Donnie Darko: Do We Have Free Will?

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Throughout the history of mankind, we have often wondered, "Is everything that happens in our lives predestined by some controlling force, or do we have free will?" Within the film Donnie Darko written and directed by Richard Kelly, this philosophical question is posed. This film takes place in Middlesex, Virginia on October 2, 1988. The main character Donnie, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a paranoid schizophrenic teenager who has the power to save the universe from collapsing with the help of many people around him that are oblivious to what is going on. Within the 28 days that Donnie will face, the film illustrates that humans ultimately cannot escape what is meant to happen.
In the beginning, Donnie is awakened by a giant, demonic-looking
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Donnie feels indebted to Frank since he was saved by him, so he obeys Frank's commands. One of Frank's first commands, is to flood the school. Donnie does so, and then he embeds an ax into the school's mascot statue. Also, in front of the statue he vandalized, he writes in black paint, "They made me do it" (Donnie). According to Donnie's writing, it is implied that he is being guided by other unknown forces alongside the higher power. Afterwards, Frank appears to him again, and tells him about time travel. Soon, Donnie sees liquid tubes emanating from his family's chests which control their actions. He seeks the help of his physics teacher, Dr. Kenneth Monnitoff, who tells him about the book, Philosophy of Time Travel. The conversation between Donnie and Dr. Monnitoff confirms this: “Each vessel travels along a vector of space time along its centre of gravity”, he starts, to which Donnie replies back, “If God controls time, then all time is pre-decided, because that means that every living thing follows through a set path.” “But if we were able to see our destinies manifest themselves visually," Monnitoff continues, “then we would be given a choice to betray our chosen destinies." "Not if you’re traveling within God’s channel”, Donnie argues back, thereby further supporting the notion of no free will completely. At this point, Donnie is starting to …show more content…
Donnie learns that he is living in a tangent universe, which is a highly unstable universe that will be trapped in a time loop, and eventually collapse on itself due to a time corruption, destroying itself and the primary universe, which is the original universe. The time corruption was caused when Donnie moved out of his bed when the plane engine crashed. Several hours pass, and he goes to his psychiatrist, Dr. Thurman, for counseling and hypnotherapy. During the therapy, Frank appears, and after Donnie sees Frank in her office, Dr. Thurman tells him, "You can stop taking your pills now; they're just placebos, pills made of water." This suggests that she was carefully monitoring his connection with Frank, and now that Frank's job is done, there is no reason for Donnie to keep contacting him. Also, this further proves that she knows that Donnie is not mentally ill, because a real psychiatrist would never give a placebo to a paranoid schizophrenic, due to the danger they pose to society when they have a psychotic breakdown. However, the most significant thing about this event, is that the pills actually summon Frank because water is the element through which how Frank communicates with Donnie. Due to this, Dr. Thurman also seems to be part of "God's

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