Daily Dialogue — May 15, 2015

“I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief because there will be so much to look forward to.”

— Donnie Darko (2001), written by Richard Kelly

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Famous Last Words.

Trivia: The movie takes place in 1988. Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 06 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. If you add these numbers, the sum is 88. When Samantha asks when she can have kids, Donnie says: “Not until 8th grade.” Donnie mentions to his therapist that his dog Callie died when he was eight. (He is later seen holding a stuffed toy dog in her office.) Donnie jokes about the Back to the Future (1985) DeLorean which had a speed of 88 MPH. According to the television reporter, the fire at Jim Cunningham’s house was extinguished “sometime after 8:00 last night.” The red-eye flight that almost crashes is Flight 2806 which boards at Gate 42 at 12 AM. The climax of Donnie Darko occurs one week before the 1988 US presidential election, when George Bush won on November 8, 1988 [11/08/88]. The movie was shot (for a budget of less than US$5 million) in 28 days. There are 28 scenes in the director’s cut of this film.

Dialogue On Dialogue: I moderated a panel at the 2014 Austin Film Festival featuring John August, Jim Uhls, and Richard Kelly. Kelly said the inspiration for Donnie Darko came from an urban legend of ice falling from an airplane wing crashing into a house. That simple inspiration led to a mind-bending and truly memorable movie, capped off by the enigmatic famous last words of the Protagonist Donnie.