Donnie Darko - A Singular Explanation I

Technorati Tag(s): Movie, Science Fiction, Space-Time, Opinion

Consider this a spoiler warning. If you haven't seen the film, stay away from this post, and the one which follows. Although, because it's no Shyamalan film, knowing the events or the ending will hardly ruin your viewing experience. Watching the film will help make sense of what follows.

If I am right about this, then Donnie Darko portrays one of the four basic queries and conceptual variants of time-space I have always pondered on.

The first is answered quite aptly in 12 Monkeys: can we really change events in any time-space co-ordinate except the present? The answer, 12 Monkeys tells us, is no.

12 Monkeys will have to wait for another thorough dissection, though. For now we concentrate on a film which never crosses into pretentiousness; never tries to be art for the sake of art; much like David Lynch's films and 21 Grams, dares to leave in a way suited to much open-ended, multiple-threaded, many-outcome result; and above all, manages to be mainstream.

All right. Keep in mind I have seen the film less than 24 hours ago; have referred none of the internet websites; have not browsed the film's homepage. What this entry is, is a singular analysis. In part two, we shall compare my interpretation with the interpetation derived after referring all the content on the web.

In a chronological sequence, this is what happens. I have skipped some events because they either feel inconsequential, or make better sense explained out of chronology.

1. Through an undescribed accident, a jet passenger plane (a 747) loses one of its turbine engines, which, freefalling, is sucked into a space-time continium breach--also known as a wormhole--and, of all the various space-time co-ordinates it could come out in, it is thrown into the same space co-ordinate, but some 28 and a half days earlier.¹

2. Because of this rift, this singularity, a parallel or tangent (tangent seems to be the word suiting it best) is created, which exists only (I'm doubtful about this) for as long as the period between the end of the singularity (when it lands on the Darko house) and the beginning (some 28 days later, when the engine actually falls). In this tangent universe, the one human who is most directly affected by the event--Donnie Darko--aqcuires special powers. The engine in question crashes on the Darko house, specifically on Donnie's bedroom. By all means, Donnie should be sound asleep and he should get crushed under the engine, but besides having superpowers in this tangent universe, Donnie also has a superfriend, Frank.

3. This tangent universe is, of course, an event which should not occur, and much of my theory rests on the notion that the universe does what it can to restore itself to the original timeline. So, the universe (or God, or whatever decides such things) assigns Frank, who is a secondary sufferer (Donnie is the primary sufferer, Gretchen is also a secondary sufferer, while the rest are tertiary, or further down the pyramid), to guide Donnie through the objective. The objective being: stop the engine from falling into the wormhole. Frank, on the night when the engine crashes onto the house, leads sleepwalking Donnie out of the house and onto a golf course.

4. The problem here is, unlike Frank (who wears a bunny suit and doesn't have one eye when Donnie stabs him, and later, again loses one eye--perhaps the same one--when Donnie shoots him) and Gretchen, who will die in this tangent universe through the natural course of tangent events, the other sufferers--tertiary and beyond--cannot accept death the same way, and yet, 28 days later, when the engine falls through the wormhole, they will die, as Frank suggests: the world will end (bear with me on the loose 28 days; the exact time is an actual figure, which may or may not have any significance besides being the exact time of existence of the tangent universe--I think it's the engine's serial number, but that's popcorn Spielberg mentality) when it reaches the beginning of the rift or singularity. The interesting thing here is that, unlike all time-travel based sci-fi movies we have seen, instead of having an event in the past echo an event in the future, in Donnie Darko we have an event in the future affecting the events of the past.

5. The role of the tertiary sufferers is to guide Darko in the right direction, through the path the universe chalked out for him, but they are reluctant to do it. Miss Pomeroy informs him about Cellar Door, but she is fired. His science teacher explains Stephen Hawking's concepts on four dimensional space as well as the future spear, but he can't explain further because he may lose his job. Similarly, Gretchen, although a secondary sufferer, is more or less Darko's guiding beam. She is the one who first introduces the concept of Donnie as a superhero, upon which, Donnie's expression suggests that he's only just realizing that perhaps he is. His answer being a simple, "I am."

5. Grandman Sparrow (aka Grandma Death), according to me, is a survivor of a previous time rift, also a primary sufferer, and by surviving through both the tangent universe as well the normal one after successfully restoring it, she becomes a kind of informer to Donnie; she's locked into the sequence when she writes a book on time travel. Her book--which the Physics teacher provides--informs Donnie of people's logical future arrows, which define their future actions. Donnie can see his future arrow too, but he does not change its course, which may lead to the big paradox of the whole idea, because by changing the tangent universe's future, he nevertheless does defy the tangent future arrow. But, at the same time, if he doesn't follow the future arrow and doesn't stop the engine from falling into the wormhole, then he alters the course of the primary universe and hence creates yet another tangent universe which may or may not run similar to the already existing tangent universe. Donnie's future arrow leads him to his Dad's closet, where he finds a gun.

6. The reason why he floods the school and sinks the axe in the statue is unclear, but perhaps we see it to get an idea that he indeed has superhuman powers. Sinking an axe in a metal statue is not ordinarily possible. Ditto chopping a water pipe.

7. Towards the end, we get a surefire glimpse of Donnie's ability to have the complete plan of how it's going to work when he suggests that his sister should throw a Halloween party, since she's gonna be in Harvard.

8. Grandma Sparrow keeps checking her mail everyday because she expects Donnie's letter. The reasons are unclear, but she also needs to be at that exact spot in the middle of the road on the big night in question so that the secondary sufferers, the ones who die, can actually be created and can hence play secondary roles from the end, ie 28 days ago.

9. We find the bullies hiding in Sparrows cellar (Pomeroy's Cellar Door), who are, as I explained earlier, there to stop Donnie from reaching his goal--stopping the rift and ending the tangent universe; but are also there to further the chain of predetermined events towards the creation of the secondary sufferers and the ultimate objective. How it goes is, Frank, Donnie's sister's buddy, drives at superfast speed back on the road passing Grandma Sparrow's house. Outside, Frank manages to swerve in time to escape crashing into Grandma, but he ends up crushing Gretchen under the car. When Frank steps out, he's wearing the bunny suit. Donnie shoots Frank in the eye using Dad's gun. All the events in this step are what lead me to this whole idea to begin with: this step, this crucial night, is when things are set into motion; it is the beginning of the tangent universe's preparatory phase, the beginning of the tangent universe but a few hours away, and the end is some 28 days earlier, when the engine actually crashes into Donnie's room.

10. Donnie drives up to the exact spot where the movie begins, and as the wormhole begins to form, he stops the engine from falling into it.

11. When this happens, the tangent universe is obliterated. In an interesting take on Hawking's memory mysteries (refer footnote one), we later see that most people involved in the tangent universe--Jim Cunningham and everyone else--seem to remember those events once they're back in the primary timeline, but cannot project those memories at will. It's as some poet said, a dream you only remember in the watches of the night. And that too, in concealed fragments.

12. Donnie goes back to bed on the exact day the plane engine falls on his roof (not 28 days earlier), only, this time, because there is no wormhole, the engine crashes on him. There are a few hints suggesting that he knows it's going to happen, but doesn't bother trying to escape--because if he does he will be deviating from his future arrow, creating another singularity, another tangent universe.

13. It must be noted, that we see Donnie's mother and little sister in the plane whose engine crashes inside the tangent universe, but because the tangent universe is obliterated, Jim Cunningham's house doesn't burn down, his kiddy porn dungeon isn't found out, and Donnie's mom doesn't have to chaperone the children instead of their phys. ed. teacher. Also, the final recognition between Gretchen and Donnie's Mom can lead to a thousand interpretations, but the only one that makes any sense is step 11.

There it is. In 13 steps.

The question you will ask: what about the little sister? She should be on the plane. And that's certainly one of the questions I shall be seeking an answer to when I scan the internet.

The theory is by no means solid, I have skipped through or overlooked--deliberately--a lot of things which could be clues, but it is the only one which takes into account the majority of events, according to me.

Entire movie in one paragraph: time singularity occurs, tangent universe is created, someone in tangent universe is assigned to stop the singularity from occuring, some help him, some are against him, some help in fragments, he succeeds, the primary universe goes on, the engine falls on the exact date it seperates from the plane, and things run their normal course.

Stay tuned for part 2.

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¹To get a basic grasp of the terms, check the glossary to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. If you can't be bothered to buy or borrow that book, check this handy link. Again, check the glossary.