Like many blockbusters, Donnie Darko’s use of self-reflexive time travel and alternate universes can be hard to understand. However, it's implied that some echoes of the tangent universe still remain. The film uses a lot of eighties pop culture detritus, such as soundtrack music and TV references, to evoke the cultural moment of Kelly’s own youth.

Donnie Darko is an infamously difficult film to follow, but its confusing ending can be explained by unknotting the movie’s complex timeline.

An intellectual, suspenseful, and entertaining page-turner, The Weight of Ink tells the story of two remarkable women separated by three centuries, the ambition that connects them, and the power of the written word. New York, First Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company), 2018. Simply put, the tangent universe that Frank the rabbit warns our eponymous hero about is a separate, alternate reality that comes into existence at the start of the film’s action. In modern-day London, a cache of mid-17th-century papers is found, apparently untouched for three centuries, in a house under renovation.

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The Hebrew and Portuguese writings bring in Jewish-history expert and ailing academic Helen Watt to assess their provenance. This creates a foggy, nostalgic atmosphere which makes the trippy ending all the more confusing for first-time viewers. Related: Time Travel in the MCU and Avengers: Endgame Explained. Though he was a misfit in life, perhaps people will know deep down that Donnie was a hero in death - even if they're not sure how. In 1691, an unknown narrator in Richmond admits to having lied, and wishes to begin anew.

Whereas at the start of the movie he is out of his room when the jet engine crashes into the house, at the end of the movie he voluntarily goes to bed - even laughing as he does so, having accepted what he must do to keep his family and Gretchen alive - and is crushed by the falling plane debris.

The Weight of Ink is a deeply moving novel, although it is hobbled at the end by a corny revelation about who Ester Velasquez really is. Donnie is the only person able to close the tangent universe before it destroys his reality, but it will cost him his life in the process. It's not uncommon for ghosts in movies to deliver warnings to the living - the difference with Frank is that he delivers his warning before he even dies. The lack of a tie-in explainer doesn’t mean Donnie Darko is easy to decipher, though. Frank won't die, because he was killed by Donnie in reaction to Gretchen's death. Based on this, the bunny-man can be read as Donnie’s tangent universe alter-ego who exists to warn him about the sacrifice he must make. Related: The Umbrella Academy: Time Travel Rules Explained. I’ve already wrote and … Gretchen is hit by a car that Frank, the rabbit-masked man, is driving. It's a jigsaw puzzle of a novel, perfect for readers of A. S. Byatt's Possession and Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book. But whether it’s the complicated tangent universe, the creepy six foot tall rabbit Frank, or how exactly Donnie wins out in the end, everything in the film’s ending can be explained.

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The nature of this tangent universe was actually explained in text from Roberta Sparrow's The Philosophy of Time Travel, which was made available on the movie's tie-in website at the time: "If a Tangent Universe occurs it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks. In guiding Donnie to change the outcome of events, Frank not only helps to prevent the deaths of Gretchen and Donnie's family, but also saves his own life as well. At the end of the movie, Donnie returns to the hillside and watches the jet engine get sucked into the time vortex, at which point time rewinds and he has an opportunity to do things differently, armed with his knowledge of what will happen. By going back in time and remaining in his bedroom to die instead of escaping his fate, Donnie succeeds in closing the tangent universe and changing the future. When Gretchen rides past Donnie's house and pauses to look at the wreckage, she and Rose make eye contact and instinctively wave as if they know each other, but aren't sure from where. Donnie Darko is an infamously difficult film to follow, but its confusing ending can be explained by unknotting the movie’s complex timeline.Released in 2001, Donnie Darko was a lot of different things to different viewers. This suggests that even though Donnie was the only person who retained his full memory of the other timeline after travelling back, the other people in the town are also subconsciously aware of what might have happened. Consider the fact that Frank appears after the tangent universe comes into existence, and the match cut which sees his face superimposed over Donnie’s during a sequence discussing Donnie’s mental health. The ending can be interpreted in various ways. The Weight of Ink Rachel Kadish, 2017 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 576 pp. Released in 2001, Donnie Darko was a lot of different things to different viewers. Suicide Squad 2 Image Unites All 15 Task Force X Characters, Donnie Darko: Timeline & Ending Explained, The Umbrella Academy: Time Travel Rules Explained, Time Travel in the MCU and Avengers: Endgame Explained, Flash's Time Travel In The Snyder Cut Explained, How Samuel L Jackson Thinks Mace Windu Survived His Star Wars Death, Doctor Strange 2 Art Makes The Case For America Chavez Joining The MCU, Suicide Squad 2 Is Copying The Worst Part Of Enchantress' Original Movie Plan, MCU Actors Defend Chris Pratt After Online Backlash, Back to the Future 2's Marty McFly Jacket Up For Auction, Could Sell For $15,000, Jared Leto Returning As Joker In Justice League Snyder Cut, Star Wars 9 Means Every Skywalker Died For The Same Reason, Jurassic World 3 Photo Unites Original Movie Cast To Mark Filming Resuming, Natalie Portman Confirms Jane Wields Mjolnir In Thor: Love & Thunder, How Godzilla vs Kong Can Avoid Having Kong As The Underdog, Iron Man 3's Extremis Could Be The Key To Eternal Life, Why HYDRA Was Based In Sokovia In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Donald Trump Responds To Borat 2 With Bizarre Claims, Tom Cruise As Iron Man Video Is A Glimpse At An Alternate MCU, Uncharted: Tom Holland Is Nothing Like Video Game Nathan Drake (& That's A Good Thing), What Happens After Fast & Furious 11?

Donnie’s mother and younger sister head to LA with his sister’s dance troupe. Is the Frank that Donnie sees throughout the movie the same Frank he shoots towards the end? Donnie Darko doesn’t explain why the tangent universe comes into existence; it's one of many things in the movie that are deliberately left a mystery. Details from The Philosophy of Time Travel support this theory, referring to a particular type of spirit known as the "Manipulated Dead." First and foremost, let’s get the events of Donnie Darko’s enigmatic ending in order. Here we'll break down exactly what happens - from the rogue plane engine to the guy in the bunny mask. Meanwhile, his Harvard-bound older sister celebrates her university acceptance with a party. In the camp, 16-year-old Cecilia "Cilka" Klein—one of the Jewish prisoners introduced in Tattooist—was forced to become the mistress of two … The Weight of Ink. The movie’s ending combines time travel with alternate universes and some truly surreal symbolism. The Weight of Ink. Another interpretation of Frank is that he is the same bunny-man that Donnie shot, and that after his death his spirit was no longer bound by time. Kelly’s critically maligned 2006 follow-up Southland Tales needed an entire companion graphic novel to make sense, so it's obvious that he isn’t afraid of a complicated ending. The novel begins with the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops in 1945.