The Happy Ending of Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko is known for it's creepy, humorous, WTF visuals and story. The film itself is hard to categorize in a genre; it holds elements of drama, humor, science fiction, fantasy, and bizarre characters and images. But no matter how bizarre the film may be, it holds themes as real and strong that motivate and capture the audience. Despite the ending where Donnie is in bed laughing seconds away from being killed by the jet engine, the film ends on a somewhat positive, perhaps even happy, note.

A major theme in the film is about the spectrum between fear and love, and Donnie journey's across this very spectrum. He begins the film distant from everyone around him, almost afraid of himself. He even says that he's afraid of death and doesn't want to die alone. But when he takes a more loving approach to his actions, things begin to change. He finds romance with Gretchen, he kisses his sister goodbye, and he promises a young, bullied asian girl that her life will get better one day. He's no longer the distant, angry man he was before.   

 Donnie is suffering from schizophrenia and is distant from his family. He fights with his sister, calls his mother names, and seems passive at school. And when he sees Frank, the man in a bunny suit telling him that the world is coming to end, Donnie begins to question reality. Is he it illness that's causing him to see this? Or is it, in fact, real? 

In the director's cut, it's made clear that it's real, and Donnie is the only one who can save the universe. With that reality, he embraces his task and begins to do what he can to be the savior that was meant to be. But even in the original cut where the story is more vague and easily open to interpretation, it can still be seen that Donnie begins to change in a positive way. Despite crumbling from the pressure of saving the universe, he shows courage as he seeks to understand what is happening around him: seeking answers from a professor, seeking understanding and love from Gretchen, his crush, and seeking a reconnection with his family as he kisses his younger sister goodbye before her trip to Los Angeles. 

It's through his courage and love that brings Donnie to fulfilling his destiny and saving the universe. In a final scene, he’s on his bed cheerfully laughing just as when an airplane turbine lands in his room and kills him. Is he happy because he managed to save the universe? That he managed to escape fear of the unknown? That he realized that he actually had a purpose? Some viewers interpreted this scene as Donnie sacrificing himself, as he knew what was coming. But he didn't have to sacrifice himself as he had already saved the universe. He didn’t have to die in order to keep the others alive. He died because he was no longer suppressed by his fear of death.

The whole movie has him worried about the lack of an afterlife. Donnie felt like he never fit in with the world. But as the movie progresses, we see tidbits of him accepting the unknown and coming to terms with it. With him being chosen to be the hero, it gives him some assurance that there is ‘something’ beyond death. He doesn’t know what, but it’s that ‘something’ that gives him the comfort that death isn’t just an oblivion of nothing. Since he never really fit in with this world, he chose to end his life and see what lie ahead. 

It sounds grim. But it could also be hopeful. 

He’s taking a chance that he'll belong to whatever and lies beyond, since he never felt like he belonged in this world. It’s such a contradiction, to be rooting for the heroic character to end his life. Yet the Richard Kelly manages to do so, at least for me, by creating a juxtaposition that the tragedy of death is a link towards the character’s happiness, creating a plot and universe where a character’s suicide is almost praised. It’ll make one uncomfortable for rooting for that death, but for this film and it’s character, it’s his only way toward happiness. The film shows that there is universal powers and energies at play here, assuring that there is something beyond death, so why be afraid? 

Donnie reached the contentment that he’d been craving for all his life, loving his family, his friends, and finding romance with Gretchen. He was finally able to step away from the fear that plagued his life, and step into love.