He uses telekinesis to rip the jet engine off the plane to send it through the time portal.ĭonnie is not aware of his responsibilities at first though and he doesn't even know he is within a TU.He floods the school and constructs a time portal from water.He uses fire to burn Jim Cunningham's house down.He uses strength to bury the axe into the school water pipe and solid bronze mascot.Some of these include increased strength, mind control, the ability to conjure fire and water and telekinesis. This person is usually blessed with some supernatural powers during their time in the TU to help them with their quest. The Living Receiver's mission is to guide the Artifact out of the TU. As Donnie was at the epicentre of the TU this is most likely why he was selected. This person is chosen seemingly at random and in this case Donnie is the chosen one. When a TU occurs with an Artifact then a Living Receiver is also chosen. The only way to remove the Artifact is to send it through a portal into the PU.
By removing one of the duplicate jet engines it will balance out the Universe allowing the TU to collapse safely. In order for the TU to unravel without forming a black hole it must once again be an exact copy of the PU. The Artifact makes the TU unstable it can't handle having the anomaly of a duplicate object within it. The second engine has nowhere to go as it already exists so it's just dumped where the TU began, over Donnie's house. During the copying process there was a glitch and two jet engines were formed. The TU is an exact copy of the PU with one of everything copied into it. It was most likely created as the TU was being formed. Where the Artifact originally comes from is never disclosed. In this case the Artifact is a giant jet engine.
The Artifact is the first sign of evidence that a TU has been created and are always made from metal. The ArtifactĪccording to the PoTT when a TU is created an Artifact will also spontaneously appear. Unfortunately we never find out what caused the TU to begin, it's just an unexplained phenomenon. We are already within the TU when both those events occur. It is important to remember that the TU is NOT created by the jet engine or Frank waking up Donnie. A few minutes later a huge jet engine falls though the rip in time and lands in Donnie's bedroom. Shortly after the TU starts Frank wakes Donnie up and lures him out of the house. The next 28 days are now set in this alternate reality. This is what happens in the movie, there is a corruption in time and at midnight on October 2nd a TU is created. There is a danger that when the TU collapses it could cause a black hole capable of destroying the PU as well. When this happens it creates a TU which is highly unstable and will only last a few weeks before it collapses in upon itself. The PoTT states that time is usually a stable construct but every now and then the fourth dimension gets corrupted. TU = Tangent Universe (The parallel Universe that most of the film is set in) PU = Primary Universe (The Universe we exist in now) The book is a fictional one but some of the pages were in the film's web site and included into the director's cut version of the movie. The explanation heavily revolves around the book Donnie gets from his teacher, "The Philosophy of Time Travel" written by Roberta Sparrow (Grandma Death). With the release of the director's cut some of the ambiguity has been taken away and the director's true version of the story becomes clearer. The film has been carefully made so that there are multiple explanations to what happens. There are spoilers throughout so it could ruin the enjoyable experience of watching it for the first time. Firstly this explanation is written assuming that you've seen the film.