QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE FILM'S STORY

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2002)

Let me say first, the earlier film, Jacob's Ladder, is a better predecessor to the story line of Donnie Darko. Donnie isn't original (as if anything is).
I just saw the film Donnie Darko. It's about the unusual chain of events that happen after an airplane's engine crashes into a suburban house.
******************************************** QUESTION 1: WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS FILM TRYING TO SAY? ********************************************
Well, I think the film was trying to say one of two things that are closely related. One is that things happen for a reason. And two, we think we'd like a lot of things that happen in life to have happened differently than they did. But if we were to actually see what would happen IF WHAT WE WANT TO HAVE HAPPEN really would happen right before our eyes, we might NOT like the other alternatives at all.
Personally, this film reminded me that I am not all knowing. And I shouldn't pretend that I am in the subtle ways I do. And that I should stop complaining about the hand I'm dealt so much, be grateful for what I do have, and trust in my God more.
******************************************** QUESTION 2: WAS WHAT HAPPENED TO DONNIE, AFTER THE ENGINE MISSED HIM, REALLY HAPPEN? ********************************************
I think this is the million-dollar question, right? One idea is that all of the post-engine-crash events were a "dream sequence" so to speak, and that they never really happened. The other idea is that all the post-engine-crash events DID happen, and Donnie went "back in time" and changed the events that happened when the engine did not kill him.
==========================================> ANSWER 1: (1) The Engine Really Killed Donnie And "Engine-Missed-Donnie" Events Never Happened In Real Life. ==========================================> ~ This explanation follows the same story explanations I give to the similar films "Jacob's Ladder" and "Vanilla Sky".

Basically it goes like this: The airplane engine hit Donnie and he died in the REAL WORLD (everyone's reality but Donnie's). But Donnie's spirit/soul was so confused and disturbed by this "unreasonable" and seemingly pointless event, of him being crushed by a falling airplane engine, that Donnie had to come to a realization and understanding of why this happened. Only then could Donnie accept his death and move on.
The evidence of this explanation is that he mentioned to the psychiatrist that he needed to know "why something happened" and he needed to find out "God's will" about something. This obviously indicates that Donnie is searching for the reason this event happened, and perhaps also to find out what to do about it.
Another good reason to go with this explanation is that the things that happen during Donnie's post-engine-crash life are rather "surreal" in nature rather than real. Donnie sees the liquid tubes coming from people's bodies. Frank appears and disappears. These are rather "unreal" events. And are big clues that this is not reality, but rather a "dream sequence".
Other little things, that COULD really happen, but are just not that likely is: Donnie slams an ax into the head of a brass statue; two "bad dudes" are at the old lady time travel authors house with knives drawn (why?); the old "crazy lady", that walks across roads oblivious to the world, is really a nun that decides to become a science professor, who writes a book on time travel, that only Donnie's science teacher has a copy of; and that there's this motivational speaker who holds high school student pep rallies is really a child pornography ring leader. All of these things, and many more, are just a bit surreal and unlikely.
Lastly, this is not a SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY film. Donnie does not build a physical time machine device to go back into time. Instead, Donnie drives his car over to this surging black cloud, moving in the sky, that is really a time travel porthole that sends him back in time. Kind of surreal, isn't it? Any time travel, if it really occurs, is obviously somewhere between psychological to metaphysical, and not overtly physical time travel.
------------------------------------------------- PROBLEMS WITH "dream sequence" ANSWER (1): ------------------------------------------------- (A) If Donnie really gets killed by a falling airplane engine, like the end of the film shows, how did Donnie know it was an airplane engine that crushes him? Did he just happen to look up and see it was an airplane engine?
(B) If Donnie was really killed by the airplane engine, and he never met the new girl in town (who becomes Donnie's girlfriend in the "dream sequence"), why at the end of the film does it show that this girl "seemed to know" Donnie, a guy she supposedly never had met?

==========================================> Answer 2: (2) Donnie Did, In a Physical Reality, Go Back In Time. ==========================================> ~ This explanation is that the film should be taken at face value. That Frank (the bunny suited guy who was shot in the eye) really came to Donnie in spirit form, and really got Donnie out of Donnie's house, and saved Donnie's life. And that every thing that happens after that is "real life".

And then Donnie sees that because Frank saves his life, Donnie's girlfriend gets run over by the real, physical body Frank, and Donnie shoot's Frank in the eye and kills him. Then Donnie decides that change of events sucks, and then Donnie chases down a "time travel" black cloud porthole, and goes back in time, stays in his room, and gets crushed to death by the falling airplane engine.

------------------------------------------------- PROBLEMS WITH "dream sequence" ANSWER (2): -------------------------------------------------
~ FRANK "spirit being" in the bunny suit totally screws the "events really happened in reality" answer.
(A) One, how could there be a real spirit being Frank if the real Frank is supposedly really walking around during this whole "engine missed Donnie" chain of events? Can there be two Frank spirits existing at the same time in the same reality?
(B) Two, Frank has NO MOTIVATION to save Donnie's life from the falling airplane engine. Look at it from Frank's perspective: Frank thinks, "If I save Donnie's life from the falling airplane engine, a guy I have never met, I get to run over Donnie's girlfriend and get shot in the eye and die." I don't think so. There is no motivation for Frank to save Donnie's life. Thus, it never happened.
What do you think all? What do you think Zo?