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I always thought Donnie was laughing at the irony of his situation. He has complete free will at this moment, but he still doesn't have a choice. He knows he has to die to save the universe from destruction, but if he chooses not to die he still will die anyways. He realizes that even with free will he cannot stray from the predetermined path
It’s ironic- those who commit to a path of only good or only evil are ultimately robbing themselves of even the possibility of free will, effectively helping to create a predetermined fate.
Donnie NOT dying at the start of the film is what causes the events of the film. Its a circular paradox. He has to die so that he can't send the jet engine back in time, thus fixing the timeline, The movie basically starts in the 'past' and works forward in time towards the 'present' when the tangent universe is created and then resets. Basically nothing in the film happens. Donnie commits suicide whilst at the same time becoming savour by sacrificing himself to destroy the tangent universe, whilst at the same time saving the entire primary universe and no one will ever know. Its all a lovely paradox and contradiction. Thats why Donnie is laughing when he dies as he is the only one who knows what he's done and its a beautiful irony. Also the lovely irony of an antisocial alternative loner killing himself which actually saves everyone else but they don't even know is just so goth!
I always thought that Donnie Darko was always destined to die and that the tangent universe was to make Donnie die under his own choice as a hero saving the universe like a Christ like figure, he also gets to do things most teenagers would dream, exposing pedophiles, trashing school, standing up to teachers, having a girlfriend and having sex, being a superhero and saving the world, live life to its fullest so he can also sacrifice himself out of acts of love for his friends and family. I hope this makes sense.
yep this is exactly how I interpreted it... and its given away by the line donnie says about the smurfs... its like as you say, a tangent world is created so that he can experience the "full range of human emotions" and consumation.
If you were a douche at a party in the early 2000’s you had two options: 1.) playing an acoustic version of Wonderwall or 2.) explaining the plot of Donnie Darko to disinterested women.
I dressed up as Frank one Halloween and went out on the dance floor and half the women were repulsed and the other half who knew who I was wanted to go in the bathroom and get impregnated by Frank. I also had a copy of the Time Travel book I had printed.
Brother, I just watched a video last night about black holes, white holes, worm holes, 4th dimensional spaces, parallel universes etc. and then I wake up to this. Just perfect mate. I love it, you easily earned a sub. Thank you.
I've happily sat through "Donnie Darko" about a hundred times. The first two or three were flabbergasting. I was left every time with an inexpressible feeling that there was a direct line between cause and effect tying everything together, but I never quite got to it. One thing only seemed to seem undeniable to me, and it was that Donnie was an understated superhero with a role to play that would spare those he loved from a tragedy that, at least to him, seemed far greater than that of his own death under the collapsed jet engine. Then, one day, strolling through a collector's vinyl and DVD store, I found the director's cut. Every other viewing of the film I enjoyed was of this version. All I really missed was the switching out of a Tears for Fears tune with an Echo and the Bunnymen one. But each viewing seemed to make it more concrete for me. Roberta Sparrow wrote that book intending for Donnie to find it. Perhaps the same characters had existed in several dimensions, who knows? But that one thing Roberta whispered to him, "Everything on earth dies alone," I think it was, that really cemented it for me. It seemed at that moment in the movie that Roberta had been walking to and from her post box every day just waiting for Donnie to appear, knowing that at some point, he'd have to, that it was his destiny to prevent the tragic demise of the members of Sparkle Motion, amongst whom was his little sister, Samantha, as well as his mother, and everybody else aboard that ill-fated flight. Then we have Gretchen, the daughter of a woman who'd been married to a complete psychopath, and who'd changed her name as a result of entering a witness protection programme, and who we know had only arrived at Donnie's party that night after her mother had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps Gretchen was also due a horrific end in the universe she shared with Donnie. It began to seem to me that Donnie Darko was a sort of minor messianic figure, and that his arc throughout the film had been a complete exposition of what he had been born capable of, along with his high level of intelligence described by his headmaster as being "intimidating", and his various psychological difficulties, all of which could easily be imagined accompanying a sense of purpose so dark as his was. Of course, that's only my interpretation of who Donnie Darko was. And I've little doubt that I'll watch the film again within the next year.
@MFLimited It is worth it. "The Philosophy of Time Travel" shown throughout, along with a few weird kind of visions Donnie has, some seem a little arbitrary at first, but given a bit of thought, they start to make a bit of sense. It's pretty easy to find now. I hope you enjoy it.
Donnie is the true artifact, it is all tied to him being in the room when the engine falls on him. Him not being there opened the tangent. This is also contradicted by the fact that he was awokened by frank from the tangent.
no the engine was the artifact. It was made clear that artifacts are often metal and big. I think a sword was used as an example. Everything is made clear by The Philosophy of Time Travel
I like how when Donnie says “OK” when the teacher says he could lose his job-it reaffirms to the audience that Donnie still has his common sense and mental faculties, and so when he lashes out at Jim or others he’s not being a mindless prick and hasn’t lost touch.
@@JosephKelly-uj1zo He isn’t saving it. He’s destroying the one he is in, also that the original one goes on. Why do you think Roberts walks back and forth across the street? She’s expecting his letter, and she likely knows she’ll be run over, as she’s out there when it happens, even though he gave her the letter. If Donnie saw Frank’s path, then why is he so surprised about Gretchen dying? Why doesn’t he know they’ll all be in the street when Frank hits Gretchen? Why does he rush, with such urgency, to Roberta’s house, after seeing into Frank’s path, only to act like they just went to sneak in? Once they arrive, he has none of that urgency. It’s one place where every theory, that I’ve ever heard, falls apart. Depending on one’s perspective, there are others, like his mom being doomed to die, in order for Donnie to. It create a chicken and the egg paradox, because if the portal wasn’t there without Donnie, then how does it happen the first time, and how does Donnie die if that same plane doesn’t lose the engine to a portal, in 30 days, from the end of the movie? What caused the engine to go through the first time? If the tangential universe, didn’t exist yet, then how did it happen? Did Roberta send it? Is the universe correcting itself? Why would a God need such a thing? And that’s where it all becomes a circular debate.
This is the first time I’ve heard someone explain Donnie Darko this way. The parallels to Jesus and people having an innate pull towards self sacrifice because of a self sacrificing God is something that resonates with me. Overall very understandable analysis, great job.
Funny you should mention that. Many speculate that the point of Christianity was to weaken the Roman Empire by displaying a suffering messiah and replacing pagan cultures with values of “turning the other cheek” and what not.
@@iamthelaw9369The moral and ethical precepts taught by Jesus were not created by him, though. The Golden Rule has always been with us and these ideas were not revolutionary in that time. Indeed, they are the ethics equivalent of "common sense." What was radical about Jesus and the early Christian movement was the zealous commitment to those precepts even at great social and material cost, paired with an undeniable streak of Jewish anti-Roman political thought.
But that speculation is wrong. Self sacrifice is objectively the greatest form of love you can show. Evil is easy, it takes effort to be good. Raising a child is difficult, running is easy. There is objective good, and self sacrifice is the greatest form of love and strength that exists. It's easy to run and to betray. Evil is getting people to think that love is wrong and strength is power. We are app destined to die in this form, strength is temporary at best.
Donnie’s laugh always resonated with me. It isn’t cynical or consolatory. It’s epiphanic. He was overcome by the glorious whimsy of an unanswerable question answered: falling asleep is waking up.
Honestly I’ve seen so many explanation videos on this and this is BY FAR my favorite! Can’t wait to make my fiancé watch this after he watched the film for the first time 👏🏻
Awesome video essay. Donnie Darko has a lot to chew on. Just rewatched the movie last week and noticed a few new things to me and I haven't heard anyone else mention them. When Donnie first sees the 'directional blobs' it's during an NFL game with the Washington Redskins. The team logo had a profile of a Native American with 2 feathers fixed in his hair pointing down. If you imagine the feathers pointing up they resemble the shape of rabbit ears. The student Frank has many features like that of an Indigenous person. Also Cherita Chen, the girl at school with the earmuffs on (She's the one who gets freaked out and runs off after Donnie promises her one day things will be better for her). Although an Asian character her darker skin tone and higher cheekbones are like that of Native American women seen in old western photos. Both Frank and Cherita do acts of creation related to the events leading to Donnie's sacrifice. Frank of course made the rabbit costume that Donnie has visions of. Cherita did an interpretive dance at the talent show wearing a white dress that resembles the white robe worn by 'Grandma Death' when she causes Frank to swerve his car away and accidentally run over Gretchen. Cherita used a giant fan with leaves blowing on the stage which is mirrored in the crash scene which has a howling wind. All combined it seems to me there's an intentional allusion to Native Americans being key influences in the events leading up to Donnie stopping the 'end of the world'.
@@nihilismistheonlyway4680 Cherita is way more in the movie than I'd noticed before. Sits right behind Donnie and watches intensely when Gretchen sits next to him. Also when the teacher played by Noah Wyle gives Donnie the time travel book Cherita is just outside the door listening in on the conversation.
This is the only video ive ever watched about this movie that made any sense. Thank you for looking so deeply into it and explaining it in a way i can understand. Well done.
I feel like the "rules" set by the Philosophy of Time Travel could be a great basis for a game. It's the exact kind of bizarre reality that you would see from a Remedy or Supermassive title.
To me, Donny surviving the accident by sleepwalking, has always been the trigger for the tangent timeline. So by sacrificing him self, he restores order. While to him "the world ends", his experiences and connections to the people he met makes him want to save them. And he knows how. It reveals like a joke only he is getting, because only he knows. He laughs and stays in bed letting his troubled life end to prevents everything bad that will happen (maybe also a real apocalypse). The only bad thing he is therefore permitting to continue is Cunningham false preaching and "crimes", what doesn't sound like a total happy ending. As someone who quite often daydreams or feels the wish to not exist, the melancholy of Donny knowing life will be fine(r) without him, touches something in me. It's a mad world.
I felt like Gretchen is within her own time loop she became R Sparrow and wrote the philosophy of time travel. So her going back to become Sparrow was the inciting incident that caused the split universe. It's why she's on the bike just how Donnie was in his bike, a metal craft of any kind.
To me Donnie's laughter at the end is him finally understanding the punchline in the cosmic joke of life. Buddhists believe that "laughter connects us to the very universe itself at a deep level".
Cunningham was right all along. All of Donnie's problems stemmed from his fear of death and the future. That's why at the end, he realizes that there is nothing to be afraid of, and he is content. But just because Cunningham was correct doesn't mean he was good/innocent.
If Frank's objective, as every other Donnie assistant, is to help him fulfill his role of staying in his bedroom, under the engine, to die... then why is the same Frank speaking to him at night, making him leave the house to avoid said engine?
Because the engine that was supposed to hit him, went into the tangent universe. Frank needed him alive to fix things, and send one back to correct time.
Great analysis man! One of the best I've seen. Donnie Darko is my favourite film of all time. I cannot express enough how much I love this movie. I enjoy both the original and directors cut. I love the 80s period, the music, the cinematography, the language, the sci fi and mystery, and the darkness that lies just below the surface of the whole movie. Jake Gyllenhaal is incredible as Donnie, and it is no wonder it launched him on his way to become the A tier actor that he is today. My wife absolutely adores him 😂 - and I'm OK with it because he's Donnie Fkn Darko! I don't know how Richard Kelly came up with such a masterpiece. There is honestly nothing else like it. I remember when I first rented it out around 2002/2003. The cover, with Frank in his rabbit mask just called to me haha - I knew nothing about this movie, but rented it purely because of the cover and bizarre name. I just remember getting to the end, teary eyed like a baby and thinking "WTF did I just experience". The Gary Jules cover of Tears For Fears' Mad World at the end of the movie has to be one of the most iconic film+music scenes in history. If someone doesn't get emotional watching this scene, there has to be something wrong with them 😆 I have probably watched it maybe 30+ times, and I still love it. Seriously, what an incredible masterpiece of a movie.
My favorite movie. My favorite scan is when they are all sitting and having dinner and Donnie and Suzanne start going at each other and it ends with the little girl saying “what’s a fuck ass” and the dad cracks up
I love how the real Frank is dating Donnie's sister. She indeed has good taste in men, he's like an older artist... He's a handsome dude, picked to be Donnie's Frank in the tangent universe... with that shot out eye ball .. a grim reminder that he must die ... but later. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EYE?>?>?>? Theatrical cut he says IM SO SORRY (as he looks at Gretchen)... DIRECTORS CUT... HE JUST TURNS HIS HEAD...
I think his laughing in bed was a kind of cathartic outburst over the irony that he had to choose to remain in his bed at that moment. It is a realization that he can avoid what he fears, and an acceptance that he no longer has a destiny to follow in the primary universe beyond that moment.
Didn't Donnie in the ultimate timeline set fire to the new age guru exposing his preditile crime? Is that now concealed in this primeline, doesn't sound like a happy ending to me
Jim Cunningham played by Patrick Swayze wakes up crying after the tangent universe collapses and is shown in some external online material to have committed suicide from his haunted guilt.
What a great interpretation. I was always confused during this movie, but I’ve always thought the ending was to represent that while Donnie was expecting the end of the world, in actuality, the world didn’t end in itself, but our deaths represent the end of the world from our own perspectives. So, in a way, we all experience “the end of the world” at our deaths
I don't think his death is sacrifice; it's completion. He didn't necessarily have to die after he'd completed his task as the receiver, so it was ultimately his choice to go on and maybe that's why he's laughing right before.
My first friend in life showed me this movie when it first came out, was my favorite movie for 10+ years. RIP Max - those who love you think of you every day ❤
I always interpreted the cause of the fracture between universes to be Donnie escaping death. I watched the director's cut on DVD when it came out as my first viewing so I was aware of the book pages. It was still my first thought and I could never rationalize entirely why it seemed Donnie was both the cause and solution to the the universe tearing apart, but it seemed correct. It was always the same issues I pondered when I was a child being taught about Christ. Why would a God need to have his creations torment him and ultimately sacrifice himself to himself to save everyone else? I don't know, but it seemed to be the same with Donnie. His death was crucial, necessary and inevitable, but at the same time, like Christ, he had to choose it. Unknowable things is all I can tell myself so I can sleep at night.
At the end when folks question whether or not Donny has to die, he definitely does. Donnies future/past is the track that the engine is following in the scene of it reentering the primary universe. The film has already shown the future of an individual with the "blob" (i do think in some sense the "blob" is representing an amorphous pathway, even though the future events seem to be set.) Anyway yea donnies future is the path of the engine falling, and it must follow this path else the closing of the tangent universe can not happen.
Great video! I've been puzzling over this movie since I saw it in high school. Any plans to revisit the Creep franchise now the The Creep Tapes miniseries is out?
I know, it's kind of refreshing to have an author or writer admit that the story is just a story, and they don't really know what it means. It wasn't written as an allegory, and that it's ok for everyone to have their OWN interpretation of what the movies mean to them. It drives me nuts seeing videos like "why EVERYONE is wrong about The Mist" and then they say the Religious Zealot was right all along, because the Mist clears after the kid is sacrificed. When that is just Irony. It doesn't mean she was right, in fact, it kind of proves that she wasn't right. Because it isn't God that comes out of the mist, it's the military, the very people who created the scenario that allowed the mist to exist in our world. The mist isn't a sign of the Christian God it's the antithesis of it and is more akin to a Lovecraftian God, but they see something happen that calls back to a part in the script, and they say THIS IS THE MESSAGE. GOD WAS THE ANSWER. The Religious Zealot was right. Which tells you they don't know the first thing about King's writing, and they don't understand what irony actually is. So. I like it better when people just take the stance that we can all be right about what the story is. Because in the end, that is what makes storytelling so amazing. It's about WHAT YOU get from the story, more than what the person gets from telling it.
I knew you'd do me proud. This movie is my generation's 'IT''. Aka EVERY person under 35 but mainly us in our early 20's, were 'culturally hit' with this movie. Did we get it? Not fully and that wasn't the point although we did try very hard, but the soundtrack became the soundtrack to our lives and the ironic iconic juxtaposition of actors like 80's heartthrob Patrick Swayze alongside 90's tabloid party girl hipster child star actress Drew Barrymore with revered working actors 'where you know the faces but not their names' like the actress playing his Mother, ignited a fire in Hollywood towards Independent movies. No one knew what it meant but everyone knew Donnie Darko. Why is your essay so good? Partly seeing your genuine interest in understanding life and partly through your background as an active Christian-taught/partook Bible study or/and went on missionaries, so you understand the value in sharing information to an audience. It's not the best by far but nevertheless the best explanation of Donnie Darko I've read/heard/viewed since it came out in the 2000's. Nothing was new about the information you shared. What was new, was the explanation. I am a non labeler but if you had to stick a label on me it would be Atheist, but as I get older and gain a greater passion for Learning, the more important I find Christianity is to Cultural Society; exist-in celebration as much as judgement, not only the latter. Christians convey a great appreciation for communication, which is charming and transformative. It means that when you do tackle knowledge you wish to share, their is an effort to make the information digestible, coherent and valuable to the viewer/participant/listener/reader. This unfortunately very short video essay was not about how smart you are, how complex the movie is therefore showing how smart you are to get it, nor how stupid we all are if we are not able to get it. In short, it was not convoluted, pompous, pretentious, elitist, meandering and exclusive. So Thank you for that.
I'm very atheist and very anti religion but as I get older I see why "regular people" need it in their lives to explain the existential happenings... so i don't hate as much anymore.
the absurdity of fearing death is why I think he's laughing at the end. the entire alt universe is an attempt to not die alone, the reality is that there is no alone in death.
I think it was necessary for Donnie to die at the end of the film. Frank calls him out of the house and saves Donnie so Donnie can save the timeline by destroying the tangent universe. Donnie saves the universe at has own expense. Donnie is a flawed and troubled character. Was it suicide or completing the destruction of the tangent universe? Hero or antihero? I think hero and saviour as opposed to antihero and suicide.
I always understood that he figured out he was supposed to d*e from the engine crash, and all the craziness was a result of that. Like shifting from reality to the chaos of our dreaming state. When given the opportunity to re-live the event, he chooses to allow it to happen as intended out of hopelessness, not duty. But I never saw the directors cut.
I always thought the rabbit had something to do with Alice in Wonderland because of its pre0ccupation with time. Alice and Wonderland is one of the stories used in MKUltra Mind Control and these rabbits show up in artworks created with victims of that programming.
“It’s A Wonderful Life” … The future, our future possibility as opposed to finality Necessity versus contingency Interconnectedness versus disconnectedness The existential predicament we find ourselves thrown into and the point at which some of us come to the realization that we are all standing at the edge of the abyss… meaninglessness… The infinite state of nonbeing that is moving towards every one of us as the seconds, minutes, and hours tick by.
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I always thought Donnie was laughing at the irony of his situation. He has complete free will at this moment, but he still doesn't have a choice. He knows he has to die to save the universe from destruction, but if he chooses not to die he still will die anyways. He realizes that even with free will he cannot stray from the predetermined path
It’s ironic- those who commit to a path of only good or only evil are ultimately robbing themselves of even the possibility of free will, effectively helping to create a predetermined fate.
Donnie NOT dying at the start of the film is what causes the events of the film. Its a circular paradox. He has to die so that he can't send the jet engine back in time, thus fixing the timeline,
The movie basically starts in the 'past' and works forward in time towards the 'present' when the tangent universe is created and then resets. Basically nothing in the film happens. Donnie commits suicide whilst at the same time becoming savour by sacrificing himself to destroy the tangent universe, whilst at the same time saving the entire primary universe and no one will ever know. Its all a lovely paradox and contradiction. Thats why Donnie is laughing when he dies as he is the only one who knows what he's done and its a beautiful irony.
Also the lovely irony of an antisocial alternative loner killing himself which actually saves everyone else but they don't even know is just so goth!
I always thought that Donnie Darko was always destined to die and that the tangent universe was to make Donnie die under his own choice as a hero saving the universe like a Christ like figure, he also gets to do things most teenagers would dream, exposing pedophiles, trashing school, standing up to teachers, having a girlfriend and having sex, being a superhero and saving the world, live life to its fullest so he can also sacrifice himself out of acts of love for his friends and family. I hope this makes sense.
I couldn't agree more
yep this is exactly how I interpreted it... and its given away by the line donnie says about the smurfs... its like as you say, a tangent world is created so that he can experience the "full range of human emotions" and consumation.
pretty much full on got it, I love how everyone over-complicates this film.
Exactly bro. It makes perfect sense.
Sounds like the Highschool experience to me 😅
If you were a douche at a party in the early 2000’s you had two options: 1.) playing an acoustic version of Wonderwall or 2.) explaining the plot of Donnie Darko to disinterested women.
I dressed up as Frank one Halloween and went out on the dance floor and half the women were repulsed and the other half who knew who I was wanted to go in the bathroom and get impregnated by Frank.
I also had a copy of the Time Travel book I had printed.
I was that Donnie Darko douche for sure 😂
I just like the way he uncovered a sick world and how society cognitively denies it.
Much like the real world.
This was the most clear and easy to understand but didn't take any leaps to make sense of the movie. Thank you
Brother, I just watched a video last night about black holes, white holes, worm holes, 4th dimensional spaces, parallel universes etc. and then I wake up to this. Just perfect mate. I love it, you easily earned a sub. Thank you.
I've happily sat through "Donnie Darko" about a hundred times. The first two or three were flabbergasting. I was left every time with an inexpressible feeling that there was a direct line between cause and effect tying everything together, but I never quite got to it. One thing only seemed to seem undeniable to me, and it was that Donnie was an understated superhero with a role to play that would spare those he loved from a tragedy that, at least to him, seemed far greater than that of his own death under the collapsed jet engine.
Then, one day, strolling through a collector's vinyl and DVD store, I found the director's cut. Every other viewing of the film I enjoyed was of this version. All I really missed was the switching out of a Tears for Fears tune with an Echo and the Bunnymen one. But each viewing seemed to make it more concrete for me. Roberta Sparrow wrote that book intending for Donnie to find it. Perhaps the same characters had existed in several dimensions, who knows? But that one thing Roberta whispered to him, "Everything on earth dies alone," I think it was, that really cemented it for me. It seemed at that moment in the movie that Roberta had been walking to and from her post box every day just waiting for Donnie to appear, knowing that at some point, he'd have to, that it was his destiny to prevent the tragic demise of the members of Sparkle Motion, amongst whom was his little sister, Samantha, as well as his mother, and everybody else aboard that ill-fated flight. Then we have Gretchen, the daughter of a woman who'd been married to a complete psychopath, and who'd changed her name as a result of entering a witness protection programme, and who we know had only arrived at Donnie's party that night after her mother had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps Gretchen was also due a horrific end in the universe she shared with Donnie. It began to seem to me that Donnie Darko was a sort of minor messianic figure, and that his arc throughout the film had been a complete exposition of what he had been born capable of, along with his high level of intelligence described by his headmaster as being "intimidating", and his various psychological difficulties, all of which could easily be imagined accompanying a sense of purpose so dark as his was.
Of course, that's only my interpretation of who Donnie Darko was. And I've little doubt that I'll watch the film again within the next year.
I need to watch that directors cut
@MFLimited It is worth it. "The Philosophy of Time Travel" shown throughout, along with a few weird kind of visions Donnie has, some seem a little arbitrary at first, but given a bit of thought, they start to make a bit of sense. It's pretty easy to find now. I hope you enjoy it.
Donnie is the true artifact, it is all tied to him being in the room when the engine falls on him. Him not being there opened the tangent. This is also contradicted by the fact that he was awokened by frank from the tangent.
no the engine was the artifact. It was made clear that artifacts are often metal and big. I think a sword was used as an example. Everything is made clear by The Philosophy of Time Travel
I’m going to put the word “awokened” into my vocabulary now
Awokened
Substantiated not contradicted
@mait4051 Arrowhead was the example mate. You have to watch the directors cut to have snippets of Roberta Sparrows book.
It is a haunting Masterpiece and one of the more unique films I've ever seen.
I like how when Donnie says “OK” when the teacher says he could lose his job-it reaffirms to the audience that Donnie still has his common sense and mental faculties, and so when he lashes out at Jim or others he’s not being a mindless prick and hasn’t lost touch.
That's a great point.
I like that 🤙🏻
Subtle observation
So true. He knows he's the only one who can save the universe.
@@JosephKelly-uj1zo
He isn’t saving it.
He’s destroying the one he is in, also that the original one goes on.
Why do you think Roberts walks back and forth across the street? She’s expecting his letter, and she likely knows she’ll be run over, as she’s out there when it happens, even though he gave her the letter.
If Donnie saw Frank’s path, then why is he so surprised about Gretchen dying? Why doesn’t he know they’ll all be in the street when Frank hits Gretchen?
Why does he rush, with such urgency, to Roberta’s house, after seeing into Frank’s path, only to act like they just went to sneak in?
Once they arrive, he has none of that urgency. It’s one place where every theory, that I’ve ever heard, falls apart.
Depending on one’s perspective, there are others, like his mom being doomed to die, in order for Donnie to.
It create a chicken and the egg paradox, because if the portal wasn’t there without Donnie, then how does it happen the first time, and how does Donnie die if that same plane doesn’t lose the engine to a portal, in 30 days, from the end of the movie?
What caused the engine to go through the first time?
If the tangential universe, didn’t exist yet, then how did it happen?
Did Roberta send it?
Is the universe correcting itself? Why would a God need such a thing? And that’s where it all becomes a circular debate.
I'm voting for Dukakis
Exactly.
I’m starting to doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
The tangent universe had to go because in it Dukakis would have won.
In one of zalifinakis's old standups, he jokes about having a Dukakis sticker on his suburu.
This is the first time I’ve heard someone explain Donnie Darko this way. The parallels to Jesus and people having an innate pull towards self sacrifice because of a self sacrificing God is something that resonates with me. Overall very understandable analysis, great job.
Funny you should mention that. Many speculate that the point of Christianity was to weaken the Roman Empire by displaying a suffering messiah and replacing pagan cultures with values of “turning the other cheek” and what not.
@@iamthelaw9369The moral and ethical precepts taught by Jesus were not created by him, though. The Golden Rule has always been with us and these ideas were not revolutionary in that time. Indeed, they are the ethics equivalent of "common sense." What was radical about Jesus and the early Christian movement was the zealous commitment to those precepts even at great social and material cost, paired with an undeniable streak of Jewish anti-Roman political thought.
But that speculation is wrong. Self sacrifice is objectively the greatest form of love you can show. Evil is easy, it takes effort to be good. Raising a child is difficult, running is easy. There is objective good, and self sacrifice is the greatest form of love and strength that exists. It's easy to run and to betray. Evil is getting people to think that love is wrong and strength is power. We are app destined to die in this form, strength is temporary at best.
Donnie’s laugh always resonated with me. It isn’t cynical or consolatory. It’s epiphanic. He was overcome by the glorious whimsy of an unanswerable question answered: falling asleep is waking up.
Excellent analysis. Brought some much needed understanding to me. Liked and subscribed.
Ah thanks so much!
Honestly I’ve seen so many explanation videos on this and this is BY FAR my favorite! Can’t wait to make my fiancé watch this after he watched the film for the first time 👏🏻
May he rest in peace...
Give the guy a break
Awesome video essay. Donnie Darko has a lot to chew on.
Just rewatched the movie last week and noticed a few new things to me and I haven't heard anyone else mention them. When Donnie first sees the 'directional blobs' it's during an NFL game with the Washington Redskins. The team logo had a profile of a Native American with 2 feathers fixed in his hair pointing down. If you imagine the feathers pointing up they resemble the shape of rabbit ears.
The student Frank has many features like that of an Indigenous person. Also Cherita Chen, the girl at school with the earmuffs on (She's the one who gets freaked out and runs off after Donnie promises her one day things will be better for her). Although an Asian character her darker skin tone and higher cheekbones are like that of Native American women seen in old western photos.
Both Frank and Cherita do acts of creation related to the events leading to Donnie's sacrifice. Frank of course made the rabbit costume that Donnie has visions of. Cherita did an interpretive dance at the talent show wearing a white dress that resembles the white robe worn by 'Grandma Death' when she causes Frank to swerve his car away and accidentally run over Gretchen. Cherita used a giant fan with leaves blowing on the stage which is mirrored in the crash scene which has a howling wind.
All combined it seems to me there's an intentional allusion to Native Americans being key influences in the events leading up to Donnie stopping the 'end of the world'.
I've seen the movie like literally 30+ times and have never picked up on that but I'll keep it in mind for the next time I watch it.
@@nihilismistheonlyway4680 Cherita is way more in the movie than I'd noticed before. Sits right behind Donnie and watches intensely when Gretchen sits next to him. Also when the teacher played by Noah Wyle gives Donnie the time travel book Cherita is just outside the door listening in on the conversation.
I love this movie so much i got a sleeve dedicated to it 🙌
Great work 🤘
Odd i always took the rabbit as a Harvey reference. The old movie where a guy has a invisible giant rabbit friend named Harvey
Excellent analysis, you are good at this
Ah that's very kind, thank you!
One my favorite movies ever! Love your explanation. And I liked the idea he sacrifices himself to save Gretchen from the time-line where she dies.
i have been wrestling with the meaning of this movie forever. your making alot of sense out of it . thumbs up and subbed , great video!
Keep doing what you’re doing, Thomas! You’re killing it!
Ah too kind, thank you!
This is the only video ive ever watched about this movie that made any sense. Thank you for looking so deeply into it and explaining it in a way i can understand. Well done.
This was fantastic, you earned my sub!
I feel like the "rules" set by the Philosophy of Time Travel could be a great basis for a game. It's the exact kind of bizarre reality that you would see from a Remedy or Supermassive title.
Agreed! Such a fun concept
Its horror, suspense, sci fi, dark comedy, drama, psychological thriller, and has that raw indie feel, rolled into one.
This was a great analysis. Thank you ❤
To me, Donny surviving the accident by sleepwalking, has always been the trigger for the tangent timeline.
So by sacrificing him self, he restores order. While to him "the world ends", his experiences and connections to the people he met makes him want to save them. And he knows how. It reveals like a joke only he is getting, because only he knows. He laughs and stays in bed letting his troubled life end to prevents everything bad that will happen (maybe also a real apocalypse). The only bad thing he is therefore permitting to continue is Cunningham false preaching and "crimes", what doesn't sound like a total happy ending.
As someone who quite often daydreams or feels the wish to not exist, the melancholy of Donny knowing life will be fine(r) without him, touches something in me. It's a mad world.
I felt like Gretchen is within her own time loop she became R Sparrow and wrote the philosophy of time travel. So her going back to become Sparrow was the inciting incident that caused the split universe. It's why she's on the bike just how Donnie was in his bike, a metal craft of any kind.
This will always be perhaps my all-time favorite movie. Only contender would be the dark crystal
To me Donnie's laughter at the end is him finally understanding the punchline in the cosmic joke of life. Buddhists believe that "laughter connects us to the very universe itself at a deep level".
Great analysis. Liked and subbed
I just realized that the art and science teachers becoming a couple is a metaphor for understanding the world.
Cunningham was right all along. All of Donnie's problems stemmed from his fear of death and the future. That's why at the end, he realizes that there is nothing to be afraid of, and he is content. But just because Cunningham was correct doesn't mean he was good/innocent.
Brilliant! Love your Thoughtful Consideration, your Time, and your Insight Explaining deeper meanings "Donnie Darko". Great Channel 👍 😊
i remember seeing this movie when i was a kid & just rewatched it & you dropped this video right on time. love the movie!
If Frank's objective, as every other Donnie assistant, is to help him fulfill his role of staying in his bedroom, under the engine, to die... then why is the same Frank speaking to him at night, making him leave the house to avoid said engine?
Because the engine that was supposed to hit him, went into the tangent universe. Frank needed him alive to fix things, and send one back to correct time.
@@denisehiggs8938 how did donnie send one back?
Because the sacrifice has to be a choice for the time loop to be closed.
@@mydragonseyes8177 why?
@@digitalcoffin666if I answered that I could lose my job.
I absolutely love this film. The visuals down to the soundtrack.
Wow 14 years after watching it it finally makes sense. It was a great film regardless of understanding it or not.
Amazing video just after I watched a video about "the Internet not being cool anymore"
Great analysis man! One of the best I've seen.
Donnie Darko is my favourite film of all time. I cannot express enough how much I love this movie.
I enjoy both the original and directors cut. I love the 80s period, the music, the cinematography, the language, the sci fi and mystery, and the darkness that lies just below the surface of the whole movie. Jake Gyllenhaal is incredible as Donnie, and it is no wonder it launched him on his way to become the A tier actor that he is today. My wife absolutely adores him 😂 - and I'm OK with it because he's Donnie Fkn Darko!
I don't know how Richard Kelly came up with such a masterpiece. There is honestly nothing else like it.
I remember when I first rented it out around 2002/2003. The cover, with Frank in his rabbit mask just called to me haha - I knew nothing about this movie, but rented it purely because of the cover and bizarre name. I just remember getting to the end, teary eyed like a baby and thinking "WTF did I just experience". The Gary Jules cover of Tears For Fears' Mad World at the end of the movie has to be one of the most iconic film+music scenes in history. If someone doesn't get emotional watching this scene, there has to be something wrong with them 😆
I have probably watched it maybe 30+ times, and I still love it.
Seriously, what an incredible masterpiece of a movie.
Great video. You should make a video about the deeper meaning of Sphere.
Donnie Darko is about circumcision. Thank me for this insight.
Thank you sir
So is Silent Hill
@@steviewolfeofficial this guy gets the idea
@@QuantumTelephoneI don’t get it
There's so much in that movie, I knew when I saw it the first time I would have to disect it over time. Great review and instant sub yo
"Imagining the ten dimensions" is absolutely mind blowing. Nice reference
Excellet video and thought experience. I really enjoyed watching this and remembering such a great movie
My favorite movie. My favorite scan is when they are all sitting and having dinner and Donnie and Suzanne start going at each other and it ends with the little girl saying “what’s a fuck ass” and the dad cracks up
I loved when he faked coughed to choke his laughter when the teacher said Donnie told her to shove the life line card up her ass lol
"Tell me, Samantha how exactly does one suck a fuck?"
Thank you! I loves this amazing movie, one of the best I've seen.
The narrator being a doppelganger of the protagonist only adds to the mystery
That was the best interpretation I’ve seen so far. Before this video I couldn’t understand this movie at all.
I love how the real Frank is dating Donnie's sister. She indeed has good taste in men, he's like an older artist... He's a handsome dude, picked to be Donnie's Frank in the tangent universe... with that shot out eye ball .. a grim reminder that he must die ... but later. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EYE?>?>?>? Theatrical cut he says IM SO SORRY (as he looks at Gretchen)... DIRECTORS CUT... HE JUST TURNS HIS HEAD...
I think his laughing in bed was a kind of cathartic outburst over the irony that he had to choose to remain in his bed at that moment. It is a realization that he can avoid what he fears, and an acceptance that he no longer has a destiny to follow in the primary universe beyond that moment.
A great sci-fi film that is anchored by Jake's iconic performance.
Didn't Donnie in the ultimate timeline set fire to the new age guru exposing his preditile crime? Is that now concealed in this primeline, doesn't sound like a happy ending to me
Jim Cunningham played by Patrick Swayze wakes up crying after the tangent universe collapses and is shown in some external online material to have committed suicide from his haunted guilt.
@MDBowron was the online story in the movie?
What a great interpretation. I was always confused during this movie, but I’ve always thought the ending was to represent that while Donnie was expecting the end of the world, in actuality, the world didn’t end in itself, but our deaths represent the end of the world from our own perspectives. So, in a way, we all experience “the end of the world” at our deaths
I don't think his death is sacrifice; it's completion. He didn't necessarily have to die after he'd completed his task as the receiver, so it was ultimately his choice to go on and maybe that's why he's laughing right before.
I thought the rabbit was referencing Harvey the invisible rabbit fey spirit
The film is great. I just thought i was weird until i noticed that it was taught during media studies class at a school i workd at.
Interesting analysis.. theory ... whatever way you interpret it... It's a masterpiece and it's very moving
My first friend in life showed me this movie when it first came out, was my favorite movie for 10+ years.
RIP Max - those who love you think of you every day ❤
I feel that the show Dark was influenced significantly by Donnie Darko. Beyond the names of course, but that certainly helps.
I always interpreted the cause of the fracture between universes to be Donnie escaping death. I watched the director's cut on DVD when it came out as my first viewing so I was aware of the book pages. It was still my first thought and I could never rationalize entirely why it seemed Donnie was both the cause and solution to the the universe tearing apart, but it seemed correct. It was always the same issues I pondered when I was a child being taught about Christ. Why would a God need to have his creations torment him and ultimately sacrifice himself to himself to save everyone else? I don't know, but it seemed to be the same with Donnie. His death was crucial, necessary and inevitable, but at the same time, like Christ, he had to choose it.
Unknowable things is all I can tell myself so I can sleep at night.
At the end when folks question whether or not Donny has to die, he definitely does. Donnies future/past is the track that the engine is following in the scene of it reentering the primary universe. The film has already shown the future of an individual with the "blob" (i do think in some sense the "blob" is representing an amorphous pathway, even though the future events seem to be set.)
Anyway yea donnies future is the path of the engine falling, and it must follow this path else the closing of the tangent universe can not happen.
I am so happy to see this interpretation. I watch them all. Same way I try to find the matrix + minority report comparisons
Great video! I've been puzzling over this movie since I saw it in high school.
Any plans to revisit the Creep franchise now the The Creep Tapes miniseries is out?
I know, it's kind of refreshing to have an author or writer admit that the story is just a story, and they don't really know what it means. It wasn't written as an allegory, and that it's ok for everyone to have their OWN interpretation of what the movies mean to them.
It drives me nuts seeing videos like "why EVERYONE is wrong about The Mist" and then they say the Religious Zealot was right all along, because the Mist clears after the kid is sacrificed. When that is just Irony. It doesn't mean she was right, in fact, it kind of proves that she wasn't right. Because it isn't God that comes out of the mist, it's the military, the very people who created the scenario that allowed the mist to exist in our world. The mist isn't a sign of the Christian God it's the antithesis of it and is more akin to a Lovecraftian God, but they see something happen that calls back to a part in the script, and they say THIS IS THE MESSAGE. GOD WAS THE ANSWER. The Religious Zealot was right. Which tells you they don't know the first thing about King's writing, and they don't understand what irony actually is.
So. I like it better when people just take the stance that we can all be right about what the story is. Because in the end, that is what makes storytelling so amazing. It's about WHAT YOU get from the story, more than what the person gets from telling it.
Kat williams had joke about water being only on earth, and cant be made, what in the universe has water?
Why no mention about ‘Evil Dead’ being listed above ‘Last Temptation of Christ’ on the movie house marquee?
Preterism says that we are in the little season
This is and always will be one of the best movies of all time. I have rewatched it over and over since I was a teen.
A bullet casing.
Good work!
Good work keep it up 🎉🎉🎉🎉
The manipulated living and dead act in the same way events in a Butterfly effect would occur
I liked Kelly's other film: Southland Tales, with the rock.
Hellll yeah, southland tales us so underrated
@MrXHCx Have you ever seen; Beyond the Black Rainbow?
@-WillAlone- yeah, i liked it, though it was a little slow. I liked Mandy too.
@MrXHCx Mandy was Hard.I noticed that yt just released 12 Monkeys for free!
Mandy is Hard! I recently seen that Yt released 12 Monkeys for free.
I knew you'd do me proud. This movie is my generation's 'IT''. Aka EVERY person under 35 but mainly us in our early 20's, were 'culturally hit' with this movie.
Did we get it? Not fully and that wasn't the point although we did try very hard, but the soundtrack became the soundtrack to our lives and the ironic iconic juxtaposition of actors like 80's heartthrob Patrick Swayze alongside 90's tabloid party girl hipster child star actress Drew Barrymore with revered working actors 'where you know the faces but not their names' like the actress playing his Mother, ignited a fire in Hollywood towards Independent movies.
No one knew what it meant but everyone knew Donnie Darko.
Why is your essay so good?
Partly seeing your genuine interest in understanding life and partly through your background as an active Christian-taught/partook Bible study or/and went on missionaries, so you understand the value in sharing information to an audience.
It's not the best by far but nevertheless the best explanation of Donnie Darko I've read/heard/viewed since it came out in the 2000's.
Nothing was new about the information you shared. What was new, was the explanation.
I am a non labeler but if you had to stick a label on me it would be Atheist, but as I get older and gain a greater passion for Learning, the more important I find Christianity is to Cultural Society; exist-in celebration as much as judgement, not only the latter.
Christians convey a great appreciation for communication, which is charming and transformative. It means that when you do tackle knowledge you wish to share, their is an effort to make the information digestible, coherent and valuable to the viewer/participant/listener/reader.
This unfortunately very short video essay was not about how smart you are, how complex the movie is therefore showing how smart you are to get it, nor how stupid we all are if we are not able to get it.
In short, it was not convoluted, pompous, pretentious, elitist, meandering and exclusive.
So Thank you for that.
I'm 39 and my generation was still hit too! ❤
I'm very atheist and very anti religion but as I get older I see why "regular people" need it in their lives to explain the existential happenings... so i don't hate as much anymore.
He can’t continue the conversation because Donnie is brining up God and religion in a public school.
The school wasn’t public. It was a private catholic school, thus the ban on “why” questions
Ha i drove my catholic school teachers crazy with why questions. Along with how…
Our public school indoctrinates christianity all the time. I guess its ok if YOU decide what the kids believe, right?
the absurdity of fearing death is why I think he's laughing at the end.
the entire alt universe is an attempt to not die alone, the reality is that there is no alone in death.
Still my favorite movie. The soundtrack, the acting, the plot. Masterpiece.
You guys should check out:Archives Final Project! It reminds me of Donnie Darko a bit.
I think it was necessary for Donnie to die at the end of the film. Frank calls him out of the house and saves Donnie so Donnie can save the timeline by destroying the tangent universe. Donnie saves the universe at has own expense. Donnie is a flawed and troubled character. Was it suicide or completing the destruction of the tangent universe? Hero or antihero? I think hero and saviour as opposed to antihero and suicide.
Only took twelve minutes of this video to make me cry.
I've talked about everything in the movie but yeah nice one mate
What other film would use Greene´s short story The Destructors...
Please please please do Late night with the devil!!
I'd love to hear your take on all of it!!
can't belive you didnt talk about the cia agent smoking a cigarette when donnie goes to kiss his new gf
I remember when I first watched this movie years and years ago. It was such an interesting movie and I love the plot and ending.
I always understood that he figured out he was supposed to d*e from the engine crash, and all the craziness was a result of that. Like shifting from reality to the chaos of our dreaming state. When given the opportunity to re-live the event, he chooses to allow it to happen as intended out of hopelessness, not duty. But I never saw the directors cut.
I adore this film.
Phenomenal video
Nice Muholland Drive lamp in the background.
I always thought the rabbit had something to do with Alice in Wonderland because of its pre0ccupation with time. Alice and Wonderland is one of the stories used in MKUltra Mind Control and these rabbits show up in artworks created with victims of that programming.
“It’s A Wonderful Life” …
The future, our future
possibility as opposed to finality
Necessity versus contingency
Interconnectedness versus disconnectedness
The existential predicament we find ourselves thrown into
and
the point at which some of us come to the realization that we are all standing at the edge of the abyss… meaninglessness…
The infinite state of nonbeing that is moving towards every one of us as the seconds, minutes, and hours tick by.
I just realized that Jim Cunningham was exposed in the tangential timeline, so he probably went on to make CSEM.
I concur.
Subbed. ✌🏽
"I think we have all seen Lorne Greene!" 😂
One of my favourite scifi movie 😍