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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
At midnight that evening, Donnie is called out of bed by a mysterious voice. He follows the voice to a local golf course, where a big talking rabbit named Frank tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 4 minutes and 12 seconds.
At home, Elizabeth has just returned from a night out -- her date honks his horn when she safely gets through the door -- when an explosion shakes the house. Donnie returns home the next morning to find his house surrounded by firetrucks and cops; while he was gone, a jet engine fell from the sky, landing directly in his bedroom. His family, relieved Donnie was spared, tells him that the FAA doesn't know where the engine came from.
The next day at school, Donnie's English teacher Ms. Pomeroy (Drew Barrymore) leads a discussion of Graham Greene's short story "The Destructors." She's interrupted by a new student, Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), who asks where she should sit. "Sit next to the boy you think is the cutest," Ms. Pomeroy says, and Gretchen sits next to Donnie, as would we all.
Driving Donnie home from school, Donnie's father almost runs over Grandma Death, a 101-year-old woman who lives in their neighborhood. Actually named Roberta Sparrow, Grandma Death spends every day walking back and forth to her mailbox, checking for a letter that never seems to come. As Donnie helps her out of the road, she whispers in his ear.
After a fruitless therapy session with Dr. Thurman (Katharine Ross), Donnie meets Frank again that night. Frank sends him to break a water main in the basement of his school; Donnie also embeds a hatchet in the bronze head of the school's mascot. School is canceled the next day as a result of the flooding, and Donnie walks Gretchen home from her bus stop. During their conversation, Gretchen reveals that she has moved to town because her stepfather stabbed her mother. Donnie asks Gretchen to "go with" him; she accepts. "I'm really glad school was flooded today," Donnie says, because otherwise, "you and I would have never had this conversation."
While Donnie's parents attend a PTA meeting a few nights later, Donnie sees Frank again, this time in his bathroom. When he tries to touch Frank, some kind of barrier seems to separate them. Frank asks him, "Do you believe in time travel?"
The school's health teacher, Mrs. Farmer (Beth Grant), seems to be teaching a curriculum derived entirely from a series of cheesy self-help videos hosted by Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze). An attempt to get Donnie to play along causes him to erupt in class; he is suspended from after-school activities for six months.
A few days later, Donnie asks his science teacher, Dr. Monnitoff (Noah Wyle), if he knows anything about time travel. Monnitoff responds enthusiastically; for time travel to occur, you'd need some kind of metal vessel, he says, and a time-space wormhole. He lends Donnie a copy of "The Philosophy of Time Travel," a book written by none other than Grandma Death herself, back when she was a science teacher at Donnie's school.
