Continuity mistake: When Evan and his mom go to the psychic for a reading, the position of the money in the glass bowl differs depending on camera angle. (Director's cut) (00:40:30)
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
Plot summary
Directed by: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Ethan Suplee, Elden Henson, Melora Walters
Evan's childhood hasn't exactly been the best. Full of personal tragedies, Evan discovers a way to go back in time and make things right. Only every change he makes has a consequence and things just seem to get worse.
Jason Treborn: You can't change who people are without destroying who they were.
Question: I'm guessing that Evan can travel back to "memories" an infinite amount of times as he has been to the junkyard and the basement memories at least twice, but what I don't get is why, after he saw the horrible repercussions of giving Lenny the shard which led to the psychotic brother's death, why didn't Evan just NOT give Lenny the shard, but still give the bro the moving motivational speech that made him rethink the burning of the dog? Then the dog would be safe and the bro wouldn't be killed traumatically, damaging Kaylee? Why didn't he keep that bit that seemed to work out, but not give Lenny the weapon?
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Answer: The point of the movie was that, no matter what he did and how he tried to change things, they always ended up bad. If he went back and did that, something unforseen would have happened to make things terrible. Evan realized that everything bad that happened to them was because of him. He then decided the only safe way to make things right is if he just took himself out of their lives all together. That's the logic the filmmakers went by, if you don't want to accept that, then you will just have to consider it a plot hole.