viewers' answers to...
Why does Donnie stay in bed, even when Frank signals him with his car horn? ...this can lead to many paths of thought, if choice is involved is then free will, or - well nevermind me, you let me in on your thoughts.
 
I received a lot of answers to this question. (And many questions about the question itself. - Just to clear this issue up - the question comes from the director's commentary in which Richard Kelly refers to Frank's car honk as an all-is-okay-in-the-universe signal for Donnie to get out of bed.) Because it has been such a long time since the site has been updated it was difficult to include all of the responses as some have been lost or were sent after the creation of this page. Nevertheless...
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Well, if you buy into the idea that Donnie is a representation in some way of the messiah, it could be a very enormous act of love, because he is sacrificing himself to save those that he loves. --Mark Jarashow
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he decides to break from the reality shown to him by frank and go with a 'natural reality' why, why why why why does donnie laugh when he goes to sleep at the end? critical piece of information i lack to help me find closure with this awesome movie. --judy
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he knows that if he lives, than the tangent universe is started over again. Donnie is the tangent universe, so he knew for the universe to survive, he needed to die for others (specifically Gretchen) to live. the reason frank is there before the tangent universe starts is becuase donnie will always exist, thus the tangent universe is always a parallel with true time, but donnie living made that parallel true time and making time continuum unstable and destroying all space time. my view of time is taht every moment any thing can happen thus any amount of branches occur at all times, if one of these branches is like donnie's, the world will end, unless that branch is cut off. Hence the whole traveling back to the 4 week point so he can decide to die for the sake of the universe. My question is why does he laugh, that's just such a huge mind fuck for me. --chris
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he knows he has to die in order to save gretchen, his mom and sister, and frank....maybe... --Melissa
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Ok, the end is almost crouching tigeresque. He sacrifices himself to save everyone else... No, burned down house, no gretchen death, no nasty frank bunny rabbit halucination...BUT in the process I think he fixes everything...Or I want to think he does. Because his death results in everything NOT happening....including, his sisters Sparkle Motion on Star search situation.....she either wouldnt go since her brother just died, OR since jim isnt in jail his psycho fan would have taken them, leaving his mother home to greave MEANING!!!! Her plane would have never gone over head, never dropped the engine on his bedroom, and he wouldnt die.....but there would be no frank...do you see what I am saying. --Chamber Adminr
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it's all about God's plan. living in God's channel. the ancient mayan dies from the arrow, and the midevil guy dies from his sword. we are told these things occur for a reason. if donnie darko lived, i think everyone would believe their experience in the tangent universe WAS just a dream. then the universe wouldn't be any better off. i think donnie knew this, and i think that is why he stayed in bed. --andrew trumbo
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Donnie stays in bed because he thinks it's all been a dream, and that a jet engine can't possibly fall into his room.... That's why he doesn't get up. He doesn't believe that the engine will fall on him, because either, he believes that it can't possibly happen, or because he's done what he needed to do, so he's prevented it from happening. --Elle
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donnie realizes in order to save everyone that he loves he must sacrifice himself. --erin
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There wasn't a point to making the journey again, he already cheated fate once and found out where it led, already made the journey of self discovery and destruction, as had everyone in town during that 28 days. Because of his cheating death, people he cared about would have to die, his mother, his sister, his love. Though he discovered himself through this, the destruction the discover caused was not worth it. Much like in the book drew barrymore's character read to her class, the point was self discovery, that was what was important, not the actual events. I think the 28 day period was just a happening, a happening that wasn't supposed to be, he got to live on borrowed time to discover himself before the end. The 28 days were as shakespeare described life in macbeth:

To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
--Reed Waterworthl
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I think that Donnie stayed in bed because he believed that it was his destiny to be killed in the accident, and that it was ruined when Frank woke him up and caused him to leave his room that night. Many say that a persons destiny should never be tampered with, even if you know that they will die. But still, it was his destiny to become the living reciever. So maybe Donnie was really wrong... it's hard to say. --Steve
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donnie stays in bed because he is stuck,emotionally locked down. --RainBouBrite
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Donnie stays in bed because he knows that the world will be all screwed up if he gets protected by Frank. He knows that if the jet engine doesnt hit him he will flood the school, burn down Patrick Swayze's house, and Gretchen will die. So he knows that the world should be left on its set path so that everyone else can be happy. --Dissonance13
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So why does Donnie stay in bed? The movie is centered around him so his vision is more of a nightmare than a dream. The last shot of him is when he is lying in bed just before the jet engine comes crashing through the roof. He is laughing, why? I think he is laughing because he realizes that it was all a dream. I know this is somewhat a cliche conclusion but I think it has validity. The fact that the jet engine then really does crash through the roof is the equivalent of the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy thinks that it was all a dream until she sees the slippers in her closet. Likewise, Donnie thinks it was all a dream until the jet engine crashes down and kills him. It is the object which makes you wonder, "was it real or just a dream?" I don't believe he stays in bed because he is sacrificing himself for the girl (as i have heard) because given the opportunity to relive those days he is given a second chance to change the outcome of those events. I also don't believe that he chooses to die because he is always scared by the idea of dying alone (although he does die with a sigh of relief just as he says he wants to in his letter to Roberto Sparrow.) --Eddie Segel
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this falls in the love end of the spectrum because he saves everyone else by sealing the universe back together, although we later find that tragedy strikes the saved later on. --Kailey
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I quote my friend Bret, Donnie stays in bed becuase, like the man said in the movie that there is no way to stray from gods path, I'm not preaching, you can look in to your future and see you die in a car wreck for example. and for the time leading up to it you will stay away from cars, but on that night you see it, you will make you way into a car, and simply die. but if you change it, say you don't get in the car, its a skipping record and you follow the path over and over until you finally "fix" it. - Matt
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Donnie knows he was meant to change the outcome of the future. he knows he is the sacrifice, that if he were to die, everything would be put right in the world. --electricspacegirl
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because he didnt want to die alone. --VANDALSmX
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1) Maybe, whether he is right or wrong, Donnie feels that for the wormhole to close and the primary universe to be fully restored, then Donnie himself must die. 2) (From the DVD commentary) More likely than my other possible reason is that Donnie wakes up in his bed with strange memories of the future, giant rabbits, vandalism, murder, a pedophile, a girlfriend and her subsequent death, a plane engine falling on his house etc etc and assumes that it has all been a very strange and vivid dream. This is also one of the possible reasons for his laughter at that point, he is relieved. --Peter Jonesk
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donnie stays in bed because now that he knows his future, he doesnt want to live it because then gretchen will end up dying, and he doesnt want that, so he stays in bed so she wont meet him and will never be in the situation to die. --Michael Miller
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Roberta Sparrow says it. Every living creature dies alone. He knew that he would still be alone even he went to see Frank, again. That's only part of it, though. Perhaps there is a deeper symbolism involved. It's hinted at that Frank is working for god or some sort of invisible entity. There is also the discussion between Donnie and his physics teacher, about destiny and god's will. Since Donnie had then known what was going to happen, he chose to defy God's will. Perhaps it's a message of choosing you're own path. That's my 2 cents. I doubt it makes any sense, but oh well. --Kelby
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the parallel universe that has just been reversed subconsciously felt like a dream, he laughs at how wierd it was, this dream where choices and actions felt so real and he probably hears the horn when he has finally sighed with a smile of relief that phew thank god it was a dream and dismisses the relevance of frank's signal -cos after all jet engines dont fall out of the sky! so thats why i think he stays in bed. --Ana Correia
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Maybe it was pre-determined... Do we have freedom of choice? If we do, then we effect the course of things which would happen in the future. There was no right or wrong choice here. I think that Donnie would have met with his maker no matter what Frank had done to intervene. It was his time. Another thought I had was that Donnie was a modern-day messiah. His crucifiction (or deliverance) was being killed by the falling engine. He saved the world. The point at which he sits up in bed laughing just before the engine crashes, was quite touching. Did he know what was about to happen? was he aware that he had just saved his mother, his sister, his girlfriend? Possibly it is the realisation of what he had done, what he was about to do, sacrificing his life for others, the joy in knowing what he would see after death, and what he had acheived in life (being able to reverse time - if it happened), that made him so happy, just for that moment. Questions, within questions, within questions. --Nicky
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Donnie wants to be alone, finally. He knows that if he gets up, Frank will kill Gretchen and he will then shoot Frank. --Tom
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Perhaps it is because he is tired, he knows what he must do, and he is satisfied that his life now has meaning. OR It could be that Frank beeped the horn at the START of the movie, in the first shot when Elizabeth is dropped home, and Donnie doesn't interpret the beep as a warning. --Laura
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HE'S A LAZY BASTARD. --Jon Korn
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donnie stays in bed because........he is having a great dream about eggplant sandwiches, which are his favorite. and who in their right mind would want to awake from a dream like that? --Shelly
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this movie to me was Donnie's Path to relization of a higher being. NOt the christian god, or any other god, but an unnames "higher being". During his path he comes across many of the evils of society. Frank was a otherworldly messenger. An angel, if you will. After Donnie sucessfully saved the universe from collapsing, he realized that he has "fulfilled his purpose" on earth. He realized that his world had come to an end and that "he could breathe a sigh of relief, because he has so much to look forward to". He discovered his god, and wanted to join him. --Joe