The Butterfly Effect

Question: Obviously, Evan has traveled back in time more than what was shown in the movie itself. I was just curious, how many times had he likely time traveled before the second-to-last jump, with the blockbuster that killed Katie? Keep in mind, I'm talking about off-screen ones done as well on here.

Mlp1327

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?

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.

Question: I am confused about the second-to-last time travel of Evan where he ends up in the hospital/institution because he killed Kayleigh with the blockbuster. Since Kayleigh died after Evan began journaling (I remember Evan writing about being excited to meet Kayleigh's real dad), what happened to the journals that the doctor says Evan never had them? He must've had a journal with something written in it.

Answer: Yes Evan did write that single entry but this time he was at a disadvantage because in this new reality the younger him had already started the blame game of blaming himself and showing symptoms of being in trauma due to which he was institutionalized that same day the incident in the basement happened. Now about that single entry that he wrote before going to meet Kayleigh's dad, it is shown that in this particular reality as he did not maintain a proper journal after that, it got lost and everybody thought he never even started writing it before the basement incident happened leading to everyone believing there is no journal. This explanation is supported by an incident in the movie where the teenage Evan is making a journal at his attic right after his blackout with the blockbuster and Larry being admitted where he finds a box with his grandfather's death certificate and some weird photos in that attic. Later when he is institutionalized and asks for the journals from the doctor the doctor also tells him how his father kept asking for a photo album, suggesting his father also ended up in that institution by jumping realities and ending up in one where his photo got lost and he couldn't reach them anymore (the same photos Evan had found earlier in that attic). So his father got stuck in that institution and he didn't even have a of his birth like Evan did. Unlike his father, Evan got the video of his birth where he was able to stop himself from being born just like his two earlier brothers who reached the same conclusion and were shown in the movie as still births.

rupal

Answer: My assumption is that Evan didn't have black outs after that incident. In the first "future" he said "seven years with no blackouts." So in that alternate future, he must have stopped having blackouts much earlier (at 7 years old) and stopped the journals earlier too.

Question: What is the song when Evan is in the lecture room talking with his professor and then he rides his bike to his dorm? Not the Ap2, but it sounds like an electric guitar with distortion and an acoustic guitar.

Answer: The Shazam app on my phone didn't recognize it, so it is probably just some nameless incidental music composed for the movie.

Phaneron

Hear You Me, performed by Jimmy Eat World.

Question: Within the last 5 minutes of the film, Evan (Ashton Kutcher) wakes up from his very last life changing flashback in a dorm room with his roommate, Lenny, the fat blonde kid from his childhood. If you recall, in the flashback which preceded this, Evan as a young kid tells KayLee at her birthday party to "Never talk to me again or I'll kill you and your family." The flashback changes his future so KayLee would still be alive, as she is appeared on the streets of New York when Evan (the stockbroker) walks past her, in the final scene of the movie. The question is, if the flashback is supposed to correct the past to change his future, how is Evan still friends with Lenny (fat blonde kid), but has no relation or 'real' knowledge of KayLee, nor does Lenny.....?

ramiro quintero

Chosen answer: During the movie Kaylee specifically told Evan that after her parents split up the reason she chose to stay with her abusive father was because of her friendship with Evan. Since Evan changed the past by never becoming friends with her, Kaylee and her brother went to live with their mother after the split which was ultimately a better life for them. Lenny was also a neighborhood friend and there is nothing to suggest that Evan wouldn't still be friends with him even though he never became friends with Kaylee.

Thank you, I was confused about how one sentence change the whole ending.

Answer: He isn't a stockbroker.

Question: This movie confused me. I know that when Evan blacked out was actually when he went back, but what I don't get is how he got back or why the hemoragging happened. I also don't get the whole scar thing. Wouldn't he have hemorrhaged from having the scars or is it only at major changes that he hemorrhages?

Answer: He hemorrhaged because his brain had a hard time adjusting to all the memories of an entirely new lifetime. The doctor explained it when he showed how very little memory space Evan had left near the ending of the movie (the brain scans). The scars would've healed by the time he got to each new reality.

LuMaria 1

Question: In the scene where Evan visits an institutionalized Lenny locked in restraints, Lenny accuses him of having known on the day of the junkyard (where Lenny stabbed Tommy with a shard) that "something big was going to happen" and that Evan "should be where I am". How did Lenny know that Evan foresaw the "future" as it were, and that he changed the course of events which lead to his imprisonment?

Answer: Because of Evan's strange behavior that day. Lenny has had too much time to dwell and think about it, so he's created excuses in his mind and convinced himself of their truth. He just happens to be right.

Phixius

Question: When Evan ends up in the mental hospital, the doctor states that Evan invented the whole story about being able to change the past by reading his diaries. This implies that the Evan must have known that he could change the past throughout the entire timeline and talked to his doctor about it. But how could he have known about his abilities before the actual scene where he wakes up in the mental institution and realizes that he has killed Kaitlin by changing the past?

Answer: In one scene the doctor is explaining to Evan's mother about what part of the brain had been changed to which Evan replied, "That's the part where memories are stored." Also every time he goes to one of his black outs he is essentially filing in the blanks. So when he fills in the blanks he is creating new memories. This would allow him to know of his abilities as a kid, he just didn't know until he unlocked his black outs.

oddy knocky

Question: (Director's cut) In the end when Evan is hiding under the table in the hospital, just before he starts to watch the movie, he writes something on a paper. He says, "If someone finds this, my plan didn't work and I'm already dead. If I can somehow go back to the beginning, I might be able to save her." Who is he writing this for?

brother12

Chosen answer: Each time he alters his past, a lifetime of memories are added to his brain, in addition to all the memories he has accumulated of all altered lifetimes. In the hospital life at the end, the doctor explains, via brain scans, that Evan's brain is at nearly max capacity for memories. The doctor doesn't know why, and they think he is delusional, but Evan knows, and we (the audience) know, it's because his brain can only handle so many memories of altered lifetimes, (which is why it has gotten physically harder and harder for him each time he comes back to present day). In his last attempt to alter his past, he understands that his brain may not be able to handle it, it might not work, and it may kill him to try. This would mean nothing from this hospital life is altered, and everyone exists as he left it, so the hospital staff would be walking in to find his dead body. So the note is kind of like a suicide note. He doesn't have time to explain everything in detail, so he sums it up saying if they find him dead, it means his plan didn't work, and he was trying to save the girl.

Question: What was the picture Evan drew all about? He didn't kill anyone, he had no recollection of drawing it and it seems to have only been put there so he would start his journals.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Chosen answer: The picture depicts the scene in the prison where Even stabbed the inmate.

Question: I have watched both endings to this movie and I love the director's cut much better...BUT, I don't understand somethings about the alternate ending. When Evan is killing himself in his Mother's stomach, his Mom says "for you I was pregnant THREE times" Is this a mistake? After Evan and his Mom went to the physic she told him that she had been pregnant TWO times before him and that they were still births. Also what confused me was that they flashed forward to show that his Mom had a child with his Dad and what looked like to be a little girl...so, does the cycle start all over again? and is that why she said THREE times instead of TWO?

Answer: The cycle will not start again, because the father of the little girl is not Evan's father.

Answer: This is already dealt with in corrected mistakes, but, we are being shown what happens after Evan has killed himself. We hear his mother tell her new daughter that she had three stillbirths (Evan being the third). And the cycle will not continue because only the males were affected (Evan's father and grandfather before him).

Nick N.

Righteously explained. However you should add that Evan's mom married to a new husband that's why the trait was ended.

Answer: When we see the kids being brought to the house with the "Welcome Kids" lettering draped over the front door, that is when Kaitlin and brother Tommy decide to move in with their Mom and away from their pervert Dad. They do this because there was no Evan for Kaitlin to want to stay with her father to be near. I had to watch that scene several times to get that. Everything we see after Evan "thinks" his way back in time to his mother's womb is what happened because Evan never was.

Answer: At the end of the director's cut with the mother on the hospital bed there is a very short baby cry. Is has been said that Evan killed himself in the womb but why the short baby cry that makes it seem that he lived but they just didn't show him.

Question: After seeing the directors cut (I haven't seen the theatrical) we know that Evans mother has two still births, could this be Evans brothers who have lived similar lives to Evan, made the same choices, come to the same conclusions, travelled back to the womb and killed themselves?

Answer: Yes, it is in fact two brothers of Evan's. They travelled back and killed themselves the same way Evan did. This is explained in the Director's Cut DVD commentary by the writers.

LuMaria 1

Question: There's one thing that bothers me. It's when Evan ends up in mental hospital, and his brain is once again attacked by torrent of new memories, then we see very fast switching pictures of various faces, with lots of mixed voices in the background. What is the meaning of this?

Answer: Those are his "new" memories rushing into his brain.

Phixius

Question: At the end when Evan wakes up in the hospital, the doc told him that he killed Kayleigh. How did he do that? With those two killing scenes? The theatrical ending means he became normal and could change the past?

Sevil Süleymanova

Chosen answer: In that version of events, Evan was indirectly responsible for Kayleigh's death when he lit the stick of dynamite in her father's basement to threaten him; she mistook it for a sparkler and picked it up and the ensuing explosion killed her. In all the film's various endings, Evan goes back to a time before this incident; Kayleigh thus survives into adulthood and lives happily ever after.

zendaddy621

Question: I'm wondering why Evan's necklace was never mentioned at all during the film? He wore it during every stage of his life, showing that it must have been very important to him, yet it was never talked about. I'm guessing it was a gift from his father before he was institutionalized, I just find it strange that they would leave something like that out.

modified-alien

Chosen answer: They expect you to make the connection on your own. His necklace is the necklace of Saint Christopher. A martyr who "the world gave a heavy burden" by carrying Christ across the river. Originally, Evan's name was going to be "Chris Treborn" aka Christ Reborn and was going to martyr himself in his mother's womb (this can be seen in the director's cut). Eventually, this all was changed, but the character still continues to carry the burden of the world on his shoulders like Saint Christopher.

St. Christopher is also the patron saint of travelers which is a good connection as well because he is traveling through time.

Question: I just saw the movie on DVD and I was kind of surprised when I saw that the ending was different than what I heard. In the movie, the ending was that Evan goes back and dies in his mothers stomach. However, I have heard from a friend and read in magazines that Evan lives and meets up again with the girl. I was wondering, why did i watch a different ending? Is it maybe cause i live in Europe?

Answer: The DVD has two sides, here in the US. One side is the Director's Cut with 6 additional minutes of footage (including the fortune teller scene), with the ending you saw. The other side is the Theatrical Cut, which was released in the cinemas here. SPOILER: The ending is that he goes back to when he first meets Kayleigh and says something to make her dislike him, therefore going to live with her mom and never see him again. At the very end, he passes her on the street, but they don't "get together".

Macalou

Question: If the reason that Evan is blacking out is because he's returning to the past and he returns to the school room the day that he draws the picture to get the stigmata, Why does he draw the picture when he hasn't killed the inmates yet?

Roblyn Chong

Chosen answer: Because that what he was planning to do.

T Poston

Question: How is it possible that some of Evan's gaps, being his blackouts, are filled in with stuff that already happened in his life before he knew about his ability (standing with knife, drawing 2 dead man, talking to his father), and other gaps are filled with completely new stuff that changes the moment and the consequence. So: Evan has some gaps filled in, in the past, with things that still have to happen, but also some gaps are 'just' filled in with actions that never had place in the first place? It is all a bit of a mess for me, but I hope someone understand my question.

Answer: Evan's blackout gaps are just that. Gaps. Not only hereditary (his dad had it, remember?), they occur at random intervals and random events in his life as part of his life. Later, he has the option of filling in those gaps with his NEW experiences and thereby changing his future. He is in control; changing his future by choosing the time & place.

CCARNI

Answer: Yeah I brought up the same thing to my GF. I think they just edited things out things that would made sense. The kitchen scene he could grab the knife for any reason but the drawing at the school could be during blackouts he is aware of all the alternate life events. There is a another theory that he was just traumatized and in the mental hospital the whole time. Just in his head thinking he is fixing stuff living other lives. How the Dr. knew about his other lives when Evan just got to that new life in the hospital. In no other flash back did people know about other lives. The girl even commented he is totally different and walks different.

Question: When Evan went to see his father when he was young (not when he came back), why was his father trying to kill him? When he was young, he had no idea about his ability, so he couldn't talk about it and make his father try to kill him.

rotoplo

Chosen answer: Every time that Even blacked out was a moment that he would later return to as an adult. He couldn't remember them because he hadn't experienced them himself. It is a little confusing, but he basically skipped over those blackouts in his childhood. So just before he spoke to his father, his future self stepped in and spoke to him.

Knever

Answer: Evan's father is trying to kill him because he has the same ability as Evan, and is trying to kill him to prevent him from hurting himself/anyone else.

Question: What is the song that plays at the end of the movie in the scene where Evan is in New York City and continues into the credits. Also, who is it by?

Answer: "Stop crying your heart out" by Oasis.

Plot hole: When Evan is in jail with the religious prisoner trying to get him to help him get his journals back he goes to the scene where he is drawing that homicidal picture in kindergarten, but he gets up and puts the spikes that holds documents through his hands, creating a stigmata-style scar. The religious guy in the cell with him is so amazed because of this he thinks Evan is a prophet and he decides to help him. If Evan had gone back in time and got those scars on his hands, he would have changed the original timeline and would have arrived in jail with those scars the whole time. Some people try to correct this using the "If I can create scars, then can I fix them?" statement Evan made to defend the mistake and suggest he can create instant scars but he was using the word "scars" to refer to the negative events; not literal scars on his body. The scar he got when he burned himself in the past didn’t magically appear on him the moment he returned from the past; it became part of a new, slightly altered timeline (just like the scars on his hands should have been) and it let him know he can change history.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This isn't necessarily a correction so much as a possible explanation. It's possible that the religious inmate (I think his name was Carlos) just simply didn't see the scars on Evan's hands when he first came to the prison in the timeline where he got the scars or Evan knew to hide them in the scar timeline (due to the fact that it was the sole purpose of him going back) and due to his fanaticism he didn't question him a second time.

Nope, after jamming those things in his hands Evan simply came into the prison with the scars already on his hands and would have never thought of showing the religious guy his powers using that particular moment in the past to convince him, or doing what he did a second time as he already had done it. It doesn't matter if the religious guy didn't see them before, they won't be the object of Evan convincing him. He would have had to try it some other way, each and ever time. That how this time travel works and its definitely a plot hole that it worked as it did, whilst it shouldn't have. Of course, it's a time travel movie and they never make sense.

lionhead

Additionally, the inmate was looking at Evan's palms when Evan traveled back, and when he returned to the present, the inmate remarked that the stigmata marks came out of nowhere.

Phaneron

More mistakes in The Butterfly Effect

Dr. Redfield: Just think of your mind as a movie, you can pause, rewind or slow down any details you want.

More quotes from The Butterfly Effect

Trivia: An alternate ending to the film on the DVD Director's cut has Evan going back to when he was in the womb and killing himself by squeezing the umbilical cord to save his friends from events he may cause.

Nick N.

More trivia for The Butterfly Effect

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