Gen X and Gen Z React to Donnie Darko (2001) First Time Watching

[@randalthor741]

They do such an amazing job of building the atmosphere for this movie. The performances, the cinematography, the sound design, all of it just works so well.

[@RKnights]

This movie was such a trip, the director and the camera work had us on a wild ride

[@dudermcdudeface3674]

Imagine seeing this when you were a teenager and seriously ill where you thought you were dying. It resonated, to say the least. Even grew up in a town like that, with schools like that.

[@michaelconnor1542]

Donnie starts depressed suicidal and generally mentally unbalanced. Unwilling to take his meds. He also, unknowingly, has the power to perceive and bend space/time. In the throws of his depression, his mind opens a wormhole to a point a plane passes over his house. Shearing off it's turbine. However, self preservation or faith causes him to port to the golf course. This near death and meeting this girl give him reason to improve himself and ultimately live. Ultimately, he doesn't die because of depression or life not having meaning or even a reflexive reaction to her death and his killing bunny guy. But as an act of love.

[@RKnights]

So we'll done

[@HeartbreakEsh]

This was such a great reaction. Really appreciate that y'all were trying to pick up on hints and make connections. It's one of those films that seem different every time one watches it.

[@RKnights]

Glad you spent some time with us

[@shwicaz]

Saw this in the theater. Absolutely riveted. I adored the family. Their performances were so 'real'. I know Jake and Magge are brother and sister, but the parents and the younger sister felt believable. The mom was awesome. Great insights along the way in this reaction. Take care, men.

[@RKnights]

This was a lot of fun to watch

[@jesusramirez4537]

this movie filmed at my high school. trips me out. like going back in time literally

[@newmoon766]

I think you'd like "12 Monkeys".

[@ConstanceBonn]

My favorite movie ever. I saw it at 15, not long after it came out, and was curious to watch it again. It took me a couple of watches to truly realize that Donnie saved the world. I dressed up the first time this year in the bunny costume and wrote on my arm the days, hours, minutes and seconds on my arm with a sharpie. Showed the arm to a few people, too. I feel like it was the perfect year for it, too. Glad I wasn’t able to do it before. It got a good response on the sidewalks, trick or treating with my son. I didn’t think about how much it could scare the little kids though. lol.

[@astroworfcraig9164]

Kudos for taking this one on.

[@RKnights]

This movie is not typical to say the least. :-)

[@UlricGrim]

This explains everything, because yes, this is a confusing (but amazing) film: The “primary universe” is where everyone is living a normal life, Donnie and his family, you, I, everyone. Then something unexplained happened-a jet engine crashed into Donnie’s room. Luckily for him, Frank (imaginary bunny friend) called him out of his room so he didn’t die. As a result of him surviving, this created a “tangent universe”. The tangent (alternate) universe is everything that would have occurred if Donnie survived, which he did and that’s all the events that played out in the movie after the jet engine crashed into Donnie’s room. Everything and everyone in the primary universe is duplicated in the tangent universe. The jet engine is what you call an “artifact”, an artifact (according to Sparrow’s book) spontaneously appears without explanation, and that means that the tangent universe is slowly being contorted, corrupted, and will eventually collapse on itself, no problem. Artifacts are not supposed to duplicate (but they can, according to Sparrow), as they come from the tangent universe itself. The problem here is that the jet engine did in fact duplicate-there’s one in both the primary and the tangent universe, so when the tangent universe collapses, it will collapse and form a black hole which will also destroy the primary universe-everything and everybody we know will die, the universe itself will collapse in the black hole. When this random event happens (the artifact duplicating itself), a “living receiver” is selected by the universe, or by the “gods” of the universe to be the individual who will dispel the artifact out of the tangent universe into the primary universe (so everyone and everything doesn’t die). This person was Donnie. According to Sparrow’s book, the individual who comes into contact with said artifact will become the selected living receiver (it was Donnie’s room so he was selected by the universe, although he was not there at the time, it was still his room). The living receiver is then granted powers from the fourth dimension to help with his/her task of dispelling the artifact from the tangent universe. These powers include mind control, telekinesis, psychic abilities, increased strength, and the ability to create time portals using water and metal, and to be able to move through those time portals. This is all according to Sparrow’s book. Everyone around Donnie is able to also help him with this task, these individuals are called the “Manipulated Living” and the “Manipulated Dead”. The manipulated living, for example, would be Donnie’s science teacher that gave him Sparrow’s book to read. This is how Donnie learned and understood everything that he needed to do to save the universe. The manipulated dead, for example, would be Frank that he shot in the eye and killed. Frank wasn’t a villain, he was actually helping and guiding Donnie throughout the movie to get Donnie to where he needed to be. For example, Frank had Donnie bust the water lines and school was cancelled. As a result, he met Gretchen his girlfriend that he loved. Gretchen served an important role, Donnie had to meet her that faithful day when school was cancelled. The reason being is that Gretchen was the “Ensurance Trap” which was mentioned in Sparrow’s book. The ensurance trap lays out the sequence of events to help the living receiver complete their task. Gretchen was ran over and killed (unfortunately) by Frank, then Donnie shoots Frank in the eye killing him, then Frank was able to now serve as the manipulated dead to go back in time to help Donnie. Do you understand? Without Gretchen dying (the love of Donnie’s life) Frank would have never died, so Donnie would have failed in completing his task and the entire universe would collapse and die. Now we are at the end of the movie and Donnie is running out of time. After Gretchen’s death, he realizes that the only thing he can do is take the artifact out of the tangent universe and time travel back to the primary universe with it (the start of the movie). But there’s only one problem, he would have to die as a result. Donnie accepts his death, because not only does it save his family, friends, but it saves his love Gretchen, it ultimately saves the entire universe! As Donnie accepts his death, we see that Donnie’s mom and sister are on a plane coming back from his sister’s dance competition. The plane undergoes a malfunction and the jet engine detaches from the plane (this is the duplicated jet engine, remember one was in the primary universe and one is in the tangent universe, this is that one). At this time the black hole starts forming over his house where the engine fell in the primary universe, the tangent universe is now collapsing and will take with it the primary universe. So, Donnie uses his fourth dimension powers and creates a time portal, and while using telekinesis he is able to guide the jet engine back in time through the portal to the primary universe (Donnie himself also goes through the portal with the jet engine, remember the living receiver can transport themselves through these portals as well). Now we are back at the beginning of the movie and Donnie is in his bed laughing, he has accepted his death and knows it has to be done for the sake of mankind. He succeeded and removed the duplicated artifact from the tangent universe. And of course the jet engine he transported there crashes through the roof into his room killing him. As a result, none of the events in the movie happen, but everyone survives-his family, friends, Gretchen, the universe itself. Gretchen of course doesn’t know who Donnie was because she never met him. Now, according to Sparrow’s book, everyone who played a role in helping the living receiver in the tangent universe will still distantly and faintly remember what happened, however these memories come to them in their dreams. I believe she referred to them as “phantoms”. That’s why Frank gently touched his eye at the end of the movie, he knew that something happened to his eye, that’s why Donnie’s therapist woke up in shock, that’s why the science teacher was tossing and turning in his bed, and that’s why Gretchen fumbles so slightly before saying that she never knew Donnie Darko. Thanks for listening!

[@LetthaWrite1inn]

What you see in this film is literally what's happening

[@ichbinich8738]

one of my fave cult film.

[@handsomestik]

“I’m voting for Dukakis” Pops might have to explain that?

[@RKnights]

I did, its in the unedited version. They had no clue :-)

[@cometgirl217]

@12:00 “I love how everybody wants to die” 😂 That’s some TRUE Gen Z energy!

[@alebron7046]

This start freak me out. But then I felt bad for him and then it was a twist. What the hell. Love Jake acting!

[@Chunchbox]

Such a great film! October Sky has Jake as the lead, and is another great flick.

[@RKnights]

I've been told I need to watch it

[@ebaker1968]

Just found your channel and have been really enjoying it so far! I was an English teacher for 25 years, so I really love that you get your former students to react with you. Teachers never stop teaching! Anyway, in my opinion, Frank is Donnie's guide....like Alice following the rabbit down the hole. Frank the rabbit guides Donnie to do what he needs to do to set things right and stop the world from ending. If you watch it again, pause it on scenes that have text in the background....there's loads of information in there.

[@Emburbujada]

This is one of my favourite movies! Yes, it feels confusing. You need to think about it once it ends XD Also, one of my favourite soundtracks. If you haven't seen it, I'd love it if you'd react to Dark City. It's also sci fi, but a different type of confusion XD

[@Easy_Skanking]

Dark City is so excellent! The atmosphere is spot on.

[@MABADBledsoe]

Excellent suggestion. Dark City is another I can watch again and again.

[@tolkienismaster]

Amazing movie. Great reaction guys.

[@C-Russ]

Oh man I’ve been waiting for this! I’ve been working so hard and so long the last few weeks it’s just been hard to catch up lol. I’m so excited to watch Wednesday as well I’ve had that on my list since it came out! Love you guys! Hope yo ur e doing amazing! P. S. Will you be dropping an unedited on Patreon?

[@matthewmille]

Julien had all the important plot points correct. He was even correct when he said at the end “All I understand from this movie is I understand nothing and nothing makes sense.” After a first watch of this movie, that tells me you understand it more than most.

[@jwoodard29]

Another very underappreciated time travel movie is is "Southland Tales," also directed by the director of "Donnie Darko." It stars Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Highly recommended.

[@ChrissaTodd]

the reason she wants her to "sit by the boy she finds cutest" is because everything that happens is to help Donnie get to what frank wants him to do.

[@jamesbuckley8917]

The whole story is the last minute of sub-consciousness that Donnie experiences after the jet engine crushes him in his bed, as he lay dying.

[@grunntalll]

love the movie!

[@protovision2010]

fantastic movie + reaction! Its especially fun watching real-life siblings Jake and Maggie argue onscreen :) You should check out "Southland Tales" (2006) also by director Richard Kelly. Star-filled cast, and a weird but riveting story.

[@FredtheDorfDorfman1985]

Actually it was Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen who used general relativity to conceive of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge through space-time, and they can be either natural phenomena or artificially created. Stephen Hawking believed that wormholes can NOT be used for time travel, only as shortcuts through space and time.

[@innercircle341]

Happy New Year! You guys are killing it. Please do the rest of the classic Planet of the Apes

[@RKnights]

We will

[@pheenobarbidoll2016]

I saw this movie when it was first released on HBO ( back when HBO played new movies on Saturday night). I recorded it and promptly forced everyone I knew to watch it lol

[@andbrittain]

IMO wether the director realized it or not, this film in part is a modern dark reimagining of a film from 1950 "Harvey" staring James Stewart "The story centers on a man whose best friend is a puca named Harvey, a 6 ft 3+1⁄2 in (1.92 m) tall white invisible rabbit, and the ensuing debacle when the man's sister tries to have him committed to a sanatorium"

[@KeeganRusz]

Ngl, this movie always makes me highly emotional at the end. First time I watched this movie I bawled like a bxtch when mad world came on. Also, first time watching y'alls channel. I expected y'all to be loud and obnoxious but y'all are great. Loved this reaction. Also, notice how frankie freedler ( the one his dad mentioned ) has the same namelike structure. Donnie aint the first living receiver. It goes waaaaay back. Makes you wonder how many times it has happened before. The Y made him do it. The Y indicating the split of the primairy and tangent universe, tieing it back to donnies being the living receiver. Lmao gretchen in the bunny suit😂😂

[@OilyAnimal3]

They won't make movies like this anymore

[@boqndimitrov8693]

a strange but memorable movie. something I can't say, for example, about Avatar 2. in fact, I can't say practically anything about it!

[@JonnyQuest64]

What? Avatar 2 was damn near perfect... I love me some Donnie Darko, but let's not make crackhead comments please

[@denverite3742]

Everybody will have their own emotional interpretation of this film. That's one of the things that makes it so great. Don't let some yahoo on youtube tell you what it's 'supposed' to mean. Keep it personal.

[@RKnights]

Thanks 😊

[@christopherking4932]

Disagree 👎

[@thomasanderson1969]

Cult classic the point is that everyone is responsible for there actions and like in the string theory there is a higher power God and don't forget the ego that makes humanity believe there gods excellent movie and he realizes that because he wants to live everything he loves dies like in the movie ... everything dies alone until he realizes God

[@On_The_Level]

Frank is a Pooka

[@christopherking4932]

Awesome reaction, can you please watch a movie called BACK DRAFT.