Unanswered Questions
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commentsEven though the main explanation is consistent and ties the whole movie together there are still a few parts of the movie that are not explained and have to rely on theory. Here are some of those questions with possible explanations and some common mistakes people make.
What Creates The Tangent Universe
Why exactly does a Tangent Universe (TU) occur? Are they a natural phenomenon or are they artificially created. There is one theory that scientists in the future build a machine that somehow causes a rip in time back in the past. Another theory is it could have been caused by Alien involvement.
Quite a common thought is Frank saving Donnie in the beginning is the cause of the TU. Donnie was meant to die and by surviving he altered things which caused the corruption. This is not true though, we are already within the TU when Frank wakes Donnie up. Frank's special powers only work within the TU so he would only be able to wake Donnie after the TU had started.
The same goes for the Artifact not being the cause of the corruption. The jet engine appears several minutes after the TU had started. The Philosophy of Time Travel states that the Artifact is the first sign of evidence that a TU has occurred.
The First Jet Engine
One major question is where does the jet engine in the beginning of the movie come from originally? If it came from the future where exactly and what day did it come from?
A common answer to this question is it's the same engine Donnie sends through the portal from the plane his mother and sister were on. The engine travels through time and lands on Donnie's house. It's exactly the same event as the end of the film only the first time round Donnie survives.
This is extremely unlikely though as the portals are just a gateway between the two Universes. The first engine lands in the Tangent Universe (TU) so if it came through a portal it would have to come from the Primary Universe (PU). The engine Donnie rips of the plane at the end is from the TU and travels through a portal into the PU so there is no way it can be the same event repeating.
If it did come from a future point in the PU once the corruption is fixed by Donnie that future event won't happen now so we will never find out exactly how it occurred.
Another theory is the Tangent Universe is a copy of the Primary Universe but as it's being formed there is a glitch or copying error. This error produces a duplicate engine that is then dumped into Donnie's bedroom. This anomaly makes the TU even more unstable and it must be sent into the PU.
Roberta Sparrow: The Philosophy Of Time Travel
Roberta Sparrow writes the book "The Philosophy Of Time Travel" which helps guide Donnie but how exactly did she know all this information? There are a few plausible explanations for this. It seems like she had a similar experience herself so either she was a Living Receiver or one of the Manipulated Dead in a previous Tangent Universe.
Both options would in theory give her all the information required. If she was a Living Receiver she would obviously have known what to do and the Manipulated Dead have a large understanding of what is happening within a Tangent Universe. It's possible she may have somehow retained some of the information from her experience once the Primary Universe started up again.
Does Donnie Have To Die
This subject is one of the most debated parts of the movie. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking Donnie waking up and cheating death in the beginning is what caused the Tangent Universe (TU) to occur. The assumption is then once the Primary Universe is restored Donnie stays in bed otherwise he risks causing another TU to start and the whole cycle will repeat. This theory is not correct though, Donnie and Frank have nothing to do with the creation of the TU.
We hear about other Living Receivers in The Philosophy of Time Travel who were killed by the Artifact they returned. If we include Donnie then it seems the Living Receiver always dies once the Primary Universe is restored. The question is what would happen if Donnie got out of bed again and survived? The moment we see Donnie laughing in bed at the end the Primary Universe is already restored. If Donnie got out of bed and dodged the second engine after that then in theory nothing would change as the corruption is already fixed.
Another important point is whether Donnie chooses to die. The Donnie we see in bed at the end is not the same Donnie from the last 28 days. How much knowledge he has of what happened in the TU is very questionable and it’s quite unlikely he knows he is about to die.
The question of destiny plays quite a big part here, Donnie was meant to die but Frank saved him. It’s possible he was chosen as the Living Receiver because his life is now expendable; he is going to die anyway. Once back in the real world it's Donnie's destiny to die.
If you notice on the move theater marquee when Donnie and Gretchen go to see Evil Dead, the movie The Last Temptation of Christ is also playing. I think that's a HUGE hint or possible explanation for why Donnie had to die (if you choose to see it that way). In Last Temptation (I believe, for I haven't seen that movie in years) Christ somehow is saved from dying on the cross (or chooses to be saved) and then lives a somewhat normal life. But he comes to realize that he must die on the cross to save the world. After he finally accepts that he somehow intentionally time travels back to the cross to die so he can save the world. When he appears on the cross he laughs because he is happy that he gets to save the world and was successful in getting back to the cross so he can do that. Perhaps that movie title was on the movie theater marquee as a hint that Donnie had to die as a Christ-like sacrifice to save the world. This explanation seems to conflict with the explanation offered on this website (that he didn't have to die), so I don't know if Donnie really had to die or not. But again, the fact that the Last Temptation of Christ was playing is suggestive.
@danj
More depressingly, but probably most likely though based on the letter his widow sent accompanying the book, was that he was run off the road by the CIA when they couldn't get the book from him.
@danj
I think the implication is that Dr. Ken later became a Living Reciever himself - another unexplained accident involving large metal object.
"Dr. Kenneth Monnitoff dies in a hit and run car accident on August 12, 1999. He was driving his Volvo station wagon down Old Gun Road when he was side-swiped and driven off the road by an oncoming driver, colliding with a tree."
Why is this important? I understand the importance of knowing that cunnigham died, and can even see the need to finish sparrow off, but what is the importance of this. Does it tie in with the film somehow, the message must have been put onto the website for some reason, to tie up a loose end of some sort perhaps. I hope someone can answer me because it's doing my head in lol
So if we were to rank this movie on the Fear and Love scale, where would it fit? ;) ;)
The two engines existing simultaneously in the TU seem to have some correlation to the two Frank's existing simultaneously as well. Let me see if I can work this out. The first engine came from the PU (simply falling from the plane would make more sense than the duplicate idea) into the TU. That same engine already existed in the TU so now there were two. At the end of the movie, when the other engine is sent back, it is the same plane engine but from the TU, however I don't think it matters as they are identical(there just can't be two). Remember now in the PU no time has gone by, so when the engine goes from the TU into the PU(thereby ending the TU entirely) time starts back up again immediately where the TU began. So Donnie made the conscious decision to kill himself. As far as the Franks existing in the TU together I think that was his decision as well. He had to kill himself(or more appropriately have Donnie kill him) in the TU in order to stay alive in the PU. AAAHHH my brain hurts, I'm gonna go watch the movie again.
@ Jake:
But now at the end of the movie, there is an extra jet engine in the primary universe. It would have made more sense to obliterate the extra jet engine in the TU than to transfer the engine from the TU to the PU, because the surplus of 1 jet engine has not been eliminated, it has simply been transferred between universes.
Also, the first jet engine did not come from the PU - it was an extra copy created by accident when creating the TU - so it does not make sense to send it to the PU, which it had not come from in the first place.
Basically, at the end of film that jet engine that hit's Donnie's house for the second time that is the one that is sent from TU to PU. So when Donnie wakes up at the end of film and laughs and then goes back to sleep and killed by the falling Jet engine, that is the one he sent from the TU to the PU. At the start of the film we are already in the TU, that jet engine was created along with the TU, it didn't come from any over Universe, it just appeared. Which means there was 2 of something in one Universe and this made it all dangerous and unstable and that's why it had to be sent to the PU at the end of film. This is why people get confused about the first jet engine, it's just duplicate copy of something which is made in the TU, which was the artifact which needed to be sent back, it's all apart of the Donnie's quest. There is no actual place the first engine came from, it just appeared out of know where but this happened for a reason, for Donnie's quest. I hope this all makes sense
To the comment below
Actually, if you read the full explanation, rather than just this page, it makes perfect sense (assuming the info we get from this website is correct).
Though it happens at the same time and same place, the jet engines ARE NOT the same.
Some things you need to know in order to understand;
1) Portal needs metal and water. In this case, the artifact is the metal.
2) The reason (I assume) why TU is so dangerous is because of the artifact that is abnormally present in TU. It needs to be sent back (Donnie's task).
3) There are no simultaneous Parallel Universe in Donnie Darko. It's just PU and TU.
4) When the first jet engine falls through, the world is already in Tangent Universe. So when TU was created (which was before Donnie wakes up), the Artifact somehow is created and falls through the portal FROM Primary Universe.
In short, the first jet engine is from PU, into TU. The engine is already in TU.
5) When Donnie rips the jet engine whilst he is inside the Tangent Universe, he sends it into the Primary universe via telekinesis. In PU, Donnie dies because of the jet engine he sent from TU.
In short, the 2nd jet engine is from TU, into PU.
6) Because there's only TU and PU , not parallel universe, the 2nd engine Donnie sends back into PU, cannot be the 1st engine that fell AFTER TU was created.
7) When the 2nd engine falls, Donnie is in already back in PU, so there is no way the first engine of TU be the same.
8) This is why the origin of the first engine is questionable. But they AREN'T the same.
that jet engone theory makes no sense; the jet engine to fall on the house is the same one. It happens at the EXACT same time in the EXACT same way, in the SAME place as well as looking exactly the same; it's the same one. Or, at least, the film makers wanted us to see it as the same one, the one sent back by donnie. Also, if the artifact is an act of god but the artifact duplication is the thing threatning the universe in h first place..how does that makes sense?
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