12 Best Movies About The End Of The World

Has the end of the world ever had such a good soundtrack?

A springboard for the blossoming career of Jake Gyllenhaal, Donnie Darko is a coming-of-age psychological thriller that follows a problematic titular character who has knowledge of the world's impending end. Specifically, it will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds from the moment Donnie is first told. His source is a figure in a scary bunny suit who introduces himself as Frank. Donnie receives this message after sleepwalking out of his home. He wakes up the next morning and returns home to discover that a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom.

What does it all mean? The next hour or so attempts to unload this carefully-packed plot that involves time travel and astral projection. Set in the 80s, it captures a nostalgic feeling that feels layered. There is nostalgia for a time that has already taken place and the feeling that Donnie is also experiencing live nostalgia as the events laid out before him seem out of his control. He's doing the best he can from a situation that was thrust upon him.

And isn't that really all that can be asked of anyone when the world unexpectedly ends?