DONNIE DARKO &
DONNIE DARKO: DIRECTORS CUT

Year: 2001 (2004)
USA: IFC Films
USA: Newmarket Films (Director's Cut)
UK: Metrodome
UK: Metrodome Distribution (Director's Cut)
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, James Duval, Beth Grant, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Alex Greenwald, Gary Lundy, Seth Rogan, Stuart Stone, Daveigh Chase, Patience Cleveland, David Moreland, Jolene Purdy, Arthur Taxier, Fran Kranz, Scotty Leavenworth, Margaret Kontra Palmer, David St James, Jack Truman, Rachel Winfree, Lisa K Wyatt
Director: Richard Kelly
Country: USA
USA: 122 mins
USA: 133 mins (Director's Cut)
UK: 113 mins
UK: 133 mins (Director's Cut)
USA Rated: R for language, some drug use and violence
USA Rated: R for language, some underage drug and alcohol use, and violence (Director's Cut)
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and psychological horror
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and psychological horror (Director's Cut)
USA Release Date: 26 October 2001 (Limited Release)
USA Release Date: 2 June 2004 (Director's Cut Limited Release - Seattle)
UK Release Date: 25 October 2002
UK Release Date: 27 August 2004 (Director's Cut)

Synopsis

October 2nd, 1988: It was the time of Dukakis vs. Bush. It was the time of Hungry Hungry Hippos and Stephen Hawking. It was the time of Duran Duran and Sparkle Motion. It was the time of Donnie Darko, an American teen who took time's arrow for a ride.

October 2nd, 1988 was just another ordinary day in Donnie Darko's disenchanted existence. He's taken his medication, watched the presidential debate on television, and had dinner with his family. Then a terrifying accident occurs—a plane engine inexplicably falls from the sky, crashing through the Darko home and destroying Donnie's room.

In the aftermath of the accident, which just misses claiming his life, Donnie experiences a heightened sense of what it means to be alive, and soon, in love. Armed with an arcane text entitled The Philosophy of Time Travel, Donnie soon uncovers the ability to unravel the threads that bind the universe together, along with the temptation to alter time and destiny.

But is Donnie imagining it all? Extraordinarily intelligent, Donnie also sleepwalks, takes his anti-psychotic medication haphazardly, has frequent hallucinations, and is regularly visited by Frank, an eerie, implacable presence who warns Donnie that the world as he knows it will end in 28 days.

Yet all these things are the least of Donnie's troubles. The crux of his existence is the terrifying world around him—an 80s fantasia besotted by pop culture, material excess, fundamentalism, encroaching cynicism, prescription drugs, and rampant hypocrisy.

From first-time writer-director Richard Kelly comes DONNIE DARKO: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, an expansion upon his genre-shattering fable of suburban American life, time travel, teen romance, and one boy making a lonely stand in a chaotic world.

DVD EXTRAS

Running time: 108 minutes
Commentary by Richard Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal
Commentary by selected cast & crew including: Richard Kelly, Drew Barrymore, Katherine Ross and Jean Malone
20 Deleted & Extended Scenes with optional commentary by Richard Kelly
Interviews with 20 principal cast and crew members - exclusive to Region 2 disc
B roll footage
The Philosophy of Time Travel
Website Gallery
Artwork Gallery
UK Art Exhibition
"They Made Me Do It" - making of the art gallery - exclusive to Region 2 disc
Cunning Visions Gallery
TV Spots
Extensive Cast & Crew Filmographies