Donnie Darko is a Strange and Mysterious Sci - Fi Horror Masterpiece

I have watched Donnie Darko for the first time in theaters, and I was left with so many questions. I truly had no idea what this film was about, the only information I had was that the main actor who played Donnie was Jake Gyllenhaal, and that there is a dude in a creepy bunny costume that interacts with Donnie. 

I was in shock to be given an extremely interesting storyline that truly takes it’s audience on a wild journey that will leave you with multiple questions. We follow the story of a high school kid named Donnie Darko, who is going through mental issues within his mind. His family is aware of his issues, and there appears to be some sort of tension among his family, especially toward his mother. He is also seeing a therapist, who learns a lot of from Donnie about Frank, that slowly gets more disturbing and scary as the film progresses. 

Or…could it be something far more complicated than we can imagine?

Donnie Darko begins to hear a voice, coming from a man in a creepy bunny suit, known as Frank. 

Frank tells Donnie that the world is going to end in 28 days.

While he is being given this information, he ends up outside of his house, speaking with Frank in his neighborhood. At that moment, part of a plane crashes into Donnie’s bedroom, shocking his family members. Donnie awakens with the number of days left for the end of the world written on his arm, and he comes home to find his neighborhood crowding in front of his home, gazing in wonder at the plane part that is being removed from the home. His family greets him with smiles and relief. Donnie joins his family, confusion on his face as he looks up at the demolished roof. 

His family temporarily stays in a hotel, waiting for their house to be fixed back up again. His little sister asks a very important question that baffled even me: What the hell happened to the rest of the plane? 

(This mystery remains unanswered until the ending of the film, a shocking reveal that left me speechless). 

Donnie is currently seeing a therapist 

While Donnie is getting used to his celebrity status after the accident, he begins to hear more of the bunny rabbit, asking Donnie to do crazy things. He is told to flood his high school, and stick an axe in the school’s mascot, leaving behind a very strange message: ‘They made me do it.’ 

Donnie also learns about the possible existence of time travel, a concept that was once thought up by an old teacher, who is now considered to be a crazy old lady that crosses the middle of the street, almost getting hit by cars multiple times during the movie. 

Despite these strange occurrences that Donnie doesn’t understand, he gets close with the new girl named Gretchen, slowly forming a romantic relationship with her. He takes her to go watch Evil Dead, and he runs into Frank again, while Gretchen falls asleep, completely unaware of the conversation between them. Frank apologizes to Donnie for some odd reason, and removes his mask, showing Donnie that beneath his mask, he is indeed a real person. Who happens to have a missing eye, with blood flowing from his destroyed eye socket. 

Frank tells Donnie that he must continue his odd and dangerous tasks, as Donnie begs Frank to make it stop. Frank informs Donnie that it won’t end, letting him know that deep down, Donnie knows what will happen later. 

(Again, this is answered until the end of the film).

Donnie is asked to burn down the house that belongs to a overly positive health guru, that is revealed to be a…predator. 

Donnie’s mother is asked by another teacher to take over a school field trip, and she agrees, since one of these students is her youngest daughter. She shares a heartfelt goodbye with her son, and leaves on this trip. 

Donnie is forced to go on a journey to stop the end of the world from happening, toward the end of the film. 

It is now 6 hours before the end of the world, and Donnie decides to somehow stop this from happening. He decides to go over to his old teacher’s place to somehow communicate with her about how to prevent the end of the world with time travel, and at that moment, both Donnie and his friends, along with Gretchen, are attacked by two bullies from their school. Gretchen is thrown to the road, his friends and one of the bullies runs away when they see a car, and Donnie is left to fend for himself as one of the bullies holds a huge knife to his throat. 

This car barely avoids hitting the school teacher again, and ends up running over Gretchen instead. While Donnie is in shock, trying to wake up his girlfriend, both men that were inside the car emerge from the vehicle. One of them is Frank, holding the mask of his bunny costume. Donnie takes out his father’s gun, a weapon that Frank asked Donnie to pick up during one of his strange tasks. He shoots Frank in the same eye that was bleeding when he first took off his mask in the theater. 

He tells the other guy to get the hell out, and he escapes. Donnie takes Gretchen’s body, goes back to his place to steal a car, and then the police arrive to this home, ready to arrest him. Donnie drives away from the situation, heading to the woods, the same place where he had woken up to first hear Frank speaking to him in the beginning of the film. 

Donnie witnesses the world about to end. 

He watches the sky becoming warped in some way, the clouds looking almost monstrous. We see a plane flying through the clouds, that happens to contains Donnie’s mother and little sister. The plane suddenly experiences turmoil, and that same part that crashed into Donnie’s home falls from the plane, as the rest of the plane crashes somewhere else. 

Donnie gets back in the car to smile at his dead girlfriend, realizing what he must do. 

Time goes back, straight to his bedroom, on the same day that the Frank told Donnie the world would end: October 2nd, 1988. Donnie laughs, and then he turns over to close his eyes in bed. That same plane part crashes through the roof, onto Donnie, killing him instantly. 

The film ends with his family now expressing remorse as they watch Donnie’s body be wheeled into the ambulance. People in town that Donnie somehow interacted with, start to wake up, as if from a bad dream. Frank is one of them, and he touches his eye where he was once shot in, as the camera cuts over to the creepy bunny mask. Gretchen stops biking midway to look over at Donnie’s house, and learns from a random kid that Donnie died from an unusual accident. 

Gretchen offers a wave to Donnie’s mother and she waves back, ending the film. 

If this article sounds confusing as hell, trust me, the movie is exactly the same. It leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions, but for the most part, you can conjure up your own theories for the film, leaving behind a very fascinating topic of discussion. It shocked me to my core when I realized that plane part was from the same plane that was going to end up killing two of his family members, and even Gretchen’s death was foreshadowed when random drivers would barely miss hitting the old teacher of Donnie’s.

It broke my heart that in order to save the world, he was going to end up in that bedroom, letting that same plane part end his life. 

The only question that truly makes me wonder is who exactly is Frank?

It’s truly never explained, but the mystery behind this character is one of the best parts of the movie. I believe he was another time traveler like Donnie Darko, but in this case, he could only lead Donnie to the future of what will happen, and in order to prevent so much death, he had to end his life to prevent the end of the world. 

It’s a powerful film, one that will stay with you for a very long time. 

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn