Donnie mentions the DeLorean, which was the car used for time travel in the movie Back to the Future. In that movie, the DeLorean had to reach a speed of 88 mph to be able to travel in time.
At one point, Rose Darko is shown reading the book It by Stephen King. In that book, children in a small town are terrorized by a sinister clown. Later in the movie, we see an encounter between Donnie and a clown.
The dance performance in the movie was actually performed to the song “West End Girls” by the Pet Shop Boys. Due to budget issues, the song had to replaced by Duran Duran’s “Notorious” while the film was in post-production.
When casting for the role of Donnie’s sister, it came to Richard Kelly’s attention that Maggie Gyllenhaal (relatively unknown at this point) would be available for the shoot. The agent who proposed her casting reminded Richard Kelly of Maggie’s scene in the movie Cecil B. DeMented, in which she drank urine. Even though Kelly was hesitant towards the idea, he did like the way she drank urine in the movie. He also knew he wouldn’t have to work hard at creating the sibling rivalry between her and her real-life brother Jake Gyllenhaal.
