many occasions before. So it was fair to assume that sooner or later the probability that something, in this case an engine, would fall on his house as being quite high.

Once he had entered the age range for Schizophrenia to manifest, the seed had already been planted that something would fall on his house. So in fact the first jet engine was just imagined as part of an earlier delusion.
What transpires next was a case of right time, place and location leading to just bad luck and by having his own Mother on the plane was in fact his own convoluted way of committing suicide by remote control or even have his own Mother be responsible for him leaving as well as entering the World.
If you remember earlier in the film Donnie had brought down Patrick Swayzes character which meant that the woman who should of been on the plane did not travel and instead his own mother took her place and in an indirect way his Mother was a tool for his detached method of Suicide. All he had to do was to sleep in his bed and sooner or later something would land on his house from a plane and by his own Mother being on the Plane he could in fact blame her for his Death as well as his Birth. In that as he was her Son, she was responsible for his condition and therefore it was her responsibility to cure him as well. With the only cure for paranoid schizophrenia being death.
Think I'll watch it again tonight.

The engine landed in the 'past' but in a 'parrallel' universe!
In one, Donny lives, in the other, he dies..........?

http://www.tonystuff.co.uk/darko-spoilers.htm


Best explanation ive read

Dont over analyse it, leave some loose ends !

Not everything in a film or any other work can or should be exaplained, you are assuming that the writer wrote it expecting anal types to pick holes in the continuity, the plot, the metaphysics, maybe he or she left some discrepancies in there just to p*ss you off ?

I think Donnie Darko is a work of art, I have enjoyed it by watching it once and didnt go into all the detail as it worked for me, sure there was fuzzy bits but that was the magic, turning your brain in knots but if you sit there trying to build a flow chart it sort of spoils it.

To think I grabbed this fil off the shelf in Blockbusters thinking (for some unknown reason) it was about Gangsters !



Anyone seen K-Pax the, another wonderful film, Did Prote go home ?
Did he take somebody with him, if not where did she go, why did he leave a body (Robert Porter) and not him ? actually I dont think I need to know.

And heres me thinking Donny Darko is just a good but odd film. Didn't realise there has been so much discussion on it.

So when Donny is seeing the watery trails coming from people and knowing where they are going its becuase he is on the path to fix the two universes. He in a way has already been down this path and thats why he knows what the people around him will do next.

Might watch it agian tonight.

The guy in the red tracksuit is the Air Crash investigator.