The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American
sci-fiScience fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
psychological thrillerPsychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...
film that is written and directed by
Eric BressEric Bress is an American screenwriter, film director and producer, probably best known for his work on the Final Destination series and The Butterfly Effect. He frequently collaborates with J...
and
J. Mackye GruberJonathan Gruber, more commonly known as J. Mackye Gruber, is an American screenwriter and film director, probably best known for co-writing Final Destination 2 and co-writing and co-directing The Butterfly Effect....
and starring
Ashton KutcherChristopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
and
Amy SmartAmy Lysle Smart is an American television and film actress and former fashion model.-Early life:Smart was born in Topanga, California. Her mother, Judy Lysle , worked at a museum, and her father, John Boden Smart, was a salesman...
. The title refers to the metaphorical
butterfly effectIn chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state...
, a popular principle in
chaos theoryChaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
which states that in any dynamic system, small initial differences may, over time, lead to large unforeseen consequences.
Kutcher plays 20-year-old student Evan Treborn, with Smart as his childhood sweetheart Kayleigh Miller. He finds he has the ability to travel back in time to inhabit his former self and change the present. Having been the victim of several childhood traumas aggravated by stress-induced memory losses, he attempts to set things right for himself and his friends, but there are unintended consequences for all. The film draws heavily on flashbacks of the cast's lives at ages 7 and 13, and presents several alternate present-day outcomes as Evan attempts to change the past, before settling on a final outcome.
The film received a poor critical reception, but was nevertheless a commercial success, producing gross earnings of $96 million from a budget of $13 million. The film won the Pegasus Audience Award at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Awards and Choice Movie: Thriller in the
Teen Choice AwardsThe Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...
.
Plot
In the year 2002, Evan Treborn (
Ashton KutcherChristopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
), who suffered severe sexual abuse and
traumaPsychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
s as a boy (played by
Logan LermanLogan Wade Lerman is an American actor, known for playing the title role in the 2010 fantasy-adventure Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. He appeared in commercials in the mid 1990s, before starring in the series Jack & Bobby , and the movies The Butterfly Effect and Hoot...
) and a teenager (played by
John Patrick AmedoriJohn Patrick Amedori is an American actor and musician.His most notable role has been as the 13 year old Evan Treborn in The Butterfly Effect. He has also appeared in a number of TV shows, including Law & Order, Nip/Tuck, Joan of Arcadia and Ghost Whisperer. He also appeared in the movie Stick It...
),
blacks outAmnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
frequently, often at moments of high
stressStress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
. While entertaining a girl in his dorm room, he finds that when he reads from his adolescent journals, he
travels back in timeTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, and he is able to "redo" parts of his past, thereby causing the blackouts he experienced as a child. There are consequences to his choices, however, that then propagate back to his present life: his alternate futures vary from college student, to prisoner, to amputee. His efforts are driven by the desire to undo the most unpleasant events of his childhood which coincide with his mysterious blackouts, including saving his
childhood sweetheartChildhood sweetheart is a reciprocating phrase for a relationship between young persons, traditionally of the opposite sex occurring in their formative years...
Kayleigh (
Amy SmartAmy Lysle Smart is an American television and film actress and former fashion model.-Early life:Smart was born in Topanga, California. Her mother, Judy Lysle , worked at a museum, and her father, John Boden Smart, was a salesman...
) from being
molestedChild sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
by her father (
Eric StoltzEric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
) and harassed by her aggressive brother (
William Lee ScottWilliam Lee Scott is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of dim-witted high school student Stanley "Bullethead" Kuznocki on the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show...
).
The actions he takes, and those he enables others to take during his blackouts, change the timeline in the new future wherein he awakes. As he continues to do this he realizes that even though his intentions are good his actions have unforeseen consequences. Moreover, the assimilation of dozens of years' worth of new memories from the alternate timelines causes him brain damage and severe nosebleeds. Ultimately, he decides that his attempts to alter the past end up only harming those he cares about. But Evan realizes that the main cause of everyone's suffering in all the different timelines is himself.
At the conclusion of the film, Evan purposely travels back in time one final time to the first day he met Kayleigh. Scaring her away, he finally succeeds in saving Kayleigh's life. He then destroys all of his journals and memories so that he is not ever tempted again to make any more changes.
The film ends eight years in the future with Evan leaving an office building in Manhattan and passing Kayleigh on a crowded daytime sidewalk. They alternately pause and turn after spotting and passing each other. While Kayleigh seems to have only a vague intimation of having seen him somewhere before, Evan remembers her very well and after hesitating, allows the moment to pass and lets her walk away from him without saying anything.
Cast
- Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
as Evan Treborn
- John Patrick Amedori
John Patrick Amedori is an American actor and musician.His most notable role has been as the 13 year old Evan Treborn in The Butterfly Effect. He has also appeared in a number of TV shows, including Law & Order, Nip/Tuck, Joan of Arcadia and Ghost Whisperer. He also appeared in the movie Stick It...
as Evan, age 13
- Logan Lerman
Logan Wade Lerman is an American actor, known for playing the title role in the 2010 fantasy-adventure Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. He appeared in commercials in the mid 1990s, before starring in the series Jack & Bobby , and the movies The Butterfly Effect and Hoot...
as Evan, age 7
- Amy Smart
Amy Lysle Smart is an American television and film actress and former fashion model.-Early life:Smart was born in Topanga, California. Her mother, Judy Lysle , worked at a museum, and her father, John Boden Smart, was a salesman...
as Kayleigh Miller
- Irene Gorovaia
Irene Gorovaia is an American actress born in Russia and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She has been a ballet dancer for many years, training first with the Brighton Ballet School and later with the School of American Ballet. She performed in The Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet in 2000...
as Kayleigh, age 13
- Sarah Widdows as Kayleigh, age 7
- Elden Henson
Elden Henson is an American actor. He is best known for playing Fulton Reed in the Mighty Ducks trilogy with Emilio Estevez, and playing Lenny Kagan in The Butterfly Effect....
as Lenny Kagan
- Kevin G. Schmidt
Kevin Gerard Schmidt , also credited as Kevin G. Schmidt and Kevin Schmidt, is an American actor and vlogger. He is best known for playing Noah Newman on The Young and the Restless and as Henry Griffin in Unnatural History...
as Lenny, age 13
- Jake Kaese
Jake Kaese is a Canadian child actor who appeared in The Butterfly Effect.-External links:...
as Lenny, age 7
- William Lee Scott
William Lee Scott is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of dim-witted high school student Stanley "Bullethead" Kuznocki on the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show...
as Tommy Miller
- Jesse James
Jesse James is an American actor.-Life and career:James was born in Palm Springs, California, the son of Jaime, a laboratory technician, and Shane James, an actor....
as Tommy, age 13
- Cameron Bright
Cameron Bright is a Canadian actor. He has appeared in the films Godsend, Birth, Running Scared, Ultraviolet, X-Men: The Last Stand, Thank You for Smoking and three installments of The Twilight Saga.-Life and career:Bright was born in Victoria, British Columbia; he was given his middle name,...
as Tommy, age 7
- Melora Walters
Melora Walters is an American actress.-Personal life:Walters was born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia to American parents. She was partly raised there and in Holland. Walters attended high school at Lake Forest Academy-Ferry Hall in Lake Forest, Illinois...
as Andrea Treborn
- Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
as George Miller
- Ethan Suplee
Ethan Suplee is an American film and television actor best known for his roles as Seth Ryan in American History X, Louie Lastik in Remember the Titans, Frankie in Boy Meets World, Randy Hickey in My Name Is Earl, Thumper in The Butterfly Effect, Dewey in Unstoppable, and his roles in Kevin Smith...
as Thumper
- Kevin Durand
Kevin Serge Durand is a Canadian actor known for his roles as Joshua in Dark Angel, Martin Keamy in Lost, Fred J. Dukes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Archangel Gabriel in Legion, and Little John in Robin Hood....
as Carlos
- Callum Keith Rennie
Callum Keith Rennie is a British-born Canadian television and film actor. He started his career in Canadian film and television projects, where his portrayal of Stanley Raymond Kowalski in the TV series Due South was his first international success...
as Jason Treborn
- Lorena Gale
Lorena Gale was a Canadian actress, director, and writer. She was active onstage and in films and television since the 1980s...
as Mrs. Boswell
- Nathaniel DeVeaux as Dr. Redfield
- Tara Wilson
Tara Wilson is a Canadian actress. She starred in minor roles in films like The Butterfly Effect and Everything's Gone Green and had guest appearances in TV series like The L Word, Smallville, and Supernatural....
as Heidi
- Jesse Hutch
Jesse Hutch is a Canadian-born film and television actor. He spends his time travelling between the USA and Canada. He worked on the television show American Dreams as Jimmy Riley, romantic interest of main-character Meg Pryor...
as Spencer
- Jacqueline Stewart as Gwen
Reception
Critical reception was generally poor. Sean Axmaker of the
Seattle Post-IntelligencerThe Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
called it a "metaphysical mess", criticizing the film's science fiction mechanics for being "fuzzy at best and just plain sloppy the rest of the time". Mike Clark of
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
also gave the film a negative review, stating, "Normally, such a premise comes off as either intriguing or silly, but the morbid
subplotA subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
s (there's
prison sexPrison sexuality deals with sexual relationships between confined individuals or those between a prisoner and a prison employee . Since prisons are separated by gender, most sexual activity is conducted with a same-sex partner, often in contradiction to a person's normal social sexual orientation...
, too) prevent
Effect from becoming the unintentional howler it might otherwise be." Additionally, Ty Burr of
The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
went as far as saying, "whatever train-wreck pleasures you might locate here are spoiled by the vile acts the characters commit."
According to the film review aggregate website
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
,
The Butterfly Effect garnered mixed to average reviews, with the film receiving a 32% rating — classifying it as "Rotten". On
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, it has a score of 30 (generally negative reviews) out of 100.
Box office
Despite the critical failure, the film was a commercial success, earning $17,065,227 and claiming the #1 spot in its opening weekend. Against a $13 million budget,
The Butterfly Effect grossed around $57,938,693 at the U.S. box office and $96,060,858 worldwide.
Awards and nominations
2004 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (
Saturn AwardThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
s)
- Best Science Fiction Film
The Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film is a Saturn Award given to the best film in the science fiction genre by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.-Winners:-External links:*...
- nominated
2004
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy FilmThe Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival , previously named Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film was created in 1983 as a venue for horror, thriller and science fiction films. It takes place in Brussels, every year in March...
- Pegasus Audience Award — Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber - won
2004
Teen Choice AwardsThe Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...
- Choice Movie: Thriller - nominated
Home media
The film was released on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
as the
InfinifilmInfinifilm, first introduced in 2001, is New Line Cinema's brand of specialized DVDs, containing a feature to notify viewers of special features on the disc applicable to the scene currently playing, such as interviews, behind-the-scenes footage or deleted scenes...
edition on July 6, 2004. This edition was released with the theatrical cut (113 minutes) on one side and the
director's cutA director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
(120 minutes) on the other. The DVD also includes two
documentariesDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
("
The Science and Psychology of the Chaos Theory" and "
The History and Allure of Time Travel"), a trivia subtitle track,
filmmaker commentaryOn disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
by directors
Eric BressEric Bress is an American screenwriter, film director and producer, probably best known for his work on the Final Destination series and The Butterfly Effect. He frequently collaborates with J...
and
J. Mackye GruberJonathan Gruber, more commonly known as J. Mackye Gruber, is an American screenwriter and film director, probably best known for co-writing Final Destination 2 and co-writing and co-directing The Butterfly Effect....
,
deleted and alternate scenesIn Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
, and a short feature called "The Creative Process" among other things.
Alternate endings
An alternate ending shows Evan and Kayleigh stopping on the sidewalk when they cross paths. They introduce themselves and Evan asks her out for coffee.
Another alternate ending is similar to the one shown in the film, except this time Evan, after hesitating, turns back and starts following Kayleigh. This ending was utilized in the film's novelization, written by
James SwallowJames Swallow is a British author and scriptwriter. He is the author of several original books and tie-in novels, as well as numerous audio dramas and videogames....
and published by Black Flame.
There also is a third alternate ending where Evan watches his own birth video when he is in the clinic, which makes him travel back in time to the moment of his birth when he was in his mother's womb. Evan decides to kill himself and thus he was never born. Without him ever being born, Kayleigh and her brother decide to live with their mom going on to have happy lives, and Lenny also grows up happy without Evan's destructive presence. Evan's mother later on had a daughter. Earlier in the film Evan's mother mentioned that she had three
stillbirthA stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
s before him. This suggests that their father's abilities were passed down to each of them and they all made the same decision in the end, to never have been born at all.
Sequels
The Butterfly Effect 2The Butterfly Effect 2 is a 2006 American psychological thriller film directed by John R. Leonetti, starring Eric Lively, Erica Durance, Dustin Milligan and Gina Holden...
was released on DVD on October 10, 2006. It was directed by
John R. LeonettiJohn R. Leonetti A.S.C. is a cinematographer and film director whose career in film began in 1991. He has photographed many big budget features, though the films he has directed are mostly straight to video sequels.- Filmography :...
and was largely unrelated to the original film. It features a brief reference to the first film in the form of a newspaper headline referring to Evan's father, as well as using the same basic time travel mechanics.
The third installment in the series,
Revelations, was released by After Dark Films in 2009. This sequel follows the life of a young man who journeys back in time in order to solve the mystery surrounding his high school girlfriend's death. This film has no direct relation to the first two and uses slightly altered time travel mechanics.
External links