Donnie Darko shouldn't have worked, really; it clings to a plot about a man in a rabbit suit predicting the end of the world, and fashions a story blending time travel and teen angst like that's the most normal thing in the world. And yet the results are undeniably brilliant. To try and explain the plot here would be something akin to an exercise in futility, but let's just say it ends with our hero - Donnie Darko - getting crushed to death with a falling jet engine. The movie, of course, has been leading up to this point via time loop, and we've come full circle at the end of the movie when Donnie's task - to save the world - has been completed. The final shot of the movie, however, depicts a small boy on a bike riding up to the Donnie's house after his death, and - along with Gretchen Ross - waving at Donnie's mother. She waves back, apparently comforted, suggesting well, suggesting something. Dream? Reality? Shared experience? What actually occurred?
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
