Donnie Danko

As far as this film goes, I don't think it follows the existentialism belief that existence precedes essence, in fact I think this film displays the opposite. I find it difficult to really relate Donnie Darko to The Plague because the story lines are so dramatically different. The Plague deals with a mass extermination of people, which involves a strong will to do what the people can to survive(which demonstrates the existential beliefs); whereas Donnie Darko displays more of an out-of-body intertwining of time. Donnie Darko completely contradicts the existential belief, what I mean by this is that the theme of this film is more essence precedes existence. Donnie's existence almost means nothing but his essence is caught in a weird time warp that I found to be slightly confusing. This movie concludes by showing us how meaningless Donnie's existence is by showing what would have happend if he had never left his bed that night and died in the plane accident. I don't know exactly where I am going with this, other than the fact that I am trying to say I couldn't really find the connection between the three pieces: Donnie Darko, The Plague and Existentialism.