To maintain issues brisk and easy, allow us to set up a couple of key phrases from Sparrow’s e-book and apply them to our understanding of what occurs. Sparrow refers to instant actuality because the Major Universe, the place the legal guidelines of the space-time continuum operate inside the norm, however usually deviate resulting from anomalies within the Fourth Dimension. When such an anomaly happens, a parallel actuality or Tangent Universe will get created — this universe is the same copy of the unique however is extremely unstable resulting from its lack of ability to maintain itself, doomed to inevitably collapse upon itself after a while. If the Tangent Universe suffers no additional anomalies, the collapse might be a protected one, not affecting causality within the Major Universe. Nonetheless, if this isn’t the case, the unstable collapse of the Tangent Universe will have an effect on the Major Universe, inflicting the tip of the world as we all know it.
To forestall such a disaster from occurring, a Dwelling Receiver is chosen from the Tangent Universe to information this anomaly (often called The Artifact) again to the Major Universe, guaranteeing the protected collapse of the previous in order that the latter stays intact. If we’re to use these guidelines to the movie, then the jet aircraft engine that collapses in Donnie’s room in the beginning is the anomaly (The Artifact), and Donnie, the Dwelling Receiver, must information it again to the unique actuality to make sure everybody’s survival. Which means that a piece of “Donnie Darko” takes place within the Tangent Universe, and Donnie’s quest is to set off a series of occasions potent sufficient to facilitate the time journey again to the OG universe on October 2nd: the day Frank warned Donnie in regards to the finish of the world.
