Donnie Darko director's cut vs. theatrical: 20 extra minutes, a new opening song — and which version to watch first

Kelly's debut stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Donnie, a troubled teenager in 1988 suburban Virginia who survives a jet engine falling through his bedroom and starts taking instructions from a man in a rabbit suit named Frank. It premiered at Sundance in January 2001, cost $4.5 million and opened in theaters on October 26, 2001, a month after 9/11. It made $515,375 in its domestic run. Then it became a cult film, and in 2004 Kelly got to cut it again.

How a flop got a director's cut

The second version came from midnight screenings. The Pioneer Theater in Manhattan ran Donnie Darko at midnight for 28 consecutive months, and the DVD became a best-seller on Amazon, with sales reaching $10 million. In late 2003, Bob Berney of Newmarket, the film's distributor, met Kelly at the Pioneer and suggested a rerelease.

Kelly got $290,000 to make the new cut. Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 29, 2004, and opened wide on August 27. It made $753,147 domestically, more than the original.

What changed

The director's cut runs 133 minutes to the theatrical version's 113. The biggest differences:

• The opening song — the theatrical cut opens on "The Killing Moon" by Echo & the Bunnymen. The director's cut opens on INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart," which Kelly couldn't afford the rights to in 2001. "The Killing Moon" moves to the Halloween party, replacing The Church's "Under the Milky Way," which moves to the car scene where Donnie and his father nearly hit Roberta Sparrow.
• The book on screen — pages from The Philosophy of Time Travel, the book written by Roberta Sparrow, appear on screen and explain the Tangent Universe, the Artifact (the jet engine) and Donnie's role as the Living Receiver. Kelly wrote the pages after filming, and they originally lived on the film's website.
• The pills — Dr. Thurman reveals that Donnie's medication is a placebo.
• The classroom — Drew Barrymore's English teacher, Karen Pomeroy, gets more scenes, including a lesson on Watership Down.
• New imagery — repeated close-ups of Donnie's eye, waves breaking on a beach, and Donnie and Gretchen playing the arcade game Out Run.
• The music — some cues changed or disappeared, and Michael Andrews' "Liquid Spear Waltz" was replaced with an opera piece.

Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' cover of "Mad World" still closes both versions.

The song swap

Kelly has said the opening was built around INXS from the start: the film "was choreographed with INXS as the opening song." The director's cut gave him the song he'd shot it to.

Not everyone took it well. Echo & the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch called Kelly a "knobhead" for the change.

What critics thought

In 2004, most of them liked it. Roger Ebert, who had been lukewarm on the original, came around.

"Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut is alive, original and intriguing." — Roger Ebert

His problem with the 2001 version, he wrote, was that it "seemed to have parts on order." The director's cut delivered the parts.

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That's also why later critics turned on it. The Village Voice's Dennis Lim said the on-screen text "diminished the narrative's mystery." Total Film's Jonathan Dean put it more vividly: "Unwisely building concrete bypasses over gossamer plot strands."

Which version to watch first

Watch the theatrical cut first. It's the version that earned the 28 months of midnight screenings, and it leaves you to work out the time loop yourself. The director's cut answers most of the questions the original asks, which works much better once you've had time to ask them. Kelly has said the pages should be viewed "as an exercise in interpretation."

Kelly himself isn't fully committed to either. In a recent Reddit AMA, he said:

"I am not satisfied with either version, honestly."

He added that if there is ever a third cut, "it would lean closer to the Theatrical Cut." He also settled the music question for that hypothetical version: "I plan to use Echo and the Bunnymen twice," at the opening and at the party.

Previously we wrote: Here's why Quentin Tarantino is not directing The Adventures of Cliff Booth