An explanation of the anomalies in Donnie Darko (spoilers)

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First of all, Donnie was -not- hallucinating. Everything in the movie happened because it -had to happen-.
The airplane engine landed on Donnie's house, and Frank, who was dating Donnie's sister, summoned him outside and told him that the world would end in about a month. Of course, the airplane engine only fell on his house because it was ensured by Donnie burning down Dr. Cunningham's house later in the movie. The discovery of a 'kiddie porn dungeon' in his house led to his trial, which led to Donnie's mother flying on the plane to plead Cunningham's case.
Everything happened as it had to because the future Frank, who was missing one eye because Donnie would shoot him in the future, ensured that it would. The reason Donnie couldn't stab Frank in the middle of the movie was because he was -supposed- to shoot Frank near the end of the movie. So when Donnie went to Grandma Death's house and met Seth and the other kid, their presence ensured that Donnie would be saved and lose someone important to him at the same time. This would mean that he would have to travel back in time- to sacrifice himself for Gretchen's sake, would be the simplest explanation.
As a matter of fact, it wasn't the -true universe- that ended, but the -tangent universe-, which was simply an offshoot that it was Donnie's destiny to destroy. Therefore, Donnie didn't only save Gretchen, but the world in general.
Of course, this all brings up questions about Frank's role. Frank assists Donnie in destroying the tangent universe, yet he is also largely responsible for it. (Since when he lured Donnie out of bed, the airplane engine landed on his room without any real purpose, and by returning to that time and place, Donnie was supposed to -give- it purpose.

So, basically, the movie was about the serpent who nibbled at his own tail, and one young boy's journey to remove the seprent's tail from its mouth, using his personal flaws to his advantage.

Yeah I just came to the conclusion that it is a total paradox.
I mean how did Frank get there to call Donnie out of the house?
I read somewhere that it was Frank's ghost, that had travelled back in time. It had to be Frank from the future, because he is in the rabbit suit which wasn't made yet according to the end of the movie which is at the same point in time. Right?
But Frank wouldn't have died if his ghost hadn't called Donnie out of the house.

does anyone know what was meant by the words "cellar door"? i've never been able to work it out.

Here's an entry on wikipedia which attributes the phrase to Tolkien
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_door

Some interesting stuff here too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko
After reading this I'm now thinking that maybe Drew Barrymore's character knew what was going on, and "cellar door" was a sort of catalyst to get Donnie to fulfil his destiny. There is one scene in which the two teachers are talking about Donnie, but it is never clear what they are saying.

thanks, spacemonkey.

i didn't realise it was about the way the words sound- i thought it was meant to be a metaphor.

Very intresting. I have seen the movie, and Liked it, but didn't understand it much.

Is it true that aspies usually have a hard time with Abstract, "open to interpretation" art?
We like solid, understandable things.

i went to see it when it was on at the cinema and i really enjoyed (what i thought was) the plot but felt cheated when it finished without a proper ending. when i mentioned how i felt to my nt friend she said "but that is why it is so good- because the meaning is open to conjecture" and i said "no- i paid to see a film and i only got to see two thirds of a film!"

having said that, i did enjoy the script and the way it made fun of the jesus-lovers.

I have seen Donnie Darko on a lot of favorite film lists here on WP.
I tend to like this sort of film that makes you think a lot.
I like paradoxes in general though. (or is it paradoxi)

Yeah, I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd dig it up since I just saw the movie a couple days ago for the first time and the friend who brought it over explained to us what took him about 16 times of watching and debating it on forums.

There's really 4 timelines in the story - you see the very end of the first (?), the 2nd in its entirity, and the beginning of the 3rd, the 4th materializes as consequence of the 2nd and 3rd. Pretty much its implied that the first timeline was when Donny went that whole month, no plain engine fell, and toward the end of the month for whatever reason Donny ended up shooting Frank in the eye at Grandma Death's house - maybe he just broke in with some people or whatever, maybe the girl he was dating got hit by the car that time too, hard to say. At the same time as Frank died, the wormhole was there and supposedly wormholes could only send emotion and some degree of projection but not physical presence. The one detail they hadn't figured out was who ripped the engine off the plane - Donny or Frank. Regardless it was Frank who got him to leave the house in the second round so that he wouldn't get hit (not sure why), but at the same time its like he was trying to set Donny up, possibly land him in jail or whatever (or maybe in the case of Cunninham settle old scores), so that he wouldn't be in the same spot at the same time to kill him - didn't work. He did also say there were a whole bunch of alternative realities left opened by whether or not he made the choices to a). flood the school, b). burn down Cunningham's house, or c). still shoot Frank. By the end of the second timeline though Donny had figured it out, realized that none of these things would have happened if he got hit by the airplain engine, so he sent a funny thought with the plain engine rather than the thought that Frank had sent with it and somehow Frank's thought got diverted to the psychologist instead. The 4th timeline and the timelines thereafter in the loop were everything was as normal - no plain engine, no one dies on the plane, etc. etc. My friend I think explained it a lot better, I may have forgotten a few things he mentioned, but that's pretty much the gist of it.

i understood it more when i read Grandma Deaths theory of time travel

All that time, Grandma Death was waiting for Donnie's letter right?
But why ?