The Philosophy of Time Travel · Chapter 1
The Tangent Universe
Sparrow opens by naming the two universes of her cosmology: the Primary Universe we live in, and the unstable Tangent Universe that can branch off it when the Fourth Dimension of Time is corrupted. Left alone, a Tangent Universe collapses within weeks and destroys everything.
The Primary Universe is fraught with great peril. War, plague, famine and natural disaster are common. Death comes to us all.
The Fourth Dimension of Time is a stable construct, though it is not impervious to corruption.
If a Tangent Universe occurs, it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks.
Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence.
In the film
The Tangent Universe of Donnie Darko begins on the night of October 2, 1988, when a jet engine falls into Donnie's bedroom, and ends 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds later, in the early hours of October 30. The storm that forms over Middlesex in the final act is the black hole Sparrow describes, "capable of destroying all existence".
The film never shows what corrupts the Fourth Dimension; the Tangent Universe simply occurs, above the Darko house. Nor does it show a second Living Receiver, though Roberta Sparrow's authorship of the book implies one.
Where this chapter happens on screen.
The loop
2 · Primary Universe · October 2, 1988, around midnight
The rupture
Above the Darko house the Fourth Dimension is corrupted and a Tangent Universe branches off. Nobody sees it happen; nobody knows why.
Chapter 1 →- 1 The Primary Universe
- 2 The rupture
- 3 The Artifact appears
- 4 The Living Receiver
- 5 The Manipulated
- 6 The Ensurance Trap
- 7 The Artifact returned
- 8 Back in time
- 9 October 2 again
- 10 Dreams