The Butterfly Effect

This article is about the 2004 film. For the 1995 film, see The Butterfly Effect (1995 film). For the chaos theory concept, see butterfly effect. For other uses, see butterfly effect (disambiguation).
The Butterfly Effect
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Written by
  • Eric Bress
  • J. Mackye Gruber
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMatthew F. Leonetti
Edited byPeter Amundson
Music byMichael Suby
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • January 23, 2004 (2004-01-23)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13 million[1]
Box office$96.8 million[1]

The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. It stars Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, William Lee Scott, Elden Henson, Logan Lerman, Ethan Suplee, and Melora Walters. The title refers to the butterfly effect.

Kutcher plays 20-year-old college student Evan Treborn,[2] who experiences blackouts and memory loss throughout his childhood. Later, in his 20s, Evan finds he can travel back in time to inhabit his former self during those periods of blackout, with his adult mind inhabiting his younger body. He attempts to change the present by changing his past behaviors and set things right for himself and his friends, but there are unintended consequences for all. The film draws heavily on flashbacks of the characters' lives at ages 7 and 13 and presents several alternative present-day outcomes as Evan attempts to change the past, before settling on a final outcome.

The film had a poor critical reception;[3][4][5] however, it was a commercial success, generating box-office revenues of $96 million on 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 Awards, but lost to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another film from New Line Cinema, respectively.

  1. ^ a b "The Butterfly Effect". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  2. ^ Gruber, J. Mackye; Bress, Eric. "The Butterfly Effect: Shooting Draft". Internet Movie Script Database. Retrieved Aug 12, 2017.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference rotten was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference metacritic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference bradshaw was invoked but never defined (see the help page).