When does donnie darko take place

I was never a big fan of Echo and the Bunnymen, and yet when I heard the song used in the film, it took me back to the time and place, but it also created an intense emotional connection to the film and the scene. How important is getting the right song for the right scene, and do you write with a particular song in your head—do you have a soundtrack as you go along, a playlist—and how do you come to those choices?

Well, an overwhelming yes to everything you just said. Music is everything to me in the filmmaking process. I design and select many songs very, very early in the screenwriting process.

I even choreograph scenes to specific songs. I will play the songs for the actors on set, and I will even storyboard to the lyrics. I will hire a composer to start composing the score to the movie before we even start principle photography.

Music is a fundamental, foundational element to me as a filmmaker. So do you ever get turned down and have you ever had to work around that? Only a couple times. Of course, I always shoot to a back-up, or I always have a back-up plan. But we were able to replace it with Duran Duran and it worked out wonderfully, and I love how it works with Duran Duran.

Is this even going to make the final cut of your movie? There must have been a ton of those people looking over your shoulder when you were making Donnie Darko. You were basically a kid out of college when you were making it.

But when you talk about taking risks with the storytelling and the musical devices, you also took risks with the cast. Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal were not even remotely on the radar as actors yet you cast them in these really significant roles. Well, I went to USC film school where I had a rigorous education at this amazing educational institution. I had a huge art portfolio—all the drawings you see in the movie, the rabbit and all the sketches that Donnie does—those are all my sketches.

And I had written this screenplay that people were very high on. So I had my screenplay and I had my drawings and I had my film school degree. The one thing that I was terrified about was talking to the actors and directing the actors.

I felt as though that was my Achilles heel, but I realized pretty quickly, not only with Jake and Maggie but with Jena Malone and the entire cast, that I was fortunate enough to get to work actors who were already were all very, very experienced.

You know, Jake had done maybe one or two movies and Maggie had done a lot of theater, but they had spent their entire lives already acting and they came from a family of filmmakers. In a lot of ways they were more experienced than I was. So I very quickly realized that I just needed to give them enough direction that they understood their character was in a particular moment and their motivation and I could kind of step back and learn from them.

Again, I was blessed even with all of the younger actors in the film. They all came out of Harvard Westlake and these great acting high schools where they have these amazing drama teachers.

Just as how in our dreams things meld together or get distorted, so, too, does Frank. What about the famous bunny costume?

This was likely inspired by the book Watership Down by English author Richard Adams, where bunnies talk and act like humans. You can explain that Frank ended up in the bunny costume somewhat randomly; Frank was likely being taught Watership Down in high school and somehow gripped onto the character as he moved through universes. Frank is not the bad guy. He helps Donnie. What is the role of numerology in the film?

That… is when the world… will end. On Stack Exchange, one user explains how the writer creatively employs numbers to create glitches in the Matrix -like effect throughout the film:. The movie takes place in Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 06 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. If you add these numbers, the sum is He is later seen holding a stuffed toy dog in her office.

The meaning of all these numbers creates a creepy occult undercurrent if you have enough time to pay attention to such things. The meaning of the number eight 8 in Donnie Darko does not seem to extend beyond simply being an interesting Easter egg in the movie. Theories of time travel are abundant in the film, which is what makes it so confusing and hard to understand. This is the book that Dr. There is an interesting tension between science and religion, or between logic and mystery, in Donnie Darko.

The tension is most clearly articulated in the biography of Roberta Sparrow aka Grandma Death. The allegory is clear. Roberta Sparrow represents both the occult and the scientific, both revelation and reason.

The evidence for the necessity of both science and religion is reinforced by the actions of science teacher Kenneth Monnitoff. Monnitoff has to stop the conversation with Donnie. An agnostic is someone who believes that there can be no proof of the existence of God…but does not deny the possibility that God exists.

Richard Kelly also establishes Donnie Darko as a Christ figure or even as a kind of antichrist against suburban notions of Christian sin. Donnie, like Jesus Christ, must sacrifice his own life to save the world.

Additionally, it is explicitly signaled that we should draw such parallels when Donnie is in the theater watching a double feature of The Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ Predestination or predetermination is an important concept in Donnie Darko.

In this part of the article, the analysis will get theoretical and extrapolative, as the question of is there free will? The idea is that whatever Donnie is doing is out of his control. These future apparitions come as water tentacles or gelatinous blobs. What are we to make of this? There is an otherworldly scene portrayed for only a few seconds in the film of metal and water.

There is a delay in their transmission, which is what allows Donnie to see the selected pathways. The Donnie Darko soundtrack is about as legendary as the movie itself, mainly because of the closing track discussed later , but also because the menacing but romantic score seems to linger and meshes so well with the picture. California-based composer Michael Andrews made the score, and because of the limited budget played mostly all the instruments himself.

Why was Donnie chosen? The PoTT states "no one knows how or why a Receiver will be chosen," but it's logical Donnie was picked by whom will be explained shortly because he was near the epicenter of the TU's formation.

This is where things get really interesting within the material outside the film. The PoTT states the LR is blessed with "Fourth Dimensional Powers," including "enhanced strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water. These manifest in Donnie as symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. It's not only the LR who is affected. Those close to Donnie subconsciously guide him on his mission, often acting erratically.

The majority of characters are in this category. They have an important job but know little of it. The frequently used metaphor of chess is apt to explain their purpose; imagine a game where every move was choreographed perfectly, so checkmate occurs only after a very specific combination of moves.

The MLs subconsciously help Donnie navigate the board, nudging him toward checkmate using the exact combination. Checkmate in this instance is Donnie killing Frank James Duval by shooting him through the eye. When Frank is killed, he becomes an MD.

This is crucial. Without Frank as an MD, Donnie would have no warning, and no indication of his role in saving the universe. Anyone killed in the TU becomes an MD. Their in-universe death makes them more powerful than a typical ML.

Presumably this is because their spirits move beyond the material world to a metaphysical dimension, while they remain alive in the suspended PU. They're capable of time travel and, unlike the living, have conscious knowledge of the threat of universal annihilation. Thurman gives Donnie placebo pills. She unconsciously enables Donnie to communicate with Frank.

Gretchen's role as an MD is less obvious. There are two moments where she appears to deliberately influence events. She wakes as soon as he returns. It's a little too convenient.

This is a way to give the LR "no choice" but to follow through with returning the Artifact. In this instance Donnie does so to save the lives of the woman he fell in love with and the man he killed. Frank's influence is obvious. He commands Donnie to flood the school and burn down Jim Cunningham's house, evidencing the LR's ability to "conjure fire and water.

The school's closure leads to Donnie walking home with Gretchen. The fire exposes Jim as a pedophile, so Kitty Palmer skips the dance contest to defend him.

Rose Darko attends in her place while Eddie is away on business, so Donnie and Elizabeth throw the Halloween party. Kenneth Monnitoff helps Donnie discover his purpose and understand what he sees is real, and not a sign of madness. Monnitoff discusses wormholes, portals, and the feasibility of time travel before handing Donnie a copy of PoTT.

Fellow teacher Karen Pomeroy plays Cupid between Gretchen and Donnie, giving Gretchen the bizarre instruction to "sit next to the boy you think is the cutest. Donnie remembers this conversation when he leaves the Halloween party to visit Roberta Sparrow. He enters via the cellar door and bumps into bullies Seth and Ricky. Their reasons for being there only make sense considering their roles as MLs. But in dragging Donnie and Gretchen outdoors, the pieces are in place, ready for Frank's timely-yet-tragic arrival.

Frank swerves out of the way of Roberta Sparrow — who is standing on her lawn and with Donnie's letter — and drives over Gretchen. The domino effect begins from the opening scene. Though unconfirmed, some theories posit such careful coordination is due to the TU being a continuous time loop.

It's the repetition of each loop, made if the Artifact isn't returned successfully, that makes the TU increasingly unstable. The argument is based on Donnie awakening on Carpathian Ridge, where he later goes to successfully return the Artifact.

Was the opening scene a failed attempt? The theory also claims the Manipulated have vague recollection of previous loops, and the winning combination is a result of continuous trial and error. This is explains why some MLs appear to have more than a subconscious understanding particularly Karen Pomeroy, Kenneth Monnitoff and Chertia.

Plus, Donnie laughs in the opening scene as if he has knowledge of something important. He stabs Frank in the same eye that takes a bullet during a Fourth Dimensional interaction in his bathroom, long before he sees him unmasked.