Donnie Darko

A jet engine crashes into a bedroom, a rabbit-masked stranger predicts the end of the world, and somehow the whole thing becomes a story about choice, hypocrisy, and what it costs to save the people you love. We go deep on Donnie Darko with a full plot breakdown that finally makes the time travel logic click, without killing the mystery that makes the film so rewatchable.

We talk theatrical cut versus director’s cut, why The Philosophy of Time Travel matters, and how the movie’s “tangent universe” rules explain the countdown, the artifact jet engine, and Donnie’s role as the living receiver. Along the way we can’t ignore what hits hardest today: fear-based “self-help,” book banning energy, suburban moral panic, and the kind of public virtue that falls apart the second it’s tested.

We would love to hear from you! Send us an email and maybe it will be read on the podcast! werecommendmailbag@gmail.com

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Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Hook

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the We Recommend Podcast, a movie podcast where every week we recommend a movie for you to watch and then come back here and let's just discuss. I'm Jesse. I'm Jason. And what if you could go back in time and take all those hours of pain and darkness and replace them with something better? Because this week we recommend Donnie Darko! Damn, that's a dark sentiment. Yeah, it's also kind of the whole end of the movie. Jason, when was the first time you watched this movie? And what did you think?

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Uh I don't remember the first time, but I remember maybe it was in college. I think this movie blew my mind. And watching it now, it's in the for the first time in years, it still kicks so much ass. It really does.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

It's also way too relevant and it's upsetting. I don't how so? Uh, you know, just like the how society, like, you know, you got the you know, like the book banning and stuff, and then it turns out like half those people are fucking hypocrites, you know, and they're like lusters. Yeah, well, you know, you got kitty who's like, oh, this pornography that is this literature, that's what caused people to, you know, destroy the and then it's like her idol, you know, gets uh in trouble for um you know being a pedophile, and she's like, There's no way he did it, I must protect him, and it's like so that's the one pornography you're just gonna be like, nah, that's fine, right? Yeah, man. And there's just like kind of a lot of that, and it's very, you know, much about like you know, just the hypocrisy and suburban you know, yeah, dude.

Why Donnie Darko Still Hits

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah, I feel like it's like when you you look at it's like the American dream has been achieved, and there's still like this underlying nemesis that everyone can see. Yeah, it's so great. But this is still a movie that my jaw just drops.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Every time I see like Frank show up, or like just and it's just like so beautifully put together, and they like and everything that kind of leads up to the final, you know, Gresham getting uh like the uh Frank's car driving down the road. That's in the beginning. Like you can see him like while he's riding his bike, like the car passes by him, and there's like all these things in the movie that kind of hints at it to where you're also like, well, maybe this kid's just kind of rewatchable movie as ever made. Is this kid just schizophrenic or is this like all real happening and he's kind of going crazy in his head? Or um yes, I will say above. I will say this. Um, so like, did you understand the plot? Like, do you understand like what happens in the movie? Sort of. I think after uh 10 plus watches over my lifetime, I've kind of almost figured it out. Well, this is kind of the first time I watched it in a while. And I remember the first time I watched it, I was like, I don't even know what this fucking shit's about. But then like I watched it this time, I was like, it kind of just tells you everything. It's pretty, it kind of a mystery, but then like by the time you get to the end, it should be like, Yeah, time travel. He like, you know, went back in time and or he like a separate universe came up, and then he was like, Oh, this shit sucks, and then hang you know, has this like little power, and so he goes back in time. He's like, I'll just get crushed so everybody can be saved. And I was like, Oh, that's actually way easier than I remember it being.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

It is it is uh it takes a while, but if you watch the director's cut, it helps a lot.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, I I have the director's cut, and I I thought I put that one in, but then I actually put the theatrical cut because I had like both. And so I just watched it and I was like, oh, this is the same one I've always watched. So me and Nile are gonna go watch the director's cut, but I did look up that it just kind of it puts more exposition, takes more of the mystery out, and puts more of like, hey, this is what's happening. Right. Some people don't like that.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

So apparently, like Yeah, I mean, I I like the mystery, and I think that's what makes it really good. Yeah. But I do enjoy going back to watch, like, I remember watching the the director's cut a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

And it shows excerpts from the book. Like, it really kind of explains like he's the living receiver and he has these powers, and like he kind of explains like what happens a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

And I will say, like, a lot, like whenever I get to the point of the film, that's where I got a lot of information because I was like, how do I explain this? And I was like, what's in the director's cut? And then it was explaining the living receiver and like artifacts and shit like that. And I was like, what was Frank called? Like the un the uh the shit. I know I have it somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

The something living, like the uh inconvenient living or something. Something like that. I can't remember. I actually don't have that down. Like he has to come back and and help the living receiver and on his journey. Like it's so fucking cool. I love it. Oh no, well, yeah, the manipulated living. Yeah, it's free.

The Plot Finally Makes Sense

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I know, it's just like hell yeah, I like these words put together. I love this. And which kind of led to the next question. I was gonna ask, is this the perfect film for teens and young adults?

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah, man, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

It's like a dark brooding film about being in high school. It interjects an alternative to how you can look at the world, it shows you how fake the world can be. And it's like, that's like high school and college, just right there. That's like perfect for us. And then it ends up being like, yeah, it is how you should look at the world, turns out. Um, so what's your favorite Jake Gyllenhaal performance? And is this one of them? It's definitely one of them. Yeah. I don't know, man. This is probably number two, honestly. This what's your number one? Probably Nightcrawler. That was a movie. That was a movie where it's just like he's like, I'm gonna go and use all my abilities to be the best actor ever, and uh then get snubbed by the Oscars and make Jesse dislike the Oscars a little bit every year that I think about it. I gotta watch that. Yeah, he's great in it. It's honestly a really fun film, too. Uh intense and scary, and he's a psychopath in it. I love it. I love it. But there's a little bit of a psychopath here. Yeah. He plays as a psychopath. There's something because he's so like cute and charming, and he's kind of got like his voice. His voice can kind of get a little like when he's giggling at the end, it's just like that's so Jake Gyllenhaal. He's got such like a little like kid vibe from him, but he's able to use that in a menacing way very easily. And that's what kind of makes him a good actor. God, this movie is a I think it's a masterpiece. It's one of my favorite movies ever.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

It really is.

Time Travel And Multiverse Debates

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Because you know, like when we get to the end with like the good, the bad, the ugly, fine. I was like, the bad. Spoilers for the bad. Um, so do you believe in alternate universes? Do you think that time travel is possible? And if so, would it be a human-created thing or just something that's like universe stuff?

SPEAKER_03 6:54

I don't know, man. I think I know that time works in mysterious ways. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I don't really understand a lot of it. I know like I don't really understand a lot of the Einstein stuff. Like it's all super interesting, but I don't fucking know. Yeah. I know I I think that it's possible to travel forward in time because you do that in airplanes. Yeah. A little bit, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

And like it's so confusing. Um, I think that humans will never do time travel. Nah. But we know nothing about our world and universe, and you know, like, I don't know, for whatever reason, like, hey, in the sky, is that like a tiny black hole? And then you go into it and it's like, I'm three again.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

I feel like if time travel is possible, then I then like something bad not something hasn't happened in our timeline bad enough that they needed to time travel to change it.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah, what probably once you know, like someone like finally taxes the rich. And they're like, we gotta fucking we gotta make we gotta make time travel. This is bullshit. Let's all put our money together and invent time travel so we can go back and stop all the wind farms, kill whatever you know politician decided to tax us when they were a child. That's how that's how it'd probably go.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

They send back Terminator, but it's like it just starts fucking up all the renewable energy.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Bernie Sanders. You have to come with me.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Oh, yeah. He's the savior. That's how it'd be. We have one of those Bernie Sanders candles that it's supposed to have, you know, usually they have Jesus or something on them. Yeah. But we we got it as a Christmas present for my brother-in-law. It's amazing. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

What what about alternate universes? Like, what about the idea that once you I don't know, you decide to make one decision, another like universe kind of splits, and then there's like a universe where like you made a different decision. Because that's like a theory or that I've listened to and read about and watch many of YouTube videos about.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

I love to smoke weed and think about that kind of thing. And watch Rick and Morty, because that's basically what that show's about. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

And well, so if you believe or don't believe, does it even matter? No. Isn't that like the ultimate like thing about all this stuff? It doesn't matter. Right. We're still in the world we are in now, so why even think of it? Let's just try to figure out this one we got.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

There's only one reality that we know of and have evidence.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Until until that universal reality comes collapsing in on us, that's probably when we should start worrying about it, right? Hell yeah. I can't wait until we figure out all the quantum universe, all the shit like that. Uh well, if they can make a subscription to it, then then we'll figure it out. But until we can make us some sort of way to make us pay like$20 a month for it, I don't think they'll have any interest in it, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

That's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

How do you monetize time travel? Oh, uh shit. Honestly, they'd probably be like, it'd probably be some sort of form of it'd be some sort of prison thing, honestly. Yeah, like 12 monkeys. Yeah, it'd just be like, oh, we're sending you into the future where there is like there's where the world has ended, or where a meter hit and you're just gonna be in a barren wasteland. That's how we'd use time travel, most likely.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Oh, just the banners are unwanted.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah, yeah. I feel like that's how everything works. We're just gonna find a way that we can just imprison someone or make money off of it. That's all we'll do. Yeah, this movie put me in a mood, bro. I don't know if you can tell. Fuck yeah, dude.

unknown 10:34

I love this.

Fun Facts And Cast Stories

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Just when I was thinking of the point of all this, I was like, oh, I haven't said anything positive. Um, but let's uh let's get into some fun stuff about this movie. So at the rap party for this film, Seth Rogan and Jake Gyllenhaal agreed that they had no idea what the movie was about. Nice. So they're just like hanging around. Do you know what this is? You're the main character. Do you think Seth's like, I have one line? I like boobs. Yeah. Uh also, funny part about Seth Rogan, this is his first feature film, and his very first line was, I love your boobs.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Yeah, that was awful. He was bad at delivering it. Yeah. That's my ugly or my bad, actually.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, it's like uh Seth Rogan could have been better. I think it I think that those two kits in general, those it kind of uh, I mean, they're whole they're only there just so Gretchen gets ran over through the whole film. That's the only reason that they're there. So that Gretchen and Jake get together. Is that why the uh the other guy had a rat tail? Uh uh no, just uh I guess the 80s. I don't know. Ooh, I did forget what a soundtrack. Fucking hey, I love it. Dude, when Tears for Fears comes up and he's just walking slowly, I'm just like, uh Yeah, when they're getting out of the bus.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yeah, so good. Love it. And even when he in the very beginning, it just kicks ass when he's riding his bicycle back from his sleep walking.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

And then like Matt, this was the first time I ever heard Mad World. Um, this cover of Mad World. I know it's a Tears for Fear song, but it gives me the chills. And then I remember they used it every time because they used it for Gears of War, like the first one when it came out as like the you know uh the first trailer for it. Remember, you know, either Game Awards or E3 or something, and I was like, that game's gotta be amazing. I didn't have an Xbox, I never played them. Uh but yeah, the soundtrack. And did you find it interesting that there's like some similarities between Orange County and this? I feel like it was all kind of you know, just about like kind of a weird family, and then you know, a teenage kid who's in high school just kind of like looking around and being like, everything fucking sucks. You even have like the kids, the kids dancing in slow motion. And like that is true. Most of the teachers are incompetent, but not like all of them, and like the ones that are good, he like goes to for advice, and then like the other shitty ones are just like constantly kin getting in the way. And I was like, This is dark Orange County.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

Yeah, hell yeah. And I was like, that's really cool. That's really cool. It kind of adds a surreal quality to the to Orange County. Yeah. But also they used uh some of the one of the songs in the soundtrack was used in um the Facebook movie. What was that?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Oh, the social network.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I can't remember which one. It's just like I'm so bad with music, I don't remember names or I only know tears or fears.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah, that was a kick-ass. Fucking kick-ass song in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah. So good. So uh Jake Jillen Hall uses the strategy of rarely blinking to enhance his psychotic creepiness whenever he's driven by Frank. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

He's gonna be like hunched over.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah, he's like hunched, he cocks his head a little bit to the side, and he just has like a weird look in his eyes, and it's like, yeah, I wouldn't want to walk past you on the side of the street.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

You know what else he does? He also hunches over real hard to make himself look like a high school student in a room full of really young people.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, I know. It's like all the like the actors are much older than what they're playing. And then except for like this seems like the side characters.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Gretchen, though, she could fit in. She's just yeah, she looks super young.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yeah, and she's shorter. So in the movie theater scene, Richard Kelly, the director, originally intended to have Donnie and Gretchen going to see Chud. Cannibal humanist uh humanoid underground. Cannibal shit. I'm trying to remember what Chud stood for. It's I think it's like cannibal cannibal humanoid underground dwellers. Um, it's about cannibalistic humanoids that live underground. That sounds cool as hell. Uh I haven't seen it, but I've always wanted to. However, there were problems with finding out who owned the rights to this movie. Finally, Sam Raimi came to the rescue by allowing Kelly to use and destroy foot foot distort footage from the evil dead free of charge. This scene was filmed at the Aero Theater at uh in Santa Monica, California. It closed and reopened in 2005. And now every year on Easter, they play Donnie Darka. Fuck yeah, man. Isn't that hilarious? Can we just live in California? Let's just move. I would love to. I couldn't afford it.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

We could yeah, but we could watch good movies at places.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Everywhere, because there's a billion theaters and they constantly show older movies and newer movies. I would love to take over the Regal and just update it so I could just go there to watch movies comfortably.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Yeah, or just like one one part of the theater.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah. So have you watched any other Richard Kelly films? If you know him, he did a movie.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

I do not know.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So he wrote Domino, which is a um uh what's her name? Uh shit. Natalie Portman movie. I haven't seen it. Oh yeah. But I have seen a movie called Southland Tales. Have you seen that one? Oh, I don't remember it. It's got like The Rock, Justin Timberlake, uh, Sarah Michelle Geller.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Um yeah, it's got a bunch of people that as soon as you watch it, you'd be like, I know all these people. And it's got this really dope scene. I think Sean William Scott, yeah. I think this is this not the one that has I'm pretty sure Justin Timberlake's in it. I can't remember off the top of my head. Maybe it's Sean William Scott.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

Did he bring sexy back in that one?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

But the uh I don't know. But it's like it's this weird, really weird, confusing movie that I've only watched once and I really like to rewatch. Um, there's this one part where I think it's Justin Timberlake. He walks into this diner and then like the song You've Got Soul, but you're not a soldier by uh Killers comes in and it just kind of sings. I'm just like, what is this film? It's a really weird esoteric movie that and that was kind of like the last thing he really did. Well, he did a movie called The Box, which uh was also not very good. Um and it's just kind of sucked because he made this movie and he he did he like directed one other movie and that was kind of it. And it's like why like yeah, Southland Tales in the Box, and the box was like, Hey, if you press this button in this box, it kills someone and you make money, and then it's just like about like what are they gonna do?

SPEAKER_03 16:59

He's just pressing it over and over and over and over and over.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

It's got Cameron Diaz in it and um uh James Marsden. So it's like I am kind of curious, and I just haven't ever gone to watch it, but I heard it was bad. Um yeah, it just kind of sucks that he made kind of this masterpiece of a movie, and it's just like because his filmmaking is kind of and his ideas are kind of so weird, people just don't and I don't know, I guess it's just hard to put his ideas into a movie and it worked one time and just didn't work.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Yeah, man. They it fucking worked, and he was so good that he even got the sways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Fantastic cast. This cast rips. I mean, it's got Noah Wiley from ER and now the pit. Ugh. I was every time someone Drew Barrymore, every time someone came up, I was like, I know that person. And he got uh the um the person that plays Kitty. She the uh she's always the crazy ass person. One of the best episodes of The Office is whenever they go to Michael's, whenever it's for the dinner date or the dinner party to where um, you know, what's her name? Shit. At his house. It's that like classic one. Well, that's the that's the actress that plays Dwight Schrew's date that night. Oh no. Who's also his babysitter, and I was like, Yeah, I was just like, oh snap, everybody's in this. Yeah, she's she's in uh I got the cancer. Yeah, I got the cancer. She's so good. I know, she crushes it, and she's a great villain in this movie. Oh, I just immediately hate her. So um writer and director Kelly, Richard Kelly, came up with the idea for the future blobs while watching football. Uh John Madden used used to use a telestrator where he did he diagram a pause video to show where the players were gonna uh where the players were about to go moments before letting the tape roll. Kelly watched this while high and started to think about what would happen hypothetically if someone upstairs was doing that to humans. Fittingly enough, Donnie first notices the future blobs while watching football. That's kind of cool. Yeah, it's pretty great. I got uh I'm just gonna kind of whip through some of these. These are really good.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

What if they added that feature to the to NFL? Yeah, just see all of these watery blobs coming out everywhere instead of like yellow lines with like circles.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Football, pretty bad. Like, well, I know where this play's going. So on the set of Charlie's Angels in 2000s, Drew Barrymore and Richard Kelly agreed that her production company, Flower Films, would produce this film for$4.5 million, and that Barrymore Barrymore would play Ms. Pomery. Pomeroy. Uh Kelly says that if Barrymore had Barrymore hadn't stepped in, the movie would have never would have either gone straight to video or cable television via stars. Also, Christopher Nolan championed uh the film after screening of the film so that new market executives would put it into theaters. He also suggested adding um, you know, when it goes like October 2nd, uh 1988, uh 28 days remaining. He was the one that said, hey, add the blank days remaining. That's good. That was like his idea, and I was like, wow. Because Christopher Nolan just did memento and he had like kind of like a little bit of pool in Hollywood, and he was able to convince him to put in theaters.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Fuck yeah, man. Um did you have uh inclinations to get the tattoo?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Which one?

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Oh the writing on his arm.

9/11 Marketing And Cult Status

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Oh no, no, no. I did a little bit. I would totally get the bunny. Or just or Jake Gyllenhaal holding the knife, just staring at the watery thing with a weird face. He's like, eh, eh. Um, so to continue a little bit about like the production and post-production of the film, so the original advertising material featured a crashing plane opening close to September 11, 2001. Naturally, this was all pulled, resulting resulting in the film tanking at the box office due to lack of advertisement. Advertisement. It gained its audience when it was released on DVD, becoming a runaway hit and attracting cult attention. It's like, damn it, 9-11. Like, how many movies have we done where it's just like, yeah, it would have done better, but it came out right at 9-11.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Like in 9-11. It was goddamn terrorist. Ugh. The worst.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

We're about there's this uh show called Homicide New York. Um, what's called Homicide. They did two seasons in Los Angeles and now they're they've done it in New York, and like the next episode's about 9-11, and I'm like, am I ready to hurt again? Always makes me so emotional watching it.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

Yeah, I wrote a book about nine about a child's journey through 9-11, like his dad died in it. It was fucking tear-jerking.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, it's wild. It's like it's an event that you know, like so many people make jokes about it now, you know. It's just because like 9-11 joke, it's an easy joke. We do it on this podcast. It was like our whole Toy Story episode with 9-11 jokes. But then it's like as soon as like watch something or you know, just kind of like listen to a podcast about it, I immediately I'm like, oh man, I feel super emotional now. I think about um zero dark thirty, it kind of starts and there's like it opens with a bunch of phone calls during the 9 11 attacks, like calling from inside those buildings. And it just like immediately puts you in like We have to fucking get these guys. And it's just hell yeah. I haven't seen that. You never really think that, like, nah, I'm not that like super patriotic, but then I'm like, do something on our fucking soil and see what you get. Now understand uh Toby keeps booting your ass off. It's funny. Um, so the song that plays as Donnie is riding his bike home in theatrical version is The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunny Man. So now we know what it is. As Gretchen waits for the school bus, a Volkswagen rabbit quickly passes in front of her. When Elizabeth is sleeping on the recliner, there is a stuffed rabbit next to her. As Donnie reaches for the car keys, there is a Polaroid picture of him and his sister in a Halloween costume on the desk. Donnie is dressed as a rabbit. When Donnie is talking to his sister after his mom leaves near the end of a jack-o'-lantern, Bunny is seen on the table. Frank the Rabbit often appears near a water source, sprinklers, water main faucets. In which in the director's cut, they kind of talk about like metal and water. Yeah. You need metal to travel through time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

And something with water. The living whatever has the power to like create like fire and water.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

And has like increased strength.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Man, I'm really bummed I didn't watch the director's cut for this. Oh, I'm so bummed. I'm so sorry, everybody. Maybe me and Allie are gonna watch it. Maybe we'll me and her will come back on and I'll be like, the director's I'm gonna heal you. Um so according to Kelly, the man in the red jumpsuit was a part of the FAA. They were so confused by the crash that they went that they sent agents to watch the family. The weird woman riding during the dance performance was someone from Star Search.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

So that's kind of like a little, just uh two little pieces of the city. Yeah, and he's like red jumpsuit, throws a cigarette. Yeah, apparently that was supposed to be a guy from the FAA. What's FAA Flight America Associates? I don't know. But they're the people that control like time travel. Well, no, they're just like in like planes when plane crashes and stuff happen at like uh FAA. Yes, our time traveling plane. We heard a lot about him last year. We haven't heard much about him since then. So we kind of got first. Um yeah, I was like, because I was always wondering, I was like, where's this guy in the red jumpsuit like always in the background? What is this guy? And then I read this note and I was like, ah, it's the man in black. Is this somebody it's just like the airplane companies were like, what happened? We gotta figure out who knocked down this plane. Um, and so this will be my last one. Um, so I I just kind of want to explain this just because I don't know if you ever it's a very popular term in films. So near the end of the film, when Donnie is being held down with a knife to his throat by Seth Devin Devlin, as Frank speeds down the road, Seth asks him if he called the cops. Donnie responds by saying, Deus Ex Machina, which means God out of the machine. And you usually refers to a plot device in a story that solves a seemingly unsolvable problem or situation. In this scene, Donnie is referring to the fact that he cannot change what is happening in the current timeline, which leads Gretchen to Gretchen's death, but he now understands how to travel through time and change the outcome by sacrificing self. Time travel is the Deus Ex Machina, which resolves the seemingly unsolvable situation. Cool. So, you know, like anytime that there's your main character is like, well, he's definitely gonna fucking die. There's no way out of it. And then all of a sudden, birds, Lord of the Rings.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Yeah, what are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Oh, hey, here's just some birds, and now I'm out of here. That's probably one of the most popular examples of it. But yeah, that's what it means. Anytime that you watch a movie and it's like, oh, there's no hope, but then all of a sudden it's just like a miracle happens and they're all saved, which is very annoying, actually, in films because especially in big blockbuster films like superhero movies, they always have shit like this, right? It's just like, well, then what was the point of any? It's just like, all right, plot armor, cool. But it's fun like in movies like this, where they're just like, hey. You really don't know what the fuck. Yeah. Um, and it it really works because it's just like you know, it's like part of the plot.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

Um yeah, so I guess that's it. Fun fact, Grandma Death looks like a fancy chicken. Ooh, she does, I don't see.

Write Us Your Donnie Theory

SPEAKER_00 26:12

I wonder, is she in it more in the director's cut? I've never seen it. I don't remember because she really doesn't do anything in this movie except whisper once and then check her mail. Yeah, yeah, she's so cool though. God, she's so mysterious. And it is kind of her fault that Gresham dies a little bit. I mean, uh well, it's the whole situation that is the fault. But does she die? In fact. Uh, well, I mean, in the movie, no. Well, she does in that in that alternate universe. So we're gonna get into the plot of Donnie Darko. This movie has a people have opinions and thoughts about it. And if you are one of those people and want to tell me what the point of the movie is, especially after you hear what I think the point of the movie is, which there's like three to four that I've written down, um, you can leave us some fan mail. There's a link in the description. You can leave us comments on YouTube. At the bottom of our description is uh uh email. It's called we recommend mailbag at gmail.com. If you say stuff to us, we say it on the podcast, and you can get your five minutes of fame through us where uh 150 people might listen to it. Yeah. Until we get really big, and then there'll be like a billion people listening. So we want to know what the point of the movie is, so you should tell us. Um all right, Jason, 2001's Donnie Darko. Let's let's uh uh let's go down the rabbit hole, shall we?

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yes, let's watership let's watership down this.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

And apparently they put there's more watership down.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

We are the rabbits, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

And uh that's what he kind of got the idea with a bunny through watership down in it. That's such a fucking great book movies. I've never seen it. I heard it's so sad. I don't want to see bunnies died. It's wild and cool.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

It's like bunnies are almost completely useless in terms of like existing, but they're so they have their own like religion, and it's wait, real bunnies or fake bunnies? In the in the book, in the in the movie, in the whatever.

Plot Breakdown Starts At Day One

SPEAKER_00 28:08

They god, it's so good. Anyway, yeah, I need to watch it, it's on criterion, and I thought about getting it once. You should. I was just like, well, I ever watch it after being stabbed in my own. And even if I don't, I'll still do that very far. Donnie Darko, 2001, let's go! So the film starts with Donnie waking up in the middle of the street next to his bike, he rides his bike home. We see his older sister get leaf blown by her dad, his little sister jumping on her trampoline, and the mother reading it. Hell yeah. Love his family. Which, you know, uh, I feel like the idea of reading it is there's like a cosmic being out in space. Yeah, it's a turtle flying around, and they kind of talk to it. Like the universe farting turtle. Yeah, farting, farting. Um, and then we cut to dinner time where they talk about Dukakis uh and a lot of politics. And uh the sister played by um uh Jake Dylan Hall's actual sister.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

I love how cool this dinner, yeah. I love how cool they are at this dinner table.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Yeah, the dad is just like, I don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

He's like, yeah, he gives his opinion, but he he lets he doesn't like chastise anybody for their opinions, and like it's just something I've never expected.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be cool? Like I this is what I think, and not say you're wrong, be like, because you know, we're probably both wrong either way. Yeah, right. Um we we learn that Donnie goes to therapy, Donnie and Elizabeth fight and cuss a lot in front of everybody. How exactly do I suck a fuck? I just wouldn't exactly suck a fuck. Uh and we learn that Donnie stopped talking, taking his meds, and the little sister, what's a fuck ass? The dad just starts laughing.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

I fucking love it. Which leads me to believe that this is not a Christian private school they're going to.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

No, no, it definitely isn't. But it definitely I think it is a private school. So they're it seems like a private school because they have uniforms, but it's not a Christian school because there is a point where the professor's like, we're talking about God, I can't talk about this anymore. Yeah, I can't talk to you. Um, but yeah, and you can kind of tell that this is not a very like nuclear family, right? I mean, they're they're acting they on the outside they look like it, but inside their house, they're like saying fuck ass and not getting grounded and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

You call me a bitch.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

She's like, Yeah, but you're not. Maybe they're just understandable. Yeah, they could probably be a little bit better parents, just a little bit, but you know, the kid disappears every night. Yeah, and then he's like, Yeah, where does he go? We're not just gonna like make sure we should wake up and maybe we should sleep and sleep in the same room as our son or something for a little bit. Um, but his ass his mother asks where he goes at night, but is very aggressive, tells her to get away, and then calls her a bitch. Um, his father kind of plays it off as a joke. He's like, Yeah, but you're a fine ass bitch. Yeah, hell yeah, he's still got it. Yeah. Um the father is pretty great. It just seems like a fun little family if they just didn't, you know, weren't gonna have like a plane fall on them. Or you know, just kind of and their son being schizophrenic.

SPEAKER_03 31:17

You know, life's like a boss's house.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Yeah, you never know what you're gonna get, right? So on October 2nd, 1988, Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager living in suburban of Virginia, is awakened and led outside by a figure in a monstrous radical. They live in Virginia? Yeah, it's Virginia. It's actually where Richard Kelly's from.

unknown 31:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Um, who introduces himself as Frank and tells him the world will end in 28 days. God, I fucking love it. Six hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

I love I absolutely I get chills every time I see this movie. The moment there's a Frank scene, you hear that dark, like that yeah, like that, oh I I got chills right now. Thinking about it, I got goose pimples.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

It's like even outside of the soundtrack, just like the score of the film is very, I don't know, it's creepy. It feels like you're constantly in danger. But then there's sometimes where it's like boop dooops. Um, I also just love when people just throw numbers in a movie or show. It's like uh lost. They give you the numbers and it's immediately like, what does this mean? What does it mean? And it puts in this, of course, it adds a ticking clock, so it's just like slowly building up, and every time it shows a date, it's like, what's gonna happen? Let's get there already.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

I I did I I was kind of like one, I was kind of wondering watching it this time for some reason, like, would his the number on his arm change? No, it doesn't, it doesn't count down.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Yeah, it's like that Justin Jimmerlake movie in time, where it's like Yeah, he's just always got like a wet rag and a red marker just changing it. It's like, you know, I'm just not gonna do seconds and minutes. I'm just gonna do hours at this point. Annoying. It's the same night. That night, Elizabeth returns home from a night out, and then suddenly we hear a large crash and see this house shake. What could have happened? And at dawn, Donnie returns home. He was found sleeping on a golf course and had the time coordinates written on his arm. Uh, also one of the people that were there when he's right uh being woken up was Jim Cunningham, paid by Patrick Swayze, totally normal, cool, chill guy, won't be a weirdo, to find a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. Boy, if I had a nickel.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

He was like when he found him, he's like, is he has he been molested yet?

SPEAKER_00 33:39

He's like, dang it. All right. Well, I'm gonna come back here earlier next time. Yeah, we'll go and by myself. I only golf on this golf course by myself now. This is where children sleep. Can you give us some privacy? Yeah, okay. Fun jokes. His older sister Elizabeth informs him that the FAA investigators, led by Bob Garland, uh, do not know where it came from, as the matching serial number on the engine got burned and is unreadable. The family is shifted to a hotel till the house is fixed. Um, and then um, so yeah, they go to the hotel, and then Donnie's father is kind of having this conversation with his mom where he's kind of brings up this childhood friend they had. And Donnie's father worries that like that Donnie may be doomed, like the high school friend of his. It's like because his friend like died in a crash, and he's like, It's like he was doomed from the start. He's like, I hope that's not Donnie. Yeah, but he dodges bullet. And it's like, Donnie is. He's doomed. He's doomed. Nothing gets in no universe will he be not doomed.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Oh, it sucks for him.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Yeah. So Donnie is now a celebrity of school at the bus stop. We meet some of Donnie's friends who are mean. Uh, we meet uh Trita. Chut up. Uh oh man, I felt so bad for Trita. I love how she says shut up, though. Shut up. Shut up. Chut up. Oh man. Then we head to school with some tears or fears. We see teachers and kids uh hanging out. A kid does coke in the middle of high school. Yeah. We see little kids doing a choreographed dance, Orange County much. Uh then we stop in Drew Barrymore's class. Hell yeah. We do the classic uh coming in onto a classroom and they're just discussing this like off the wall, you know, like book or something that perfectly explains the movie. So they are discussing a short story called The Destructors, where some kids destroy a 200-year-old house that survived the Blitz. Donnie says that they wanted to destroy the house as a former creation.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Like the German Blitz? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Okay. Yeah. Um, they want to tear tear the world apart to change things. Then Gretchen walks in. Um which, you know, tear the world apart to change things. Like, oh, is that gonna come into play later? Then Gretchen walks in and Drew makes her sit next to the boy she thinks is the cutest.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

Hey, no pressure.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

That's weird. That seems like a really shitty thing for a teacher to do, actually.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

But it's kind of a it's kind of a cool thing that a hot teacher would do.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Yeah, it's just like it's like, hell yeah, come on, Drew Barrymore, sit next to me.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

You think you think Donnie looked at her at Drew Barrymore and he's like, Yeah, thanks, bitch.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

I actually kind of forgot that uh her character gets fired. I think her character's name's Karen. Uh I kept calling her Drew for most of the my notes. Um, because I put like she sits down next to Donnie, duh, he's Jake Gyllenhaal. And then I put the teacher should be fired, and I was like, oh, and then towards the end of the movie, I was like, oh yeah, she gets fired at the end. I was like, she got fired for the wrong reasons.

unknown 36:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Though it kind of is like a good way to be like, hey, sit next to the cutest boy. And it's like, well, you got someone that's gonna talk to you a little bit now. Let's hope he's not a fucking weirdo.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

No, it was so funny.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

It turns out he is.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah, it was so funny. She's like, when as soon as she picks Donnie, she tells the other girl, like, all right, get up.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Yeah, move. You also look like you're five years younger than everybody in this classroom.

unknown 37:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

But then when she's in the dance room, she looks five years older than everybody in the dance room. It's weird. Um, but yeah, uh, and uh we can also blame Gretchen for all, or not Gretchen, but we can blame Karen for all this, Drew Barrymore, because if she just said, hey, sit on the other side of the classroom, none of this probably happened. Well, the mom would still have died, but I feel like Gretchen would have been run over.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

But that's the I think that's the whole point that fate is predetermined.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Yeah, that is true. That is what something we'll get to a little bit later. All these weird things have to happen for the living whatever to like brain starting to smoke coming out. I can't wait till we get to the Kenneth the part where he talks to his professor, because the professor's like, well, you're contradicting yourself because if you see the path, then you can just divert it. So we'll get there soon. So on the way to therapy, Donnie and his dad almost hit an old lady standing in the middle of the road. She likes to check her mail. She whispers something to Donnie and we don't know what she says yet. He's so kind to her. Mm-hmm. I love that. I mean, everybody should be kind to our lady. That seems like they have dementia or something. Yeah, she looks like a fancy chicken. And also don't rag on her for checking the mail. Shoot.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Yeah, man. She's look waiting for your letter, Donnie. That's probably her the biggest part of her day is checking the mail. She just does this her favorite part all day. Yeah. If only I could be that happy.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

So let's just go ahead. I'll just go ahead and ask this question. Is she there because she knows that Donnie needs this situation to happen so he'd go back in time and save people?

SPEAKER_03 38:37

I think she knows something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

She wrote the book about the future. She wrote the book on this movie. She wrote the book that became a movie. So uh Donnie tells his therapist about Frank, who he says is telling him that the world is going to end, but Donnie thinks that's stupid. No, I don't believe it.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

That's crazy.

Fear Programs And School Hypocrisy

SPEAKER_00 38:55

In class, they are watching a weird video about controlling fear hosted by Patrick Swayze or Jim Cunningham.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Uh do you did you guys ever have to watch movies like this?

SPEAKER_00 39:05

No. I really never had to watch any of these weird little like self-humps. It was honestly until I went started working at Home Depot, is where I had to watch, you know, like those shitty little like sexual harassment videos and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

We had to watch these things, like movies like this, similar to this, about like you remember Dare? Did you guys ever go through Dare's? I had to watch a Dare thing. I I just don't remember any of it. Oh, but I had Dare. All of them. They're so crazy. But yeah, that's that's what it reminds me of. A program that never worked at all. Um even had Ruff McGruff come to our school.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Ooh, fancy. Remember him?

SPEAKER_03 39:45

Yeah. Take a bite out of crime. Take a bite out of crime.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Ah and half of y'all in this classroom will be bitten by crime. Um I always hated like the sexual harassment videos for like jobs and stuff. They're so poorly made that it's just like you guys gotta make better quality content if you're gonna try to make people actually listen to what you're saying and taking it serious. It's always a classic thing where it's like, this is so bad. It's like everybody just makes fun of that type of stuff, and it's just like make better things for billion-dollar companies. It's so weird. So, Donnie has a dream where he sees hallways of a school flooded. That was wild, man.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

That was so surreal.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

It's like MC Esther. I know. I had to pause it. I was like, oh, that's a school. Okay. I didn't know what the fuck it was. Yeah. And so on October 6th, 1988, 24 days remaining. Principal Cole has no option but to close down the school till it dries up. An axe was found embedded in the bronze sculpture of the mongrel school grounds with they made me do it written at the bottom of the sculpture. We see Donnie walking home with a smirk on his face. We also saw like little visions of him at the school hitting in the water main. It was like it'd pick probably a little bit more than an axe, I feel like, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 41:01

I think one of the funniest lines, though, is by the girl who's like, school's canceled. It was flooded, the boys' locker room was flooded, and there was feces everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

What feces?

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Baby mice.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Oh it's like they just come up with that on the day. Like, what a weird line to write in the script. Um, but I love that the they made me do it the way that it's written. Later on, when we see Frank and he wrote, like, Frank was here, went out to get more beer. Same handwriting. Oh shit. So it's like Frank wrote it. God damn, Frank. God dang it. So Gretchen is getting rape vibes from Seth Rogan and Cocaine Boy. Oh, yeah. Uh, because they're like, hey, you're hot. I love your boobs. And it's just like, thank God Donnie showed up. Yeah. But then what happens when Donnie doesn't show up in the alternate timeline? Dang. We'll never know. So she asked Donnie to walk her home. Uh Gretchen Ross, who was recently moved into the town with her mother under a new identity to escape her violent stepfather who stabbed her mother. She had to change their names. Donnie tells her that he was in jail for burning an abandoned house down, but he is getting better. I'm glad school was canceled today. Why? Because me and you would have never had this conversation. She says, You're weird. I'm sorry. It's like, no, that's a compliment. And then he asks if you want to go with her.

unknown 42:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

She says yes.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Have you ever This is where I had the weird music where it's like, and I was like, what?

SPEAKER_03 42:27

No, that was a really sweet scene, I thought. And then, but I have had that moment where she he's like, Oh, your dad has emotional problems. I do too. Yeah. And then she's like, Oh, oh, he stabbed my mom.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

It's like, oh, well, that's a little bit worse than what I got going on. And this is also, it's like Donnie Dark Darko, what are you? Some sort of superhero? And it's like, why wouldn't I be? And it's just like, he gotta be.

SPEAKER_03 42:53

Ding. Just you can hear the panties dropping.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Yeah. Well, not back then because you know, we didn't have as many superhero movies in 1988. Um, I don't even think we had the first Batman yet. We just had Superman and then like some off-the-wall ones. So back at therapy, Donnie gets hypnotized. While Undre talks about Gretchen, the therapy goes off the rails and he just keeps talking about fucking girls and starts potentially masturbating, but she wakes him up while his hands are in his pants. Yikes!

SPEAKER_03 43:21

Yeah, she had to. She didn't want to.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

One of two situations where he's like, What the fuck is this therapist doing to me? Right? Because first it's the hand and pants. He wakes up with his hand in his pants, he's like, What are you making me doing? Like that's the type of look he gets. And she's just like and then the next time, like he wakes up hugging her, and it's like, huh? And I'm like, What is this little plot, side plot with this therapist? I feel it's like it's because it never fully goes anywhere, and he's never like, Hey, my therapist might be molesting me, mom. Don't know if you know this. I kind of forget that it's like a big part of this whole. Movie. So in class, kids are asked to write uh they made me do it on a chalkboard. When Donnie writes, they put a question mark next to his name.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

It's also sweating bullets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

And he doesn't even his writing doesn't even really look the same. Like his T's are completely different.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

It was done with the giant with a spray can and giant letters.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Like what did they like? Obviously, the principal's putting that there just because he knows that he's kind of a weird kid and kind of goes back to like the nuclear family thing that was talking about and how it's kind of going against that and like weird people, if you're considered weird in like the nuclear family era, they kind of shun you a little bit and kind of point fingers at you all the time. Yeah. So while peeing, Coke Boy thinks Donnie told on him for flooding the school and puts a switchblade to his neck. Hell yeah. And that's just a little part of the movie that's out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

So Donnie's only the second most psychotic person in school. Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

It's like, why is no one ever pointing out this guy for everything but a cocaine in the middle of school?

SPEAKER_03 44:57

It's obvious. He's got the haircut.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

And the mustache. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

So uh Donnie and friends are shooting BBs. Uh they talk about needing a smurfett. I love this scene.

SPEAKER_01 45:07

And it's like so good.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Donnie gets upset talking about Smurfett and gangbangs because they're like, look, it doesn't make any sense. They don't have sex with Smurfett. They're asexual. And what's the why? And you know what sucks about it? Why are they asexuals? What's the point of living without sex? And I'm just like, where does this tie into the movie at all?

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Teen boys.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

They see uh Mrs. Death in the middle of the road and almost getting ran over by Miss Kitty, and she's still checking her mail every like five minutes.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

That was a little funny with the voiceover when she's going back to check it. Yeah. Somebody ought to write that. It's so mean, but also kind of nice. Yeah, right. Maybe you should write her.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

Yeah. Sir. Somebody just put a letter in that damn mailbox, please. And just one time. Maybe she'd stop.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

Stamps are like 27 cents at this time. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Yeah. So at a PTA meeting, gym teacher Kitty blames the flooding on the influence of the short story The Destructors, assigned by the English teacher Karen. She says that in the story of a bunch of kids destroyed an elderly couple's house by destroying the water main from the inside and flooding it, exactly similar to what happened in the school. She calls it pornography. Donnie's mom speaks out against Kitty, causing a friction between them. Hell yeah. Yeah. Boo. And it's like, okay, guys, let's go down.

SPEAKER_03 46:37

So uh foreshadow months.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

Yeah. During the PTA meeting, Donnie is visited by Frank. Donnie tries to touch Frank, but there is a barrier blocking him. Yeah. This is like Donnie's at home while this PTA meeting is happening. Yeah. Keeps touching them. Frank just like does it back and goes, God damn.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

Every scene that like this, I love it so much. It's so creepy.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

The mask is so good. When he touches the mirror and it and it like shimmer like it's very water like, right? It kind of goes back to the metal and water thing somewhere. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 47:08

And then the his younger sister just breaks the magic. Yeah, by coming in and he's like, huh?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Yeah. And so Frank.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

He wasn't masturbating.

SPEAKER_00 47:17

Yeah. And Frank says he can do anything that he wants. And so can Donnie. Yes, why he made them flood the school. Frank says they are in great danger. Then Frank asks if he believes in time travel. And then is interrupting the sister. It's like, Frank, when she exits, can you come back and just tell me a little bit more? Why are you so vague? Frank, where'd you go? Bitch ass vague, Frank. That's a flank. Yeah. It's like, if you're in my head, can you just like contribute at this point? So Kitty begins teaching attitudes lessons taken from motivational speaker Jim Cunningham. Videos of Jim's lesson are shown to students during gym class.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

I love that little kid. He's like, I'm not afraid anymore. He's like so intense. Yeah. I used to pee the bed, but now I'm not scared of peeing the bed.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

And that's the same kid that uh comes back later in the um, like when whenever Jim Cunningham's in the school and like some kids ask questions, he's obviously a plant. And it's also the same kid that gets smacked on the butt by Jim Cunningham.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

I saw that. That was weird. So this kid hugs him and smacks him on the butt.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Yeah, and so do with that information what you will about this little kid.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Uh you know, uh, I used to have a Michael Jackson themed keyboard with uh with a music book.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Well, I mean that makes sense. Everybody had Michael Jackson stuff.

SPEAKER_03 48:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

He's the biggest pop star in the world. And nothing, he never did anything weird.

SPEAKER_03 48:38

So he definitely did have a sex done.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

There's no weird things. He's perfectly fine. He had no mental issues. There was no allegations or anything. So, video of Jim's lessons are shown to students during gym class. Donnie rebels against these motivational lessons and tells her to shove the assignments up or down and put her ass. I fucking love that shit. She's like, the herd line delivery is great. And apparently, like the way she said it was so funny. Richard Kelly had to leave the set just because he kept laughing during the scene.

SPEAKER_03 49:11

I can imagine me not laughing if that happened.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

Because I mean, even the father laughs.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

And this kind of leads to more friction between Kitty and Rose, Donnie's mother. Kitty gets Donnie suspended from after school activities for six months and tells Rose that she has significant doubts about her ability as a mother because of religion. Uh back at home, we see Donnie's new room, and Donnie looks dumbfounded. Yeah. Because they got her the room up and going, and then he like walks in, there's like half-naked girls on the walls and stuff, and he's like, These parents kick ass. Just like, what did they do?

SPEAKER_03 49:47

I had to hide those posters in my closet behind my clothes.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Well, I think it's actually a really great set design because they're like, please, for the love of God, masturbate instead of walking out into the do something different than walking to random places at night and seeing seeing bunny rabbits.

SPEAKER_03 50:04

Maybe this will make you want to stay in your room.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Just think about half-naked women more.

SPEAKER_03 50:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Redirect your uh mental issues into half-naked women. That always that always works.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Get them a pocket with pocket pussy, just like on the counter.

The Philosophy Of Time Travel

SPEAKER_00 50:18

So on October 10th, 1988. We bought you a girlfriend. Yeah. October 10th, 1988. 20 days remaining. Donnie asks his science teacher, Dr. Dr. Kenneth uh Monotoff, played by Noah Wiley, about time travel after Frank brings up the topic and has given up the book, The Philosophy of Time Travel, written by Roberta Sparrow, former science teacher at the school, who is now a seemingly senile old woman. Donnie can't believe that the weird-looking old woman that he has run into several times um uh is the same one that wrote this book. And then like we kind of learn that when Donnie um we end up learning that a little bit later that uh what she said was everything on the planet dies a lot.

SPEAKER_03 51:07

Damn, that sucks. Although after getting her book and like finding out that she wrote this after leaving the church, I would go over there all the time.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Yeah, I'd be like, You guys stop looking at that mail. We have things to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

Hey, get out of the road and come talk to me. Yeah, come here.

SPEAKER_00 51:23

Let's go in your cellar door. Yes. So his therapist is asked, How did that make him feel whenever he tells the therapist like everyone dies alone? He said it made him think about his dog Callie, who, when dying, uh hid under the house. She asked if he feels alone. He says he likes to think he isn't, but he doesn't know. She asks if the search for God is absurd. He says it is if everyone dies alone, and that he doesn't want to be alone. Just a sad little emo kid, you know? Yeah, dude. Depressed kid with a mental issue that no one can figure out, and he doesn't want to take pills for.

SPEAKER_03 51:57

It is the 80s.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Yeah. Um, so Rose and a friend are discussing Jim Cunningham's tapes about fear. Her friend loves him. Okay. Uh and she's like, uh, what? Okay. Gross. And while watching football with friends, and uh his father, Donnie, sees a clear glue water substance come from his father, leading to wherever he is going, which this case is the fridge. Then he sees it on everyone when moving, then he sees it coming out of him and even making a hand, giving him the come hither look.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

It leads him to his parents' closet where he finds a gun. Hell yeah. Yikes. Yikes for sure. Yikes. Yep, yo.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

But there's this, I love it because it just comes out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 52:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

And I, God, yeah, it's just one of those jaw drop moments for me.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

All right. What's the next weird? We're talking about time travel. What's the next weird thing we're gonna see? And it's like really didn't have goo substances coming out of people leading them to where they're going as the next thing I thought was gonna happen. And that's just especially when you think of time travel, you always think of going to a different time and space, not hey, you can see something that's leading you to where your future is. You don't really think about that when you think about time travel, and this it's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 53:05

It is so cool and different from anything you've ever seen. And like every time I see it, I'm just amazed at how I feel when I see it. It doesn't matter because I'm just waiting for in between the times that he can see these like fucking crazy shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

And I like whenever it's at the party at the party. That's like one of my favorite ones where he's kind of like kneeling down and like sees Greshen's little portal, and then like he sees stuff inside it, and it's like, whoa, it's trippy. So uh now it is October 18th, 1988. 12 days remaining. Him and Gresham are walking and talking. Donnie wants her wants to kiss her, but she softs him. She wants to wait for a time when it would be beautiful and not having a fat man watching them.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

And like a good Chad, he agrees.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

Yeah. Dr. Thurman tells Don uh Donnie's parents that he is detached from reality and he's being aggressive towards the things in the world that threatens him, and that his visions of Frank are daylight hallucinations, symptomatic of paranoid paranoid schizophrenia. While this is happening, he has a knife trying to break a barrier between him and Frank, whose one eye begins to glow. The doctor wants to up his meds.

SPEAKER_03 54:18

Yeah, probably, yeah. That's a good that's probably good.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

So this whole therapist and schizophrenia thing, it's a red herring, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

Like unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

Or is it the fact that like maybe he does have schizophrenia, so that led him to be able to he's also not taking his meds, or like he's yeah, he says he's not taking his meds.

SPEAKER_03 54:37

So maybe I see him taking his meds sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

I was curious if there's like a connection between like his schizophrenia and the fact that for whatever reason, because he stops taking the meds, and then the next thing you know, uh a jet engine crashes into his house, splitting two separate universes. Uh or would it be that the jet engine oh no, because he's already having Frank vision. So it's like uh maybe the two uh maybe the the universe fracturing is kind of what uh split his head into seeing these. I think so.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

Yeah, so it it is a red herring, actually, and like from the movie. And so like whenever he's asleep, he goes into this like tangent universe where he's able to and I think that's when he disappears and he's that's when the plane, the engine crashes and yeah, because before he was he wasn't having visions of Frank, he was just having he was just sleepwalking essentially.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

And then until that night, whenever he he's not taking his pills anymore, and then like maybe whenever he disappears, he does kind of go into that tangent universe, like he said.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

Yeah, like he kind of starts taking his pills again, he's still seeing it. Like every time he takes the pill. Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

Because at that point, he's like not in his own universe, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah.

unknown 55:49

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

Maybe. Give me more, Donnie Dark. We don't know. You know they made a sequel? No. Yeah. What? It got poorly reviewed. It's like S. Darko. I think it's about the little sister. Oh. I haven't seen it, but now I want to. Um, so we randomly cut to his teachers, Karen and Kenneth, saying his name, and I know, right? What? Why? I haven't seen the director's cut. Is there more to elaborate on this? I don't think so. Like I'm assuming they're just like grading his papers and it's like, wow, he's really smart. I know, right? Is that what they're Is that when when he delivers it when he gives his poem? No. Because like you have the scene where the parent he's stabbing Frank and then Well, I think they they all kind of realize that he is kind of at the center of everything. And he's kind of like a dark genius, I guess. Yeah, because yeah, because they It's the only thing I can think of because his teachers just ran it just literally cuts to them. Um Karen and Kenneth just sitting there, he's grading papers and he's like, Donnie Darko? And she's I know, right? And then it cuts and it's like okay. This guy, this guy really thinks.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

Because he's so smart.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:05

And that maybe maybe they're kind of realizing that something out of the ordinary is going on. Yeah. And like really, it's really hidden.

Burning The House And Fallout

SPEAKER_00 57:13

Yeah, I was also kind of thinking maybe if they're maybe there's something in the papers that's like, oh, he's the one that flooded the school, and he's like, I know, right? I don't know. It's just kind of a weird spot. And I I think like every time I watch this, I'm always like, huh? But anyway, so Donnie disrupts a speech being given by Jim Cunningham about drugs, alcohol, and premarital sex and a story about Frank. Donnie starts insulting him in front of the student body and tells kids that wanted advice and came up a little later to talk speak into the microphone. Like he gives them advice about real truths. Like, um, there's one about like how this one girl wants her sister to lose weight, and he's like, Well, she should exercise and do this, not listen to some fear program or thing. Uh, one kid's like getting bullies, like, take karate or something, and uh then ends up calling Jim the fucking antichrist.

SPEAKER_03 58:02

Yeah, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

Turns out he's right.

SPEAKER_03 58:05

Yeah. And I I I saw a video where they're talking about how this kind of references the Bible. Uh yeah, this movie is very has very heavy Christian themes. Well, specifically about like antichrist kind of stuff. And I was like, that is really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 58:22

Well, yeah, I think, well, I got it at my point, but I think like Donnie's the Christ figure.

SPEAKER_03 58:26

He is. Well, cause yeah, because in the director's cut, they have him dying with a like basically a crucifix like jutting through his body at the end.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

I have to watch this director's cut, and I gotta watch it soon. What the hell? Don't tell me anymore, Nick. Okay, so okay. Wow. Wow. I really nailed the point of the movie a little later with something. Wow. I feel really good about myself. Hell yeah. Didn't even need the director's cut. Let's get to it, baby. So we cut to Donnie yelling about Jim to Gretchen. It's like just a classic movie where a woman's just sitting down, listening to a man yell about things. She gets him to calm down and tells Gretchen that things he is reading is similar to what he is seeing. Donnie talks about his teacher, about uh talks to his teacher about the clear paths he's seeing. He brings up that by seeing your path, it's a form of time travel. Professor Kenneth says that he is contradicting himself because if he can see his path, then he has the opportunity to go a different way. Donnie brings up the fact that if you're following God's channel, then you can't. And Kenneth can't continue the conversation because he brought up religion.

SPEAKER_03 59:38

Yeah, and Donnie's like, okay. I feel like this is a really pivotal point of like his decision to follow God's path. Yeah, he's like, he's going that direction. He's like, I can't stop it. Even though I see it, I can't do anything to stop it. And he realizes his fate.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

Well, I I don't I think a part of him thinks because he's he's the hero in his own story. There's uh there's a line somewhere in the film that kind of says something like that. And so he thinks by following this path, maybe that's what's gonna save people because Frank's constantly like they're all in great danger. So he's like headstrong into the situation. It's very classic, like hero's journey type of situation.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:16

Yeah, for real. And like if in the director's cut, again, uh there's in the book, it shows excerpts of the book, it says that when an object from another timeline enters yours, you only have a few weeks, which 28 days, yeah. Until a rift will occur in your timeline, will which will destroy both timelines. Yeah. So the world is at stake. And I think he realizes that.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

Yeah, and that's why we kind of see like a little black tornado thing later. Yeah, also, this movie is a great Halloween movie, and I'm really bummed we didn't do this in October. Could have just done a bunch of trippy movies for October, which we still can't. So, while walking one day in front of Jim Cunningham's house, he finds his wallet. Frank comes in and says, Now you know where he lives.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:03

And then he just kind of like he just kind of giggles a little bit. He's like, I'm gonna burn this place down. He tells his therapist about the water orbs and how they lead him to his parents' room, but he doesn't tell them about the gun.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

It was a dildo.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

Yeah, I found this really weird episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:18

That was something really upsetting.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

It's like the Euro Trip. Do you remember the movie Euro Trip? Did you ever watch it? It's like he goes to like they're in Germany and they're he goes to this like Dominatrix thing and they have like a dildo on a another. Like a drill?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

Walks into his parents' room, finds that. It's like, hell yeah, mom and dad. And just says, like dad's drill, so he knows it's for him. It's like, oh, okay. Well, that's why dad's in a good mood all the time. So uh then we get a scene where they want to show babies nice images as babies.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:54

That's fucking weird. Even though that's I'm sure that that they're planning on doing something like that. I love that tech bros.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:59

They're just like, yeah, you know, it's like while you're young, you don't really remember anything, so might as well show them pictures of like nice things.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

Might as well watch TV all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

And I can't remember what the teacher said, but the teacher's like, it's like she's like, limit your screen time. Yeah. Well, it's something just like maybe like the baby kind of needs these real.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

Do you ever think about the connection? Sleep is a natural part of growth, like of development. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:25

Yeah. And then uh cocaine boy brings up the fact that uh Gretchen's mom got stabbed by her dad, and then Donnie and Gretchen get run outside and they kiss for the first time. Oh, that's sweet. Yeah. So it's that little scene. Later the two go watch Evil Dead, baby. Yeah. Gretchen falls asleep, and then Frank shows up and Donnie smirks, Why do you wear that stupid bunny cot suit? Why do you wear your stupid man suit? Oh, got his ass. Donnie uh uh tells him to take it off, and he does, and it's just some guy missing an eye. It's like, huh. It's like uh um one of my favorite quotes from a filmmaker. Um shit, I'm blanking on his name. He's one of the writers of Lost. Uh, what is his name?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

Damon Lindal Lindelof.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:20

Um have you seen Lost At All?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:22

Yeah, I've seen it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:23

You see the beginning of season two? Oh yeah. The hatch, when they go into the hatch. Yeah. Spoilers for Lost Senior uh season two, he just spoiled it. So he he said, like his um Damon Lindelof said, like the best thing that it can be, like if there's a mystery and it's like, ooh, what's in this? What is this? It's always the best if it's just a regular person, yeah, and not something crazy, right? Just a guy watching the numbers. So whenever, yeah. And so whenever it comes to Frank and it's just like, it's just some guy. What the hell does this mean? And it just kind of like really like pumps you up a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:57

Hell yeah, it did. Um he just has to enter the numbers randomly when the alarm goes off. Yeah, that's great. Oh why?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

Not the best, not the not the best season, but it's still pretty good. So he says, Um, he asks Frank, like, why are you Frank? And he says, Frank is the name of his father and his father before him. He asks Frank when it's gonna stop, and he says, should already know that. Then Frank shows him a vision of a portal on the theater screen. It shows Jim's house, and Frank says, Burn it to the ground. Yes. Donnie walks outside with a smirk. So Donnie walks outside with a smirk while we see the theater marquee that shows Evil Dead and the Last Temptation of Christ. Oh shit. That was like the biggest thing where I was like, oh, Donnie Darko's Jesus. Donnie Darker's Jesus. I understand now. So we then cut to a talent show where Trita is dancing and people yell that she sucks, even though I thought she did a good job.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:51

Yeah, it reminds me of the scene from the big Lebowski with his landlord was dancing.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:59

What a good scene. What a good baby. We should just redo that one. We should. We just need to redo it. We're better at podcasting now. I feel um then Jim introduces some young kids to dance who bring down the house. People love it. The lady in there is like, oh, this is the greatest goddamn thing I've ever seen in my life. Um, while Trita sits lonely outside next to the school statue. Hopefully she doesn't die along.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:28

Goddamn Trita.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Then Donnie burns down Cunningham's house on the instructions from Frank and then returns to the theater to Mac on Gretchen, who slept through the whole movie. And at the point that he was at in the movie, he had one hour to do all this. Um when police find evidence of child pornography, a child pornography ring, essentially, like distributing and everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

I think they said they call it a kitty dungeon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:52

Um in the house's remains, Cunningham is elected president. Oh, I mean elect. I mean arrested. Arrested me, man. Got me. Slip of the tongue.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

Got me there.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:06

One of those Freudian slips. It was in my notes. I completely butchered it. Butchered it. Bitchered it. No, no, no. You delivered it pretty well. It's like as soon as I said it, I was like, damn it, messed it up. Right. So October 24th, 1988. Six days remaining.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:28

Dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:29

Karen is being told that her methods of teaching aren't appropriate. What exactly about my methods aren't appropriate? Being hot. The principal's like, I don't want to discuss this. And it's like, oh, he's got no answer. No, she seems like a really good teacher. He doesn't give any reasons why. She says we are losing the kids to apathy and prescribed nonsense. She goes outside and screams. Trita sees this. Trita's like she hears everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:52

Yeah, she's always lost.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:54

She's always around. Yeah. It's just like, no wonder she's probably a recluse. So like every time I see someone, something crazy happens. Uh we hear the dance troupe is performing for Ed McMahon for Star Search. Uh the principal and kitty find out about Jim. Because this is like this whole thing after she gets fired. Uh Karen, she's walking through, you know, like slow, sad music and stuff. And then she's like, What the hell? These kids are going to Star Search all of a sudden. Why? That's it's a random talent show. And then like Jim gets like, you know, they show the newspaper of Jim and they're like, oh, and it's just like, you're gonna fucking fire me. And you let Kitty bring a pedophile into the building if she gets to keep her job. Yeah. Bullshit. Fucking bullshit. She sucks. Yeah. So fuck you, Kitty. Kitty tells Rose that Cunningham is being set up. Hmm. Sounds familiar. She is the leader of the dance troupe, and because she wants to defend Cunningham, she can't go. That's weird.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:50

She has to raise money for her favorite pedophile.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:53

She won't go protect these kids while they go somewhere. And instead wants to go and protect a potential pedophile instead.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:00

It's like amazing. Wow. Amazing. Hypocrite.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:04

So she agrees. Uh Rose is like, yeah, okay, I'll fucking do it, I guess. And she's gonna be leaving Donnie and Elizabeth alone. She tells Donnie who um she tells Donnie and like oh, you gotta your sister's gonna take you to therapy and stuff. And then Donnie's like, how does it feel to live with a wacko for a kid? And she's like, it feels wonderful. Oh. It's just like uh then we see Donnie has written something for Sparrow to put in her mailbox that we'll learn a little bit later.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:33

Man, that's amazing. So do you like me? Check yes or no.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:37

Check yes or no. So the next day he is talking to Karen. He asks about cellar door. Apparently, Sarah cellar door is the most beautiful it's the most beautiful phrase. She walks out after being fired for teaching her kids to uh too much subversive literature and things not on like the curriculum that I guess the state makes you learn. She walks out with an American flag in her box. I wonder if that's trying to say something. America. Hmm. I don't know. But like there's some there's some symbolism there. Um I think I put it in the point, but you know, it's just like, you know, we don't want to teach our kids anything more than just like the basics. We don't want them to actually think outside the box and things like that because you know, they might get like uh ideas. They might bright, brighten their mind, you know, have different ideals than the ideals you want them to have.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:36

And I feel like in that way, that Donnie Darko was their star pupil in every way.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:42

And he was the most fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:44

I mean, that's why that's why like Karen like really talks to her and like Kenneth, and now that scene where they're like Donnie Darko, oh, and then they're like, uh, okay, well, I figured out that he's like, we got one.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:53

We did, we did one.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:54

We did one. Oh, schizophrenic. Damn it. You always get the schizophrenic.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:59

That still counts. Marks it on her chalkboard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:03

So Donnie bumps into Trita, who he says one day everything will be better for her. She runs away.

unknown 1:10:10

Cha-cha.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:11

And uh he sees a book with his name on it. Seems like she wrote his like name on a book because he has a crush on her on him.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:19

So during his hypnotherapy session, Donnie confesses his crime to Dr. Thurman and says that Frank will soon kill someone. He then sees Frank. He says, The sky is gonna open up. She then, and then he kind of cries and starts hugging her, and then she claps and he's like, huh? Why are you hugging me? It's like, hey lady, you gotta stop waking him up during this scenes. You should have like moved his. She's like, All right, go sit back on the couch, then I'll wake you up so it doesn't seem weird.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

It is the whole power of suggestion thing. You could you be like, I suggest you sit down for a second.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:50

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

Maybe she just really wanted him to know that he was hugging her.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

Yeah, it's like, see what you've done here. This is your fault.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:00

She's got a wedding ring on. Yeah. I'm married, Donnie.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:04

Okay. We're married now. I don't make the rules. So then it's the next day, Elizabeth tells Donnie that she got into Harvard. Donnie wants to throw a party, which they do. And so while partying, Dr. Thurman uh calls Rose, um, calls the house to talk to Rose because it's an important. Um, Gretchen comes over crying because her mom left. Her mom left a note and the house was all messed up. She thinks it's her stepdad. Damn. Um, and then she has this line I guess some people are born with tragedy in their blood. Um, then we cut to Elizabeth asking for Frank, who's out on a beer run. BW W R E N beer run. Turns out Frank is also her boyfriend. Damn. So, and while Donnie and Gretchen are about to um so and while Donnie and Gretchen are about to bone, we hear uh the answering machine that Rose and Donnie's sister are taking the red eye home and we'll be back in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

So they didn't bone. I think they did.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:04

No, they did. They definitely didn't. Oh, it's just like while the call was coming in, they were bone. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:08

They were boning. Yeah. Because they were holding hands afterwards.

The Final Night And Gretchen

SPEAKER_00 1:12:11

Yeah. And they're walking down all like they're like, we just boned. We did something. It was awkward and it didn't last long. It was awesome. So October 30th, 1988, six hours remaining. Then he has a vision of the sky and Karen's Karen saying cellar door. Uh then uh him, Gretchen, and his two friends leave because they say that he says he's running out of time. They have to go. Um, so they go to Roberto Sparrow's house. At the door, he said he sees a cellar-looking door. Oh yeah. Uh, and then enters with Gretchen. Also, they reference cellar door, and like in the script, they uh the whole like cellar door is uh the most beautiful phrase that can be put together. Um, that actually does not come from the person they said in the movie, actually comes from J.R.R. Tolkien. Really? Apparently, yeah. Oh, cool. And he uses, I guess, cellar doors in his writing a lot. Interesting. Uh and name people after cellar.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:16

I always wonder where that came from.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:17

Yeah. So it's J.R.R. Tolkien, right? I'm saying that right, right? Yeah. So set uh yeah, they enter, she like hits like a keyboard sound, and then all of a sudden Seth Rogan and Coke Boy attack them. They're just at the house for some reason.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:32

They weren't invited and they're really upset about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:34

And like, I guess they like kind of choke Greshen and throw her to the ground. She's like heaving and I thought you liked baboo. Yes. And then Coke Boy puts a knife to Donnie, but they run off when a car comes. He's like, Days this mocking. Um, then the car swerves to Miss Sparrow, who's standing in the road, and runs over Gretchen. And I was like, fuck, that's rough. Damn. We see the driver of the car is Frank, who's in a bunny costume. Donnie then pulls a gun and shoots Frank in the eye. He tells uh Frank's friend to go home and tell his parents everything will be okay. Damn. Do you think that I think at that point he knows that he's gonna have to go back?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:11

Do you think that Roberta Sparrow, the reason she was in the road all the time was to make this situation happen? You think she knew?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:20

So that's what I was gonna ask when we got to this. I want to know, it's like, is she or I think I already asked it, but or something. And yeah, so is she there because she knows that the world's gonna end if he does not make everything go back in time and write everything by staying inside of his bed? And maybe that's why she's constantly out there. She's just maybe she doesn't know exactly when the events are, but she's just gonna constantly keep doing it. Yes, and maybe she's waiting for the letter from Donnie to signify, oh, it's about to happen. Shit. Yeah, I think so. Because she probably doesn't, she doesn't have like the timeline that he wrote. But yeah, that's that's the only thing I can say, because otherwise Roberta Sparrow is literally just there to uh give like plot exposition by having like, hey, there's a book, so now we can have like 20 minutes of plot exposition, and the fact that, oh, because she's there, the car misses her. So I mean, I would assume she'd have to be in on it a little bit. Otherwise, it's just like, well, that's kind of like oh, so we just wrote this old lady here for no reason. Kind of. Yeah. Makes the situation way worse.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:30

So that he will go back and then they can realize she saw her fate, she could not escape her fate, and so she was making double sure that she ensured that the right thing would happen. That the teenager died, yeah. The two teenagers died.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:45

So because she knows that, like, oh, this will cause this war. This world will end. She causes a series of events to go back and all be erased anyways. I don't know. Really makes she'll be young again. This movie would have this would have had a great sequel if they just really actually tried at it. Yeah. Um, so so he walks with Gretchen's dead body to his house. He kisses Elizabeth on the head, then walks to a car to leave. He sees a black cloud over him. He drives away with Gretchen's corpse as a portal begins to open up above. We hear Frank saying 28 days, six hours, 42 minutes, and then Donnie is repeating it as he watches the cloud form a tornado. Then we cut to his mom and sister on a plane, we hear his conversation with Professor Kenneth talking about portals and how you need a vessel or a craft to travel. The plane begins to rumble. We see a jet engine flying through the sky. Then time starts to go backwards. Or he looks at Gretchen.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:39

Does it get up to 88 miles per hour?

The Reset And What Remains

SPEAKER_00 1:16:41

Uh well, I mean, I'm sure that the jet engine didn't. But yeah, so um he looks at Gretchen, and I can't remember if he says anything or if he doesn't. I don't know if he says everything's gonna be okay. I would assume I would put that in my notes, but I can't remember. So, um, yeah, then time starts to go backwards, back to the beginning. We hear narration of his letter to Sparrow. He is hoping for answers in his sleep and what the end will mean. We cut to him giggling in bed on the night the jet engine hit. We see the engine fall onto Donnie. So, October 2nd, 1988, 28 days before, therapist the therapist jolts up and Mad World starts playing. We see uh Kenneth and Karen in bed together, Cunningham crying in his house, Kitty scared in her bed, Trita laying in her bed, Frank next to drawings of the bunny, Donnie being wheeled out of his house dead on a stretcher while his family watches. Gretchen bikes by the house to ask what happened. She asks his name, Donnie Darko. Ever heard of him? No. Gretchen stares at Rose and then waves and she waves back. The end. And then it ends with the kid next to him also waving, just like, I don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:52

I'm not afraid anymore. I'm not afraid anymore. You have no power over me.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:57

I still pee the friend. So that is um Donnie Darko. So, like, obviously, everybody woke up and they still had the feelings of the universe that they were just in. But it's kind of like deja vu because they're all feeling strange. I think that was like the point of the therapist jolting away, being like, huh? What? And then like everybody kind of crying. I'm assuming like with Cunningham, it's a little almost like, oh shit, I had that feeling I was gonna get caught almost. And like probably feeling like sh like a shitty person because he has better go with us because Kenneth and Karen, I don't know. I didn't know they were together, and it's nice to see that they're together. And but he kind of like rolls over in a weird way. Um, and then obviously Frank, he's like really like what the fuck looking. Um, Treatle is kind of laying in bed and looking a little sad, and then yeah, so I'm assuming that they kind of like feel like the reverberations of the universe coming back together. That's crazy. So fucking crazy. I guess I'm just gonna kind of this is how I piece it together. So the tangent universe on October 2nd, 1988, parallel universe splits off from the par primary universe. It is unstable and will collapse after roughly 28 days, taking the main universe with it. The artifact, the jet engine that crashes into Donnie's room, is the artifact, object from the future that triggers a split. Donnie, the living receiver, Donnie has chosen to return the artifact to the primary universe. He is given powers like you know, being able to see future paths and maybe even like making time go backwards.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:31

And start fires and bring water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:35

Yeah, exactly. The manipulated. Everyone around Donnie, family, friends, teachers, are manipulated living who unconsciously push him towards his final task. The choice. Donnie realizes that if he survives, the world will end, his girlfriend Gretchen will die, and his mother will die. Sacrificed to save everyone. Donnie uses his power to send the jet engine through a wormhole back to October 2nd in the primary universe. The loop. Donnie stays in bed accepting his death, the tangent universe vanishes vanishes, and the events of 28 days are remembered only as lingering feelings or dreamlike deja vu for other characters. Seemed all right.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:07

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly what happened. It took me forever to figure out that out.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:12

Yeah. Um, and you know, there's probably like I didn't really know how to like discuss like schizophrenia in the movie and like potentially the mental illness, because I just don't know much about it, and like I don't feel like five seconds of looking up uh, you know, theories about schizophrenia and stuff like that would have been any useful, and I wouldn't talk about it right probably. So I didn't talk about it. But there's definitely is like a schizophrenia and sci-fi type mix thing here. Um and I just don't know how it all fits. But we gave our ther theories a little earlier, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:45

I mean it's uh that's what that was just like the rationalization of what it would be.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:53

Because they couldn't understand they didn't know that it could possibly be time travel.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:59

And I I feel like have you ever heard the idea that if you showed like people in the ancient times like a cell phone, it would just be wizard, you know, magic. Yeah, they'd be like any kind of future technology is like magic.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:14

To people like that don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:16

Yeah, if you showed them a tire, they'd be like, what?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:19

God damn it, I love that shit.

What The Movie Is Really Saying

SPEAKER_00 1:21:23

Yeah, before on it. That thing got a Hemi. Yeah. So um I'll kind of go into the point. I th I really just have like just two what I think like the movie's saying outside of just like what is what is like the plot. Like kind of that's you know, yeah, or how the movie is coming together. Explain instead of explaining it, this is what like I feel like the subcontext and stuff like that is saying. So I think it's also kind of about a nuclear family. If you are weird, you are looked down on, kind of like Donnie, Trita, and Karen. Instead of accepting them, people want to either disregard them, fire, or try to fix them. And how and it's also kind of about how uh hypocritical society can be when it comes to politics and social norms. Kitty thinks she is morally right and wants to ban books, Lavin Land has pornography and wants it banned and champ, but and champions Cunningham. But when she figures out he is a pedo, she refuses to believe it, even though she should be against him, very similar to her country now. Republicans, our own state, try to ban books for the fear of intellectualism, or whatever how you would say it. If making us morally corrupt and then champion and turn away when our president is in the Epstein files more than anyone else, right? Yeah, burn it down, burn it all down. It's like, I don't know. I just kind of saw the like, I was like, shit. I mean, I see this every day. We talk to people every day that kind of have these exact same beliefs, right? Like we should ban things that you know, like race theory and things like that. It's like, oh, we don't want our kids to learn about things. They should just be like, I don't know. It's what it's like we just need to learn the same things we've always learned so we can never progress. Um so with all the religious talk, I believe that Donnie is obviously the Christ figure, like um in the Bible before, like Jesus' crucif um before the like the crucifixion of Jesus, he's shown the future of the world, the reasoning for his death. So humanity is forgiven. It's kind of like Donnie, who sees that the world's gonna end, so he's like, I gotta sacrifice myself.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:25

So the pedophile can live.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:29

Well, it's like he also saves his sister and his mother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's like, I don't know, hopefully Cunningham is figured out. It's one of those situations where hopefully the deja vu and like the made him feel shitty enough to turn himself in type of thing. That is where it kind of gets a little like muddy. It's like, oh man, the pedophile still gets the video pedophile.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:53

Don't worry, he dies of prostate cancer.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:56

That's a real actor in his voice. Don't talk about that. But yeah, do you got anything else add into it?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:02

Yeah, I mean, I think it's the point is um very simple. It's like if you knew the future, would you trade everything that you love to save it?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:15

Yeah.

unknown 1:24:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:16

Would you sacrifice yourself, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:18

Would you would you do it? It's just like, whoa. Would you sacrifice your first time having sex to make sure the girl you first time had sex with the lift?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:26

You've already done it, so I mean, I guess it's not really a sacrifice. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:32

I I do want to say the creepiest thing in this movie is when we cut back to Jack Gyllenhaal and he's doing his like childish laugh.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:38

Like when he's sitting on his bed, it's like for sure. It's like, I can't wait to die.

The Good Bad Ugly Fine

SPEAKER_00 1:24:43

Yeah, it's like, huh? Yeah, but like how how would you what how would you react in those five if you knew exactly what was gonna happen to you and you just at that point you're also kind of driven a little crazy just from like the chain of events you just witnessed, and now it's just like I can't believe this is happening to me. Right time to die. Bye. Why the fuck? Yeah, it's just my life. Yeah, pretty crazy. That's nuts. So I fucking love it. Um, yeah, and if you guys have any other points of the movie, just uh send us through the fan mail. You know, link in the description, email at the bottom. We are in mail back. We're gonna hit up our next category: the good, the bad, the ugly, the fine. So where we discuss the good of the film, something we like, the bad, something we didn't like, the ugly, something that didn't age well, the fine, something that didn't age well, the good, Jakey Jake, baby. And mind bending cinema.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:34

Yeah, mind bending cinema is incredible. He's he kicks so much ass from being like a weird kid to like kind of happy and then some fucking sucker or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:46

Yeah, and what I really like about it is that it's small, right? It's just about some kids in high school. It's like, you know, there's a lot of it's like there's a lot of big like Christopher Nolan loves doing this shit, right? All his cinema is kind of mind-bending at this point. I mean, interstellar, inception, memento, um it's all very grandiose tenant, and it's like all big action-y type things, and it's like it's just kind of nice to see something on a smaller scale. Kind of like coherence, where it's just like, oh shit, it's not like two and a half hours long, so you can like you can watch it and then just immediately put it on. I remember being at a party in college and they just had this movie on loop. What? Yeah, it's great. That's cool. Yeah, it's like yeah, I was like, Well, isn't it? I watched it twice that night.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:30

That's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:31

Because everyone was drinking and stuff, and I didn't really drink, and I didn't really know that many people there, so I was like, Oh, we're gonna watch it again? Okay. Hell yeah. Then I left. Like, huh? I got the movie. Um, yeah, so what do you got for the bad? I got nothing.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:47

Uh yeah, not really bad. Uh I guess Seth Rogan.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:52

It's like it's honestly, I don't think he's that bad in it, but it is kind of jarring to see him in such a small role. And now that he's a big star. Oh, maybe that's what it was. I think that's probably what it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:03

It's such a weird line. I like your boobs.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:06

I like your boobs. Like, what? That is such a high school thing to say. I guess. Well, I think they're obviously psychopaths.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:13

Yeah, they're fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:15

Yeah, I could see that though. I mean, the both those boys, I was like, what is your deals? Why are you everywhere?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:22

I know, but like somehow Seth Rogan was the creepier one. Yeah. With that one line. Yeah.

unknown 1:27:27

Like, what?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:28

That's why Gretchen's like, walk me home. Yeah, get me out of here. Donnie's like, that guy put a knife to my neck. I don't think I'm gonna be able to protect you. Um, so the ugly, how nothing has really changed since 1988. We still argue and debate the same shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:44

I got when the movie was made in 2001. Wow. But based in nineteen eighty eight.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:48

Yeah. Just kind of going off the band book, you know, pedophiles everywhere. Just yeah, they had a lot of foresight. Kind of nearly never ends. What do you got for your ugly?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:01

Um man, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:04

It's nothing really that didn't age well for this movie because I love I love so much this movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:12

Yeah, I mean everything aged well. Except for society. Our own track. Our own society. Yeah. Yeah. Our society is the ugly part. The movie society just nailed it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:23

Air travel, I guess. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:26

Ah, why is it all so relevant?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:28

Wormholes just open it up everywhere, taking out your engine planes. Fuck that shit. I'm never flying again.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:33

I hate wormholes. They're always in the way. So for the fine, uh the fact that this is one of the best movies to watch in your teens and early 20s. Also, it takes it stakes on society are still relevant. We need a movie like this to kick us in the face and we look around and see the bullshit around us.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:50

Yeah.

unknown 1:28:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:52

That's what I got.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:53

You got anything else? Ask me that doobie.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:57

It's a bummer, man. It's a bummer.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:01

No, I think what A's well is just the surrealism. I fucking love that shit, man. Yeah, it's great. And even in one of the scenes, there was um a MC Esher painting in the background.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:16

Uh it was like after a moment where Donnie Fuck, I can't remember. But it was there. And it was fucking cool. It was there.

Double Features And Next Pick

SPEAKER_00 1:29:26

Cool. So we're gonna hit up our next category. It's double features where we recommend a movie that goes alongside this movie. Your boy has another Jake Gyllenhaal movie he recommends. Let's see what it's uh pretty trippy. Uh, I remember I watched it on my birthday in 2014. It's the only time I watched it. So it's a mild mannered college professor and investigates the life of an actor who looks exactly like him. It's directed by Denny Denny Villaneux. Um, and it was like done but in between prisoners and Sicario uh when it released. And it's kind of just a movie about so yeah, he finds a twin and they're like like separated at birth. You want to like switch switch it up? Oh, like parent trap. Yeah, but it's like weirder. There's also a giant spider. Hell yeah, I love this shit. Yeah, it sounds like Lord of the Rings. It's very I really want to watch it just so I can be like, wait, what was that about again? Yeah, it was kind of one of those movies like when it's like I was watching it with people, and then after I was just like, man, I wish I had like five hours to still look into this movie and just uh immediately turn it back on and re-watch it. Yeah, so Denny Villanoo, if you don't like it, at least it looks good and it's well done made, but I think it goes great with Donnie Darko because of Jackie Jake. Hell yeah. What do you got, my guy?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:46

Uh you know, I thought of uh I was trying to think, there's really no movies like Donnie Darko that I like this much, but as far as like time travel goes, I thought Twelve Monkeys was pretty cool. Yeah. Kind of like sends them back in time like our craters.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:03

Yeah. I watched that as a child, man. Like I I just remember like some visuals from it, but I really don't remember that much about it. And I need to rewatch it. I own it, I just haven't rewatched it.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:14

It's pretty cool. I love the idea that he he goes back, but he has to send the way they send information to the future is by leaving voicemails on like a f an old phone, like in this abandoned office.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:28

Let's remember to do this movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:30

I don't know. I don't know, just it's just uh it's a pretty great movie, and the ending is like kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:36

Yeah, and that's uh done by a uh prominent director um whose name is uh just flew out of my head.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:46

Oh, Terry Gillum. He did um I think he did one of the shit, what's it called?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:54

Uh yeah, he's part of Jesus Christ. Alright, just hold on. I'm not just gonna keep doing that so I can make it easier for me to edit. Yeah, he directed like Brazil, Time Binance, uh, Monty Python's Holy Grail and Meaning of Life. Yeah. You know, he listed a few really good movies. Yeah. So I've never seen Time Bandits. I think I own it too. Jabberwocky. He did kind of a lot of the Monty Python stuff, so makes sense that you like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:22

Cool. Bruce Willis is yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:24

I know. Uh is Brad Pitt in that?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:27

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. He's like the crazy kid who releases all the animals into the streets. He released 12 monkeys. Yeah, because that's where they thought it came from.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:37

Gotcha. Snap. We're doing all right. We're gonna do that soon. We're gonna do it. It's in three, and after two more movies, we're gonna do that. Let me just add it to the list here, 12 monkeys. So that is our discussion on Donnie Darko. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And we're gonna do a movie that really no one's ever heard of. Uh, but I've been wanting to re-watch it, and this movie kind of made me also want to re-watch it and just the state of the world in general. It's called You Were Never Really Here. Damn. It is a traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a jom spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered, leading to what could be his death trip or his awakening. Damn, that sounds cool. It's got Walking Phoenix. It's um oh, it's like it's a very tight movie. It's only an hour and 30 minutes, and there's so much in it, and it does everything great. Strict about Lynn Ramsey, and she did this movie called Um We Need to Talk About Kevin, if you've ever heard of it. Um, it's about like uh We Need to Talk About Kevin, who might be a school shooter. Oh shit. I've actually seen it, but um my my wife has got 10 Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Riley. It's got a good cast. Um, but yeah, we're gonna do her other movie, the one that I have seen. Well, You Were Never Really Here. So join us for that. It's a great movie. Yeah, I can't wait. It's violent, but a lot of the violence is actually shown off screen. I love violence, but the ideas in it are very scary. So, yeah, we're gonna be discussing you are never really here.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:12

Join us next week for your tinfoil hats.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:14

Let's go. Yes, and let's fly into a portal and land this plane out of someone's house. So, um, yeah, thank you for listening. Join us next week and leave us some fan mail, you know, like I've told you twice already. So I'm not gonna resay it, but actually I am in our description. There's a link that you can click. Um, and at the bottom there's we recommend mailbag at gmail.com. You can just send us some emails that way. Uh like, follow, subscribe, leave us some good reviews. You know the you know the process if you've been listening this long to us. Probably already turned off the podcast. So thank you, Joey Prosser, for intro and outro music. You can follow him on X at Mr. Joey Prosser. I have the hiccups. Oh no, this has been the real Golly. Breathe. This has been the We Recommend Podcast. I've been Jesse. I've been Jason. Twenty-eight days, six I forgot all the twenty-eight days, six hours, forty-eight minutes, six seconds, didn't the podcast.