Frank is only symbolic, he isn't a real character, he is a hallucination, thus he can't have a "plan" as you suggested. The end where "Frank" appears in a human form is a convenience, but an intended convenience, as Donnie shooting him is his ultimate breaking away from his impulses that have dominated his existence throughout the entirety of the movie.

Umhmm... that's right. kdice will become imdb soon enough.

I lol'd.

For kicks:

X LUCK X: First, no. I do not believe that we all have a preset purpose in life that is ultimately unavoidable. That would make living pointless. I believe that life is what we make it, not what some supernatural outside force wishes it to be.

Secondly, I do not believe that it existed in the movie. I believe that Donnie Darko's actions were a result of a script that was written for this movie.

Seriously though, I do not believe that destiny existed in this movie. I believe that Donnie's actions were purely based upon what "Frank" was telling him to do. As to what "Frank" was, I have not entirely determined what it was. The most recent conclusion that I reached was that he was half impulsive tendency that all humankind has, and half pure form of rationalization to justify Donnie's actions in Donnie's mind.

The question becomes thus: if Donnie was destined to "die alone," did he *technically* die alone? I don't think he died alone, thus destiny did not come into play there. He came to terms with himself, and died a complete man / adolescent. I still believe destiny's significance was absent in the movie. If you want to say destiny existed in the movie, it existed in the form of the movie's script.


XCRobin: No, I do agree with you JR that destiny was not in the movie. I like the idea that Frank was a pure form of rationalization. I think that Frank is a real person, both as a rabbit and as a human. I don't think that Donnie was hallicunating. I do think that he was crazy, but that wasn't imagining everything. Neither one of Donnie's parents disagree with Donnie that he's crazy, and neither do I. I think that Frank is real because of the final scene. I think that a lot of the movie can be explained through the final two scenes.

When "Mad World" plays, the camera shows all of the Manipulated Living in their "states" when they wake up. Earlier in the movie one of the pages from the book discribes that when the manipulated living wake up, they will remember what happened and which will manifest itself as "terrifying nightmares." The real Frank touches his eye where Donnie shot him. I think that shows that the Frank that went to get beer is thus real.

The bunny Frank though is harder to prove that he is real. Since no one ever sees him other than Donnie, no other character's perspective is reliable. Even Donnie calls Frank his "invisible friend." I guess that I'm proving here that he isn't real, but I'll still try to think of an example that he is.

And if it matters for any argument in the future, one of the differences between the Director's Cut and in the original is that in the original Frank apoligizes to Donnie. Frank tells Donnie right before he torches the Mansion that he's sorry.

No Dumping: Frank is the hallucination of Donnie's secret desires. He floods the school at franks request, because of the idiotic teachings of the health teacher. He burns the perverts house down, not because of his child porn fanaticism, but because he utterly disagrees with his ideas about the world and how everything is lumped into two categories. Frank gives Donnie an excuse for acting out these secret desires.

As for the recognition, the mom and the girlfriend don't recognize each other, the girl says that she doesn't know them and she feels bad. The mom waves simply because they make eye contact and awkwardly stare. The wave was to break that. Also it was a distracted, thinking about other things kinda wave. The girl returned it with a blank look of, "why is she waving at me". This showing that she does not recognize her. Anyways, where would the girlfriend even know Donnie's mom, in the movie, they never met. I don't recall Donnie ever speaking with his parents about her. The only times they were together were in school, at the hangout, and the party, where Donnie's parents were absent. This means that she may not have even met her, thus no reason for recognition weather she remembered Donnie or not.

But what do they do with all the kiddie porn in patrick swayze's basement? I mean, do they burn it? Just but it in bags and throw it out?
Knowing the feds, I bet they catalog it and keep it in their kiddie porn evidence archives.

Um.... XC[superhero] that is all very imformative but I was actually referring to the donnie darko that plays kdice!!!

To continue:

Yeah, it was a good movie that did make you think.

I still strongly disagree with you Alan, in that you say destiny was a driving force in the movie. I still say it was more absent than anything else, and thus, we have come to an impass that will be more efficient to argue about face to face rather than with typing paragraph after paragraph that will ultimately result at a stalemate time and time again. I agree with what Whalley said, and I still believe that Frank was a hallucination in Donnie's head that was technically a symbollic representation of Donnie's impulsive desires and actions that occurred throughout the movie in the form of actions. I do not, in any way, believe that Donnie was affected by destiny.

By the way, the "bunny" version of Frank is a hallucination. The "human" version of Frank was real. When Donnie finally symbolically breaks away from Frank's control (Donnie's own impulses), the gun is the metal, Frank's blood is the water, thus Donnie triggers time travel by combining the "two necessities of time travel" or whatever the hell it was: water and metal, as shown in one of the chapters.

i hope this explains everything

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7608/untitledwe4.png

Thanks Batman, you have been a great help. lol

umm, i found it creepy.

Rope, I played with Donnie Darko: I knew Donnie Darko; Donnie Darko was a friend of mine. Rope, you're no Donnie Darko.