Guided by a spirit: When it comes to Christ figures in literature, the figure is usually guided by a spirit to help them complete their quest. Frank is this for Donnie. He helps Donnie accomplish everything. He tells Donnie that in "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds, that is when the world will end" which starts Donnie's quest. He asks Donnie if he believes in time travel which sends him to Roberta Sparrow. From flooding the school to burning down the pedophiles mansion, to figuring out how to save the world and he’s Donnie’s saving grace. He helps Donnie or as he puts it "I owe Frank my life".

Fight for Justice: From the beginning of the movie we can see the generational divide between Donnie and the rest of the Adults in the movie. Whether it's his parents, the gym teacher, or  most notably Jim Cunningham. Another example of this is when he sees a classmate, Cherita, being bullied by his friends he stands up for her. A Christ figure always stands up for what is morally right even when it means standing alone. The first example that we see of this is when his gym teacher gives him an example of human dilemmas and asks him if this is an example of Fear or love "Ling Ling finds a wallet on the ground filled with money. She takes the wallet to the address on the driver's license but keeps the money inside the wallet" To this, Donnie looks at his teacher and explains how "life isn't that simple [...] Everything can't be lumped into two categories" and how "There are other things that need to be taken into account" This connects to to the Mansion that Donnie burned down. The Mansion that Donnie burned down belonged to a motivational speaker named Jim Cunningham, whom every middle aged woman seems to fawn over. Cunningham later speaks at Donnie's school; as kids begin to go up and ask Cunningham about their problems, to which he responds with generic answers to "look deep within your heart [...] don't let yourself be afraid" Donnie, realizing what Cunningham's saying is generic and useless, stands up to the stage and calls him out saying "[...]  that was some of the worst advice I've ever heard!" Donnie does not let Cunningham take advantage of these people and their problems to try and sell his books and motivational tapes.

Sacrificial Love: The most notable thing when it comes to Christ figures is sacrifice. When the timeline resets at the end of the film, Donnie goes back in time to when the engine fell and sacrifices his life in order to prevent the events set during the film from happening. Not only does Donnie suffer by having to sacrifice himself, he also suffers knowing that the love of his life that he sacrificed himself for, would never know him or what he did for her.