Jarrod, my take on the sister being on the plane is this: at the beginning of the film, the engine travels back in time because of a random disruption in the Primary Universe’s space-time continuum. At the end of the film, Donnie uses his super powers to send the jet engine from his mom and sister’s plane back in time from the Tangent Universe to the Primary Universe, but in doing so, he indirectly kills himself. If he is killed in the Primary Universe, Donnie won’t be alive to rip the engine off 28 days later in the repaired Primary Universe; therefore his sister’s plane will land safely…assuming there is not another random disruption in the space-time contiuum at the exact same moment in time, which I think, even for science fiction, is a statistical improbability.
Julie, I interpreted Frank as “The Manipulated Dead” from “The Philosophy of Time Travel.” The way I saw it, the Frank in the bunny suit was not the same Frank whom Donnie’s sister dates in the Primary Universe. I interpreted the bunny-suited-Frank as Donnie’s guide in the Tangent Universe; his body was simply a puppet that the manipulator was using to lead Donnie to his destiny.
What I found interesting about the film is its Web site, www.donniedarko.com. The original version of Donnie Darko is almost indecipherable — in terms of its overall meaning — without help from outside sources, i.e., the full text of “The Philosophy” on the film’s site. I know of very few films where you most consult the Web site to fully understand it. As one of my sources points out, Kelly uses material originally only available on the Web site (and later the DVD extras) in the film’s director’s cut (director Richard Kelly introduces scenes with images of pages from “The Philosophy”); he seems to be one of the first filmmakers to do this. One thing to note, though, is that Kelly wrote the text of “The Philosophy” during the film’s editing process. He had already filmed the movie, and in writing “The Philosophy,” he was trying to interpret his creation. Therefore, the “The Philosophy” is by no way a definitive interpretation of the film, and he explicitly states that he does not intend it to be. But it makes the most sense to me.
I’m pretty sure that Donnie doesn’t have “super powers.” The same engine hits the house in both universes (remember that airline investigators didn’t have a clue where the engine came from.) The engine from his sister’s plane always hit and will always hit the house.
If you read the text when the move introduces chapter 6, “The Living Receiver,” it says that the living receiver is “blessed with 4th dimensional powers” where he can “conjur fire and water” and also has abnormal strenth, telekinesis and mind control. I think that may be what John is talking about and therefore Donnie could have moved the engine through mind control.
Yeah, I was referring to the telekinesis as described in Sparrow’s “The Philosophy of Time Travel.” In the director’s cut, there are those interspersed snippets showing Donnie’s eye with gushing waves in his iris and the demonic bunny icon in the middle. Kelly says in the commentary that these represent Donnie conjuring the power of the ocean. Kelly also specifically says that Donnie uses his powers to rip the jet engine off and send it back to the Primary Universe – this wasn’t my profound insight. I think Donnie is a superhero (indicated, among other places, in the dialogue where Gretchen says his name sounds like a super hero’s, and he responds: “What makes you think I’m not?” – but, also, Kelly says he’s a superhero, modeled after a comic book hero), and I think superheroes must necessarily have super powers.
The Tangent Universe is created when the jet engine falls on the house (which occurs at the beginning of the film), and this is caused by the random disruption in the space-time continuum. Twenty-eight days later, while still in the Tangent Universe, Donnie telekinetically sends the jet engine back in time-space so that it falls on his house 28 days earlier in the Primary Universe. The engine falls just as it did at the beginning of the film; however, at the beginning of the film, it was the Tangent Universe, because the jet engine was sent by a random disruption and not a super-powered Donnie. The second time it lands on his house, there is no Tangent Universe created, because there has been no random disruption in space-time; Donnie purposefully sent the Artifact back. The investigators have no clue where it came from in both cases because it came from the future in both cases. The first time, a random disruption sent the engine back; the second time, Donnie sent it back; and it won’t happen a third time, because Donnie is dead and there’s unlikely to be a second random disruption.
Whoa, you just blew my mind.
It’s trippy stuff, indeed, made all the more confusing by the two different versions of the film. I only have the original version, which I’m guessing is what most of the class will have seen. Does anybody have the DVD of the Director’s Cut, which has more about Sparrow’s book, that they could bring to class?
I can bring my copy of the Director’s Cut. I also have a printout with the text of “The Philosophy of Time Travel,” which I was planning on bringing as part of my presentation. Tons of unofficial fan sites have published transcriptions of the text; I’ll post a link on the main page.
Alright, the superhero thing makes perfect sence. However, the initial engine was from the sister’s plane. Why wouldn’t it repeat it’s trajectory when Donnie cancel’s out the tangent Universe?
Perhaps we can talk more about this in class.