<P> On October 2, 1988, in the town of Middlesex, Virginia, troubled teenager Donnie Darko sleepwalks out his house and is woken by a figure in a monstrous rabbit costume . The figure introduces himself as "Frank" and tells Donnie the precise time the world will end: in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds . Donnie returns home to discover a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom, His sister Elizabeth tells him the FAA investigators do not know its origin . </P> <P> Over the next several days, Donnie continues to have visions of Frank, and his parents Eddie and Rose send him to psychotherapist Dr. Thurman . Dr. Thurman believes Donnie is detached from reality, and that his visions of Frank are "daylight hallucinations", symptomatic of paranoid schizophrenia . When Frank tells Donnie about time travel, Donnie asks his science teacher Dr. Kenneth Monnitoff about it . Dr. Monnitoff gives Donnie The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book written by Roberta Sparrow, a former science teacher at the school who is now a seemingly senile old woman living outside of town . Donnie also starts seeing Gretchen Ross, who has recently moved into town with her mother under a new identity to escape her violent stepfather . </P> <P> Donnie's actions become influenced by Frank, and he floods his high school by breaking a water main . Gym teacher Kitty Farmer attributes the act of vandalism to the influence of the short story "The Destructors", assigned by dedicated English teacher Karen Pomeroy . Kitty begins teaching attitude lessons taken from motivational speaker Jim Cunningham, but Donnie rebels against these, leading to friction between Kitty and Rose . Kitty arranges for Cunningham to speak at a school assembly, where Donnie insults him . Donnie later finds Cunningham's wallet and address, and Frank suggests setting his house on fire . Firefighters discover a hoard of child pornography there, Cunningham is arrested, and Kitty, who wishes to testify in his defense, asks Rose to chaperone her daughter Samantha's dance troupe to Los Angeles . </P> <P> With their parents on travel, Donnie and Elizabeth hold a Halloween costume party and to celebrate Elizabeth's acceptance to Harvard . At the party, Gretchen arrives distraught as her mother has gone missing . Donnie realizes Frank's prophesied time is only hours away . He takes Gretchen and two other friends to visit Sparrow . They find her away, when they are attacked by two high school bullies, Seth and Ricky, who were trying to rob Sparrow's home . Donnie, Seth, and Ricky get into a fist fight onto the road, just as Sparrow is walking back home along it, and she stops to watch . A car swerves to avoid Sparrow and runs over Gretchen, killing her . The driver turns out to be Elizabeth's boyfriend Frank Anderson, wearing the same rabbit costume from Donnie's visions . Frank profusely apologizes to Donnie, but Donnie shoots him in the eye with his father's gun . </P>

When does the world end in donnie darko