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Hi guys it's Debbie. This is my first video on youtube so as you can probably
imagine I am pretty excited about this. My channel will mainly be
movie-related so I'll be speaking about films and other related topics. For my
first video I decided to speak about one of my favorite films of all time and
this is Donnie Darko. Now I wanted to speak about some of the scientific
information that is behind Donnie Darko and which explains most of the film.
A lot of information that we have about the science behind Donnie Darko has been
given to us from the DVD of the director's cut which gave us some pages
from Roberta Sparrow's "The philosophy time travel", so Roberta Sparrow "Grandma Death".
According to "The philosophy of time travel" time is stable.
Sometimes though the fourth dimension can be corrupted. When this happens a
complete copy of our universe, so another universe is created.
It's identical to ours. This universe is called a tangent universe. In Donnie Darko,
right at the start of the film a tangent universe is created and these
universes are very unstable and last a limited amount of time.
For example in our case it last 28 days, exactly how Donnie has written on his arm.
So let's analyze the beginning of the film. So Donnie is sleeping in his bed
this world is put on pause and everything we see in the film takes part
in the other tangent universe which is exactly the same. So let's pause our world
as we know it, the world in which Donnie Darko is and let's move into this
other tangent universe. So Donnie is still sleeping in his bed,
his dad's still sleeping, his sister's out - exactly the same. The only thing that
changes is that Frank the rabbit wakes Donnie from his bed, lures him out of his
house and saves him from a jet engine crashing into his bedroom.
Now bare in mind neither Frank the rabbit nor the jet engine created the tangent universe.
The tangent universe already existed. And now this is where the whole story starts.
Now as we said the tangent universe is an exact copy of our universe, exactly the same.
During the copying process though they can be glitches, errors and extra
objects can be created. For example in our case this jet engine that crashes
into Donnie's bedroom was an error.
It's an extra jet engine that was created as a glitch during the copying process and
it has nowhere to go because it belongs to no plane and it just falls out of
the sky and crashes into Donnie's bedroom. These objects are called "artifacts"
and they are always metal objects. These objects make the tangent universe very
unstable because it can't handle having a glitch, an error, an extra object in it.
The only way to make this universe safely collapse at the end of the time, so at
the end of the 28 days is removing this object. Because if the object isn't removed
and the 28 days pass, the universe will collapse creating a massive black hole. This black
hole could also influence our universe. So the only solution is to remove this
jet engine, this artifact. In this way the universe can safely collapse at the end
of the 28 days. Who has the mission to do this?
A person called "living receiver". In our case the living receiver is Donnie Darko.
He is the person that has the mission to take this jet engine and send it through a portal
out of the universe. In order to complete his mission, during his time in the
tangent universe he is given
supernatural powers. For example he has exceptional strength. We see him bury an
axe into a statue. Or he has telekinesis,
so he can move objects with his mind. For example he destroys this jet engine,
he sends it out of the tangent universe through a portal.
A portal which he has also created thanks to his abilities to command water.
Donnie at first doesn't know what his mission is, he doesn't understand these
powers, he takes quite a while to figure out what his mission is. He is also
helped throughout his mission from other people.
These people are for example his family and his teachers. These are people who
subconsciously help him in his mission. So everything they do in the film, every
action in the film is specifically set in order to help Donnie.
So they give him a crucial information and they help him.
These people are called "manipulated living". Other people that help Donnie in his mission
are people who have died within the tangent universe. So for example Frank at the end
of the film is killed, he his shot. When these people die in the tangent
universe, people connected to Donnie die in the tangent universe, they become..
well let's call them ghosts just so it's easier to understand. So Frank dies at the end
of the film. He becomes a ghost but he has, just like Donnie, supernatural powers.
So he travels back in time to the beginning of the film, saves Donnie from
the bed in order to help him complete his mission. Another person who dies is
Gretchen. Gretchen throughout the whole film is dead. She died at the end of the
film, travelled back in time and helped Donnie. These people are called "manipulated dead".
All together these people help Donnie complete his mission. So we said at first
he doesn't understand what his mission is.
At the end of the film he understands what he has to do, manages to use his
mind to move the jet engine into the portal. Doing so the universe is stable
again and it can safely collapse at the end of 28 days. So 28 days pass,
the universe collapses safely and it disappears. Now remember our universe,
the universe in which Donnie is, is still in pause. So the tangent universe is
safe and stable, collapses and the moment in which it collapses everything starts again
in our universe, in the universe of Donnie Darko. So Donnie is still sleeping in his bed, his dad's sleeping
but there's no Frank the rabbit to lure him out of to the house, so the jet
engine crashes and kills him. And this is the end of the film. Now technically
speaking Donnie didn't have to die in order for all of this to happen.
Because everything that happened in the tangent universe is over, it's finished.
If he had got out of bed or if he had stayed in bed the, the engine would have crashed in any case.
We also know this because Roberta Sparrow was probably a living receiver
herself who survived and wrote "The philosophy of time travel". All the other people
connected to Donnie, so the manipulated living and manipulated dead don't have
any memory of what happened, but they are sort of haunted in their dreams by
some vague memory of something happening. So we see for example Frank touching his
eye at the end of the film or Jim Cunningham crying and feeling guilty.
We see Cherita Chen in bed wide awake thinking and we see Gretchen waving
to Donnie's mum as if they know each other although they don't remember why.
The first time I saw Donnie Darko I obviously didn't know about all of this.
Most of the people who watch it don't understand all of this is going on it and it could
possibly seem that Donnie is seeing all of this because he's
schizophrenic and he takes medication and this could all be part of his imagination.
But it's really interesting knowing what is really going on behind the film.
Another question raised by many people is whether god has anything to do with this.
So why is the tangent universe created? How do both
Donnie and all the other manipulated have all these supernatural powers?
How do they have them? Why does Donnie just laugh at the end of the film?
Some people say that maybe he understood something from God during his time
in the tangent universe and is prepared to die. I don't agree with this theory, I think
it's just a scientific fact.
And Donnie is laughing because he has some memories of what
happened during his time in the tangent universe, just like everybody else has.
But it is an interesting theory.
So let me know what you think about this, let me know what your interpretation of
the film is with a comment below. I hope you enjoyed this video, I'll be
surely be posting another video very soon and it will still be movie-related.
See you soon! Bye!