What is it to be lost in a dream? To constantly question the reality around you. Everyone else already knows there’s something wrong, that you’re different. Who are you to trust when you can’t even trust yourself? Don’t worry. Trust your friend, your only friend. Trust Frank. He won’t make you do anything you don’t really want to.
What is it to be lost in a dream? To constantly question the reality around you. Everyone else already knows there’s something wrong, that you’re different. Who are you to trust when you can’t even trust yourself? Don’t worry. Trust your friend, your only friend. Trust Frank. He won’t make you do anything you don’t really want to.
donnie-darko-part-1
Gabby Browne: [00:00:00] This podcast is an association with Spotlight Studios, a family of podcasts driven to create unique, one of a kind content. If you have any interest in learning more, please visit SpotlightStudiosPodcast. com.
What is it to be lost in a dream? To constantly question the reality around you? Everyone else already knows there's something wrong, that you're different. Who are you to trust when you can't even trust yourself? Don't worry. Trust your friend. Your only friend. Trust Frank. Three. Two. One. He won't make you do anything you don't really want to do.
For the world is founded and built on death, and the reality of death is neither to be questioned nor feared. [00:01:00] Death is a dark dream, but it is not a nightmare. It is mankind's lack of pity, mankind's fatal prosperity for torture, that is the nightmare. Mary Webb. I'm Gabby Brown, here with Aaron Couser, Sparkle Motion, damn it, and Jonathan Van Sickle.
Jonathan VanSickle: Hi, Gabby. Hi, Aaron.
Gabby Browne: Hello. And welcome to our second spooky Halloween time October pick. Welcome to the mad world of Donnie Darko.
It's very fitting that I didn't sleep at all last night, of course, because we're talking about Donnie Darko. As we were deciding what movies to select for the month of October, there were so many options we could have gone with. We talked about the classics, Nightmare on Elm Street, [00:02:00] Halloween, maybe? But as soon as one of the boys suggested Old Donald, I knew that it was time we hurdled this film.
I was going to wait a lot longer to select it, but outside of The Lord of the Rings, Donnie Darko is my favorite movie. I don't care if that's basic, I saw this movie at one of the most pertinent times in my youth and it changed me in a way that no film has before. I've always been a gloomy, spooky lady from the time I was a young one, running around outside playing werewolves with my gal pals under the full moon.
Donnie's outspokenness, while still equally remaining misunderstood as an outlier, makes him one of the most relatable antagonists. I've ever come across. I mean, the Smurf monologue, come on. This masterpiece is the perfect blend of dark humor and wild science fiction that creates a thought provoking, one of a kind film.
From the inside, Donnie may seem lost in his mental illness, but there is definitely more behind the mirror. We just need to take that [00:03:00] kitchen butcher knife and start stabbing at some theories.
Aaron Couser: The movie starts with Donnie just laying on the ground.
Gabby Browne: He's out in the woods.
Aaron Couser: You see the landscape of... Where is this exactly? Where are we? 1988. Weirwood or Wild... It's, it's... Middlesex.
Gabby Browne: Middlesex! Middlesex, Middlesex. But where is Middlesex, California? Is that supposed to be just... No, Virginia. Virginia. Okay, Middlesex, Virginia.
So
Aaron Couser: we're in Virginia. Yeah. Middlesex, Virginia. Does Virginia have that kind of a landscape
Gabby Browne: to it? I think that it's supposed to be insinuated a dream from the very beginning, but I don't know. I do know that Virginia has some beautiful mountains, insane greenery, but those houses where LA House is, you can't fool me, Hollywood.
Fucking palm trees and stuff. Sorry, I had to go get a leaf blower for what?
Aaron Couser: Donnie's, uh, right from the beginning, daydreaming, laying on the street with his bike next to him [00:04:00] on top of this hill as we look down upon the suburbs.
Gabby Browne: Beautiful Middlesex, Virginia. Kind
Aaron Couser: of looks like a painting almost in the background, you know, you kind of see the variations of the mountains, almost like, you know, two different kind of places.
Donnie rises from his dream, wakes up, stares upon the valley.
Gabby Browne: He wakes up in the middle of the road. Not concerned whatsoever. He just smiles and that's the part that you are needing to be in this guy's world. Number one, he's riding down this hill with no shoes. That's got to be painful. He is going 100 percent downhill.
I'm so glad he wasn't awake to have to ride the bike up, right? Because that would have been so hard!
Jonathan VanSickle: Is that meant to be insinuated that he's Sleep biked up that hill. I mean, that was my thought as someone who is a cyclist. I was like, whoa You're sleep biking up that wow, that's incredible.
Aaron Couser: You'd probably wake up be a little sore
Gabby Browne: No, I'd be like goddamn like you didn't waken up and smiling in the middle of the road You [00:05:00] just already have to suspend a little bit for him.
You know, he's ready to go boys a little bit
Jonathan VanSickle: off
Aaron Couser: Yeah, you know immediately. This is not normal character. Mm hmm
Jonathan VanSickle: Long, long, long, long intro of slow motion. Killing time. Man, uh, to an Echo and the Bunnymen song, correct? Ironically enough for a
Aaron Couser: foreshadow.
Jonathan VanSickle: Um, yeah, we're kind of introduced to this Suburban city kind of waking up kind of showing some of our main characters including Donnie's family You
Gabby Browne: got eddie leaf blower and elizabeth played by maggie jillian hall Goddamn what I wouldn't give to be in a movie with my siblings.
That would be insane It's insane. Great on casting. Love that. It had to be
Aaron Couser: wild
Gabby Browne: for them to do that together. A dream. An actual dream. Like, and, and honestly, it just makes every, every part of their interactions so much more [00:06:00] authentic. Rose,
Aaron Couser: the mother, she's reading, she's reading It in the backyard, doing a little day drinking.
Yeah. Yeah. She's
Gabby Browne: always. Yeah. Rose has always got a little rosé. You know what I mean? Rose always needs that, uh, floral, floral wine in her tummy.
Aaron Couser: Samantha Darko, the young, the young daughter, jumping on the trampoline.
Jonathan VanSickle: The trampoline becomes, it's so iconic.
Gabby Browne: Written on the whiteboard as Donnie opens up the freezer to grab something out of it is, Where is Donnie?
The whiteboard is a huge source of communication throughout the movie. As a busy suburban family, you know, they have to be able to communicate with each other some way. And kids, this is before cell phones. We have to write a lot of notes. He's
Aaron Couser: always gone, is that what it's insinuating? Yeah,
Gabby Browne: well Donnie just leaves at night.
Jonathan VanSickle: Oh yeah, this is, I, I, how many times Donnie is a man of the night. Exactly, they're like, where do you go at night,
Gabby Browne: Donnie? One of the best [00:07:00] family scenes I've ever seen take place in a film, honestly. It's like one of the most all encompassing, comedic, the worst parts of a family discussion. Pretty
Aaron Couser: authentic.
It didn't seem forced, you know,
Gabby Browne: the acting. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful scene. It's like one of my favorite, most iconic dinner scenes. You honestly think Michael Dukakis will provide for this country till you're ready to squeeze one out? Yeah, I do.
Aaron Couser: And you gotta love Eddie. You see a lot of these movies where the dad, you know, he's like, he's mad about every little thing that goes wrong at the table.
He's really laid back.
Gabby Browne: Exactly. And Rose is always just slick and poised. God love that queen.
Jonathan VanSickle: I think with as many things as this movie has going on, one of its Best aspects is the way it shows suburban life. There are so many things that are open ended and so many things that leave you with questions.
But when you really look at some of these basic interactions, this is where I think the movie really shines. It connects with you because it's so well done and it is so real.
Gabby Browne: Yeah, where you're [00:08:00] like, Oh my God, I can imagine one of my friends telling me that they had that exact conversation with their family.
That dialogue that you can almost pass off as like someone's just telling you a funny story and you're just watching a funny story interact.
Aaron Couser: This is such an important scene because you could just lose the audience right here. Exactly. If you don't believe this. Family and and these problems within this family.
It's the movie's basically over.
Gabby Browne: It's amazing. It's so good though
Jonathan VanSickle: It's perfect. We get our little exposition about Donnie being in therapy and him being on medication And then her telling him that he's not taking it. Mm hmm
Gabby Browne: And then we get the old, Fuck ass, suck a fuck. What's a fuck
ass? One of the best lines ever, honestly perfect. This family dynamic is so good. These are parents that already have two assistants. Established teenagers. When the little girl starts cursing at the dinner [00:09:00] table, everyone's just like, okay, you know, , they don't, we get it. Now we understand. We've been here already, you know,
Aaron Couser: we find out like Elizabeth is graduated high school.
Mm-hmm. , and she's kind of taking a year of having fun and partying, waiting possibly to go to Harford.
Gabby Browne: Yep. She's applied that that is in the books. We'll see what happens. Mm-hmm.
Jonathan VanSickle: Donnie's room. He has a very interesting picture on his wall. It's a pencil drawn eye, which, by the way, if he was drawing like that, this guy's either a psychopath or, like, the most gifted
Aaron Couser: person ever. There's like a doll, and it's a death doll, right underneath that eye, too. Is there? Yeah, I didn't notice that.
I paused it just to see what else I could see, and yeah, it's a doll of death. And inside the eye later on, you see actual skull, a skull. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Which is interesting. So a lot of, a lot of little imagery foreshadowing what's about to happen. Did you [00:10:00] toy the paper at the Johnson's house? Is that what you came in here to ask me?
No. Rose shows up, you know, obviously upset about his behavior at the dinner table. She wants to know, where are you going at night? He's constantly gone or spending the night somewhere else. So this has been a problem that's been
Gabby Browne: happening. He just like blows off her question. She's like, what happened to my son?
I don't recognize this person today, which is like if you're trying to convince someone to take their medication Do not do this. Do not gaslight someone into taking their medication because Yeah, I don't recognize my son today Rose. This is not the motherly way to go about it I guess this is the 1988 motherly way to go about it, but that's all right.
I forgive you for this one I also understand why as Rose decides to leave the room, why Donny calls her a bitch too, so there's a little bit of that there too. Yeah, and she hears it too in the hallway. Yep, she hears it. And she, she goes to her husband, our son,
honey, you're not a bitch, but you're [00:11:00] bitching.
Aaron Couser: Eddie knows what to say.
Jonathan VanSickle: Yeah. Yeah. Truthfully. Even if bad parenting is happening. They're still good people, they is a real, honest depiction of a family, not some fairy tale. And
Gabby Browne: it's the relationship that you see between the family, why the children are the way that they are, is because they are compilations of these.
two people. This family is a lot closer than they like truly make it seem as well. Like it's a suburban family where they're all eating dinner at the dinner table every single night. Classic suburban lifestyle. They are a lot more similar than they all let each other believe, so. It's the teenage angst, you know.
Aaron Couser: Donnie opens up his cupboard and takes the medication, his pills. So I guess he wasn't taking his pills and now maybe he's been motivated. Gaslit
Gabby Browne: into taking his pills. Thanks mom, I guess you're doing what the mom's supposed to do. Maybe he feels
Aaron Couser: bad about the [00:12:00] profanity that he said about his mom.
Gabby Browne: Maybe.
I don't know. I don't know how much Donnie actually ever feels bad about things. Eddie
Aaron Couser: heads to his routine of going downstairs and watching TV until he passes out. Clock
Gabby Browne: strikes midnight and then the black October 2nd, 1988. Wake up.
Ooh, he's here. Frank's here. Frank's here. Haha. Donnie rises from his bed and he's like sleepwalking. His eyes are closed. He could've fallen down those stairs, but you know those sleepwalkers, they
can
Gabby Browne: go. They can go places.
Jonathan VanSickle: We get the answer to the question of what has Donnie been doing and it's like, oh, he's been sleepwalking.
Sleepwalking. He's a professional sleepwalker. Professional sleepwalker. I mean, and he walks. Downstairs past his father and as Frank says all the way to a golf course
Aaron Couser: he goes right to the end of the
Gabby Browne: street [00:13:00] He grabs the dry erase marker from the whiteboard before he dips that he knows Frank is gonna tell him something juicy
He's telling Donnie to get closer until they are face to face on this beautiful golf course. And we turn and we finally see what's been talking in his ear this entire time. And it is this giant bunny rabbit with this silver mask over the top with these mangled teeth and giant orbed eyes. He is just a sight to behold, truthfully.
God love Frank. So
Aaron Couser: absurd, you know, this big giant bunny rabbit talking in this very spiritual,
Jonathan VanSickle: or The sound design on his voice and just the way they decided to record that really, I mean it sells everything. That costume. With the wrong voice could have [00:14:00] been completely absurd and not worked, but the way they matched those two together.
Oh, man It's incredible. This
Gabby Browne: is like for younger audience I mean actually I don't think for younger audiences, but when I watched this I was a lot younger and that was like A truly fearful moment. Someone is whispering in your head to leave your home and come to them. And if you
Aaron Couser: saw, if you saw that in the theater and it was all around you.
Gabby Browne: That sound. Yeah. And then turning and seeing his face for the first time and hearing that eerie voice and, and getting a face to the name and it's just like. It's an awesome cinematic moment. Oh god, love Frank.
Jonathan VanSickle: What is he telling?
Aaron Couser: He's on this, um, ominous date.
Gabby Browne: 28 days. 6 hours.
Aaron Couser: 42 minutes. 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.
That
Gabby Browne: is when the world
Aaron Couser: will
Gabby Browne: end. And then [00:15:00] Donnie is like, giggling, smiling boy again. He's like, why? Is
Aaron Couser: he saying why, like, sad why?
Gabby Browne: It's supposed to be like a super ambiguous why, I'm pretty sure. You could take that why and be like, he's asking why is the world ending? Why did you bring me here? Why did you tell me this?
Like, he's asking all of the encompassing questions of why into that one why. Literally, you can watch it as a person in a different mood and start that movie, start that scene, and it kind of changes the why of the movie for your entire time watching it. The whole
Aaron Couser: movie is him trying to figure out about time travel, you know, so he's an inquisitive person.
Yeah,
Gabby Browne: Donnie's smart as
Aaron Couser: hell. And he's always probably trying to figure out problems and solve them. So yeah, it's a very ambiguous why. It's very interesting. Yeah. And he plays it perfectly. Thank
Gabby Browne: you, Jake Gyllenhaal. Donnie's always like really happy, apparently whenever things are going down. He's just [00:16:00] literally
Jonathan VanSickle: always smiling.
I think that's a huge massive part of this movie. The way that they interact with tragedy, Donnie and, well, later on, you know. Yeah.
Gabby Browne: Maggie. Maggie Jules is sneaking in. She's a sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. Everybody else is passed out. Homeboy is like belly out on the couch. Rose is passed out in her bed. And then...
Aaron Couser: Kerplunk. Kerplunk.
Gabby Browne: Kerplunk? Is that what we're doing? Is that the sound effect we chose there? Kerplunk.
That was... That was better. It was more like EARTHQUAKE, man. Like a shit shake in the house, man. The chandelier almost falls on poor Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's scared. Wouldn't Jillian hold down, man, we can't have that yet.
Aaron Couser: Eddie's scared. Uh, it's, yeah, something really, something [00:17:00] really crazy just happened. Yep.
Gabby Browne: Car alarms blaring. Dogs are barking.
Aaron Couser: Do we talk about the Tangent Universe now?
Gabby Browne: The instigation of a metal object falling from the sky is the first sign that you're in a Tangent Universe. That there's an object being found, or like, put into your universe out of nowhere, and that's the first sign. It's my understanding that the Tangent Universe has begun before even the object comes into the universe.
I felt like the entire movie has been a Tangent Universe the entire time, and that there's no initial starting point to the Tangent. But that's just my initial thinking.
Aaron Couser: So another theory is, is that glitch created
Gabby Browne: the Tangent Universe, that could make sense
Aaron Couser: too. And it's obviously Donnie's job to fix it.
This is where we think the Tangent Universe begins, but we're gonna get to that in our theory section after the
Gabby Browne: plot. Yeah, or this is where Aaron thinks the Tangent Universe [00:18:00] started, cause I don't necessarily think that.
This is also a movie too that you can know nothing about tangent universe, uh, like primary universe and you can still love and have different theories on outside of time travel, truthfully. That's my only thing of, of talking about it. Like that's like the truth. Truth.
Jonathan VanSickle: Well, yeah. That's what I realized whenever I was watching it.
Like I said, it's like, that was my favorite parts of the movie. Like the rest of it's really cool and like fun to like get techie, but I feel like. This, like, suburban life that they tell here, and this, like, hierarchy, that's really where this movie sings. Yeah, exactly. And that's what makes it so impressive, is that so much is, like, that story's being told, then this time travel shit's being told, then there's a whole different timeline of stories.
And there's a
Gabby Browne: whole, there's a whole, like, other, other thought of people out there that are just like, Yeah, Donnie is just a mentally ill kid. Son. [00:19:00] Son.
We cut to the golf course. Donnie's waking up on the greens. The handsome old face, rest in peace king, uh, Patrick Swayze there. Jim Cunningham. The man, the
Aaron Couser: myth, the legend.
Gabby Browne: Yikes. He's like the mayor around here. Yeah, basically. He wrote a book. He wrote a book about love and fear and everyone wants him now, so, um.
And
Jonathan VanSickle: they kind of make fun of Donnie. Well, they don't like ask him if he's okay. I know, they
Gabby Browne: find a kid on a golf course and he's like, He's like, Sleep golfing.
Jonathan VanSickle: Watch out, the green's kind of got drool
Gabby Browne: on it or something. Yeah, no, no. It's on you. Literally. But we see that he wrote the prophetic time on his arm from how long the world is going to end from that exact moment that he spoke to Frank.
Donnie walks off, you know, just walks off of the golf course, and once again, no shoes, just, you know, ah, straight out
Aaron Couser: of bed. When Donnie finally walks back home to his house. He notices that police ambulances firetrucks [00:20:00] crane CIA, maybe I don't know FAA
Gabby Browne: that is what they are Oh FAA. Hi ma'am. Mr. And mrs.
Darko. I'm with the FAA I need you to sign some paperwork
Jonathan VanSickle: And they're pulling the engine out of his room, which I was The parents don't seem, like, too concerned.
Gabby Browne: There he is! Yeah! Yeah! That was so funny. And Samantha's, like, sittin up on her dad's arm and he's like, It fell in your room! Like, that's your fault.
You're so unlucky, you loser. Uh, they,
Aaron Couser: they basically tell the Darko family that they got a hotel set up for them to stay in. They said it'll only take like about a week, the construction will be done and they can move back. As you see the middle of the jet, a close up, like inside of it, and there's this weird like red and white squiggly
Gabby Browne: design.
It looks like a hypnotist circle, what people use to hypnotize people. Yeah, I didn't think about that. The insinuation is the [00:21:00] dream. Lots of things happen to Donnie while he dreams. And usually when you're hypnotized, you're in a dreamlike state. This jet engine ain't from around these parts is all I'm trying to say.
Jonathan VanSickle: I think that's a brilliant choice by the director. My dad was a fighter pilot. And so that's something you do see on a lot of, uh, jet engines is that swirl. So I think it's, yeah, it's a brilliant combination of two things just working together perfectly. And there's so much symbolism, so many different little things that they're, uh, seem to be hinting at throughout this movie.
I mean,
Gabby Browne: that looks like a real symbol, but I bet the director was just like, We can use this!
Jonathan VanSickle: I mean, the way he shot it, I mean, there's, it's. It's
Gabby Browne: very intentional. It's just also foreshadowing for, you know, everything else. They don't know where it came from.
Jonathan VanSickle: His sister asks the question that I think's been on everyone's mind is, where's the [00:22:00] rest of the plane?
Gabby Browne: Yeah. No, we don't freaking know. And they're just like, oh, don't
Jonathan VanSickle: worry about it. Don't worry. They don't know. Where's the
Aaron Couser: rest of
Gabby Browne: the plane? Seriously. There's people here in my home that you're telling me I can move back into in a week that are wearing like aluminum suits. Like that's... That scares me.
That's the other thing. The
Jonathan VanSickle: clean up time. And it only takes them like three days since we're giving like dates. Yeah. Get back in
Gabby Browne: that house quick. I know. There's still some plastic around, but my God, like a plane lands on your house out of nowhere and we're not going to be like, okay, cold war's over.
Everything's good guys. It's the eighties. Things are fine right now. You know, we're just having a war on drugs, nothing else. Eddie
Aaron Couser: and Rose are watching TV, and this is kind of an ominous scene. Rose is just kind of laying on Eddie. They're sad and upset of their situation. Eddie talks about a student that died when they were in high school.
He was just on his way to prom. I think it was like a car accident. He said he was doomed. That could be said. About Donnie.
Gabby Browne: I could say the same thing about Donnie. When you are a [00:23:00] fire starter that breaks into people's houses and then an airplane turbine lands in your room out of nowhere, and they can't find the rest of the plane.
Yes, I think that that's also a pretty astute observation. Not in a mean way, of course, they're concerned parents, but it's also along the lines of like, sometimes you just have to accept that someone's got a little bit of bad luck.
Jonathan VanSickle: Well, in one of the major themes that we're introduced to later, through destruction there is great creation.
And I think that's a crucial theme of this movie and of Donnie's arc. That story and that idea and that way of thinking is that, you know, there has to be this destruction for something beautiful to be created. Darko
Gabby Browne: Cheapskate, huh? You're like a celebrity, man. He's coming up to the bus. All the Darkos are, are here, and they are okay.
Of course, [00:24:00] Donnie needs to celebrate with a little bit of a cig. What happens if you'll tell Mom? You'll put Ariel in the blender. You're goddamn right. And
Jonathan VanSickle: this just speaks... to the way this was written and the relatability of it. Because there are these teenagers smoking a cigarette and one of his buddies goes, Yeah, it's good shit.
And he goes, It's a fucking cigarette, man.
Gabby Browne: And this is when we're also introduced to Sharita. And of course, Homie is not very fond of Sharita. They treat her terrible. Yeah, they treat her terrible. But this is also the first time that like you hear Donnie's just like, Hey, man, knock it off. Like, he's not sticking up for her, but he's like, Hey dude, that's not cool.
Like, you know, like classic high school. He's got some morals. Yeah, he does have some morals. We love Donny. We're here
Aaron Couser: for Donny. He's not here just to fit in. He's not just gonna fit in with the clowns.
Gabby Browne: Cause these guys are, like, they're his friends, but he also knows that these guys hurt our couple of weenies too, you know?
And he has no problem putting his friends in their place either. Donny has no [00:25:00] problem telling anyone what's on his mind ever. Exactly. You're goddamn right.
Jonathan VanSickle: This is a gorgeous scene if it's the one I'm thinking of. This is huge. Perfect. I really think this is where we're introduced to like the further meat of this movie. We've set up the Darko family, we've set up this bizarre happening with Frank arriving in this jet engine falling through the house, but this next scene and the way it's shot and the way it's done with the music, more slow mo again, which there is more slow mo in this movie.
Yeah. Wow. But it's actually tastefully done. We're at this private middle sex school. Everybody's all in their uniforms. Boys in their dress shirts. Girls in their dresses. We're walking down the hallway. We see these different teachers. We see the way these characters are interacting. We see These two guys doing blow next to their lockers, which wow, even if this was happening in the [00:26:00] eighties in private schools, I don't think anyone was that brash, but we'll, we'll give it to them.
Seth Rogen. We see Miss Farmer kind of, uh, giving a judgmental look. She's got a Jim
Aaron Couser: Cunningham book.
Jonathan VanSickle: Exactly. Exactly.
Gabby Browne: Did you guys read what it was called? Attitudinal beliefs. Attitudinal. I think he made that word up. And of course, Sparkle Motion! This is the first OG Sparkle Motion rehearsal, slo mo too.
We see Samantha Darko, she is the middle woman leading the group. They are amazing. Oh my god, phenomenal
Aaron Couser: little girls. They know it too. You know, when they're done, they're like, high fiving each other. She
Gabby Browne: literally misses every
Jonathan VanSickle: single one more! You're just introduced to this whole hierarchy, the layers of the way that this social web has kind of been woven at this school. Beautifully done, one of the most impressive little pieces of this movie that I [00:27:00] think tells so much with the perfect amount
Gabby Browne: of information. So many people think montage and they're like, Oh, Rocky's training and he's punching bags and stuff.
This is like an important montage in the sense of just like, you are introduced to so many new characters, so many new little nuances that you're going to need to pick up on. You literally have to pause the video to see what book Mrs. Farmer is holding because it's important to the movie. This is the type of scene where I cannot.
Say a montage is like a lost form. So many people say that montages are just throwaway scenes, and it's like, no, this is this. This is the reason why montages exist. Yeah, you can say a
Aaron Couser: million words without saying one word at all. It's almost like perfect writing, but brilliant directing.
Gabby Browne: Absolutely.
Aaron Couser: This is an interesting little dynamic where you see the two groups of teachers, Dr.
Kenneth Monitoff and Karen Pomeroy, and [00:28:00] they meet Principal Cole, Jim Cunningham, and Kitty Gardner. Jim Cunningham looks like he's about to do some kind of a program with the school. Principal Cole and, and, and Kitty are super excited, and they walk by Karen and Dr. Monitoff, and you just immediately see the contrast, the kind of the faces.
They don't really want to shake hands with Jim. Karen and Dr. Monitoff are mentally in their own camp while the principal Kitty and Jim Cunningham are in their own camp as well. This is
Gabby Browne: the first divide between the people who like to live in, in their false reality and the people who accept the truth.
And there's this entire group of people who love to live in a false claim hood like a lot of suburbia. And there's a lot of people who like to accept the truth. And this is, this is the first, like, introduction to those two different sides of people. You actually
Aaron Couser: see Karen, as she breaks away from the group, she watches Sparkle Motion.
Gabby Browne: She's always watching them with like a side eye [00:29:00] kind of look, even at the performance later, it's like... Girl's not that impressed, but it's time for English class. Donnie Darko, perhaps with your recent brush with mass destruction, you can give us your opinion. I'm here for Drew Barrymore's English class.
And honest to God, I would never miss a day, front row. I would probably volunteer to BTA. She is spectacular in this role. This is like such a distinguished part for her that I just truly loved. A young, fresh out of grad school teacher who's just like, yeah. I'm gonna fuck with the kids. I like my job. I'm gonna do that.
I
Aaron Couser: love it. She, yeah, she creates a kind of social angst within the group
Gabby Browne: almost. I know where she's just like, well, Joanie, if you would have read the book, she will call kids out on their shit because she understands the social norms of what's going on right now. And she's a woman who speaks with [00:30:00] truth.
No falsehoods.
Aaron Couser: And they're reading a book.
Jonathan VanSickle: It's about this group of boys that make a decision to destroy this old man's house. It's not that they just want to destroy it because they don't like the old man. It's because they want to systematically demolish it. They flood it first. They take all the valuables next.
It is a piece by piece destruction of this entire property. And once again, we're introduced to this theme of creation through destruction. You know, there are a ton of these little, little nods and winks in this movie. And I believe, if I remember correctly, the author, Graham Greene, was also born on October 2nd, whenever the jet engine falls through the Darko home.
Aaron Couser: So this is a real story. 13 page
Jonathan VanSickle: short story. This is a real short story that was written. Yes, um, and it's really something you would study in an advanced literature class with a teacher like this. You're
Gabby Browne: right, Jonathan. He was born on October 2nd. Yeah. Wow.
Jonathan VanSickle: That's [00:31:00] really crazy. Yeah. It's, it's one of, this is one of those movies, the more you unravel the, the small stuff, the more of the story is told.
And if you read this story. It very much, I mean, it speaks to the entire theme of teen angst and not knowing your path, not knowing your way, and seeing what comes from destruction.
Gabby Browne: It's literally like the, the predisposition of parents always telling their children, well don't do that, don't do that, you wanting to make the own mistakes on your own.
Johnny literally says, They just want to see what happens when they tear the world apart.
Aaron Couser: Yeah. And that's basically the motif of the movie.
Gabby Browne: May we help you enter Gretchen? Yes. Another young queen. I love this iconic performance, really. I know truthfully. There's so every, every, everyone does.
You know, because they're all young [00:32:00] adults, like, that's such a good part, like, we talk about child actors, or people who are playing their part, like even Samantha kills it in this role. Imagine being, you know, that young, being asked to say fuck ass on television as your, probably your premiere role. Yeah, I just registered and they put me in the wrong English
Jonathan VanSickle: class.
Why is it the new kid always comes in in the middle of class? I don't know.
Gabby Browne: It's because they're always late. It's because they're, they're going to the office. I don't know. It's always, this is the iconic 1980s thing. I don't know, man. This is literally what the 80s movies do though. Enter middle of the class and she's like, you look like you belong here.
There's one desk open and she's like, well, where do I sit? And she's like, sit next to the boy you think is the cutest. Honest to god, funny, funny stuff to be a teacher man. So crazy.
Aaron Couser: If anybody had a video of that though, that lady would be out.
Gabby Browne: Yeah she would. Nowadays, nowadays. Back in that time you were like, yup sit next to the boy you think is the cutest.
And the class goes oooooooh.
Aaron Couser: Gretchen doesn't really want to. [00:33:00] Uh, you know, answer verbally, but she definitely leans over to Donnie and Karen sees this and she does.
Gabby Browne: And Drew's like, Joni, move.
Aaron Couser: She hates Joni,
Gabby Browne: man. Man, don't
Aaron Couser: we all fucking hate Joni? If that hadn't happened, though. Maybe Donnie and Gretchen don't really connect too well.
Jonathan VanSickle: Exactly. If Donnie and Gretchen don't connect, does Donnie have any competence or any empathy for those around him? I mean, I think that connection to her really kind of changes his mentality about the world around him as we continue down the story. Yeah. I
Aaron Couser: agree. As
Gabby Browne: someone who is just trying to find the good and the light and see the beautiful things in the world.
Letty and Donny are off to Dr. Thurman's place. They still cannot find the freaking plane. And it's something about the serial number being burned off on the engine, so they [00:34:00] literally can't link it back to a plane. Once again, just Some freakin mystery that none of the adults really seem to care about and the only people who are asking questions are children.
Because of
Aaron Couser: that strange phenomenon, they can't talk about it with anybody. Oh,
Jonathan VanSickle: they signed an NDA. And Donnie says we can't talk about the fact that we Don't know what's happening. Yeah. And this is another like play on just kind of suburbian life and just the hierarchy of this time, this day and age that we live in.
It's like, what? We have to sign an NDA saying that we don't know what's happened. Like, are you? Kidding me? Right.
Aaron Couser: But Eddie says, well, you can, you can tell your doctor. Yeah. You can tell Dr. Thurman. Well, he's like, he's like, well, who's your doctor again? So Eddie doesn't even know who Donnie's doctor's name is.
That's a
Gabby Browne: real involved eighties parent right there. I feel like we're just piling on a couple of stereotypes every once in a while. Eddie's the fun dad who really [00:35:00] doesn't know what's going on in his kids lives. And Rose always has a glass of wine. I can't,
Aaron Couser: he's talking to. Talking to his son, and
Gabby Browne: he's like, We're chatting, we're distracted.
Dad. What? Dad!
Aaron Couser: Donnie tells him, Dad, watch out!
Gabby Browne: And then, Grandma death. Grandma death!
Jonathan VanSickle: She's in the road, and she's checking her mailbox.
Gabby Browne: And she makes it halfway back across the road. Did I check my mailbox? I need to go back. Well, it's nothing there.
Jonathan VanSickle: Donnie gets out of the car to, you know, kind of help her back, and She whispers something in his ear.
It drives me crazy when movies do a whisper and you can't hear
Gabby Browne: what they're told. Exactly. When even the subtitles say, whisper. And I'm like, no, no, no, you're supposed to tell me. They said something just then. I saw her mouth move, you know? And then Donnie's dad even asked, what'd she tell you? Cuts to therapist.
Oh my god, the suspense. I don't need it. I want to know the [00:36:00] secrets. It's fine.
Do you think the world is coming to an end? The therapist's office and she's like, yeah, how's, how's life treating you, Donny? Made a friend. We talking real this time, Donny? We talking imaginary. She's been on this road before. Imaginary. And she's like, okay, okay. Cool. We're going to figure this out together.
Aaron Couser: It's Frank. My friend, his name's Frank. Frank said the world is coming to
Gabby Browne: an end. Yeah. He's like a six foot tall bunny rabbit. Very cash.
Aaron Couser: Thurman's kind of, you know, just taking it in.
Gabby Browne: Yeah. But then he also says my giant bunny rabbit friend told me that the world is going to end. Cause for concern. Yeah, uh, Do you think the world is gonna end?
And he says, no, that's stupid. That's stupid. It's like, no, like I, that was a dream. And he chuckles. I don't [00:37:00] think that there's a normal character or not normal. I think that we need to think of this term in characters as people who like to live in reality and that people who like are truth seekers and people who force themselves into this.
That are all fakers. Trying to make their way through life by just passing, you know? Truthfully, he's like, he just wants to believe, right, then.
Jonathan VanSickle: What it really comes down to is free will and the path that we're all put on, on this planet. If you take your life and you blow it up on to a big, big scale, we're all a masochist.
Born. We're going to live an exceeded amount of time and we're going to die. It's all predetermined. So what this movie I think really examines is the decision making that you take on in your life to either roll down a predetermined path or really take chances. with your destiny, create and forge your own path.
Will you follow the flock or will you think outside the box, do something that's going to shake up the norm and [00:38:00] maybe something extraordinary will become of it?
Gabby Browne: Human life is absolutely too important, valuable, precious
Jonathan VanSickle: to be controlled by fear.
Aaron Couser: Did you ever watch these commercials or these programs when you were going, you know, into high school? Yeah,
Gabby Browne: like sex ed. That's what sex ed was during this time where they wheeled the giant TV into your room where it had the VHS thing hooked up to it.
Those were the best
Jonathan VanSickle: movie days. The group in the school that would like bring in the TV, they're like, Oh, we got to call this department. The AV? Yes. Yes. What is that? Audiovisual? You gotta call it. That's it. But that's exactly it. That's something that no one ever thinks. Okay.
Gabby Browne: TBH, the only reason I know that is because the AV club.
I
Jonathan VanSickle: know. You gotta get the, you gotta have them wheeling the TV and probably wouldn't
Aaron Couser: even have Stranger Things if it wasn't for Donnie Darko. No kidding. Yeah,
Jonathan VanSickle: 80s.
Gabby Browne: This movie that. Yeah, honestly. [00:39:00] Holy cow. Music too. God damn. We've seen Jim Cunningham on the golf course waking Donnie up. We saw him in that montage and now his videos are being shown at school.
This is an influential individual. Jim Cunningham is the best man to ever walk this earth and he is going to teach you how to live your life with love and not fear. That one quote, too, that I had to say by Jim Cunningham that he says in this video that is just so ironic for later events. Human life is absolutely too important to be controlled by fear.
I'm not afraid anymore! A lot of people in middle sex or that are supporting this guy are living on a spectrum of two emotions or idealizing a spectrum of two emotions. It's love or it's fear. That's it. Yep, that's all we got, baby.
Aaron Couser: The Darkos are finally back in their house from staying in that hotel for, I guess it was like, a [00:40:00] week.
He starts getting these visions of his school hallway in an ocean, in water.
Gabby Browne: Do you think he's asleep during this part? Do you think it's one of his like, little sleepwalkies?
Aaron Couser: I don't think he's done it yet. The image of it is being put in his mind. Well,
Jonathan VanSickle: and there's multiple things here, you know? I mean, he has, in the back of his psychology, he just was...
Given the short story to read about destruction and watching the world burn, we know that as a manic schizophrenic, he does have some waking lucid visions and you know, hallucinations I think is what they call them. Or is it being maybe kind of transmitted to him? Something that has to happen, uh, because at this point Donnie, he seems to be kind of put on this.
path. He's not sure where he's going. He's not sure why, but it's becoming clear that there's something or someone that has a plan for him,
Aaron Couser: pushing him on a path, putting the pieces together for him to do something.
Gabby Browne: And it's never a full push. It's always a [00:41:00] slight coerce. It's a finger that's luring you in that's saying, you don't have to, but here's an idea.
If I was taking a nap on my living room couch and woke up to a giant six foot bunny in my living room just looking over me, time to do some work, baby. I'd probably do it, you know, sorry to say when the ax is presented to you, you take the ax, I guess, in this situation. And Donnie does just that. We're off to school.
It just appears in his arm, right? Yep, he's literally slamming that axe down on a water main in the, in the school. He's at this point where he's like lucid dreaming almost, where he doesn't know what he's really doing or what he's not doing, or if he's experiencing a different reality than everyone else is.
He already knows he's not normal, he's going to therapy, he's taking medication. What's a bunny to him, honest to god? He swings the axe down and then all of a sudden, [00:42:00] cut. And he wakes up in the living room couch again. And that's the easy thing. He has these visions and then he always wakes up exactly where he was before.
Except when you're on the golf course. He like wakes up on the couch and he just like stares at the ceiling for a little bit like, Did I do that?
Aaron Couser: October 6, 1988. 24 days remain. We see Samantha
Gabby Browne: Darko. Yeah, they're at the bus stop. She's reading her poem, The Last Unicorn. Everyone is standing around, gathered around while Samantha Darko reads The Last Unicorn.
And it's obviously for school. She's very excited about her
Aaron Couser: project. The Last Unicorn? Mm hmm. I, the last line of it is And the prince was led into a world of strange and beautiful magic, which I'm assuming that's Donnie there. He's just talking about. Yeah. But I thought that was kind of foreshadowing in a way.
Gabby Browne: Definitely. Samantha's got those dreams too. Two of her buddies come skipping up today and they're [00:43:00] like, school's closed, it's flooded. My mom said it's flooded. Holy shit. That's the best news I've ever heard. But Donnie makes a little face. He's like, didn't I do that? He did. He like, he has like a little like realization where he's like, Oh, maybe it wasn't just like sleepwalking again.
You
Aaron Couser: know, he's kind of realizing his powers are real. He started to realize he's gaining these.
My
Gabby Browne: god, is this ever going to stop? And we meet Principal Cole with our janitor, and there is a hole busted water main, he's got a ton of classrooms with water, and there is officially an axe in the solid bronze mongrel yeah. Not the mongrel. This is middle sex school's mascot. You cannot be doing this.
There are just so many little funny things that happen in this movie. When the girls are all talking and they're like, they say the boys locker room wasn't covered in feces. [00:44:00] And they're like, what's that? And they're like, baby mice. Eww! Like, that is so freaking funny. It makes it authentic. I know. It's so good, it's like, just the little dialogue points in this movie are just chef's kiss.
Baby Mice. The
Aaron Couser: principal, he talks to the janitor and he goes, well like, what else could go wrong? I'll show you what else! And then that's where they go to the bronze statue. And it seems like that would be an impossible thing to do, to put an axe through solid bronze. That would have to take some amazing amount of force.
When they pan up, you see the big message that they made me do
Gabby Browne: it. In a very squiggly, specific, squiggly handwriting. Mm hmm. They should have probably just checked a different class for handwriting. They probably would have found their culprit, because it's Frank's handwriting. Oh, it is? Yeah, because it's, Remember Frank was here, went to give me, here's the same squiggly.
So it's like the insinuation that Frank wrote the message. Through, through Dotty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's [00:45:00] Frank's handwriting. I like your boobs. Ha ha
Aaron Couser: ha ha ha. School's cancelled. Looks like it's going to be cancelled for a few days. So now they have to go back home. As
Jonathan VanSickle: they're walking back, we're reintroduced to Gretchen.
She's kind of getting a little picked on. A little new kid in class treatment. I like your boobs. Ha
Aaron Couser: ha ha
Gabby Browne: ha. Seth Rogen says that. That
Aaron Couser: was his first line of any movie. Did you know that? Is
Gabby Browne: that honestly is the best thing I've heard today. That's like really the most perfect. Well I'm amazing. What a start to your
Jonathan VanSickle: career.
The first time we see him on screen he's doing
Gabby Browne: drugs. He's doing coke. And then the second
Jonathan VanSickle: time he's like. Unfortunately it's not weed. It would have been really on brand.
Gabby Browne: I like your boobs. Like Jesus man that's amazing. Like on. brand though for Seth Rogen that's perfect. Sorry. Yeah. Donnie
Jonathan VanSickle: kind of shoos them
Aaron Couser: off.
Gretchen asks if Donnie could walk her home. [00:46:00] So it's Gretchen identifying Donnie and trusting Donnie and wanting to connect with Donnie
Jonathan VanSickle: and, and wanting a little bit of that security from these assholes.
Gabby Browne: I think you're cute. This has already been opened up. Can you walk me home? The door is open. You know, the door is wide
Aaron Couser: open.
Gretchen tells Donnie that her dad Stabbed her mom about four times in the chest.
Gabby Browne: Mm hmm. Her stepdad, that's also so on par that like Gretchen has had more than one man as a father figure in her life in that sense and the second father figure she had tried to kill
Aaron Couser: her mom. You know, she's got probably some psychological things going on.
Yeah, and
Gabby Browne: thought Gretchen Ross would be a pretty cool name and witness protection. Who knows if that's true or not, but it's the unknown with her. It's like legitimate, the biggest mystery that Mr. Darko could find, but it's a good thing that he's, he's practicing his detectives. He's [00:47:00] practicing being a detective.
Aaron Couser: You know, he actually went to jail too because he burnt an abandoned house down. That's why he can't drive.
Gabby Browne: Tony Darko. What the hell kind of name is that? It's like some sort of superhero
Aaron Couser: or something.
Jonathan VanSickle: What makes you think I'm not? He kind of is in this movie, and as a teenager, when I was at a very impressionable age, whenever I saw this movie, he is the teen angst superhero.
Just doesn't care, lives with his heart on his sleeve, says what he feels, acts the way he wants. Always
Gabby Browne: sticks up for the little people even when he's the outlier himself. That's why he's so profited in this school. I love Donnie. Even though he himself has bullies and people who hate him, like, everyone still cheers for Donnie.
Aaron Couser: Gretchen's telling Donnie about this project that she has to do in her physics class about the greatest invention ever To benefit mankind. That's easy [00:48:00] antiseptics
Jonathan VanSickle: like the whole Sanitation thing it shows a lot about his character He's very rational, but he's also very sure of himself and the knowledge that he has he says oh, that's that's easy This is clearly the answer so you see that kind of self assuredness and that willingness to really believe in himself and what he knows.
Gabby Browne: If the school didn't flood, Donnie and Gretchen would have never had this conversation. None of this interaction would have gone through. She's really glad that the school flooded. You're weird. And he's like, oh, I'm sorry. And she's like, that's a compliment. That's like also the first time that as a young adult, I heard that outside of like my friend saying it.
And I was like, oh my God, it's a compliment. They said it on TV. You're weird. Thank you, Donnie. Yes. And then he's like, uh, uh, uh, you, you want to go with me? And she's like, where she's like, that's what we say going together. You know, like, do you want to go with me? And she's like, yeah, we [00:49:00] can go together. I'd like to try something new this time.
Aaron Couser: Dr. Thurman wants to ramp it up a little bit, try some new methods that might get to the heart of the real problem here. Hypnosis. Donnie talks about Gretchen and he talks a lot about girls. He kind of loses control of himself in this hypnosis because he gets his mind around sexual encounters with women.
It gets kind of over the top where he starts to take his pants off and she
Jonathan VanSickle: doesn't stop him
Gabby Browne: right there. It's unbelievable. She's like, I want to hear about Frank and he's like, nah, I want to hear about fucking. And then all of a sudden she's like, gotta clap twice. And then Donnie wakes up with his hand in his pants looking at his therapist like.
Ma'am? This was our first time doing this and I don't like what I'm seeing right now.
Aaron Couser: Dr. Thurman does have some moments of creepiness
Gabby Browne: to her. I can't imagine that middle sex Virginia has a lot of [00:50:00] young, schizophrenic adults. She's probably a therapist to a lot of middle sex moms in the area, you know what I mean?
Middle of the road, what they could afford. Yeah, exactly. It's not a specialist.
Jonathan VanSickle: 200 an hour? I don't know. 200
Gabby Browne: an hour? That's what they say at the dinner table. Yeah, this is also what, you know, this is also someone that they care so little about, basically, that like, their dad doesn't even know the name of this woman.
Aaron Couser: It's time to find out who wrote that note. They get all the kids up to write a little message, and to see if it could match that, they made me do it scribbling outside right by the mascot. Donnie gets up there, his turn to write the message, and they put a little question mark by his name. I think
Jonathan VanSickle: this is more of a situation, the police maybe reading Donny's body language more than anything because the handwriting, eh, I mean he's got sloppy handwriting but it doesn't match.
He looks guilty as hell in that moment. He [00:51:00] looks like he's sweating bullets. If I were the cops and that was my job I'd be like, yep, I don't know what's happening here
Gabby Browne: but I'm curious. This is also the kid, the schizophrenic kid that's already burnt down an abandoned house, you know, if someone's gonna do something.
It's probably him or one of the other nasty bullies in the area. If you already have a police record, you're already on the radar, you know? And so Donnie is very obviously on the radar. And the bully thinks that Donnie put him on the radar. Seth pops out of one of the stalls with a sword. Switchblade in the middle of this private school and he's like, you told them that I did it.
Did you do that? Did you do that? And Donnie's like, no, my, what is happening right now? I think you did it, Donnie. You did it. And then he pushes him off and Donnie's like coughing. Like he, he literally just saw his life flash before his eyes in that moment.
Beer and pussy, that's all I
Aaron Couser: need. After school, [00:52:00] you know, his buds and him, drinking a few brewskis, um, shooting some bottles. And you really see how great of a shot Donnie is. I mean, he doesn't miss. He's hitting from a longer range. Jonathan, have you ever talked about smurfs, uh, when you were younger and maybe how they fornicated?
Jonathan VanSickle: I mean, this is just one of those classic things. I mean, boys will be boys. We all had those days where we were just sitting around just imagining the most insane, obscure, wild little tangents. You kind of indulge in, you know? It's not that you vehemently believe in anything you're saying. You're just having a conversation just to bullshit
Aaron Couser: with the boys.
Lock, locker room talk. Exactly.
Gabby Browne: Well, guess what? Donnie's not here for locker room talk. He's here for logic. He's here for Gargamel creating Smurfette and sending Smurfette to the village. She has no sexual interest in these people. They're all Smurfs. None of them have privates. And what's the point of living if you don't have a dick?
That's according to Donnie. According to Donnie.
Yep. Uh,
Aaron Couser: yeah, he, he, [00:53:00] he, he, he, he, that's all he thinks about.
Gabby Browne: And we know that now, especially from his therapy sessions.
Jonathan VanSickle: Well, this is just another example of just his wisdom and everything and the way his mind works. And it just shows. That, like, he has this thirst for knowledge, he, he, once he gets into something, he knows everything about it.
He knows the ins, the outs, everything. He has a mind for detail and logic. It's
Gabby Browne: also the search for the truth, just like, why are you guys bullshitting this totally infactual thing? Thing that could not possibly happen. He's so constantly based in logic that he can't step outside that realm when he is speaking to other people.
Even though his best friend is a giant bunny rabbit, Donny constantly has to stay as much in logic that he can, and
Aaron Couser: even though he's a superhero, when he can flood schools and conjure fire and, and, and put axes through solid bronze, he still likes the boobies. He's a
Jonathan VanSickle: man's man. [00:54:00] He still likes the boobies, guns, and booze.
Oh
Gabby Browne: my god. Wow, Aaron, if you don't keep that in there, I will literally not. I quit. I quit the podcast. That made me want to cry a little bit.
You're so good. Oh, no dice, Grandma. Oh, no, sorry. Sorry. Goddammit, Mrs. Sparrow, get out of the road, Roberta! Mrs. Farmer's like, Mrs. Sparrow, if you don't get out of the road, someone is gonna come up and kill you! Well,
Aaron Couser: she's gonna, like, call social
Gabby Browne: services on her. She's literally, like, the worst kind of person, truthfully.
I am not judging anyone, but because God and I are so close, I do have his word on my hand, you know?
Aaron Couser: We learned a little bit of information from the kids about Grandma Def. Mm hmm. She's 101. She does the same thing every day. She goes and checks that mailbox for some [00:55:00] mysterious letter that she's waiting on.
She's waiting on something. She's anticipating that one day there's going to be something in that mailbox. And there's
Jonathan VanSickle: great foreshadowing at the end of this scene where one of the kids goes, Someone should really write her.
Aaron Couser: In cooperation with the county police, we have begun an active investigation into the cause
Jonathan VanSickle: of the
Gabby Browne: flooding.
This is an emergency school meeting. Things are happening in Middlesex that are not allowed. And not only that, but this book is being taught to our children! We're here to
Aaron Couser: talk about the flooding of the school. That's the main purpose of this PTA emergency meeting. Kitty makes it about herself, but she also wants to...
Shame this teacher, Karen, who is teaching this vile message of destruction. It's
Gabby Browne: supposed to be ironic. Felt like that was a pretty good Drew.
Aaron Couser: But Kitty would know better. I mean, Kitty would know the best [00:56:00] because she actually has a daughter in the school and she's a teacher.
Jonathan VanSickle: So she transcends. Transcends
Aaron Couser: that
Gabby Browne: bridge.
She transcends the teacher, parent.
Aaron Couser: Bridge. Which makes her voice, I guess, the most important
Gabby Browne: voice in the room. But it's the most understanding, at least. Karen
Aaron Couser: is, is not happy, but also, you know, Rose isn't really digging, digging
Gabby Browne: this either. No one digs Kitty, really, she's just the loudest, and at the end of the day, the squeaky wheel gets the grease most of the time.
Once you're loud enough, a lot of people just want you to shut up. Simultaneously, as this scene is taking place. The scene where they are discussing the book and the flooding. Donnie wakes from another dream like state on the couch. We
Aaron Couser: see Donnie taking his pills.
Gabby Browne: This is the first time he touches too, where he can't like actually reach Frank. Facing the [00:57:00] mirror again in the bathroom. There's some
Aaron Couser: barrier. It's a mix of metal and water, almost, seemingly. And he can't penetrate it. He doesn't have that power
Gabby Browne: yet. Looks like some goo. It looks like some squishy stuff.
Some space time goo.
Aaron Couser: Frank tells Donnie he can do anything he wants. And so can you. Slowly giving him the confidence and giving him, maybe, abilities.
Gabby Browne: And he's saying that they are in grave danger. Something is going to happen to them. You have to be the one, Donnie. And it's just so wild that these scenes are happening simultaneously.
esque scene where Donnie is being told by this creature beyond another universe. That he has to be the one to save everyone. That these people are going to die. While Kitty's screaming about how pornography is being taught to our children. The combination of emotions that you feel throughout this movie, in [00:58:00] these dual scenes, is just so crazy.
Cause you're being swapped from feeling like, I want to laugh out loud at this woman, to I have goosebumps and I don't want to go into my bathroom with the lights off right
Aaron Couser: now. And right before Frank disappears, right before Samantha interrupts, Frank asks Donnie, Do you believe in time? Which puts that
Jonathan VanSickle: in his mind.
Gabby Browne: And Samantha like, who are you talking to? Who are you talking to? I'm just, I'm just taking my pill of Sam. And it's just like, I'm your normal brother. Please leave me alone. Everybody needs their bathroom time.
God dammit Sam, there's only one bathroom for the kids and the other one has a fucking wind turbine through it or whatever, you know? Could Donnie lock the door as well? Yes, also, seriously, dude.
Jonathan VanSickle: If he's talking to his bunny friends, lock the door.
Gabby Browne: I know, don't I, I'm like, I mean, seriously. Now let us begin lifeline exercise number one.[00:59:00]
Aaron Couser: It's Jim Cunningham time again. Let's talk about fear and love and moral dilemmas. I'm sure he has a lot of different classes, but this one kitty really relates to and wants to know where the kids stand morally.
Gabby Browne: Yeah, they give them each little dilemma cards and they have to pay, place it on a spectrum of what is fear and what is love.
Aaron Couser: Charita gets up first, hers is fear.
Gabby Browne: Homegirl's known about this test for a really long time, but she decides not to study and cheats instead. Charita's just like a classically good student, so she bops it on fear where she's supposed to, so she doesn't get yelled at by Mrs. Farmer. Hey, people pleaser 101 right here, Gabby Brown's teaching the class, I would've done that too.
And so, uh, Donnie gets up, and his is a little bit more of a problematic dilemma. This Ling Ling finds a wallet on the ground, but she keeps the money, and she gives the wallet back. So she's doing the right thing, kind of, but who gives a fuck if she takes the mon or keeps the money? That's what Donnie thinks [01:00:00] anyway.
And he's like, I I'm not I can't do this. I can't do this exercise. And she's like, well, if you don't complete the exercise, you get a zero for
Jonathan VanSickle: the day. Well, he explains how like human life is more than just two points on a line. It's more than black and white. You know, there's this
Gabby Browne: gray space. It's not just fear and love.
There are more emotions on the I'm not afraid of this fucking wallet. I'm not afraid of whatever's gonna happen to me because I took this person's money. Could've been anything. Like, I don't know why you think that you need to be teaching this karmatic practice at school, Mrs. Farmer. You
Aaron Couser: can't just
Gabby Browne: lump everything into these
Jonathan VanSickle: two categories and then just deny everything
Aaron Couser: else.
And it just builds up into Donnie and you can just kind of see his anger is mounting and then boom, we're in the office of the principal. He said something pretty bad. Yep,
Gabby Browne: Eddie and Rose are there and Donnie's just lingering in the back.
Jonathan VanSickle: So they asked Ms. Farmer, what, what exactly did [01:01:00] Donnie say to you?
Gabby Browne: He told me to forcibly insert the lifeline card up my anus.
Jonathan VanSickle: To which had he like, yeah, visibly, he loves it. He's like, that's my boy.
Aaron Couser: Eddie likes, I think, just that bravado of his children and, um, fearlessness, probably.
Gabby Browne: Yeah, and I think Rose does too, but as a mother figure in suburbia, she doesn't have that same way, you know?
It's the same reason that the dad doesn't know what the therapist's name is. Like, someone has to be the enforcer, and it's been very obvious throughout the movie that it's never gonna be the dad. Rose has to be that enforcer in at least a little bit of a way. It's the 80s, she's not going about it in the most perfect way, of course, but she's trying her hardest, and she has to be the more negative parent in that sense.
too. Ol Eddie's living his best damn life. He loves it.
Aaron Couser: Yeah. Uh, we find out that I guess Donnie is suspended for six months for, from after school activities.
Gabby Browne: Was Donnie [01:02:00] even in any after school activities? My God, like what was he doing? Playing baseball? I don't think so. If Donnie was in after school activities, it might've been like detention.
Aaron Couser: As they leave the office. Rose and Kitty have this exchange.
Gabby Browne: Our paths through life must be righteous. I urge you to go home and look in the mirror and pray that your son doesn't succumb to the path
Aaron Couser: of fear. This is Kitty's time to really dig in on Rose and say she's starting to have her doubts that Rose is a good parent.
Gabby Browne: Just based off of Donnie's behavior. It's cutting. Well, honest to God. It's the pot calling the kettle black in this situation. If Kitty Farmer told me I was a bad mother because my son told her to fuck off in a situation where she needed to, I would, I, I, in this situation, I think I would probably be a little bit more proud of my son.
But it's also knowing how to go about the [01:03:00] things and in the correct social way. Well, it's
Jonathan VanSickle: exactly as you stated. It's that mentality of holier than thou, of that judgment, of that I'm on a righteous path. You are clearly doing something wrong with your family, and it's, yeah, it's shown as this
Aaron Couser: hierarchy.
Gabby Browne: Rose, you are livin in beer!
Okay, well, my brother told her to shove a book up her ass today. And then my parents just bought him all this new shit.
Jonathan VanSickle: Donnie's
Aaron Couser: basically, he's, he's back in his, in his new room. Yeah. His new digs. His sister's jealous and, uh, you know, he's got a big bed. The art has kind of changed a little bit. You know, it's just like ladies, you know.
Gabby Browne: Sexy girls, sexy girl time.
Jonathan VanSickle: I don't know if he
Aaron Couser: designed that, or maybe his parents, like, Hey, we want you to, like, focus on this.
Gabby Browne: Normal boy. I would be devastated by all the artwork I lost in that sense. I would [01:04:00] be devastated.
Aaron Couser: October 10th, 1988. 20 days remain. I can show you the way.
Jonathan VanSickle: So Donnie, with this new information from Frank, seeks out his science teacher.
Apparently
Gabby Browne: they call him Dr. Monitoff. More baby private school!
Jonathan VanSickle: Exactly. Impressive. You can tell the doctor is very excited to have one of his students being interested in this information. You know, especially someone, you know, a troubled guy like Donnie. So he indulges him as they begin to talk and kind of unravel these ideas.
He says, you know what? Don't tell anybody that I gave you this. The woman who wrote this used to teach here. Who wrote a book on time travel that he just so happened to
Aaron Couser: have with him. What a coincidence. Named Roberta Sparrow. Wait a second. Wait a
Gabby Browne: minute. Our, our, don't we haven't, we heard that name already?
Spar Sparrow, R Sparrow.
Aaron Couser: Guess grandma. I did. Well, I guess she used to teach there or something.
Jonathan VanSickle: Mm-hmm. , she was a nun up. She
Gabby Browne: was a, because I love that she was nun and then one day she [01:05:00] woke up and totally left all of her beliefs. And started studying science and time travel, specifically. Something
Aaron Couser: event, like an event happened and she just wasn't the same.
Exactly. She was changed forever. And then she wrote this book called The Philosophy of Time Travel. That mostly is forgotten about, but Dr. Monitoff has a copy and gives it to Donnie.
Gabby Browne: During this time though, he talks about very basic things. Of course, first brings out the brief history of time. You know, a
Aaron Couser: wormhole may be able to provide a shortcut for jumping between two distant regions of space time.
Gabby Browne: Oh, Steven, they talk about needing a vessel, some type of spacecraft. Most the time metal metallic, it has to be large and metallic. And then they talk about a portal, which is usually the
Aaron Couser: wormhole. And they're getting all this information from this book. This is the Bible of, of time travel, or at least that's what Manotov must use as his reference for knowing this information.
Gabby Browne: Donnie's so shocked about Roberta [01:06:00] Sparrow that he has to physically go find her name on a picture in this school. And so he finds the young Roberta Sparrow. I wonder how old she was. So it's probably in the
Jonathan VanSickle: early 1900s, whenever this Cause we're talking 88 or you know, late, late eighties, early
Gabby Browne: nineties when it came out.
Yeah, but it's early 1900s, so it's an old ass book. During the scene, it kind of foreshadows like the image of what we're going to be seeing in forms of time travel, just because Donnie's constantly like playing with this little slinky throughout this entire time and he's just toying around with this little slinky.
And the slinky was in one place and now it's in another, you know what I mean? Yeah. Alberta Sparrow? Huh. She wrote a book.
Jonathan VanSickle: Grandma Death wrote a book.
Gabby Browne: That's a terrible nickname. Rose has that glass of wine in her hand once again, and she's like, she's, [01:07:00] she's loaded.
Aaron Couser: Donnie talks about Sparrow to the family.
Engaging the climate
Jonathan VanSickle: a little bit. He's like, what the hell? Did
Aaron Couser: you guys know this? Supposedly she had a, she was known for her gym
Gabby Browne: collection. Steel stuff all the time. A
Jonathan VanSickle: lot of times, like, rare and precious stones are, like, connected with alchemy or things of that nature. That's a weird, like, detail to kind of leave in there, leave unexplained and, like, maybe was she using her knowledge of time travel to exploit wealth and, like, these materials
Gabby Browne: and status?
You're, you're full metal alchemist brotherhooding me right now. Yeah, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That does make, I do, I do like that aspect as well of, like, making it not just science fiction. As Well as like a little bit of like practical earth magic in there. That could be very cool
Jonathan VanSickle: too. Well, and with this movie, I think, I think they really do, he picks from all different sources, including later on religion.
Mm-hmm.
Gabby Browne: very heavily. They're calling her a recluse. Do you think there was a moment that she started like checking her mailbox? Or has she always [01:08:00] been checking her mailbox?
Jonathan VanSickle: This is my personal theory, this is my brain, like in my head theory, since she's had access to. Maybe glimpses of the future, maybe physically going into the future herself.
Like maybe there was some point where it was like, I'm going to receive a very important letter one day. And so now she's just waiting for that letter to come. Maybe she's on her own detective path as Donnie is to try to figure out, she's trying to unravel this as well on her own side of things. And
Aaron Couser: that's why she's not so concerned about being run over because she knows she's not going to be run over because the moment of her getting that letter has not happened yet.
Jonathan VanSickle: It seems like she may have ruined her life to her devotion to time travel, but she knows that sometime in the near future, her work will not only be validated, but it will all come to fruition right in front of her very eyes. I mean, that's a pretty cool little
Aaron Couser: tapestry. You just don't think about it unless you really Dig in the
Gabby Browne: first time you're watching this movie.
This is the old lady that wrote the book that's walking across the street You know throw away not even throw away but just like one of the less important characters when [01:09:00] she is actually top three probably
Aaron Couser: the Probably the most important because she wrote the book on the
Gabby Browne: i was gonna say well frank donnie and roberta sparrow I think are the three like mighty pullers of the movie
Donnie, what did Roberta Sparrow say to you?
Aaron Couser: We're back at Thurman's office. Donnie, I'm talking about Sparrow to his family, and now he wants to bring it up to Dr. Thurman. And he talks about what Roberta Sparrow had whispered
Gabby Browne: to him. Roberta said that every living creature on Earth dies alone. And the therapist asks what that makes him think about.
And he says, well, it makes me think about my dog, Callie. While she was old and she went underneath the porch, and the therapist interrupts him to say to die, and he says no, to be alone. But she did die. Every living creature will die alone. Seeks out that sort of comfort and loneliness before death, and he just doesn't debate it anymore.
The [01:10:00] search for God is absurd. If this is the one truth to life, that every living creature dies alone, why is there supposed to be some comfort in God if we're all alone? But Donnie doesn't want to be alone. He kind of has a little breakdown to her. His first, like, little emotional burst without touching himself.
Does
Aaron Couser: that scare you? Haunts him. What's the point of making real connections in the day to day life if it just boils down to nothing? Throughout the rest of the movie we'll see him fight through this, these problems.
Gabby Browne: I don't want to be alone. It's house party time. It's not house party time yet.
Aaron Couser: Well, it's, okay, it's like,
Jonathan VanSickle: it's like football party.
Football party. That's house party for Aaron. It's football party. Oh, yeah, yeah, it
Gabby Browne: is house house party. It's midnight time,
Jonathan VanSickle: there's a football game on. This is a party.
Gabby Browne: Sorry, it is a party. The women are talking about renovating, and the men are sitting on the couch watching football. I [01:11:00] didn't take it as a party at first mentally in my head because Rose had another glass of wine.
I was just like, this is her in every scene. Okay, it is a party, I guess. In 15 years,
Aaron Couser: it'll be a
Gabby Browne: party for you. You're right, Aaron. I'm sorry, I'm having fun still. And so his tapes have made me realize that for the last 39 years, I have been a prisoner of my own fear. I learned that in his book, Jim Cunningham, he said, Have you read it yet?
He's teaching me so much about what I know about love and fear. Can you believe he's single? It
Aaron Couser: has been a
Gabby Browne: disappointing night indeed for these Super Bowl champions.
Aaron Couser: You're right, Dad. Coach Joe
Gabby Browne: Gibbs is on the
Jonathan VanSickle: sidelines, water dripping off
Aaron Couser: his glasses. Out of nowhere, Donnie sees... His warm
Gabby Browne: hole. Well, it's no, he's like, he's kind of fading a little bit though too.
I think that's important. Mm-hmm. , because anytime anything is happening related to sciency stuff, Donny's fading a little bit. He's in and out and he sees [01:12:00] this spear begin to form out of his father's chest. And it's like that same like weird, gooey metal water mixture that was separating him from Frank.
And this. squiggly spear that is formed from his father's center of gravity kind of shows where his father is about to move and the squiggle forms to the fridge and then of course we see on the whiteboard vote Dukakis and he's like uh Dukakis the spear moves him right back to his place on the recliner where he usually is and then Donnie looks down and sees a spear beginning to form from his chest.
This little spear, in this moment, is meant to represent some type of intention, kinetic intention, of what movement is about to start taking place. So this spear starts to lure him, literally even coaxing him with a hand to go upstairs. [01:13:00] Yeah,
Jonathan VanSickle: I think it's an important moment because you see Donnie almost kind of question it.
He sees it happening with his father to go get the beer. He sees it with his sister skipping around the living room. He understands in a brief moment what this is. And as he sees it come from himself, he has a moment of almost questioning it and doubting. He's like, Whoa, am I about to do this? And it beckons towards him.
It pulls towards him and says, come here and come this way.
Gabby Browne: If no one else can see this. They don't necessarily have true free will, but if Donnie can see it, doesn't that give him the intention of free will? Curiosity kills the Donnie. When you are a bright mind and you need to know the answers to all the questions, you will fall into everyone's traps, sweet boy.
The spear leads him up into his parents bedroom, past the bed, into the closet. He looks down. Also, bad parents! My god, once again, just literally the first fucking [01:14:00] shoebox in the closet has a firearm in it? A literal handgun? Did we not just have an entire, like, jet engine fall into our house? We need to be keeping things a little bit more in place for safety for the children.
Donnie grabs the handgun and this was the decision his future intention wanted him to make, or was it his future intention?
Jonathan VanSickle: And that's, that's the big question that really starts to Be asked here is are you put on a track or are you creating the track through your own subconscious? It's the chicken or an egg situation here And on this one donnie followed the track that was set in front of him and it leads him to a crucial turning point
Aaron Couser: Obviously some force that is directing him to do certain things.
And this is one of those pieces of the puzzle that he has to do to fill some destiny that we are yet to know about. Because of these [01:15:00] spears, we know that there is a destiny written for everybody else who isn't paying attention. And they're just following their perceived track.
Gabby Browne: And Donnie needs to know why he's the one.
Why he's the chosen one. But you guys won't get to find that out today, unfortunately. You guys are gonna have to tune in next week on our second part of Donnie Darko during October Spooky Month. Ooh, Donnie's got a handgun! I'm sorry! Sparkle! Sparkle! Sparkle version!
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