[quote name='emg28']In the beginning, Donnie Darko avoids being killed by the plane engine "that is unaccounted for" when he sleepwalks to safety (led by Frank?). In the end, Donnie Darko travels back in time to the beginning of the movie. When he travels back in time and goes back to sleep, he knows that he will be killed by the plane engine from the future. Since he dies at the end (actually the beginning), nothing that happened during the movie actually occurs. So Gretchen never meets Donnie, Frank is never shot by Donnie after running over Gretchen, Patrick Swayze's character is yet to be discovered, etc.
Basically, Donnie kills himself so that Gretchen will not die. That is why in the last scene Donnie's neighbor asks Gretchen if she knew Donnie and she says "no".[/quote]
Ahhhh...makes sense (esp. now that I'm sober.) Thx!