Donnie Darko

Set in a leafy Anytown, USA of 1988, Richard Kelly’s cosmic tragedy follows a heavily medicated, sleepwalking teen (Jake Gyllenhaal, in a career-defining role) haunted by visions of Frank (a kind of Virgil in a rabbit suit) who tells him the world will end in 28 days, on the eve of Halloween. As the date approaches, time begins to warp—alongside Donnie’s relationships with his family, classmates, and therapist—into a looping puzzle of parallel realities and paths not taken. Kelly’s apocalyptic, darkly funny sci-fi debut channels millennial angst while both embracing and skewering the New Age mythos that defined the end of the 20th century, with its mercurial mood bookended by two different but equally unforgettable “Mad World” needle drops. Initially overlooked after its post-9/11 release, Donnie Darko soon found a cult following among those attuned to its eerily prescient vision of dislocation, ambient dread, and a fractured national psyche splintered across timelines.