Trailer
Plot summary
Donnie Darko doesn't get along too well with his family, his teachers and his classmates; but he does manage to find a sympathetic friend in Gretchen, who agrees to date him. He has a compassionate psychiatrist, who discovers hypnosis is the means to unlock hidden secrets. His other companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named Frank - a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and Donnie's escape, seem to have been caused by supernatural events. Donnie's mental illness, if such it is, may never allow him to find out for sure.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Donnie Darko (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Vince Vaughn was offered the role of Donnie early on but turned it down because he felt he was too old for the part, and Mark Wahlberg was also approached, but insisted that he should play Donnie with a lisp.
- Production designer Alex Hannold bought the jet engine used in the film for $10,000. People had told director Richard Kelly that jet engines do not fall off planes, but during production a "dishwasher-sized engine part" fell from the engine of a Boeing 747 and landed on a beach.
- The film's advertising featured a crashing plane and the September 11 attacks had happened a month and a half before, so it was scarcely advertised, and it grossed just $517,375 in its initial run.
- The film's end sequence uses a piano-driven cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World", sung by Gary Jules and composed by Michael Andrews; released as a single in 2003, it spent three weeks at number one in the United Kingdom and was that year's Christmas No. 1.
- Richard Kelly's push for a new Donnie Darko sequel grew out of a 2010 meeting with James Cameron, who found the film "disturbing", had Kelly explain what happened to Donnie at the end, and suggested he continue working on the project.
- Director Richard Kelly lost twenty pounds from the stress of filming to a tight schedule, plus the pressure of justifying to others that he could direct the film.
- Kelly chose Steven Poster as cinematographer after noting that Poster had shot Someone to Watch Over Me for Ridley Scott; Poster had not shot a feature film in two years, and Kelly had to persuade him to accept the job for a reduced fee.
