Donnie Darko question (spoilers, of course)

[nickgutierrez]

About Frank: At the end of the movie, we see Frank, the person, with the bunny mask sitting next to him. He brings his hand up to his right eye, the eye that he gets shot in before the jump back in time. Because of this motion, we get at least the hint that he knows something about what has just happened. So, if Frank is a real person, as this last scene confirms, then why was Frank the bunny leading Donnie throughout the movie? What was Donnie's relationship with the "real" Frank, and what is the "real" Frank's relationship with the "bunny" Frank.

Why does Frank the bunny help lead Donnie to first the gun, then the scene where the real Frank gets shot in the eye? It's obvious that Frank's death is supposed to be a significant event, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it accomplished beyond the possibility that it established the fact that Donnie simply no longer needed a messenger or a guiding influence. Even then, that seems far too
simple to be the point behind such an elaborate process.

I'm sure I overlooked something simple, but again, I have no clue what it could be. Help me, DU! :)

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I found the movie fascinating, but never really understood it either...

[nickgutierrez]

2. I understood most of the movie

But two things threw me for a loop. Seeing Frank at the end was the first - the second was the deleted scene in which the psychologist lady tells Donnie that the pills he had been taking were nothing more than placebos.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

3. I had some similar questions about that movie

Have you seen the director's cut? It helps a little bit.

I actually asked a friend of mine who's a bit of an afficianado on the film about Frank.

Here's his response:

"Frank exists in two states in the Tangent Universe: Alive, as a real
person, and dead, as one of the Manipulated Dead who serves as Donnie's
spirit guide or whatever. Manipulated Dead Frank is a visitor from the
future of the Tangent Universe; that's why he knows when the universe
will end, what Donnie's powers are, and everything else -- he's
omniscient because he's a dead person from the universe's future. And
yes, his eye is out because he died when Donnie shot him through the
eye; I think the scene of him stabbing Frank through the eye in the
mirror is a dream or premonition or something.

Alive Frank is actually Donnie's sister Elizabeth's boyfriend. It is
next-to IMPOSSIBLE to pick this up from context; I'd seen the film maybe
five times before I realized that. The next time you watch the movie,
watch Elizabeth closely -- she talks on the phone to Frank, and you can
see his red Trans Am in a couple of scenes."

It's still a little much to wrap your mind around, but that certainly helped resolve some things for me. I should probably watch it again now that I am aware of this.

[nickgutierrez]

4. I never would have guessed that he was Elizabeth's boyfriend.

Never. That's an interesting bit of information there.

This helped quite a bit. :)

[ghostsofgiants]

5. As far as I can tell...

The Frank we see up until that point is a ghost from the future. So Frank the person is still alive, but his ghost appears to Donnie in the past. It isn't Frank that leads Donnie to the gun, it's the thing that pertrudes from his chest (vision of his destined path from what I can gather). At the end, when we see Frank in his room, he hasn't been shot because Donnie reversed time and stayed in his bed when the jet engine crashed into his room.

That's what I can draw from memory. I haven't seen the movie in a long time, so I'm probably missing a lot of shit too, haha.

[nickgutierrez]

7. Frank has some idea of what happened, I think

In that last scene, it shows the drawings of the bunny mask, then the camera turns to Frank as he runs his hand over his right eye in a mournful or remembering manner. So he has to have some idea.

[CanuckAmok]

8. I think the people in the "real world"...

....including Frank, and Donnie's girlfriend in the very last shot of the film, have some sense of existing in the "alternate" world (where Donnie survived)... Donnie's "girlfriend" (who never meets him in the "real world") and Donnie's mom have that moment of vague recognition, in the same way "real" frank has a vague pain in his eye. They're semi-remembering something they experienced in the "alternate" world, but don't quite remember, because they don't have Donnie's "gift" (whether that "gift" is his psychosis or a genuine understanding/mastery of time-travel or alternate plains is open to interpretation).

I think they way the gestures are performed (the wave, touching the eye) is not unlike the way you begin to forget a seemingly monumental dream almost as soon as you wake up... but something later in the day triggers a faint recollection you can't quite understand.

on edit: and is "real" Frank drawing/making his scary rabbit costume as a result of a vague recollection of wearing it in the alternate world, or is "alternate" Frank wearing the costume as a sort of acknowledgement of imagining/creating it in the "real" world? If either was the case, the costume sort of "created" itself, which is a whole other kettle of fish.

And what the fuck was "Sparkle Motion" all about? Was it just supposed to be a creepy sexualisation of preteen girls, or a comentary on values, or what?

[TheDebbieDee]

6. There is a forum of viewers discussing several possible

interpretations of the events in the Donnie Darko movie at imdb.com. You might want to check it out.