Donnie Darko opens from a black screen into a wide shot and pan of a very scenic landscape view of a forest and a small road going through the middle of it with an unknown figure lying in the middle of the road. The camera then follows the road towards this body revealing it to be a teenage boy, as the camera closes in on the boy, we see him starting to wake up. As we get closer, the non diegetic sound gets louder helping to build some tension and curriosity in the audience, diegetic sound is also present at this point which is the sound of birds chirping signifying to the audience that it is morning.
The mise-en-scene at this point is the unknown character sitting in the middle of the road looking out towards the scenic view and sunrise, the jaded mountains in the distance could also represent the mental stability of the character, the character is wearing his pyjamas suggesting that he may have ran away using his bike as transportation which we see resting on the grass by the road. The camera then pans round the back of the character turning into a close up shot and then to the side of his face which gives the audience their first clear view of the characters face. At this point the non diegetic music changes to a short soft piano piece with an odd erie effect which gives the audience a slightly discomforting feel like something is wrong. The camera then goes into another pan of the landscape to give the audience a feeling of secluded and lost, which may represent how this character feels alone, the landscape also gives a very peaceful feeling which contrasts with the non diegetic music which adds to its erie effect.
The shot is then interrupted by the character standing with his back to us in the middle of the screen which suggests to the audience this is the main character this is done by a medium shot, he then turns around laughs to himself and walks off shot. The title of the film is then edited into the middle of the shot as he walks off which also tells the audience the characters name is 'Donnie Darko'. The pace of this opening is made in quite a slow pace which helps create that mystery at the start of who is this unknown body lying in the road, this was done by having very few cuts in the opening and all cuts that were in the shot consisted of straight cuts.
