Donnie Darko

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Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Richard Kelly
Produced by	Adam Fields Nancy Juvonen Sean McKittrick
Written by	Richard Kelly
Starring	Jake Gyllenhaal Jena Malone Patrick Swayze Drew Barrymore
Music by	Michael Andrews
Distributed by	Newmarket Films
Release date(s)	January 19, 2001 (Sundance Film Festival) October 28, 2001 (USA)
Running time	113 min., 133 min. (director's cut)
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	US$4.5 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Donnie Darko is a 2001 psychological thriller, containing elements of science fiction and horror, directed and written by Richard Kelly. It is about an intelligent, troubled teenager named Donald ("Donnie") J. Darko who is encouraged by an anthropomorphic rabbit to commit seemingly random acts of vandalism. Themes addressed in the film include existentialism, nihilism, sacrifice, deus ex machina, time travel, love, The American Dream, and fear. The movie presents paradoxes that aren't fully explained, as well as a cryptic storyline open to multiple interpretations.

The film was a flop upon its release in the US, but has found strong DVD sales and is now generally considered a cult classic, ranking 107th on the IMDb Top 250.

[edit] Cast

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Donald J. "Donnie" Darko
• Jena Malone as Gretchen Ross
• Mary McDonnell as Rose Darko
• Holmes Osborne as Eddie Darko
• Maggie Gyllenhaal as Elizabeth Darko
• Daveigh Chase as Samantha Darko
• Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham
• Drew Barrymore as Karen Pomeroy
• Noah Wyle as Prof. Kenneth Monnitoff
• Beth Grant as Kitty Farmer
• Katharine Ross as Dr. Lillian Thurman
• Patience Cleveland as Roberta Sparrow, AKA "Grandma Death"
• James Duval as Frank
• Ashley Tisdale as Kim
• Seth Rogen as Ricky Danforth
• Jolene Purdy as Cherita Chen

[edit] Plot

Gyllenhaal as Donnie Darko

The film is set in 1988, in the fictional town of Middlesex, Virginia during the 1988 presidential election campaign. Donnie's sister says she is going to vote for Michael Dukakis. The viewer is introduced in the beginning to the Darko family, with a special focus on their emotionally troubled son, Donnie. Numerous scenes throughout the film show Donnie speaking to his therapist, to whom he relates most of the story of the film. On the night of October 2, Donnie is awakened by a disembodied voice and led out of his house, where he is met by a demonic human-sized rabbit named Frank. Frank tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Donnie wakes up the next morning on a golf course and has 28:06:42:12 written on his arm. He returns home to discover that a jet engine has inexplicably fallen onto his house, crushing his bedroom, where he would have been had he not heard Frank.

The next day Donnie goes to his private school. His English class is in the middle of a discussion on Graham Greene's short story, "The Destructors", when a new girl, Gretchen, walks in late and asks where she should sit. Donnie's English teacher, Ms. Pomeroy, instructs Gretchen to "sit next to the boy you think is the cutest." After a moment, Gretchen eyes Donnie; and the teacher tells the girl sitting next to him to move.

That night, Frank wakes up Donnie again and tells him to flood the school. Donnie obeys, breaking the school's water main with an axe. While waiting for the school bus with his friends the next morning, Donnie hears that school has been cancelled because of the flood. Meanwhile, the police and school officials are baffled, because aside from the flooding, the solid-bronze school mascot, the Mongrel, has an axe stuck into its head; in front of the statue, the phrase, "they made me do it", has been burned into the pavement. According to a young schoolgirl talking with Donnie's sister, the locker rooms have also been trashed, with feces everywhere. On his way home, Donnie spots Gretchen being harassed by two school bullies, and approaches to tell them that school was cancelled for the day. Gretchen asks Donnie to walk her home, to the chagrin of the bullies. During their talk, Gretchen tells Donnie that her and her mother have been forced to change their identities, because they are in hiding from her mother's abusive ex-husband. Gretchen also tells Donnie that his name sounds like the name of a super-hero. Donnie tells Gretchen he is happy that school was cancelled, because otherwise they would not have had a chance to talk. He then awkwardly asks her to "go" with him, which she assents to.

The following day, Donnie attends a class run by Kitty Farmer, where he participates in an exercise in which he is asked to assign the motivation behind keeping the money from a lost wallet to either "fear" or "love" - an exercise that Kitty Farmer takes from Jim Cunningham, a motivational speaker, who we will see more of in a moment. But Donnie refuses, saying that the entire spectrum of emotion is far more complex than those two simple extremes. As a result of Donnie's refusal to participate, Ms. Farmer takes him to the headmaster after he tells her, in her words, to "Forcibly insert the Lifeline exercise card into [her] anus" (which his sister, while on the phone later on, indicates was actually "Shove it up your ass"). Donnie is suspended from after-school activities for six months.

Some time later, Frank asks Donnie if he believes in time travel. This prompts Donnie to question his science teacher, Professor Monitoff, about the idea. In the Director's Cut, this interesting discussion of scientific theories is cut short by Prof. Monitoff, who explains, "I'm not going to be able to continue this conversation." Donnie asks, "Why", and Professor Monitoff replies, "I could lose my job." Monitoff does, however, give Donnie a book titled The Philosophy of Time Travel. To Donnie's surprise, the book was written by Roberta Sparrow, the 101-year-old woman nicknamed "Grandma Death." She lives alone in an old house on the edge of town and spends all day standing in the middle of the street and constantly checking her mailbox.

During another discussion between Donnie and Gretchen, they discuss the right time to kiss, and Gretchen explains that she wants their first kiss to be a moment that will "remind her of how wonderful life can be." She then says that this moment is not the right moment, since there is a "fat guy watching them from behind a tree" - ostensibly a representative of the airline company, who are still trying to figure out where the jet engine could have come from, since no plane has been found to be missing any engine. Later on, during Professor Monitoff's class, Donnie and Gretchen discuss a project they worked on for Prof. Monitoff, a projector for babies' eyes which would show babies beautiful scenery while it was dark. Professor Monitoff asks, "Did you stop and think that maybe infants need darkness? That maybe darkness is part of their natural development?" One of the two bullies then suggests that Donnie's and Gretchen's invention could be used to show ugly images to babies, and when Gretchen asks the bully, "Is that what you'd show your kids?", the bully responds with, "Didn't your Dad stab your Mum?" Monitoff throws the bully out of the class for this cruel comment, however, Gretchen flees the classroom. Donnie chases her as she runs from the school, and at this moment, Gretchen turns to Donnie and embraces him in a passionate kiss.

Later, Donnie finds a wallet on the sidewalk belonging to Jim Cunningham, the successful motivational speaker whose philosophy Donnie had earlier instructed his teacher to use as a suppository, and later on had loudly denounced in front of a school assembly. Donnie and Gretchen then go on a date to watch Evil Dead at the cinema, where Gretchen falls asleep in the empty theater and Frank appears. He and Donnie have a conversation, during which Donnie asks, "Why are you wearing that stupid bunny-suit?" Frank replies, "Why are you wearing that stupid man-suit?" After being asked by Donnie to remove his rabbit mask, Frank complies and reveals a human face with a mysterious wound in his right eye. After asking Donnie, "Have you ever seen a portal?" he shows him an image of Jim Cunningham's house on the movie screen. Frank then commands, "burn it to the ground." Donnie obeys again, breaking into the house and splashing gasoline everywhere. These scenes of Donnie setting fire to Cunningham's house are intercut with scenes of Donnie's kid-sister, Samantha, dancing with her group, "Sparkle Motion", in a school-sponsored performance competition. The five pre-pubescent girls, including Kitty Farmer's daughter (Kitty Farmer is Sparkle Motion's manager/coach), perform to Duran Duran's "Notorious" in a performance which could be described as tastelessly sexually suggestive beyond their years, and which is contrasted with the heavier Cherita Chen's sensitive ballet-style performance. After putting out the fire at Cunningham's house, the firemen discover a secret room filled with pedophilic material, and Cunningham is arrested.

After Cunningham's arrest, Kitty Farmer, aforementioned school teacher and fervent believer in Cunningham's methods, decides to defend Cunningham. Because of this, Ms. Farmer asks Donnie's mother to chaperone "Sparkle Motion" (the dance group of which their daughters are both members) on a trip to California to perform on Star Search.

Meanwhile, Frank tells Donnie to write a letter to Grandma Death about his views on her book.

Ms. Pomeroy is called into the school office and fired because the content of "The Destructors," according to Ms. Farmer's beliefs, influenced the recent outburst of vandalism.

Donnie visits his psychologist and, while under hypnosis, reveals that he flooded the school and started the fire. His psychologist then urgently calls Donnie's mother, but only leaves a message, due to Mrs. Darko's chaperoning the girls to California.

Donnie's older sister, Elizabeth, receives a letter indicating that she has been accepted into Harvard. With both of their parents out of town, Donnie and Elizabeth decide to throw a large party. During the party, Elizabeth's boyfriend, who we now discover is named Frank and, we discover is the same person we saw in the cinema when 'Frank' removed his rabbit mask, drives off to pick up more beer.

Gretchen turns up at the party, extremely distressed because her mother is missing from their home, and she suspects that her estranged father is involved. Donnie comforts Gretchen, and they go upstairs together and end up kissing in the bedroom. Eventually, Donnie, Gretchen, and Donnie's two friends, leave the party and ride their bikes to the basement of Grandma Death's house to see her cellar door (which Donnie's English teacher, Ms. Pomeroy, had earlier told him was the most beautiful phrase in the English language, according to "a famous linguist" - a nod to Tolkien). While there, they come upon the two school bullies already in the basement, presumably looking for the woman's well-known gem collection. A struggle ensues between the bullies (who each have a knife) and the four kids, and Gretchen is thrown prostrate and stunned onto the road outside by one of the bullies. Roberta Sparrow is shown standing in the middle of the same road, reading Donnie's letter, when a red Trans Am appears a short distance away. The bully assaulting Donnie furiously demands to know if Donnie called the police, to which Donnie replies, "Deus ex machina."^[1] The car swerves to avoid Grandma Death and runs over Gretchen, killing her. Two people emerge from the car — a kid in a clown suit, and then, from the driver's seat, Frank, wearing a large bunny suit and holding the rabbit mask in his hand. Donnie runs to Gretchen and sees that she is dead. Donnie pulls out a gun and shoots Frank in the right eye, killing him, and then turns to Frank's friend and tells him to go home and tell his parents "that everything is going to be okay." After Frank's friend runs off, Grandma Death comes up to Donnie and says that "the storm is gathering strength" and that he needs to hurry.

Donnie then takes Gretchen's body in his arms, places her in the passenger seat of the car, and drives to the hilltop, where he sits watching a storm develop. The plane carrying his mother and sister back from California passes through the storm, and one of its engines tumbles out of the sky after being ripped off the wing; the engine is then thrust back through the open time portal. A montage of past scenes is shown in reverse chronological order, suggesting that Donnie is traveling backwards in time. In the next scene, he is back in his bed on October 2, laughing. His sister comes home from her date and his mother lies down to sleep, exactly mirroring the beginning of the movie. The jet engine then crashes through the roof and into Donnie's room, killing him.

Afterwards the viewer sees many of the main characters alive in their respective bedrooms, perhaps recollecting varying memories from the future Tangent Universe - or perhaps all waking up from the same nightmare. For example, Frank is shown in his bedroom fearfully staring at sketches of his bunny mask. Frank then dazedly touches his fingers to his right eye, the same place where Donnie had shot and killed him. Jim Cunningham is seen crying bitterly. Professor Monnitoff and Karen Pomeroy are shown sleeping peacefully. In the last scene, the Darko family is in turn shown standing on the lawn outside their home, crying and grief-stricken, as construction crews remove the jet engine from the house and a coroner wheels away Donnie's shrouded corpse. Gretchen rides her bike down their street, and stops and asks a neighborhood boy what happened. He tells her, "Horrible accident ... my neighbor ... got killed ... got smooshed by a jet engine." Gretchen asks, "What was his name?" And the boy replies, "Donnie. Donnie Darko. I feel bad for his family. Did you know him?" Gretchen replies, "No." The neighborhood boy and Gretchen exchange looks with Donnie's mother, and Gretchen lifts her hand and waves at Rose Darko who, with grief written over her face, lifts her hand and waves back at Gretchen.

[edit] Director's cut

Director's Cut: USA DVD Cover

A director's cut of the movie was released on May 29th, 2004 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle International Film Festival, and was released in New York and Los Angeles on July 23, 2004. This new cut includes twenty minutes of extra footage, an altered soundtrack, and visual excerpts from the book The Philosophy of Time Travel. The director's cut DVD, released on February 15, 2005, included the new footage and more soundtrack changes, as well as some additional features exclusive to the two-DVD set: excerpts from the storyboard, a 52-minute production diary, "#1 fan video," a "cult following" video interviewing British fans, and the new director's cut cinematic trailer. The director's cut DVD was released as a giveaway with copies of the British Sunday Times newspaper on February 19th, 2006.

[edit] Differences

In the director's cut:

• The opening-scene song was changed from Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" to INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart". The INXS song was the intended original number. "The Killing Moon" later replaces "Under the Milky Way" by The Church during the party scene. "Under The Milky Way" instead plays on the radio in the car scene with Donnie and his father.
• In the original cut, when Donnie walks into the kitchen at the end of the first scene, the opening music fades and the "The Killing Moon" is playing on a radio in the kitchen. Yet this is not so for "Never Tear Us Apart" in the Director's Cut.
• Donnie follows a transparent "sphere" while watching the football game; the sphere does not form a finger and beckon him, as in the original.
• Donnie's psychiatrist informs him that his pills are placebos, and tells him that he is an agnostic, and not an atheist as he thinks.
• The Holiday Inn scene is longer.
• Several scenes in Ms. Pomeroy's classroom are re-inserted: Donnie reading his own poetry about Frank in class, the teacher announcing the banning of Graham Greene's The Destructors and its replacement with Watership Down, and the class later watching the animated adaptation of Watership Down.
• Frank does not apologise in the theater during The Evil Dead.
• Karen Pomeroy's firing is shorter, while the scene in which Donnie asks her about the words "cellar door" is longer and contains almost entirely different dialogue.
• Various transition scenes show chapter excerpts from Roberta Sparrow's The Philosophy of Time Travel.
• There is more of Donnie and Gretchen, including an arcade scene with Donnie playing the race-car game Outrun. In the game the car is red, as is human Frank's car.
• In a new scene, Donnie's mother and father are eating dinner in a restaurant as they discuss Donnie's situation.
• Donnie and Elizabeth are shown carving jack-o-lanterns. Donnie carves his into the shape of Frank's mask. In the original version, this lantern is still present on the kitchen bench but is not seen being carved.
• The shot of Donnie's eyes bulging as his face enters the sphere at the Halloween party is removed.
• A series of fireworks, clips from the animated film Watership Down, and shots from the Outrun video game are superimposed over the montage at the end of the film.
• The scene in which Frank first wakes Donnie is longer.
• Certain events first appear as images within Donnie's eye (Referred to as "Deus ex Machina"). Deus ex Machina is described by director Richard Kelly in the audio commentary for the Director's Cut. The first image of Frank flashes in Donnie's pupil as Frank wakes him; the second image is that of rushing water to represent the flooding of the school; and there is a shot of fire in Donnie's eyes before Frank tells him to burn Cunningham's house down (instead of a full-screen shot of Cunningham's house on fire). The eye appears every time Donnie is commanded to do a task; therefore, the M.C. Escher "Eye" with the skull within the pupil can be thought of as Donnie's task to die, ensuring the closure of the Tangent Universe, and the survival of the original Universe.
• Near the beginning of the movie, when Donnie's mom comes into his room, "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday is playing in the background.
• The deleted scenes (included in the first DVD release) are hidden as easter eggs.

[edit] Director's interpretation

Writer/Director Richard Kelly does not deny personal interpretations, but has expressed his own theories through the extra commentary on the two DVDs, his own (fictional) book the Philosophy of Time Travel, and in various other interviews.

According to Kelly and his Philosophy of Time Travel, at midnight on October 2 a Tangent Universe branches off the Primary Universe around the time when Donnie is called out of his bedroom by Frank, immediately before the appearance of the Artifact, the faulty jet engine. The inherently unstable Tangent Universe will collapse in just over 28 days and take the Primary Universe with it if not corrected. Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the Living Receiver, Donnie, who wields certain supernatural powers to help him in the task.

Those who have died/will die within the Tangent Universe (and would not have died otherwise) are the Manipulated Dead (Frank, Gretchen, Samantha and Rose Darko). Manipulated Dead Frank, at least, is also given certain powers in that he is able to subtly understand what is happening and have the ability to contact and influence the Living Receiver via the Fourth Dimensional Construct (water). All others within the orbit of the Living Receiver are the Manipulated Living (e.g. Ms. Pomeroy, Dr. Monnitoff), subconsciously drawn to push him towards his destiny to close the Tangent Universe and, according to the Philosophy of Time Travel, die by the Artifact.

There are two "Franks" in the story: the living boyfriend of Donnie's sister Elizabeth, and the Manipulated Dead Frank who appears to Donnie as a premonition from the future in the disturbing rabbit suit (the second Frank is dead, or undead; at the end of the film he is killed by Donnie). Dead Frank is aware of Donnie's fate and destiny.

[edit] Production

This section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

The movie was shot in 28 days (coincidentally, similar to the length of the Tangent Universe), on a budget of 4.5 million US dollars.^[2] It almost went straight to DVD, but was "saved" by financial backing from the production company Flower Films.^[3]

The story takes place in the fictional town of Middlesex, in Virginia, but was filmed in California. The scenes at Donnie's school were filmed in part in Loyola High School, a prominent Catholic institution located in Los Angeles, California. The Aero Theatre where Donnie and Gretchen watch the double feature is an actual cinema in Santa Monica, California.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Inconsistencies

There are a few inconsistencies in the movie which show that the plot is not actually happening in Virginia. For example, Autumn is well underway by October in Virginia, and the foliage does not retain its greenery throughout the month; flowers do not remain in bloom, etc. Due to the Earth's axial tilt during Fall, the Sun would not shine so brightly in the sky during October as well. Furthermore, during the scene where school is cancelled, and Gretchen asks Donnie to walk her home, palm trees adorning several neighbors' lawns in the background are noticeable; certain species of palm do grow in Virginia, but are not as common as shown in the scene.

Also in the movie, Donnie's sister Elizabeth receives an acceptance letter from Harvard; to receive it as early as October 28 is quite unlikely.^{[citation needed]} This is somewhat dealt with in a deleted scene where Elizabeth is on the phone with her boyfriend Frank, explaining to him that she took a year off from school to be with him.

There is also an inconsistency near the end of the movie in the scene where Seth Devlin, the school bully, has Donnie on the ground with a knife to his throat. This is a continuity error in which the blade's edge switches back and forth from Donnie's throat and away from his throat.

[edit] Reception

Upon its selection to the Sundance Film Festival, Donnie Darko was a lightning rod for festival director Geoffrey Gilmore. Gillmore cited that Darko is a movie with elaborate special effects and Drew Barrymore as a producer. Gilmore was quoted as saying "American independent cinema was always defined as cinema having no resources, no actors of note, no technology, but those are boundaries that are no longer relevant" yet stated that "what we'll see over this next decade is not a continuation of American independent cinema as we have seen it before, but a reinvention of that form... let's allow independent films to become what they want to be, not what they (critics) think they should be." ^[4].

Upon its first screening at Sundance critic Andy Bailey billed Darko as a "Sundance surprise" that "isn't spoiled by the Hollywood forces that helped birth it."^[5]

Although critically acclaimed, the film debuted in U.S. theaters in October, 2001 to a tepid response. Shown on only 58 screens nationwide, the film grossed $110,494 in its opening weekend. By the time the film closed in U.S. theaters on April 11, 2002, it had grossed $517,375.^[6][7]

Despite the poor showing at the box office, the film had attracted a devoted fan base. Donnie Darko was originally released on DVD in March of 2002. During this time, the Pioneer Theatre in New York City's East Village began midnight screenings of Darko that continued for 28 consecutive months.^[8]

Strong DVD sales led Newmarket Films to release a "Directors Cut" on DVD in 2005. Bob Berney, President of Newmarket Films, described the film as "a runaway hit on DVD," citing US sales of more than $10 million.

[edit] Score

Main article: Donnie Darko (soundtrack)

In 2003, composer Michael Andrews and singer Gary Jules found their piano-driven cover of the Tears for Fears' hit "Mad World," featured in the film as part of the end sequence, at the top of the UK music charts.^[9]

A slightly remixed part of the song was used in the David Fincher directed TV commercial for the 2006 Xbox 360 game Gears of War. The advertisement brought the song an increased level of popularity, propelling it to number one in downloads at the iTunes music store in late 2006. This song has also had a strong presence in Internet culture, as it has been used countless times for fan videos and trailers.

[edit] Awards and nominations

2001 — Richard Kelly won with Donnie Darko for "Best Screenplay" at the Catalonian International Film Festival and at the San Diego Film Critics Society. Donnie Darko also won the "Audience Award" for Best Feature at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. The film was nominated for "Best Film" at the Catalonian International Film Festival and for the "Grand Jury Prize" at the Sundance Film Festival.

2002 — Donnie Darko won the "Special Award" at the Young Filmmakers Showcase at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The movie also won the "Silver Scream Award" at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. In 2002 Kelly was nominated for "Best First Feature" and "Best First Screenplay" with Donnie Darko, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal being nominated for "Best Male Lead" at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film was also nominated for the "Best Breakthrough Film" at the Online Film Critics Society Awards.

2003 — Jake Gyllenhaal won for "Best Actor" and Richard Kelly for "Best Original Screenplay" for Donnie Darko at the Chlotrudis Awards, where Kelly was also nominated for "Best Director" and "Best Movie."

2005 — Donnie Darko ranked in the top five on My Favourite Film, an Australian poll conducted by the ABC.^[10]

2006 — Donnie Darko ranks ninth in FilmFour's 50 Films to See Before You Die.^[11]

It also came in at number 14 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

[edit] Related products

• The Donnie Darko Book (2003), written by Richard Kelly and introduced by Jake Gyllenhaal, explained some of the film's details.
• NECA released a six-inch (15 cm) figure of Frank the Bunny, and later, a foot-tall (30 cm) 'talking' version of the same figure.

[edit] Trivia

• Kelly’s DVD commentary reveals that the man in the red jogging suit is an FAA agent monitoring the Darko family. In the party scene he is seen standing outside the Darko family house.
• The classroom scene where Kitty Farmer makes the students go through Cunningham's fear/love exercise is based on a similar exercise Richard Kelly remembers from his own school days.
• Graham Greene was born on October 2, the same night on which Donnie sees Frank for the first time.
• The "famous linguist" who said cellar door were the most beautiful words in the English language was in fact J.R.R. Tolkien, though Richard Kelly in the commentary says it is Edgar Allan Poe. (See also Franz Kafka.)
• The 1950 film Harvey also features a rabbit that only appears to the protagonist, but in a decidedly lighter context than the rabbit of Donnie Darko. Harvey himself is never physically on screen, even though several characters in the film acknowledge his presence.
• The Trans Am with which Frank runs over Gretchen is seen in the opening sequence when Donnie is riding his bike. In the director's commentary, the director said Frank was driving it in that scene as well.
• The wallpaper on the staircase (seen when Donnie is following the "spear") is in the pattern of rabbit Frank.
• The "cured" boy in the "Cunning Visions" tape also appears at the school assembly; he asks Cunningham, "how can I learn to fight?" He is also shown throwing leaves into the fan during the "autumn angel" talent show routine.
• The woman from the "Cunning Visions" tape appears in the school later, showing the news of Jim Cunningham's arrest to Miss Farmer.
• The graffiti on the school plaza ("they made me do it") is in the same handwriting as Frank's message on the refrigerator dry-erase board at the Halloween party ("Frank was here, went to get BEER"), as are the numbers on Donnie's arm.
• Sam Raimi, director of The Evil Dead, allowed Richard Kelly to use and distort footage from that film free of charge.
• The DVD contains several easter eggs, or hidden items. Two are visible in the "Philosophy of Time Travel" book in Special Features. On each of the appendix pages, press the up arrow and press enter. Doing this on Appendix A shows a deleted scene about the flooding of the school, and Appendix B shows a different trailer for the movie. Another easter egg can be found after selecting the "Cunning Visions" menu screen. At the bottom of the screen, highlight the Special Features menu entry, press the right arrow to highlight the icon, and press enter to enter a Web site gallery.
• The original poster art for the movie had been using an Arabic-style font, but this was changed to the much more standard serif typeface font for the video release after the terrorist attacks on the USA of September 11, 2001. The title remains in the same style in the film.
• Tiler Peck, the young actress who portrays Beth Farmer, one of the members of Sparkle Motion, is now a soloist with the New York City Ballet [1]
• Throughout the course of the movie, Frank's right eye is the focus of many scenes. During the bathroom scene where Donnie stabs the force field which surrounds Frank, he stabs him in the area where his right eye would be. When removing his mask, Frank's right eye is seen to be missing. When Donnie kills Frank, he shoots him in the right eye. Additionally, on the movie poster, the image "behind" Frank's right eye appears to be a Jet Engine, much like the one the story centers around.
• In Jim Cunningham's "Cunning Visions" tapes, he can be seen touching a young boy's buttocks - this occurs well before his collection of child pornography is revealed.
• When Rose Darko is drinking red wine while talking to her friend about Jim Cunningham , her friend adds, "...I can't believe he's single." but when Jim is lecturing Donnie's school on the 'Fear and Love' program, he is clearly wearing a (wedding) ring.
• The design for Frank's mask bears a striking similarity to the H.R. Giger lithograph Death Head
• In the first shot of Donnie's mother, she can be seen reading Stephen King's "It". Additionally, the man that gets out of the car with Frank towards the end of the movie is wearing a clown suit, similar to Pennywise the Clown, the main antagonist of It.

[edit] In popular culture

• In a deleted scene for the film Clerks II, Dante makes a reference to a "Donnie Darko tangent universe" to Randal.
• In the Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy there is an episode where a kid named Pud'n wishes he had a bunny. The bunny he gets closely resembles Frank the Rabbit and has a deep voice.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Donnie Darko

• DonnieDarkoFilm.com - Official Film Website
• Donnie Darko at the Internet Movie Database
• Donnie Darko at Rotten Tomatoes
• Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Donnie Darko FAQ
• Extensive analysis of the film by Lawrence Person
• Cellar Door: with web site guide
• Donnie Darko Wallpaper
• eSnips.com - The Artifact and Living by Michael Andrews (mp3 clip)