If a movie about time travel and a possibly mentally unhinged teenage boy who hallucinates a deranged looking giant bunny doesn’t sound appealing to you, then clearly you’ve never seen Donnie Darko. This quirky independent film is difficult to describe but impossible to forget, and it’s clear that the movie’s writer and director, Richard Kelly, wanted to create a thought provoking and unusual movie that would stick in it’s audience’s minds long after the final credits rolled.
Donnie Darko is a movie that is full of interesting tidbits and hidden details that are just waiting to be discovered. But because the movie is already brimming with information to absorb and mysteries to unravel, it’s exceedingly easy to miss all of the minutia that makes the movie even more interesting. Donnie Darko has dozens of different hidden details that are exceptionally difficult to pick up on, but here are 10 of the coolest Easter eggs in the movie.
Rabid For Rabbits
Obviously Frank the giant, strange looking bunny is one of the biggest and weirdest elements of Donnie Darko. But the movie itself throws in a whole lot of Easter eggs (pun intended) in reference to the overarching bunny theme as well. One of the most distinct songs featured in the film is “The Killing Moon” by Echo & the Bunnymen.
When Elizabeth Darko is sleeping on a recliner, there is a stuffed rabbit nearby. Later, while Gretchen is waiting for the bus, a Volkswagen Rabbit passes in front of her. And when Donnie is looking for something, he sees a Polaroid picture of him and his sister dressed up for Halloween, with Donnie dressed up as a bunny.
A Unique Source Of Inspiration
Time travel and the concepts and theories surrounding time travel is one of the most important aspects of Donnie Darko. Apparently Richard Kelly, the writer and director of Donnie Darko, first began thinking about time travel/time manipulation while he was watching a football game.
When the commentators stopped the game into a freeze frame and then began drawing diagrams to explain the plays that were about to happen, Kelly started thinking about how odd it would be if that could happen in real life. And when Donnie first begins discovering time travel in the film, he is actually watching football at the time.
Foreshadowing
As many Donnie Darko fans may have surmised already, this mysterious and esoteric film has a lot of tidbits and hints within the movie that add to it’s overall story line. Donnie’s interactions with the sketchy life coach Jim Cunningham is one of the major conflict points of the entire movie, so it comes as no surprise that there is some serious foreshadowing about what Donnie is eventually going to do.
When Donnie is participating in the Life Line exercise, he’s given a prompt about a lost wallet, and then he later finds Jim’s wallet. Later when he tells Gretchen that he accidentally burned down a house once, they’re standing in front of Jim Cunningham’s home.
Retro Style
Although Donnie Darko was filmed in the very early 2000’s, the film itself takes place in the 1980’s. This particular decade is obviously and extremely important to the overall aesthetic and vibe of the movie. While the movie does a great job of recreating suburban 1980’s life, one of the film’s most famous faces did what little he could to contribute towards making Donnie Darko into a genuinely believable 1980’s period piece.
Patrick Swayze was obviously one of the biggest names in the film, and for his role in the film as Jim Cunningham he actually wore his old clothes that he used to wear in the 80’s.
Cellar Door
Drew Barrymore makes a relatively brief but memorable appearance in Donnie Darko as Donnie’s liberal English teacher. Once her character is let go from her job, she writes the phrase “cellar door” on her chalkboard, explaining that a linguist once said that out of all of the possible combinations of English words in the world, “cellar door” is the most beautiful. The linguist that she is referring to is actually world-renowned Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien.
Tolkien, in an essay titled “English and Welsh,” explained that most English speakers would agree that “cellar door” sounds more beautiful rolling off the tongue than many words that are meant to refer to actual beautiful things.
Comic Book Hero
Although Donnie Darko clearly isn’t a comic book film, it contains a lot of obvious as well as subliminal comic book references and ideas. Many of the characters have alliterative first and last names, which is a pretty significant comic book tradition. At one point when speaking with Gretchen, she tells Donnie that “Donnie Darko” sounds like some kind of superhero name, and he replies asking what makes her think he isn’t one.
Ironically, while Donnie obviously isn’t a literal superhero, he does expose the movie’s main “supervillain,” he discovers that he has some kind of unique superpowers, and he does use those powers to save others in the end.
Smurfs
Before the movie actually began its production, writer and director Richard Kelly got in touch with the estate that held the rights to The Smurfs because he was hoping to have Donnie and his friends shooting at a Smurf doll when they’re having their bizarre conversation about the adorable blue creatures and sex.
While he was speaking with the organization that had the rights to the Smurfs, he inquired about whether or not his assessment of Smurf anatomy and intimacy was factually correct. The whole Smurf conversation was still included in the film but ultimately, the boys were shooting at bottles, not a Smurf doll.
Giving In To Temptation
During Jim Cunningham’s Attitudinal Beliefs seminar at the school, he explains that too many teenagers today are giving into their own fears and surrendering themselves to the temptations of alcohol, drugs, and premarital sex. And throughout the film, before Donnie travels through time and the entire series of events restarts (only with Donnie dying this time around), Donnie actually does surrender himself to the temptations of alcohol, drugs, and premarital sex.
Ironically, despite the fact that Donnie and Jim are positioned as adversaries, it does seem like a lot of Donnie’s behavior throughout the film is driven by the fear that he believes the world is about to end.
The Real And Imaginary Frank
Obviously Donnie Darko is the kind of movie that intentionally asks more questions than it answers, but one of the more intriguing Easter eggs in the film is the way that the real Frank and imaginary Frank seem to blend together.
Donnie realizes towards the end of the film that the Frank he has been seeing is a real guy, but an easy indication of just how real Frank is comes much earlier in the film. When Donnie trashes the school, the words “they made me do it” can be seen written in graffiti. Later on at the party at Donnie’s, Frank presumably wrote the note “Frank was here, went to get beer.” What’s noteworthy is that the handwriting for the note and graffiti is the same.
The Beginning Is The End Is the Beginning
Fittingly, Donnie Darko begins and ends with very similar story elements, besides the obvious fact that Donnie literally goes back in time and stays to die inside of his room when it’s crushed by the jet engine instead of following Frank away.
At the beginning of the film, Donnie actually bikes down the street as Frank’s car drives by in the opposite direction. Early on when Donnie starts seeing Frank, he stabs Frank in the eye in his mirror, and obviously he shoots and kills frank later on in the same eye. And when the time clock resets, the film shows Frank gently stroking his eye.
