This Donnie Darko trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers Richard Kelly's 2001 cult classic from every angle: the plot (the jet engine, Frank's countdown, Grandma Death and The Philosophy of Time Travel, Jim Cunningham's dungeon, the Halloween party), the cast (Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, a debuting Seth Rogen), and the making of it on a $4.5 million budget in 28 days. It also digs into the release story: the Sundance premiere, the post-9/11 marketing freeze that sank it at the box office, the midnight screenings that saved it, the UK revival, the Director's Cut, the Gary Jules 'Mad World' Christmas number one, and the sequel Kelly had nothing to do with. Some questions are easy for anyone who has seen it once; several are for people who own the book. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote and directed Donnie Darko, his debut feature?
Richard Kelly
He was 22 and fresh out of USC film school when the idea took shape in late 1997. He later made Southland Tales and The Box.
Q 02In which month and year is Donnie Darko set?
October 1988
The Bush-Dukakis election plays in the background, and the story runs from October 2 to Halloween.
Q 03Donnie survives the accident at the start of the film because he was doing what?
Sleepwalking
A jet engine crashes into his bedroom while he is out on the golf course, and nobody can say where it came from.
Q 04What falls onto the Darko house?
A jet engine
Kelly built the whole story around that early image. Production designer Alex Hannold bought a real engine for $10,000.
Q 05Frank appears to Donnie wearing what costume?
A rabbit
James Duval wore the suit. Kelly recalled people pitching Easter Bunny designs; he wanted something far more sinister.
Q 06Exactly how long does Frank say remains until the world ends?
28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds
The numbers became fan lore. Filming itself also took exactly 28 days, and New York's Pioneer Theatre later ran midnight screenings for 28 months.
Q 07Who plays Elizabeth, the eldest Darko sibling?
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Casting his real sister was Jake Gyllenhaal's idea. Daveigh Chase plays the younger sister, Samantha.
Q 08Donnie's girlfriend Gretchen Ross has moved to town under a new identity to escape whom?
A violent stepfather
Jena Malone plays her. At the Halloween party she turns up distraught because her mother has gone missing.
Q 09The book The Philosophy of Time Travel was written by which character?
Roberta Sparrow
A former science teacher now known to local teens as Grandma Death, forever checking her empty mailbox. Kelly based her on a woman from his Virginia hometown.
Q 10Who gives Donnie the copy of The Philosophy of Time Travel?
Kenneth Monnitoff, who teaches science
Noah Wyle plays him. Drew Barrymore's Karen Pomeroy is the English teacher who gets fired.
Q 11Patrick Swayze's Jim Cunningham is what?
A motivational speaker
Gym teacher Kitty Farmer builds her 'attitude lessons' on his Fear-versus-Love philosophy. Swayze frosted his hair for the part and shot the infomercials at his own ranch.
Q 12What do firefighters find in the burned remains of Cunningham's house?
A hoard of child pornography
Donnie set the fire on Frank's instruction. Cunningham is arrested and Kitty insists on testifying in his defence.
Q 13Kitty's decision to defend Cunningham means Rose Darko has to chaperone what?
The dance troupe's flight to Los Angeles
Q 21Which star's company, Flower Films, agreed to produce Donnie Darko?
Drew Barrymore
Barrymore also took the part of English teacher Karen Pomeroy, and the budget rose to $4.5 million.
Q 22What was Donnie Darko's production budget?
$4.5 million
Kelly had struggled for years to get anyone to let him direct it himself before Pandora Cinema and Flower Films signed on in 2000.
Q 23Which actor was approached to play Donnie but insisted the character should have a lisp?
Mark Wahlberg
The role went to Jake Gyllenhaal, then known for October Sky.
Samantha's troupe Sparkle Motion is on the plane home when its engine is torn off and sent back in time.
Q 14Sparkle Motion, the little sister's dance troupe, performs to which song?
'Notorious' by Duran Duran
The other three all appear elsewhere on the soundtrack. Cinematographer Steven Poster used smoke to silhouette the girls on stage.
Q 15Donnie's psychotherapist believes his visions of Frank are 'daylight hallucinations' symptomatic of what?
Paranoid schizophrenia
Katharine Ross plays Dr. Thurman, who also puts Donnie under hypnosis.
Q 16The Halloween party at the Darko house celebrates Elizabeth's acceptance to which university?
Harvard
With Rose in LA and Eddie away, the siblings throw the party; Gretchen and Donnie sleep together for the first time that night.
Q 17What is the real Frank's surname, revealed when he is unmasked as the driver?
Anderson
Frank Anderson is Elizabeth's boyfriend, and he is driving the car that kills Gretchen while wearing the rabbit costume from the visions.
Q 18Where does Donnie shoot Frank?
In the right eye
It explains why the Frank of his visions had a hollow, bleeding eye. He uses his father's gun and carries Gretchen's body home.
Q 19Where does Frank first reveal his hollow, bleeding eye to Donnie?
At a movie theatre
Gretchen falls asleep beside Donnie on their cinema date when Frank appears.
Q 20The image that inspired the school flooding scene was a surreal photomontage of what?
A giant escalator descending into a rough sea
The artist was Scott Mutter. The flooding gets the school closed and sets up the 'Head Over Heels' tracking shot.
Q 24Which famous director slid Kelly's script back and singled out Karen Pomeroy's line about clueless parents?
Francis Ford Coppola
The line comes after she is fired: 'The kids have to figure it all out these days, because the parents, they don't have a clue.'
Q 25Where did Donnie Darko premiere in January 2001?
Sundance Film Festival
Us Weekly called it one of the festival's outstanding films, but distributors were wary and Newmarket eventually bought it.
Q 26Why was Donnie Darko barely advertised for its October 2001 release?
Its ads showed a crashing plane weeks after 9/11
It made just $517,375 in its first run and $110,494 on opening weekend, ranking 34th.
Q 27Which New York cinema ran midnight screenings of Donnie Darko for 28 consecutive months?
Pioneer Theatre
The screenings began after the March 2002 video release and helped turn the flop into a cult phenomenon.
Q 28The film's UK release in October 2002 sold roughly how many tickets in its first six weeks?
300,000
It grossed the equivalent of $2.5 million there, and distributor Metrodome staged a 28-day art exhibition in Shoreditch called They Made Me Do It.
Q 29After reissues, roughly how much did Donnie Darko gross worldwide in cinemas?
$7.5 million
It earned more than $10 million more in US home video sales, where the cult really took hold.
Q 30In which year was the Gary Jules and Michael Andrews cover of 'Mad World' the UK Christmas number one?
2003
It spent three weeks at number one. Andrews composed the score; the original was Tears for Fears' first hit in 1982.