Frank in his nightmarish rabbit costume, which he wears whilst appearing as one of the Manipulated Dead.
" Why are you wearing that stupid man-suit?" - Frank
Frank Anderson, commonly referred to as simply "Frank", is a central character in Donnie Darko, who is one of the primary forces setting in motion the events of the film.
Frank first appears At the beggining of the movie, on the night of October 2, waking Donnie from his sleep and luring him outside of his house. Frank, a mysterious figure appearing as a humanoid nightmarish rabbit, informs Donnie of an impending disaster which will occur in 28 days, stating that "That is when the world will end.". Before dissapearing and leaving Donnie to wake up the next day in a golf course. Donnie eventually returns home to discover that a massive jet engine has fallen into his house to his room.
Throughout October of 1988, Frank appears to Donnie at various points in time, taking the same form of a monstrous humanoid rabbit. Instructing Donnie to do various things throughout the month, such as flooding the school and burning Jim Cunningham's house down, all while maintaining a secretive, ominous attitude and constantly mentioning the approaching "end of the world".
Frank appears yet again on Halloween night. As Donnie and Gretchen Ross are being assaulted and threatened by the school bullies, a car speeds towards them from a nearby road, scaring the bullies off. As Gretchen lays on the ground, the speeding car runs her over and kills her. The car stops, and it's 2 occupants exit to examine what has happened. The driver is revealed to be Frank. However, rather than donning his mysterious, paranormal, doom-predicting persona, he appears to be a normal, human version of himself, wearing the rabbit suit as a Halloween costume, who was simply going out to buy liquor. Frank's friend emerges from the vehicle, and the two panic at the situation. After realizing Gretchen is dead, Donnie impulsively aveneges her by shooting Frank through the eye with his father's pistol, which he obtained earlier in the film. Frank's friend flees in the opposite direction, while Frank himself lays lifeless on the road. Another Frank, wearing the full rabbit costume is visible throughout this scene, standing mysteriously among the bushes and watching these events unfold.
It is later revealed that Frank was a normal, human resident of Middlesex and Donnie’s Sister’s Boyfriend, who after being killed, became one of the Manipulated Dead, paranormal, time-traveling entities who manifest as those who died during the events of the tangent universe, and who are tasked with guiding living receivers, in this case Donnie, on their purposes to fix corruptions in time and space. When Frank was shot dead on October 31, he became one of these entities, and Traveled back in time to October 2nd and began appearing to Donnie in this form, Thus explaining why Frank appears as both a casual, normal person and a supernatural being.
Donnie Darko
In the middle of the night, on October 2, 1988, Donnie is awakened from his sleep by a strange voice and led out onto a golf course where he converses with a life-size demonic-looking rabbit named Frank who tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, Donnie then falls asleep after being told this. After waking up on the golf course the next morning, Donnie returns home to discover that a huge jet engine has fallen from the sky and into his bedroom. The next night Frank appears to Donnie and makes him flood his school. Frank appears later on, tempting Donnie to do another thing, burning down the house of a motivational speaker, to which Donnie does, without hesitation. After burning down the house, Donnie finds Frank yet again at a movie theater, and questions him on why he "wears that stupid bunny suit," to which Frank replies "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit", this ends out in slightly heated argument, to which Frank vanishes. Frank appears again to Donnie in the mirror of his own bathroom, they converse about the world ending and Donnie tries to figure out how Frank's powers work, to which he gets no reply. When Donnies's sister comes in the bathroom, Frank vanishes. Later, when Donnie goes to a psychiatrist, he sees Frank again, who simply stares at him, freaking Donnie out, just to have Frank vanish again. As a member of the The Manipulated Dead, Frank's objective is to guide Donnie in his path to correcting the timeline of the primary universe by returning the jet engine to its original universe. It is revealed that Frank is Donnie's sister's boyfriend, who is shot in the eye by Donnie to avenge the death of Gretchen. At the end of the film, Donnie is able to return the jet engine to the primary universe as he witnesses the start of the collapse of the parallel universe in which the events of the last 28 days took place, and he himself is returned to October 2nd to wait for the jet engine to crush him. This shows that Frank was actually a beneficial force seeking to prevent the destruction of the universe.
Appearance and Personality
At the start of the film, and throughout most of it, Frank appears as a horrifying, nightmarish humanoid rabbit, with clear white eyes, massive twisted ears, and a top row of jagged teeth. Later in the film, whilst appearing to Donnie in a movie theatre, Donnie questions Frank about his appearance, asking "Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?". Frank replies with "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?". Donnie orders him to "take it off". Frank removes the rabbit mask, revealing that it is a costume and that Frank takes the form of a human beneath it. While not wearing the mask, Frank appears as a young male with black long hair, ear rings, and dark colored eyes, one of which has a bloody wound on it. When Frank appears as his normal, living, human counterpart, he is simply wearing the rabbit suit as a halloween costume.
While appearing as a Manipulated Dead, Frank adopts a vague, mysterious, bizzare personality. He speaks in either an ominous whisper, or a distorted and demonish voice. Frank's demeanor and behavior is usually enigmatic, perhaps somewhat absurd. He often refuses to directly answer Donnie's questions, or disclose much information about his nature, origins, and that of the like. When he does answer questions or disclose information, it often in a secretive way, and provides very little of said information or answers. When Donnie sees Frank at his therapist's office, Frank twitches violently, often tilting his head upwards. Frank seems to act in a somewhat godlike or spiritual way, one could even say that his demeanor is similar to that of religious figures, such as angels, demons, or messengers. Frank appears to be very wise, and have knowledge of the future, the situation at hand, and Donnie himself.
Origin
As established beforehand, Frank is a human who died within the tangent universe and became a Manipulated Dead. However, Frank's persona while appearing as one of these entities is very peculiar, and raises many questions. The Manipulated Dead themselves are still a poorly understood aspect of the film, and one unanswered question is that of what exactly they are. It is difficult to determine wether they are the deceased person themselves, gifted with knowledge and understanding, or wether they are a higher power or supernatural being simply taking the appearance of the person. One can even theorize that they are a hybrid of both. When manifesting as a Manipulated Dead, some of the only information Frank gives as to his origins is given when Donnie asks him why his name is Frank, to which he replies "It is the name of my father, and his father before me.". This event raises more questions than it answers, and as little else information of Frank or the Manipulated Dead is given, it is ultimately left for each individual to interpret his origins.
Gallery
"Have you ever seen a portal?"
Frank, lacking the nightmarish rabbit mask
