Donnie at the beginning of the movie when he was sleepwalking to the golfcourse. He was completely zoned out and something had taken control of him. There are many shots of Donnie like this throughout the movie, the majority when he is being controlled by Frank or told he should commit a crime.
At the beginning of the movie, Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds and Donnie wakes up with this written on his arm.
Donnie sleepwalked and used the ax to flood the school then went and left it in the bronze statue outside of the school. He doesn't remember doing this and Frank told him to do it so he could meet Gretchen the next day.
Here Donnie is trying to reach for Frank who created an invisible barrier between them. Donnie ends up hurting Franks's eye through the barrier and he is angry. This is symbolic for later in the movie when he shoots Frank in the eye.
At school, they are being taught Fear is what blocks Love and Donnie is being forced in class to place an imaginary scenario on the line to show where it fits. He gets angry and cusses out the teacher because he doesn't believe anything is straightforward because of what Frank has told him.
Donnie's science teacher is telling him about a hypothetical situation where time travel might be possible. Donnie stays and talks about God with him and they discuss how time travel could happen easily.
The science teacher gave Donnie a book called "The Philosophy of Time Travel" and there are screenshots throughout the movie that show pages from the book and explain time travel. They are important to help the viewer understand what is going through Donnie's head and they are just one example of the many different kinds of fonts used in this movie.
Here, Frank appears next to Donnie while Gretchen is asleep. He shows Donnie a portal and tells him to burn down the inspirational speaker's house and safely return back to the theatre after. We later learn that Jim, the speaker, is a pedophile and Frank told him this to expose Jim who everyone praised as a genuis.
This is after Frank (from Donnie's timeline) hit Gretchen with his car and killed her. Donnie took his father's gun out of his pocket and killed Frank by shooting him in his eye. This is where Donnie finally understands why Frank from the alternate universe was talking to him about time travel.
Donnie is watching a portal form and reflecting on what he has done so far.
Donnie is finally back to the beginning of October, successfully traveling back in time, sacrificing himself and letting himself get smashed by the jet engine, leaving no one he met after this to remember him.
Donnie Darko is a sinister movie full of plot twists and symbolism. After having visions of a man in a bunny suit named Frank one night, Donnie escapes a bizarre accident involving a jet engine crashing into his room. Frank tells Donnie when the world will end and this puts him on a path of finding clues on how to save the world, but in reality he ends up saving Frank in an alternate universe. These visions Donnie has and his sleepwalking only get worse as time goes on and they lead him to commit a series of crimes that involve flooding the school, axing the schools mascot and vandalizing the ground beneath it, burning down an inspirational speaker's house, and killing Frank from his timeline. Donnie immerses himself in the philosophy of time travel, finding meaning in the words Frank tells him and after being given a book about time travel he sees exactly what the book describes in his everyday life. This movie questions the “free will” we have and there is an ongoing theme of predetermination and predestination. Donnie Darko ends up traveling back in time to right before the jet engine crashed into his room and dies, no one he knew after that event in an alternate timeline remembers meeting him and it’s like the film never happened. Donnie Darko is one of the strangest movies I’ve ever watched.
Donnie Darko figures out a way to travel back in time after committing a series of crimes and having visions of a man in a bunny suit named Frank all while questioning his sanity and reality.
Descriptive words: sinister, complex, beautiful, recursive, eerie, abstract
