Psychological thriller "The Butterfly Effect". The ending and its variations

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Are we given one life? But not in the movies! A lot of fantastic and mystical paintings allow their heroes, due to circumstances or of their own free will, repeatedly return to the past, re-live the present and try to change the future. These projects include The Butterfly Effect (2004), starring Ashton Kutcher (Where's My Car, Dude?) and Amy Smart (Adrenaline). The project received a nomination for the Saturn Award, its IMDb rating: 7.70. In addition to many other advantages, the tape has several alternative endings. And if the producer hadn't demanded a happy ending from the director, the studio hadn't planned a sequel, and the public hadn't been naughty at test screenings, the ending of The Butterfly Effect could have looked completely different.

According to the concept of the butterfly effect from Chaos Theory

Outstandingwriter Ray Bradbury was enough one lost butterfly to radically change the course of development of human civilization and write the story "Thunder Came" about the unpredictable consequences of time travel. The authors of The Butterfly Effect, the directorial duet of Eric Bress and J. McKee Gruber, although they placed an epigraph in their project stating that the flap of an insect's wing is quite enough to cause a hurricane, they do not suffer from a tendency to laconism. They subject the characters to repeated transformations, trying to bring something new to an overtly hackneyed theme. They only succeed with the alternate endings of The Butterfly Effect.

Story summary

Protagonist Evan Treborn inherited from his father, who is in a psychiatric hospital, the gift of a very unusual way to move through time. In order to return to the past, he only needs to read his personal diaries, which the young man has been keeping since childhood. Reading the documented details "revives" the memories, and the hero literally falls into the past. Moreover, Evan's childhood and adolescence cannot be called happy. At the same time, any penetration into the past causes dangerous consequences, affecting the present in an unpredictable way. Evan is faced with a choice every time - to correct the mistakes of the past or to preserve the well-being of the future. From this it is not surprising to move the mind, then no records will save. The story cannot be described without spoilers, it is only worth noting that after watching the viewer will definitely want to knowhow many endings could there be in The Butterfly Effect.

Alternative

In general, the finale of the picture leads the hero of Ashton Kutcher to the understanding that the cause of all the misfortunes of him and his beloved Kelly is himself. Treborn repeatedly uses his gift to help himself and the girl find happiness with each other, but nothing came of it. With each attempt to make adjustments, the options for the development of the future are getting worse and worse. As a result, the young man understands that Kelly can only be happy without him, he decides to delete himself from her life. And it turns out that they are right; individually, a more prosperous fate awaits them. But this is not the end of The Butterfly Effect. A matured successful psychologist Evan, walking around New York, will meet Kelly again.

Three options

And then the creators of the picture came up with three options for the ending of the "Butterfly Effect":

• Neutral - Evan and Kelly meet on a New York street, exchange glances and part ways.
• Open - Evan, interested in the beauty, follows her.
• Happy - after exchanging glances, young people get to know each other, and now everything will be different for them.

The first to get into the psychological thriller. But initially, the authors proposed an even darker version of the finale, in which Evan decides to act extremely radically and suffocates himself with the umbilical cord while still in the womb. Naturally, on a test screening, such an ending of the "Butterfly Effect" audienceyearning for a happy ending, booed. The creators immediately corrected the situation. But in the film, by the way, there was a mention that before the birth of Evan, his mother had three miscarriages. If the "tragic" ending had remained, it would mean that the character, tired of the futility of his efforts, killed himself three times with each attempt to be born.

To be continued

Since the original picture received positive reviews, a decent rating and paid off at the box office, the producers decided not to stop there. In 2006, a sequel was released - The Butterfly Effect-2 (IMDb: 4.50), positioned as a continuation of the 2004 project. The tape was filmed in just 20 days, starring Eric Lively (American Pie) and Erica Durance (Smallville). Critics greeted the film very coolly due to the fact that, according to film experts, he did not add anything new to the subtext of the first picture, but only repeated it, but with new characters. The audience did not like that the main character traveled in time solely for mercantile purposes - he arranged a career, and not the personal life and well-being of loved ones, like Evan Treborn. An even more negative public reaction was caused by the ending with a hint of a sequel. But it took place. In 2008, The Butterfly Effect-3 was released, which is an independent product, in no way connected with the previous two parts.