MAN!!!!
I watched this movie 3 times in the past week..I'm obsessed with figuring everything out
I watched the directors commentary and scoured the website (very cool!)
lets discuss!
SPOILERS!!!
Here's what I understand:
when he wakes up on October 2, 1988, they are then in the tangent universe (hence Donnie is able to hear frank). As proof of this the jet engine falls mysteriously from nowhere and cannot be traced to any plane. This jet engine is waht is called an "artifact"
Tangent universes, since they deviate from the presupposed path of time, are VERY unstable and usually only have a life of a few weeks
Donnie is the 'living receiver' - has been chosen to erase the tangent universe and get everyone back into the 'primary universe' before the world collapses on itself (he can do this by getting the artifact back into the primary universe)
there are the 'manipulated', 'the manipulated living', and the 'manipulated dead'
manipulated - people who are afraid of donnie and who are trying to get him to make the wrong decisions: i.e. Jim Cunningham urges him to change his path
Manipulated living - people who unwittingly help Donnie in his quest. These are Monnitoff, Thurman, family, etc... remember when Drew Barrymore put Cellar Door on the chalkboard? very important for Donnie.
Manipulated Dead - those who die IN the tangent universe and who help donnie to make the right choices as well. These are Frank and Gretchen.
often the manipulated dead will provide an ensurance trap to make certain Donnie goes through with the plan. I.e. Frank kills Gretchen, now Donnie has nothing to live for in the tangent uiniverse. Her death was insurance
So...all the choices he makes in the tangent universe are helping to recreate the rift in space-time that caused this whole thing to happen. Now Donnie has less than an hour before the universe collapses on itself.
at the end the plane, which has taken off at the perfect time, hits the rift and the engine comes off. The engine manages to make it through the wormhole while the plane is left behind.
As the jet engine travels back in time the tangent universe is erased, until that engine is all that is left of the world where Donnie loved Gretchen.
on the website there is an interesting document which says they matched the jet engine that killed Donnie to a plane in Honalulu which is FULLY operation...it had all its engines! a mystery for them, but we know that SAME plane DID take off in the tangent universe and had an accident
Notice how everyone was waking up in a sweat at the end?
they were having memories of the FUTURE...which is now erased. Notice Frank rub his eye as he remembers that he was shot in the eye!
NOW
What I don't know is:
Did Donnie have to die at the end in order for time to proceed as normal? But time was already back to normal!....perhaps Donnie could have escaped. Maybe he though it was all a dream.
I don't understand really HOW he created that rift in time. I know it was by his choices and whatnot...I dunno.
go to the website..it's very cool!