donnie darko

Director: richard kelly

Actor: jake gyllenhaal,jena malone,mary mcdonnell,holmes osborne

Data Published: Fri Jan 19 2001

Genres: Drama,Mystery,Sci-Fi,Thriller

Key Words: surrealism,mental illness,cult film,imaginary friend,schizophrenia

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko

Description: Donnie Darko is a movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell. After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a...

Plot: On October 2, 1988, troubled teenager Donald "Donnie" Darko is woken up and beckoned outside by a mysterious voice. Once outside, he meets a figure in a monstrous rabbit costume who introduces himself as "Frank" and tells Donnie the precise time the world will end: in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Donnie wakes up the next morning on the green of a local golf course and returns home to discover a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. His older sister Elizabeth tells him the FAA investigators do not know its origin. Over the next several days, Donnie continues to have visions of Frank, and his parents Eddie and Rose send him to psychotherapist Dr. Thurman. Dr. Thurman believes Donnie is detached from reality, and that his visions of Frank are "daylight hallucinations," symptomatic of paranoid schizophrenia. When Frank asks Donnie if he believes in time travel, Donnie asks his science teacher Dr. Kenneth Monnitoff about it. Dr. Monnitoff gives Donnie The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book written by Roberta Sparrow, a former science teacher at the school who is now a seemingly senile old woman living outside of town. Donnie also starts seeing Gretchen Ross, who has recently moved into town with her mother under a new identity to escape her violent stepfather. Frank begins to influence Donnie's actions, including causing him to flood his high school by breaking a water main. Gym teacher Kitty Farmer attributes the act of vandalism to the influence of the short story "The Destructors", assigned by dedicated English teacher Karen Pomeroy. Kitty begins teaching “attitude lessons” taken from local motivational speaker Jim Cunningham, but Donnie rebels against these, leading to friction between Kitty and Rose. Kitty arranges for Cunningham to speak at a school assembly, where Donnie insults him. Donnie later finds Cunningham's wallet and address, and Frank suggests setting his house on fire. Firefighters discover a hoard of child pornography there, Cunningham is arrested, and Kitty, who wishes to testify in his defense, asks Rose to chaperone their daughters’ dance troupe on its trip to Los Angeles. With Rose in Los Angeles and Eddie away for business, Donnie and Elizabeth hold a Halloween costume party to celebrate Elizabeth's acceptance to Harvard. At the party, Gretchen arrives distraught as her mother has gone missing, and she and Donnie make love for the first time. When Donnie realizes that Frank's prophesied end of the world is only hours away, he takes Gretchen and two other friends to see Sparrow. Instead of Sparrow, they find two high school bullies, Seth and Ricky, who were trying to rob Sparrow's home. Donnie, Seth, and Ricky get into a fight in the road in front of her house, just as Sparrow was returning home. An oncoming car swerves to avoid Sparrow and runs over Gretchen, killing her. The driver turns out to be Elizabeth's boyfriend, Frank Anderson, wearing the same rabbit costume from Donnie's visions. Donnie shoots Frank in the eye with his father's gun, and walks home carrying Gretchen’s body. Donnie returns home as a vortex forms over his house. He borrows one of his parent’s cars, loads Gretchen’s body into it, and drives to a nearby ridge that overlooks town. There, he watches as the plane carrying Rose and the dance troupe home from Los Angeles gets caught in the vortex’s wake, which violently rips off one of its engines, and sends it back in time. Events of the previous 28 days unwind. Donnie wakes up in his bedroom, recognizes the date is October 2, and laughs as the jet engine falls into his bedroom, crushing him. Around town, those whose lives Donnie would have touched wake up from troubled dreams. Gretchen rides by the Darko home the next morning, and learns of Donnie's death. Gretchen and Rose exchange glances and wave as if they know each other, but cannot remember where.