“Donnie Darko” offers a time travel lesson you won’t find elsewhere

In film, there are many ways to tell a story that involves time travel. Some movies, such as the _Terminator_ franchise, simply include the phenomenon as a plot device, reckoning that the technical explanation is unimportant to the plot. Other times, as in _Groundhog Day_, characters get stuck in a time loop, only breaking out of it once a moral lesson is learned.

Still others explore time travel in a scientific (or scientific-sounding) fashion, such as _Back to the Future, Primer, or Everything Everywhere All at Once_. Usually, time travel is introduced as a device to alter the past in order to bring about a superior outcome for those here in the present: a theme common to most time travel movies. But every once in a while, a story comes along that subverts those expectations.

In 2001, the film _Donnie Darko_ (spoilers ahead) was released: a time travel story that begins both miraculously and ominously when Donnie leaves his bedroom on October 2, 1988, to go sleep in a field. (Starting on October 2, 2026, corresponding to the critical days of the events of the film set in 1988, a remastered version of the original movie will be rereleased in select theaters for three days.) A few hours later, a jet engine from an unidentified plane mysteriously crashes through his affluent family’s room, landing on his bed, where it would have killed him if he had remained there. Donnie is visited by Frank, the voice in his head manifesting as a man in a bunny suit, who compels him to leave his bed just a little bit earlier, and receives a mysterious message that, in precisely 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds, the world will end. The ensuing story does indeed involve time travel, but the lessons inside the story touch on much more than the underlying physics behind the idea of time travel.

Donnie Darko, as we’re introduced to him, is an outcast: both at home and at school. At home, his parents and sisters view him uneasily, as someone with mental illness (schizophrenia) who, despite being very intelligent, struggles at school and has been held back. Donnie’s older sister is politically active, advocating for Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, while Donnie’s affluent and more conservative father dismisses her astute observations and criticisms of the nature of America’s power structure.

At school, Donnie is frequently bullied, and often has deep, insightful thoughts about his assignments: something that makes him stand out among his classmates. There are only two teachers that Donnie has a well-established rapport with: his English literature teacher, whose challenging, thoughtful, and complex assignments often go over the heads of most students, and his science teacher, who initially feeds Donnie’s interest in deep scientific concepts that go beyond the standard curriculum. On the other hand, Donnie clashes with the school administrators and particularly the gym teacher, whose overly simplistic view of the world leads Donnie to intellectually embarrass her: something that leads her to retaliate against Donnie, but which doesn’t impact her attitude toward Donnie’s youngest sister, who gets the lead role in a performance of the gym teacher’s dance team, Sparkle Motion.

For a limited three day engagement only, October 2, 3, and 4 of 2026, Donnie Darko will get a 25th anniversary theatrical re-release in celebration of Donnie Darko Day. Over the course of the movie, Donnie exhibits a large amount of personal growth on many fronts, while becoming more social, taking initiative to learn more about what he’s curious about, and also bolder. Donnie approaches a girl that he’s interested in after engaging in his first targeted acts of violence and destruction at the urging of Frank.