History Film / TheButterflyEffect

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: In one timeline Evan gives Lenny a sharp object so he can cut his dog out of the sack Tommy put him in, then while he's trying to talk Tommy down [[HeelFaceDoorSlap Lenny stabs him.]]

* TeensAreShort: Tommy. He is [[LittleBigBrother shorter]] than his younger sister in their teen.

* UnkemptBeauty: Evan's reaction to seeing Kayleigh outside the diner in the first timeline. Especially apparent in the film's novelization. [[spoiler: Sadly, it doesn't end well.]]

** If you watch the director's cut, the Aesop could be interpreted as "Everything will be fine [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice as long as]] [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop you kill yourself]]."]]

* TemporalSuicide: At the end of the director's cut, [[spoiler: Evan uses his MentalTimeTravel powers to go all the way back to when he was a fetus still in his mother's womb and strangles himself to death with his own umbilical cord so that [[RetGone he couldn't ruin the lives of everyone he would've met]]. It's also strongly implied Evan's two unborn siblings who were stillborn had the same powers and [[HistoryRepeats went through the same thing]]]].

* BigBad: Tommy and Kayleigh's pedophile father George, who is directly or indirectly responsible for everything bad that happens to the characters.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: In the theatrical ending, [[spoiler:Evan realizes the only way for Kayleigh to be happy is to prevent them from ever befriending each other, so that she and Tommy would choose to live far away with their mom instead of their abusive father]].

* AllThereInTheManual: [[spoiler:In the director's cut, which the filmmakers regard to be the "true" version of the movie, Evan's mother has had two stillbirths prior to Evan. When he strangles himself in the womb, it becomes clear – according to Bress and Gruber's commentary, at least – that those two were also time-travelling martyrs. Finally, in the ending montage, his mother is shown with a happy, healthy baby girl, which Bress and Gruber say is a sign that the "curse" is broken, because apparently it only affects boys.]]

[[quoteright:204:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_butterfly_effect_001_45.jpg]][[caption-width-right:204:''[[TagLine Change one thing, change everything.]]'']]

[[quoteright:204:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_butterfly_effect_001_45.jpg]]

%%* AbusiveDad: George Miller

* AbusiveDad: George Miller

* TrainStationGoodbye: Occurs when Evan and Kayleigh are still in adolescence. Evan holds up a sign reading, "[[IWillFindYou I'll come back for you.]]" He does several years later, but it doesn't end well...[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong at least in that timeline]].

* TrainStationGoodbye: Occurs when Evan and Kayleigh are still in adolescence. Evan holds up a sign reading, "I'll come back for you." He does several years later, but it doesn't end well...[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong at least in that timeline]].

* AllThereInTheManual: [[spoiler:In the director's cut, which the filmmakers regard to be the "true" version of the movie, Evan's mother has had two stillbirths prior to Evan. When he strangles himself in the womb, it becomes clear – according to Bress and Gruber's commentary, at least – that those two were also time-travelling martyrs. Finally, in the ending montage, his mother is shown with a happy, healthy baby girl, which Bress and Gruber say is a sign that the "curse" is broken, because apparently it only effects boys.]]

* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:This is the least sad part about the ending]].

--> Evan: I guess charisma and eyeliner go a long way.

* RippleEffectIndicator: Evan's {{Impaled Palm}}s. When in prison, Evan briefly time-travels back to his grade school classroom to puncture his hands with metal spikes, hoping that the resultant scars will convince his religious cellmate that he has a mystical connection to {{God}}. The scars spontaneously appear on Evan's palms--even though, from his perspective, he should have had them all along. Perhaps his cellmate gained RippleEffectProofMemory since was paying attention to the time travelling process.

* TimeIsDangerous: The director's cut reveals that Evan suffers minor brain damage every time he majorly changes the past, resulting in severe migraines and nosebleeds as he gets the extra memories (often 20 years worth) burnt onto his existing ones. On the other hand, he's realizes that repeated time travel might ultimately kill him, causing him to intentionally think through what he wants to change before each trip.

* ContinuingIsPainful: The movie takes account of this trope as well, with the protagonists condition worsening permanently with each "restart" due to multiple memories.

''The Butterfly Effect'' is a 2004 American ScienceFiction PsychologicalThriller film starring Creator/AshtonKutcher, Creator/AmySmart, Eric Stoltz, and others, directed and written by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, and distributed by Creator/NewLineCinema.