Media and Music: Time Traveling Through 1980s Music in “Donnie Darko”
What is the perfect landscape for a hypnotic, dream-infiltrating bunny named Frank, heralding the end of the world? An 80s gothic New Wave soundtrack.
In Media and Music, our writers take a deep dive into how movies use scores and songs to engage viewers, give new meaning and tone to some of our favorite scenes, and establish themes. It almost goes without saying, but there are spoilers abound.
Written by Olivia Abercrombie
Images courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Even if the world is not ending in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds, you can pretend it doesn't exist for 0 days, 1 hour, 53 minutes, and 13 seconds while watching 2001 sci-fi thriller “Donnie Darko.” Richard Kelly's directorial debut explores time travel through the eyes of the title character (Jake Gyllenhaal), a troubled teenager trying to navigate high school while dealing with visions of a costumed specter named Frank infiltrating his dreams and warning him of the end of the world.
The truly controversial film featuring a storyline about a plane crash released only a month after 9/11 — eerily, filmed over a year before the tragedy — was revived in the mid-2000s after being discovered in the depths of DVD bins by teenagers who missed it during its initial release. They transformed the film into a cult phenomenon that has inspired intricate Reddit threads and hours of YouTube explanation videos. Between conversations about Smurffette's origins, hypnotic therapy sessions, and an awkward teen romance, the film has resonated with audiences for years, creating this cult classic standing that teens continue to discover even 22 years later. Not only does the film’s mind-bending story drive people to watch, but the 1988 setting becomes a prominent part of the story through its era-defining music choices, which solidify its cult film essence.
A phenomenal soundtrack is one of the biggest draws to cult films, and “Donnie Darko” is no exception. Kelly's friend Michael Andrews perfectly crafted an instrumental score interwoven with dark 80s New Wave needle drops that created the perfect foreboding world for Frank to thrive in. Throw in one of the most iconic covers ever, and you have the perfect storm for a timeless indie teen film.
The film opens with title character Donnie waking up on a mountain overlooking Middlesex, Virginia. He’s just as disoriented as the viewer as he bikes home to "The Killing Moon" by Echo and The Bunnymen. As soon as he arrives, he finds out he could have been crushed to death by a mysterious jet engine that crashed into his bedroom that night. Ian McCulloch's resonant tone slowly builds toward a musical climax, fueled by a pounding bassline and an explosion of biting guitar, which mimics the film's flow flawlessly. The foreboding, hypnotic track is perfect foreshadowing for the darkness to come as a yodel-esque voice sings, "Fate / Up against your will / Through the thick and thin / He will wait until / You give yourself to him." The whole film could be summed up through the chorus alone. Donnie is facing a fate that is out of his hands but that he must confront on his own. While the jet engine that crashed into his house is the key, Donnie must experience the 28 days that would occur if he doesn’t die from that crash to understand its significance. Although "Mad World" is generally the song people associate with “Donnie Darko,” "The Killing Moon" feels like it was made to fit into this cryptic and mesmerizing film – to lure you in and hook you forever.
One of the most unique features of the music in the film is the longevity of every song; director Richard Kelly lets the songs play out almost entirely. In the scene when Donnie jumps out of a bus onto his school grounds, the 80s alt-love song "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears rings out, ironically enough, in sync with his heels hitting the pavement. The pulsing synth, laser-like keys, and piercing guitar loop introduce the film's main characters in a music video-like sequence that was choreographed specifically for this song when making the film. With a sneak preview of the iconic Sparkle Motion performance — watch out Abby Lee Miller — and a hint at the main love story when Gretchen chooses Donnie as the cutest boy in class to sit next to, this song really is the introduction to the main plot. Like the opening song, there is an allusion to time travel in the line “Thought of your future / With one foot in the past, now just how long will it last?” The music is the through-line in the film whenever time travel is alluded to.
With music driving the film’s plot forward, the next song introduces the power of Frank’s hypnosis intertwined with one of the most iconic scenes from the film. Teased throughout the beginning of the movie, Donnie’s sister's performance in the elementary school dance troop Sparkle Motion is the star of the town’s talent competition. While the sizzling, funky chords of “Notorious” by Duran Duran take over the screen to accompany classic level two hip-hop moves, the track melts away to reveal Donnie under Frank’s spell for the first time, holding an ax and ready to bust the school waterpipes. As the song’s title implies, this act of destruction becomes infamous at school and leads to concern among the community.
As Donnie begins to discover the meaning of Frank’s presence in his mind and how understanding time travel through a book written by a local woman is essential to saving the world, he finds himself falling in love with Gretchen. Melancholy romance tracks haunt the young couple, and the threat of the end of the world looms closer in tandem with Frank’s ticking clock reminders. Arguably one of the best alternative 80s tracks of all time plays when Gretchen arrives at the Halloween party at Donnie’s house. While the song hangs in the background, Gretchen utters one of the most iconic angsty lines of all time as she details her mother’s abandonment of her: "I guess some people are just born with tragedy in their blood.” The evocative, anthemic “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division foreshadows the end for Gretchen and Donnie even in this moment of connection. The song's juxtaposition of lyrical misery on top of a bright, bumping track parallels a deceptively optimistic moment for the couple as Gretchen deals with her tragic home situation. She looks to Donnie for comfort, and they find love despite the darkness.
In this small moment of bliss after Gretchen and Donnie have sex for the first time, the spacey, euphoric “Under the Milky Way” by The Church plays. Afterward, Donnie experiences his most extreme brush with time travel, which brings the short-lived romance to a grinding halt. Donnie walks around the Halloween party, watching people travel through time through transparent tube blobs. The other-worldly lyrics reference “something quite peculiar / Something shimmering and white” directly references the predictive time travel tubs protruding from the party guests. Unfortunately, this single carefree moment is interrupted by a pop of one of the bubbles, which reminds Donnie of the impending doom of the world (he’d briefly forgotten after his romantic escapade with Gretchen).
In a frenzied state, Donnie rushes to the home of the woman who wrote the time travel book Donnie has been using to find an explanation for Frank’s warnings. Since he has found love with Gretchen, he doesn’t want the world’s demise to come true. In a jarring climax,the real bunny-costumed Frank — no longer a figment of Donnie’s premonitions — carelessly runs over Gretchen – killing her right in front of Donnie, who then shoots Frank in the eye in retaliation. All of Donnie’s fears come true. In a shocked trance, unable to part with his first love even in death, he takes Gretchen's body to the same hill the film began on to watch as the disaster unfolds. Through his desperate research to stop this catastrophe from happening and in this moment of solitude, Donnie figures out that the jet engine is the key to opening this doom-ridden timeline he has lived through in the last 28 days. He watches as a vortex rips open in the sky to disrupt the space-time continuum — it’s ridiculous, I know — sucking his family up in it and hurling everyone back in time to 28 days prior when Donnie nearly escaped death the first time.
After the flashback in time to the morning the film began, Donnie lies laughing in his bed as he realizes his fear of dying alone is finally coming true. The only way to prevent the end of the world is to sacrifice himself to save his family and Gretchen. As he faces his fate, the sorrowful opening keys of the iconic “Mad World” cover by Gary Jules — made especially for the film by composer Michael Andrews and Jules, his childhood friend — drift in. This cover was. Donnie is crushed by the jet engine in the middle of the night, causing everyone who he would have impacted in the 28-day timeline that never happened to shoot awake in despair. The montage is scored with Jules’ haunting vocals, singing out, “And I find it kind of funny / I find it kind of sad. The dreams in which I'm dying / Are the best I've ever had,” explaining Donnie’s disposition as his life ended. The mournful, piano-driven track plays as Donnie’s body is taken from his home, and his family watches, unaware of the alternate timeline that the film showed the audience. Gretchen bikes by, not ever truly knowing Donnie as in this timeline, they never met, but she recognizes his mother in a brief moment of familiarity.
While the film’s original release flopped due to unprecedented circumstances, its influence on 2000s film-obsessed youth helped launch it to cult classic status. “Donnie Darko” is the perfect adolescent indie film that sparks late-night conversations about the efficacy of time travel, 80s nostalgia, and the general nihilism of early adulthood – all backed by an iconic soundtrack.