Donnie Darko
 

So, just saw this movie last night and really I have no idea what happened.

My question is this. Why did the tangent universe even get created? Donnie was supposed to die, right? So the only reason he didn't was that Frank woke him up. And Frank waking him up saved his life, causing the tangent universe. Right? So there was no real reason for the movie at all? Unless I'm missing something.

EDIT:
And why did Donnie have to flood the school and set the pedo's house aflame? I understand that the fire was to get his mom on the plane, but why did his mom have to get on the plane?

From what I've been told, you have to see the movie three times.
Once, you're full of questions.
Twice, some questions get answered, but other questions reveal themselves.
Thrice, get high and then it all makes sense.

Apparantly, cutting to step three doesn't work, as you need the questions.
Thus, a friend of mine told me.

he flooded the school so he would run into gretchen and decide to walk her home.

damnit, I could swear I could remember there being a reason for the movie to have happened, but now I can't remember it. Lame.

His mom didn't specifically need to be on the plane. Remember how Kitty was originally going to chaperone the girls? Well, because Donnie burned down the house, and they found the kiddie porn, so Rose had to go. This left Donnie and Elizabeth alone to throw the party. Now, while Gretchen probably would've gone to Donnie anyway once her mom disappeared, meaning Donnie would've gone to Grandma Death's house, that's not the key. The key is Frank- living Frank, who went on a beer run for the party ("Frank was here - went to get beer"). That way he hit Gretchen on the way back, got shot by Donnie, and became one of the Manipulated Dead and was able to travel through time within the Tangent Universe and make sure Donnie survived to guide the Artifact into the Portal. How he did this, the movie doesn't really show us, partly because Richard Kelly didn't want to burden it with technobabble but mostly because they didn't have the budget.

The whole reason for the TU's creation was simply this: a glitch. A glitch in the Primary Universe caused a black hole to open on the night of October 2, 1988. The Tangent Universe is sort of a back-up made to seal the original black hole. At the end of the 28 days in the Tangent Universe, the black hole ripped through to the Tangent Universe and swallowed it up, and Donnie used this opportunity to guide the jet engine back through the tear, which sealed the black hole in the original universe.

Oooh! So Donnie could kill Frank and set up the whole thing! Okay, thanks, I get it now. All my questions are answered. Hail Schleppy and exalt his greatness unto the world.

I've been trying to rent this thing for months at Blockbuster, but it's always checked out. Damn their souls!

Thats funny, because I only saw this for the first time a couple of nights ago myself! Best Buy was selling it for $5, and I can't turn down a $5 movie :D

This thread did make some things a bit clearer for me. The movie really makes you think :)

I've never actually seen someone explain all that before, in a way that made any kind of sense.

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I liked Donny Darko, but in a way I wish that more of it was explained.

Mostly because alot of people watch the movie, and say, "You know what? I want my two fucking hours back."