Donnie Darko, a film created and directed by Richard Kelly, can be interpreted in a variety of different ways. The time traveling interpretation is the most accepted explanation, so I will be using it for my analysis. Donald Darko, goes by Donnie throughout the movie, is a socially awkward and mentally unstable high school student. One night he is awakened by a ‘’bunny rabbit’’ named Frank, who lures him into a golf course and therefore saves Donnie from a jet engine that falls into his room. Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. The world in which this is all happening is called the Tangent Universe (TU). The TU’s existence is unstable and will soon collapse. In this TU there was a glitch…show more content… His peers unconsciously lead him into discovering the truth. At the end, Donnie saves the primary universe. This film is dark, humorous, fictitious and philosophical. It is relevant to everyone now and will most likely remain relevant in the future. Donnie Darko, explores determinism, death, social constructs and discrimination. In deconstructing the characters, plot and meaning, there is a construction of many paradoxes and contradictions. Our fear of death is contradicted by the film itself, because even though we fear death to some extent, we enjoy movies about death and murder. Another paradox is that of free will and freedom, and the existence of social constructs and contracts. Lastly, it is ironic that a nation build on Christian values, is merciless and oppressing just like a teenage bully. These concepts are explored in formats such as in children’s cartoons, video games, propaganda, music and comics. The Hollywood machine and its investors constantly acquire profit via fiction by mirroring and distorting our human fears, which include the fear of extinction, loss of autonomy and separation, because we prefer to subconsciously confront these fears through fabrications than to confront them and their paradoxes in
