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I just read through the whole thread, and I've got a couple of things that haven't been covered yet.
This may be the influence of The Invisibles a bit, but I saw the entire movie as an exercise to bring the turbine into the real world. All the characters were subconsciously, or consciously, moving events forward to the point where the plane would explode, and the turbine would be flung out of time.
Frank and Gretchen are the only characters who are "outside the game," in that they, particularly Frank, are actively manipulating Donnie to ensure that he does the things that are needed to bring the plane down. When Frank makes Donnie flood the school, he allows Donnie to make his major connection with Gretchen, by saving her from getting tormented from the other people from the school. When Frank shows Donnie the nature of time, and the portals and such, he shows Donnie the ultimate nature of the sacrifice he has to make will be, and prepares him for it. When Frank makes Donnie burn down Cunningham's house, he exposes Cunningham's crimes, which ensures that Donnie's mother will be on the plane. By this point, Donnie knows what he has to do, and is prepared to make the sacrifice.
So, Frank is comprable to John a Dreams in Invis, in that he exists outside the game. He manipulates Donnie to ensure that their world will end, and Donnie can do nothing to manipulate him. When Donnie is hitting at the wall, he is at the barrier between his world, and Frank, who can do whatever he wants.
The tougher thing for me to figure out is Gretchen as someone outside the game, but I think I've got it down. Gretchen's point in the movie in the movie is to ensure that Donnie kills Frank, and takes Frank outside the game, so he can make Donnie bring down the plane. To do this, she plays the role of girlfriend, and generally goes along with exactly what Donnie wants.
And, I don't think that the website is needed to understand the movie. I figured out the idea of the tangent universe, without calling it that, without using the website at all. The website is just a supplementary bonus, that you can use if you like.
Also, again like Invis, the intellectual stuff is what you talk about, but it was scenes like the party sequence where Donnie realizes his destiny, set to excellent music, the real emotion that made the movie work. |
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