Donnie Darko Ending Explained: The Power Of Selflessness
The deepest movie anyone has seen when they're fourteen, "Donnie Darko" remains a seminal favorite after all these years. Richard Kelly's directorial debut was a darkly intellectual venture, and the science-fiction psychological thriller is still being analyzed and debated two decades later. "Donnie Darko" set the stage for Kelly's signature style of complicated cerebral cinema (I'm looking at you, "Southland Tales") as well as a penchant for endings that require a hell of a lot of deciphering.
Over the years, everyone and their best friend has come up with their own interpretation of the film's ending, but we're here to break it all down for you and offer the true dissection of what really happened to Donald J. Darko 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds after that fateful meeting with Frank the rabbit.
It goes without saying, but spoilers ahead.
What is Donnie Darko About?
"Donnie Darko" deals with time travel and alternate universes, so getting the story straight in a coherent manner is not the easiest thing. Bear with me. Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a mouthy, moody, mentally unwell teenager struggling with sleepwalking, who continually sees visions of a terrifying man-sized rabbit called Frank who tells him the world is going to end.
One morning, Donnie wakes up on a golf course after a night of sleepwalking to discover a jet engine crashed through his bedroom. Had he not sleepwalked, he would have been killed. Bizarrely, the authorities are unable to figure out where the jet engine came from; there are no planes missing, and no other debris from the crash. Over the next 28 days Donnie is manipulated by Frank to commit crimes, some of which lead to the absolute destruction of those close to him.
His reign of terror includes burning down the pedophilic motivational speaker Jim Cunningham's home, leading to Jim's arrest, and a confrontation with his high school bullies that results in Donnie's would-be girlfriend Gretchen's death when she is hit by a car. The driver of the car? A man named Frank, wearing a rabbit mask. Completely beside himself, Donnie shoots Frank in the face and Donnie realizes that an injury prophesied by Frank in Donnie's nightmares is the same one that Donnie gave him.
As Donnie realizes his nightmares have been predicting the future, Frank's prophecy of the impending end of the world comes true and a vortex rips in the sky. Just as the plane begins to crash and its jet engine is sucked into the vortex, the movie goes back to where it began – but this time events play out differently. Instead of waking up on the golf course after a night of sleepwalking, Donnie awakens in his bed and is crushed by the falling jet engine that has travelled back in time from the plane crash (hence the FAA being unable to find the rest of the plane).
Is this a super-generalized look at the film? Yes. Would this become a convoluted mess if I tried to dive any deeper? Also yes.
Okay, But What Does it Mean?
Frank the Rabbit is warning Donnie about the existence of a tangent universe that he is able to see in his sleepwalking. This is a separate, alternate reality that comes to a head at the start of the film. Why does this tangent universe come into existence? Well, we're not given an answer on that one. Kelly deliberately leaves this a mystery because the man is not interested in spoon-feeding us baby birds any answers. During the time of the movie's release, a tie-in website included text from the character Roberta Sparrow's book "The Philosophy of Time Travel" to help explain the nature of the tangent universe, stating:
If a Tangent Universe occurs it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks. Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence.
At the end of the movie, we know Donnie sacrifices himself in order to bring the jet engine (classified as The Artifact, per Sparrow's book) from the tangent universe where it belongs in Donnie's original reality, as Donnie has been chosen as the "Living Receiver. Sparrow is implied to have also been a Living Receiver, which explains her knowledge of primary universes and tangent universes. She explains that the Living Receiver has a mission to return The Artifact. "No one knows how or why a Receiver will be chosen," says Sparrow, but it's clear that it's up to him to save the world.
But, But How?
When Donnie watches the jet engine fall into the time vortex, it offers him the ability to make a different choice. He's the only one who knows what will follow if the engine crashes into the house without him in it: a dark future that includes the deaths of his mother, his little sister, and Gretchen. He instead goes home, goes to bed, and even laughs at the absurdity of recognizing that his sacrifice will make it possible to save the lives of others. He comes face to face with the trolley problem, and takes himself out of the equation.
Donnie's choice to die instead of waking up on the golf course closes the tangent universe and completely changes the future course for all of those he interacts with. His mother and sister on the plane won't die, because there's no more vortex. Gretchen was with Donnie when she was hit by the car, and since she will no longer meet or get to know him, her life will be spared. Frank won't die because he won't hit Gretchen with his car and spark a reactionary attack from Donnie.
The downside is that Jim Cunningham's house will remain intact, along with his dark secret. However, it's implied that some remnants from the events of the tangent universe remain in the subconscious of the survivors. Donnie's mom, Rose, and Gretchen wave at each with slight confusion in the aftermath of the accident, indicating that they feel as if they know one another, despite not knowing how. Jim himself is shown weeping in the movie's final montage, as though some part of him remembers the fire and his arrest, and Frank is seen touching the same eye that he was shot through in the tangent universe. It's safe to hope that someone will likely have an inkling about Cunningham's true nature, and act accordingly.
No one will ever know the truth of Donnie's selfless action, but chances are, they can sense it.