Script To Screen: “Donnie Darko”
A scene from the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, written and directed Richard Kelly.
Logline: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.
Here is the scene:
INT. ENGLISH CLASS - MORNING (8:30 P.M.)The classroom is dark. The students watch "Watership Down", the movie.Donnie is asleep. Gretchen stares at him. Ms. Pomeroy stares at Gretchen.Suddenly, she turns on the lights, turning off the TV. Donnie wakes up...
with dark circles under his eyes.MS. POMEROY
And when the other rabbits hear of
Fiver's vision, do they believe him?
(cough)
It could be the death of an entire
way of life, the end of an era.DONNIE
Why should we care?MS. POMEROY
Because the rabbits are us, Donnie.DONNIE
Why should I mourn for a rabbit like
it was a human?MS. POMEROY
Is the death of one species less
tragic than another?DONNIE
Of course. A rabbit is not like us.
It has no history books... it has
no knowledge of sorrow or regret.
I like bunnies and all. They're
cute... and they're horny. And if
you're cute and horny... then
you're probably happy that you
don't know who you are... or why
you're even alive. But the only
thing I've known rabbits to do is
have sex as many times as possible
before they die.He looks over at Gretchen, who looks angry at this.DONNIE (CONT'D)
There's no point in crying for a
dead rabbit... who never feared death
to begin with.The class is silent for a moment.GRETCHEN
You're wrong. (beat) You're wrong
about these rabbits. These rabbits
can talk. They are the product of
the authors imagination. And he
cares for them. So we care for them
too. We care that their home has
been destroyed... and that their
lives are in danger. Otherwise...
we've missed the point.MS. POMEROY
But aren't we forgetting the miracle
of storytelling? The dea ex machina.
The god machine. That is how the
rabbits are saved.Gretchen looks across the room at Donnie with a disdainful
expression.
Here is the movie version of the scene:
Rabbits are an entire subplot in the movie. Witness this compilation of all the scenes that featured Frank:
How does the script compare to the movie version? Any differences? Significant changes?
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
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