Question
What was the end result for Jim Cunningham (the 'motivational speaker' played by Patrick Swayze) in Donnie Darko?
After Donnie completes his task to revert the time-line to the original 'correct' one (let's call it the 'primary' time-line), many of the things he did during the interim are reversed or negated. E.G. 2 characters who die in the secondary time-line are obviously alive and well once it is changed back to the primary time-line.
Donnie, during the course of the secondary time-line, takes a disliking to Jim and when he finds his wallet lying in the street, he uses the information to burn his house down. It turns out that Jim is a paedophile, and the police discover evidence of this in the ashes of the fire. He is arrested and his life takes a turn for the worse.
Then ..Donnie reverts the time-line..
So does that mean that Jim was never discovered, and is still an active child molester?
Answer
Actually, what happened to Jim is irrelevant because -- like many of the events in Donnie Darko -- the whole bit about Donnie heroically revealing Jim as a child molester is a fantasy in Donnie's mind.
As I explained in answer to another question about Donnie Darko, the movie shows the main character Donnie developing schizophrenia. The schizophrenia causes Donnie to believe he is at the center of a time-travel adventure that just might save the universe -- and the movie depicts Donnie's madness as it appears to him -- as if it was reality.
The scenes with Donnie's psychiatrist are the biggest clues to this -- she has some idea of what is going on with him. And another key piece of evidence is that in a deleted scene (availble on the DVD) Donnie has a conversation with his father where Donnie, in a moment of self-awareness, says "Dad, I'm crazy."
Answered By - Shiz Z.
