Donnie Darko: An Interpretation

[Fausto]

All of the following information has been obtained by listening to commentary information, viewing web sites, and from excerpts of Roberta Sparrow's book, The Philosophy of Time Travel.

On October 2, 1988, a tangent universe spins off from the main universe, creating an alternative reality. Tangent universes are notoriously unstable, and must be closed off by a living reciever or will destroy itself and take the main universe with it. In order for this to occur, the living reciever (in this case, Donnie) must be manipulated to preform a series of tasks which will ensure that the tangent unverse is closed off without the destruction of the main universe.The reciever is granted certain powers (such as the ability to see spheres) in order to complete this task. The people around the living  reciever (such as Mrs. Pomeroy) are made to influence him in order to push him into completing his task. The manipulated dead (Frank and Gretchen, who both die within the alternate reality) communicate with the reciever directly and charge him with the tasks he must complete. In the end, in order to save not only the lives of his friends and family, but of the entire universe, the reciever must sacrife his own life so that the tangent universe can be sealed off.  NOTE: It is suggested both by the many allusions to 'The Last Temptation of Christ' within the story, and Roberta Sparrow's conversion from nunnery to science, that (at least within the story) Jesus Christ was, in fact, himself a living reciever, and that Donnie is following in his footsteps.

All of the following is based entirely on my own interperetation of the film. It is not gospel, and in reality I know almost nothing about physics and time travel. 

In addition to references made to the Last Temptation of Christ, the film makes a casual mention of Back to the Future (in the scene where Donnie discusses time travel with his teacher). In that film, two important issues of time travel are explored: the subject of tangent universes (in particular, one caused by a particular sports almanac), and, more importantly, the concept of illogical paradoxes and the potential damage they could do to the fabric of time (Doc Brown mentions this briefly when it is feared Marty Mc Fly's girlfriend will meet her future self). A better example of an illogical paradox would be the infamous grandfather problem, in which a person, for whatever reason, travels back in time to murder his grandfather before the conception of his own father. The grandfather dies, so the father won't be born, so the man won't be born, and therefore could not travel back in time to kill his grandfather in the first place, so logically this act would be impossible. Since there is no resolution as to how it could occur, the entire fabric of space time would be destroyed and existance as we know it would cease to be.

The illogical paradox in Donnie Darko is the appearance of the plane engine (also referred to in Roberta Sparrow's book as 'the artifact'). Whether it resulted from, or was itself the cause of the tangent universe is unclear. What is clear is that there is no logical explanation for how it came to be where it ended up. In order to fix the problem and save the universe, God or whatever being controls existance had to choose a living reciever (Donnie) to perform a series of tasks that would result in the engine detaching from the plane and crashing into the Darko house. It required that he sacrifice his life because, even though the timeline would revert back once the tangent universe had been closed off, everyone close to Donnie would be able to remember everything that had occured in the alternate timeline (as evident by their reaction upon awakening at the end of the film). His sacrificing himself for everyone else would never be forgotten, and would ensure that everyone would also know exactly where the engine had come from in the first place-therefore, it would cease to be a paradox...either that, or I'm just a nutcase who reads way too much into movies. If i'm missing something or you saw it differently, please comment.

[dean]

I like some of what you said.  I too don't really know much about time travel and all the ins and outs of paradoxes etc so I can't really comment on that stuff, but I will offer my own interpretation.

I've always said I liked the idea that the whole film is pretty much the last thought that went through Donnie's mind as he died.  That is, every moment from when the engine hit him was just a fabrication of his own imagination struck with the sudden impact his death has on him, and the whole 'time travel' business was just a way of justifying his own death.

This is of course not the way it is meant to be read, just my humble amusements. [I don't think it's the case but I just liked the idea]