The Butterfly Effect

"Change one thing. Change everything."

Jan 23 2004 R 1h 53m
Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon finds that every change he makes has unexpected consequences.

Plot

As a child, Evan Treborn was afflicted with blackouts where he would be in one place one minute and then another the next, remembering absolutely nothing in-between. Now all grown up and in college, he decides to read from an old journal he wrote to remember stuff that might have happened in the in-between, and suddenly finds himself back at a certain point in his life. He realizes that those blackouts he had were actually empty spaces of time he had to fill up later in life. Attempting to use this ability to undo unpleasant past events, Evan starts to find that every time he goes back and tries to fix things, he ends up making everything worse. How can he prevent more tragedies from happening and save the one girl he ever loved, Kayleigh (Amy Smart)?

Written by

J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bress

Directed by

Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

Production Countries

United States of America, Canada

Production Companies

New Line Cinema, BenderSpink, Katalyst Films, FilmEngine

Languages

English

Awards

1 win & 8 nominations total

Scores
# of Votes
537,555
Average Rating
7.6 out of 10
Metascore
30
Popularity
NA