Super 82011
Overall7.4
Fear3.0
Atmos8.8
Gore1.0
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psychological
Donnie Darko
2001 · R · 1h 54m
28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds... that is when the world will end.
In the autumn of 1988, something tore open in the sky above Middlesex, and a boy saw what came through.
Donnie Darko follows a troubled teenage boy in suburban Virginia who narrowly escapes death when a jet engine crashes into his bedroom — and then begins receiving apocalyptic visions from a terrifying figure in a rabbit suit who tells him the world will end in exactly 28 days. Richard Kelly's debut film is a mind-bending, emotionally devastating blend of science fiction, horror, and teenage alienation, existing in the space between nightmare and revelation. Mysterious, melancholy, and utterly unlike anything else.
science-fictiondramahorror
Tags
atmosphericslow-burn
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Scores
Based on 1 rating
7.0
Overall
Fear3.0
Gore1.0
Atmosphere8.0
LanguageEnglish
RatingR
Running time1h 54m
SpoilersSynopsis — contains plot detailsSynopsis↓
It's October 1988, and Donnie Darko, a troubled, medicated teenager in suburban Middlesex, Virginia, sleepwalks out of his house one night and is found on a golf course at dawn — called there by a vision: Frank, a grotesque figure in a decaying rabbit suit. Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. That same night, a jet engine crashes through the roof of Donnie's bedroom. He should be dead. He isn't.
Donnie returns home to find his room destroyed. No one can explain where the engine came from — listed as debris from a passing plane, but no aircraft has been reported missing. Still on medication for psychological issues, Donnie begins receiving more visits from Frank, who pushes him to commit acts of vandalism and destruction. He floods the school, and burns down the house of a motivational speaker named Jim Cunningham — which reveals Cunningham has been hiding child pornography.
Donnie falls in love with a new girl at school, Gretchen. He becomes obsessed with time travel, guided by an eccentric science teacher and a mysterious book written by an elderly neighborhood woman called "The Philosophy of Time Travel." The book describes the Tangent Universe — an unstable parallel world that forms when a Manipulated Object from the Primary Universe enters it. If the Tangent Universe collapses, it will destroy everything.
On Halloween night, Donnie and Gretchen visit the old woman's house. Gretchen is killed by a car driven by a boy in a Frank costume — the real Frank, Donnie's sister's boyfriend. Donnie shoots Frank in the eye.
Donnie drives to a hilltop and watches a wormhole tear open in the sky. He understands: the jet engine that fell on his house came from this moment, from the Tangent Universe. He has the power to send it back. He pushes the engine into the vortex, ensuring it will fall on his bedroom — on him — in the Primary Universe. He chooses to die in his bed, laughing. The Tangent Universe collapses. The timeline resets. Gretchen is alive, though she doesn't remember Donnie. Those touched by the Tangent Universe wake with a vague, inexplicable grief — mourning someone they can't name.
