Donnie Darko: 

Richard Kelly’s cult classic film Donnie Darko is set in the late 1980s and depicts the psychological and philosophical struggles of a troubled teen, Donnie Darko. Donnie suffers from schizophrenic tendencies, and an innate obsession with death and the human condition; the film indulges in many areas of study including physics, time-travel, psychology, and, specifically, religion. Indeed, Donnie Darko is abundant in Christian motifs. Highly esteemed movie experts and devoted Christians have dubbed this film a redemption story in which Donnie portrays a Christ-Figure, who saves the world by sacrificing his own life. After surviving an accident in which a jet-engine falls through his home directly above his bedroom, Donnie envisions a prophecy that dictates the world will end in twenty-eight days if he does not fulfill his destiny – that is, to save the world by being killed by the very accident he successfully avoids.

Donnie must alter time and space to return to the date in which he must die to prevent the world from being engulfed into a black hole. He is guided by disturbing hallucinations of Frank the Rabbit, who prescribes prophetic instructions to aid Donnie in completing his task. During his journey, Donnie is distraught with questions regarding the existence of God, death, and the seemingly pointless and irrational universe. Although many equate Donnie’s mission to that of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for mankind and refer to Donnie as a Messianic figure, I argue that Donnie Darko is not a redemptive story of Christ, but an apocalyptic allegory which warns of the end times.