How does donnie darko end

Sayan Welcome to club, me too never understood the ending. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Basically what happens is Donnie ends up sending the jet engine back, and in the new timeline yay time travel! Wiki link. Improve this answer. DForck42 DForck42 How is he sending the jet engine back? From what I remember, he sends it back indirectly by making the choice to get out of bed.

The whole movie's plot is essentially a loop of two intertwined parallel timelines. In the main plot, Frank appears and Donnie leaves his bed, avoiding being crushed by the falling engine. This means his mother makes her trip as planned, onto the plane whose engine falls off, ultimately killing her.

In the second timeline, Donnie stays in bed, and is killed by the engine, resulting in his mother cancelling her trip, altering the timeline so that the plane never crashes. It's a bizarre paradox. There's a bonus feature on the DVD that lays this all out pretty clearly, though it's been a while since I looked at it.

TLDR; the timeline where Donnie survives is the alternate "pocket universe" and the timeline where he dies is the original. The poclet universe is only around for a limited period of time, which is why Frank keeps going on about how the world is about to end.

Shiz Z. Never thought of it that way. So essentially the entirety of the events into a schizo fantasy kinda like a 'it was a dream the whole time' type of scenario? This movie is a spot-on portrait of the onset of schizophrenia. That isn't a very satisfactory explanation especially since we know from early in the movie that he is nuts.

Matt, I don't understand how knowing he is "nuts" would make my answer less valid I think his mental state is relevant but it isn't the answer. Using it as an answer is more like explaining away the question not answering it. I also want plot logic based on what happens. Show 1 more comment. Mnementh Mnementh 4, 3 3 gold badges 25 25 silver badges 58 58 bronze badges. What it "feels like" to who? ShaneFinneran yes.

This was my reaction. I don't expect everyone to share it but once it is pointed out it is easy to see its validity. Let's see what others think. It appears that the film tells the following story: Originally there was only one Universe - the Primary Universe, where all mankind was living. Donnie is not aware of his task and his abilities and he discovers them as the film progresses.

In my view - a very illogical story and an overrated film. GreenBear GreenBear 1 1 silver badge 3 3 bronze badges. There are two views to the film: Schizophrenia A Tangent Universe ref: Donnie Darko Explained The final scene of the film shows people waking up with a dream of what happened in the Tangent Universe.

We are taken back to the earlier scene when the Jet Engine comes crashing. When the Manipulated awaken from their Journey into the Tangent Universe, they are often haunted by the experience in their dreams. Many of them will not remember. Those who do remember the Journey are often overcome with profound remorse for the regretful actions buried within their Dreams, the only physical evidence buried within the Artifact itself, all that remains from the lost world.

Ancient myth tells us of the Mayan Warrior killed by an Arrowhead that had fallen from a cliff, where there was no Army, no enemy to be found. We are told of the Medieval Knight mysteriously impaled by sword he had not yet built. We are told that these things occur for a reason. This time when the Jet Engine comes crashing we are shown the creation of the corrected Primary Universe.

A very real dream. Donnie is awake and laughing, he probably understands the consequence of him being alive and decides to make peace with himself and not leave his bed. The Jet Engine comes crashing and kills Donnie. The timeline has corrected itself and in the Primary Universe, Donnie is dead but the Universe is stable. Only the artifact needs to be returned. Which means Donnie chose his death. Let us assume that Donnie once again leaves his bed. This time he would not do it because of his sleepwalking.

We know this because Donnie is awake and laughing before the Jet Engine crashes. He would leave his bed knowing that the Jet Engine would smush him. After this, if he would not be able to do any of the other things — like flooding the school and meet Gretchen.

His being alive would not cause any of the events from the Tangent Universe to happen again. He makes peace with himself and chooses death. Perhaps he feels his purpose was to restore the balance to the universe and that he has served his purpose and is ready to die. He also knows what Roberta Sparrow has become because of being the Living Receiver, a paranoid old lady. Maybe that would be the fate of Donnie as well. Perhaps he feels dying is better and so he does. Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products.

His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better.

Click to browse all his film articles. Barry's Time Travel Review Score. Where To Watch? This is Barry. Is this a super-generalized look at the film? Would this become a convoluted mess if I tried to dive any deeper? Also yes. 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:.

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.

When the timeline resets at the end of the film, Donnie sacrifices his life in order to prevent these things from happening. Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription. Account Profile. Sign Out. Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko. Photo: Newmarket Films.