Donnie Darko ending

"Why are you wearing that stupid man suit"
Frank!!!

best way to describe it, when he first hears frank in the beginning thats the beginning of the tangen universe and once it ends when he's sitting on the cliff watching 'the storm" then it ends and it goes back to when he would of heard frank but all the actions donnie did are now done , also notice he laughs and breathes a 'sigh of relief' like he said he would while reading the letter right befre he dies, cause he's ready and knows...its done i guess you could say.

thats my understanding at least after just watching it for the first time and i've been meaning to see it forever. Also at the end the girl...gretchen? it seems like after she says 'no' to being asked if she knew donnie, as she stares at his mom and waves it seems she also maybe was awaken to feel some sorta of effect of donnies being in the tangent universe. As she waves to the mom it seems she slowly realizes she did know donnie and seems sad that he died. Epic movie, one of the best ever.

frank was the 'minipulated dead' and donnie was the 'minipulated alive' within the tangent universe and the things donnie does within the universe are to effect all you see in the end once the universe ends. As one of the chapters state the universe once started only lasts a few weeks and thats when the 'world ends' and the 'storm comes', sparrow knew of it too as she made pretty obviously to donnie. Once everyone awakes from it they realize certain things donnie did to effect them for better

One of the best movies ever!!!

I believe I understand this movie (finally with a little help from the comments :P) but what I don't understand is that if Frank (in my opinion at least) was the manipulated dead in this time scenario and the manipulated dead try to trap the "hero" (Donny) so that the time line will be restored, why did Frank save Donny from the jet engine by beckoning him to the golf course? This was truly a great ending and an amazing movie, just a little confusing.

i think he did it to show donnie why he would have died in the begining. cause if he died for no reason it wouldnt be fair.

it's funny cuz my theater arts class was talking about the deus ex machina a day or two before i watched this movie. Frank was terrifying but this was an amazing and very deep movie.