Donnie Darko

I find it funny how people don't understand what this means, you aren't supposed to directly analyze it. Its art. To directly analyze it, some kid talks to a magic rabbit, does some magic tricks, and commits suicide. Of course it doesn't make sense, a lot of this is allegories and about psychology. Let me try to explain what this is about...

1. DONNIE IS A SCHIZO: more specifically, he is schizophrenic. This helps the whole thing have basis in reality as a schizophrenic would hallucinate something like Frank the rabbit, superpowers, or a mission to save the world. So already, the realistic basis of the movie is not made to make sense, most likely you are a non-schizo looking into the mind of a schizophrenic person.
2. SCHIZO TENDENCIES: the hallucinations? Frank. The inability to connect to people? Its pretty obvious all throughout. The superpowers/ mission? Schizophrenia makes you believe you have both. So his hallucinated friend, which for the sake of the movie is real but only Donnie can see, gives him a mission (save the world) due to a problem that will only make sense to Donnie (a split in the universe). So again, this isn't meant to be analyzed from a normal point of view, put yourself in Donnie's shoes. The mission is real, the superpowers are real, Frank is real.
3. FAITH BUILDING: the most important power Donnie has however, is his faith. He must learn to trust Frank so Frank gives him seemingly meaningless tasks/ objectives so he learns to do Frank's bidding without question as the last task is very hard and the outcome is something Donnie WILL NOT see. These tasks also set in motion an objective reality, things Donnie must encounter for his grand story to fall into place, where he meets people that will help him and puts events into motion that will change the narrative.
4. LOSS: After trust is built, his objective comes clearer, and he learns more about what is to come, he must lose his attachment to his mortality. The easiest way to do this is through Gretchen. He is attached to his current reality mostly due to his girlfriend, and unfortunately Frank understands this. Frank also understands that he must also die as he's sort of a friend to Donnie in this tangent universe, but in the grand scheme of things, Frank kills Gretchen. So with the loss of his girlfriend and the betrayal of one of his friends, Donnie becomes frantic and depressed. He lost his world. A man with nothing to lose only has a world to gain.
5. SACRIFICE: with all events set in motion, and with Donnie both being enlightened of his mission to save the world as well as little desire to latch on to this world that will become separate from him, Donnie accepts his fate and destroys the tangent universe to save the world. This causes him to die and ends the story. In the view of everyone else, Donnie simply died. To what we know, and to what Donnie knows, he is the faceless hero of the world. To save the world and to die as a nobody is the greatest sacrifice he could've ever made. There is deep presbyterian influence and somewhat some Hegelianism.

Funnily enough, the story seems as it was influenced heavily by the Bible. Ultimately though, the story is about love and sacrifice. Donnie was someone who became enlightened, educated, and had to understand the meaning of loss to sacrifice himself to save a world he wouldn't exist in. The truth is, its not going to make sense to most people. But it's funny when I see someone say it straight up makes no sense because, it does and it holds a lot of meaning you just don't see.