I have watched the film twice and looked through the website in its entirety. I have not yet had opportunity, however, to see the deleted scenes, having viewed the VHS rather than the DVD version. Does anyone know of a place with transcripts of them? If not, eventually I may be able to find the DVD somewhere and watch it. Until then, these are my tentative conclusions on the film (these are on the literal events which transpired, not any sort of symbolism).
Various texts on the website prove particularly useful in understanding what happened. Foremost is the Philosophy of Time Travel, but the conversation detailing the FAA’s findings is also very important. Of secondary importance is the account of Jim Cunningham’s suicide. In the Philosophy, Sparrow suggests that a Tangent Universe will eventually occur when an Artifact is transported back in time. She writes that unless the Artifact is returned to the Primary Universe using a Time Portal located along the Tangent Vortex the Tangent Universe will form a black hole which will destroy the Primary Universe. To translate, the Primary Universe is the universe that contains the original timeline. The Artifact is the engine. Time Portals are wormholes. In suggesting that the Artifact is “returned” to the Primary Universe the text must be mistaken, or using some peculiar non-literal means of expression (which it certainly does at other points). Why? The FAA conversation. This conversation takes place on April 23, 1991. In it, the man from London says that the engine which crashed on Donnie’s house is identical to an engine on a currently operational 747. He also says that this 747 has been fully operational for a six year period. This means that the engine was never removed from this plane by a wormhole in this universe (unless the wormhole removal comes much, much later, but there are reasons to believe that the wormhole actually opens on October 30, 1988 at 6:43 AM and 6 seconds). It is therefore logical to conclude the wormhole caused the creation of an entirely separate universe, not affecting the original universe at all. In this parallel timeline, the engine is sent back to October 2 at some point early in the morning, probably close to midnight and most certainly before dawn. I do not want to complicate this explanation just yet with discussion of Frank, so we will ignore Donnie’s survival or death for the moment. As the timeline proceeds along this altered path, it eventually reaches the same moment in time that the wormhole opened in. When this happens, a black cloud forms linking the two openings in space (the black cloud can be seen travelling horizontally outside of Donnie’s window when he is driving in much the same way as the engine travels through the sky). Presumably, at this point the parallel timeline collapses. If the engine, which caused the parallel timeline by travelling through a wormhole, remains in the parallel universe when it ends, the destruction of the parallel universe will cause the destruction of the original timeline as well. However, if it is sent instead through another wormhole which links to the point in space and time in the original timeline which corresponds to the October 2 point in the parallel one, the original timeline remains in existence, though it is permanently changed.
Now, that having been laid out, I will move on to discussion of the respective roles of Donnie and Frank in all of this. Donnie is clearly the Living Receiver mentioned in the Philosophy, which states that the Living Receiver has certain powers. These powers are increased strength (burying the axe in the bronze statue’s head), telekenesis (turning off the sprinklers in front of Cunningham’s house when he finds the wallet), mind control (Katie Farmer’s well-timed derailing of the PTA meeting), conjuring of fire (burning down Cunningham’s house), and conjuring water (flooding the school). Note that Donnie displays all of these “powers” while either acting on Frank’s orders or when he is in direct communication with Frank. Of even greater importance is that he does not have these abilities at other points. Proof of this can be found in Donnie’s inability to throw off his assailant at the end of the film (hardly a display of the super human strength evidenced in using the axe on the statue). Note also that Frank is in direct communication with Donnie when the engine is sent through the wormhole at the end of the film. Though the Philosophy suggests the Receiver’s job is responsible for sending the engine back in time, it is clear that Donnie is dependent on Frank for the ability to do so. The Philosophy suggests that Frank becomes a Manipulated Dead when he is killed in the Tangent Universe. This is impossible. Frank must be killed by Donnie to become a Manipulated Dead. Donnie must be saved by Frank as a Manipulated Dead to kill Frank. Donnie cannot be saved unless Frank is dead and Frank cannot be dead unless Donnie is saved. If there is some way that this is consistent with logic, I would ask you to patiently explain it to me. If not, I propose the following solution. I believe that Frank was killed by Donnie in the original timeline. Let us look at the alterations Frank made to the timeline: he made Donnie flood the school causing Donnie to have a conversation with Gretchen; he made Donnie burn down Cunningham’s house resulting in the discovery of the kiddie porn dungeon which necessitated Rose Darko’s accompanying the the Sparkle Motion dance team to Los Angeles which allowed Elizabeth Darko to throw a party celebrating her acceptance into Harvard, and he caused Donnie to ask Monnitoff about time travel causing him to discover and read the Philosophy of Time Travel which caused him to go to Roberta Sparrow’s house on October 29. Note that I have not included the discovery of the gun. This discovery occurred when Donnie saw the time projection. I maintain that these projections simply show what a conscious entity will decide to do by predestination in the original timeline, cannot be manipulated in any important way by Frank, and Donnie’s knowledge of this path ensured that he do what he would have in the original on a whim (his psyche was affected, no doubt, by what had happened to him already, thus necessitating this ensurance). I am aware this partially contradicts the Philosophy, but I can think of no other way to resolve the paradox. The flooding of the school and the burning down of Cunningham’s house may have been performed by Donnie in the original timeline also; it will be remembered that Donnie is emotionally screwed up and may have been suffering from hallucinations and sleepwalking as a result of his medication, greatly increasing the likelihood that his feelings toward Cunningham and the school would have led to radical action. The axe in the bronze statue’s head is unimportant. The business with the Philosophy is also unimportant. Donnie may have gone to Sparrow’s house with his friends anyway; they were obviously intrigued by “Grandma Death” and were clearly in a mischivious mood that evening. The dead Frank from the original timeline may have wished to engineer his death in the parallel timeline as well. Or, perhaps, God elected to use the dead Frank (presumably the dead gain free movement in both space and time, though the reason is unclear) to morbidly play out Donnie’s horrible fate one last time before it is wiped from existence forever. I think I will return to the subject of God’s relationship with Donnie later.
For now, I will talk briefly of Roberta Sparrow herself. Her pacing in front of the mailbox allows her to cause Gretchen’s death and to tell Donnie that “Every living creature dies alone.” Her writing of the Philosophy suggests that she experienced a revelation in 1944 which made her aware both of the time structure as a whole and of the events which would transpire in 1988. Why she was given this revelation is unclear, but she recognized the importance of standing there at those points. It should be noted that both of them cause Donnie severe emotional distress.
I believe that God opened the wormhole as a way of “cheating” or “editing” the original timeline. Why God wished to make this particular alteration, killing Donnie on October 2, is not clear to me. It is clear, however, that the alteration is imperfect. The people, presumably through their dreams, remember what was supposed to happen. Donnie, perhaps, finds this exhilerating because he realizes that, despite dying alone, that particular death for Gretchen has been avoided. He also may find some amount of satisfaction in committing suicide. His smile at Gretchen when the world is “ending” may simply be that of someone in despair who finds happiness and salvation in suicide. His laughter may be similar. I do not understand, though, why God is so particularly interested in Donnie, nor do I fully understand why Roberta Sparrow became so obsessed with maintaining what seems to be the original timeline.
I hope that the above is coherent. It may be incorrect and I am open to criticism. As a final note, I would like to ask about the dates and times located on the official site, particularly the one that takes place in 1992. Could someone go over them and their significance?
