Butterfly Effect

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Movie
German title Butterfly Effect
Original title The Butterfly Effect
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 16
Rod
Director Eric Bress ,
J. Mackye Gruber
script Eric Bress,
J. Mackye Gruber
production Chris Bender ,
AJ Dix ,
Anthony Rhulen ,
JC Spink
music Michael Suby
camera Matthew F. Leonetti
cut Peter Amundson ,
Kirk Moses
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Butterfly Effect 2

Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American film . The protagonist Evan ( Ashton Kutcher ) has several blackouts in his difficult childhood and, on the advice of his psychologist, begins to keep a diary . While studying at college , he uses his old diaries to develop the ability to travel back in time , which he eventually begins to manipulate in order to save his girlfriend Kayleigh, revealing unexpected, devastating effects on the present . Directed by debutants Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber .

action

Evan Treborn has lost track of time . His childhood and youth were decisively shaped by events that he can no longer remember due to so-called blackouts . Only incoherent scraps of memory remain. His former childhood friends Kayleigh, Lenny and Tommy have lost their lives, but he doesn't know why. As a child, his psychologist advised him to keep a diary, which will help him later. Years have passed and he becomes aware of his diaries through a date. They are the key, and with them he succeeds in changing the past, but fails.

The first time he tries to remember past experiences with the help of his diary , Evan is brought into a scene in which he and his girlfriend Kayleigh are sexually abused by Kayleigh's father . Disturbed by this scene, he drives back to his old hometown to visit Kayleigh. He finds her a waitress in a bar; asks her about her childhood experiences; confronts her with things she would rather forget; and make them run away. He drives away again and a short time later learns that his childhood friend killed herself . With the help of his diaries, he tries to put himself back in the crucial situation and to change it - which he also succeeds by confronting Kayleigh's father with the consequences of his action.

After this scene he wakes up again, Kayleigh is alive and lying next to him, both are a happy couple and quite wealthy. But a short time later it turns out that Kayleigh's brother has just been released from prison and is now looking for Evan. Since Evan prevented Kayleigh from being molested by her father, her brother was molested by him and is very aggressive because of it. In the park they meet, Evan overwhelmed Kayleigh's brother, he proposes in affections with the baseball bat's skull and is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, during his detention he is violent bullying exposed by his fellow prisoners.

This chain of events becomes more and more acute with journeys to the past in order to correct the adverse effects on the present of previous journeys made to intervene in the original sequence of the relevant time periods (Kayleigh becomes a drug addict prostitute , Evan loses both arms, several of his friends are dead or insane ). The story so far culminates in the fact that Evan has to prevent Kayleigh from becoming friends with him at all. Apparently this is the only way to prevent everything bad from happening. Back in the future, Evan and Kayleigh see each other eight years later on the street, where she doesn't speak to Evan, but walks on.

Original version: Director's Cut

The Director's Cut is the version originally intended by the two directors. In addition to a few additional scenes that elaborate and deepen the plot, this version has a different ending: Evan goes with his mother to a fortune teller , from whom he learns that his own life is a single mistake, that he has no soul and that it is him should never have given because his hand had no lifeline . Then his mother tells him that she had already had two miscarriages before him (his family name, Treborn, indicates three-born , "third-born"). At the end of the film it becomes clear to Evan that the fortune teller was right and that he himself is the reason for the suffering that keeps coming back in a different form no matter how he tries to change things. Therefore he asks his mother in the mental hospital for the film of his own birth, with which he travels back to the time in which he is in the womb and strangles himself with his own umbilical cord before his birth. At the end of the Director's Cut you can see that Evans mother divorces her husband after the third miscarriage and gets to know a new man, gives birth and raises happy and healthy children who are apparently not affected by the curse , Evans father passed on to his three children. The other characters are also spared their blows of fate, the film ends in the Director's Cut with Kayleigh's wedding.

In a comment on the film, the directors stated that they consider this ending, which was also shown in some previews in Germany, to be the better ending. Distribution company New Line Cinema insisted on a less shocking ending for the theatrical version, however.

Alternative endings

Several alternative endings can be seen on the special DVD:

  • Evan follows Kayleigh when he meets her on the street eight years later. It's not clear whether he is addressing her or not.
  • Evan sees Kayleigh, but both continue on their way.
  • Evan and Kayleigh meet for coffee.
  • Evan doesn't watch the movie of the birthday party, but the one of his own birth. In his mother's belly, he strangles himself with his umbilical cord. (Director's Cut)

Reviews

"Low-tension mystery thriller, which leaves an unsatisfactory impression, especially due to the dramaturgical loopholes from hopeless situations and the foreseeable good ending [of the theatrical version]."

- Lexicon of international film

“The topic of time travel and parallel universes packed in a straight psychological thriller? That inevitably calls the strict guardians of logic on the scene. This is exactly what Eric Bress' and J. Mackye Gruber's “Butterfly Effect” have to struggle with. Staged in an exciting and gripping manner, the film offers a lot of trashy fun over the entire season, but the pitfalls of the plausible ultimately thwart the fun, so that the low-budget thriller just turned into a film that was a high one Offers entertainment value, but is flawed. "

- Filmstarts.de

background

The butterfly effect

The title of the film refers to the popular science term of the butterfly effect . This term from chaos theory stands for the idea that even the smallest influences can have unforeseen and unpredictable consequences; that z. B. the flapping of a butterfly's wing is a possible cause of a cyclone on the other side of the earth. The plot of the film actually only shows a domino effect and not the butterfly effect , as theoretically the smallest interventions in the past could completely change the present. The film is limited to the protagonist's close environment - friends and parents - and thus to easily comprehensible changes. The theory of the butterfly effect is rather used by the film as a metaphor for the moral view that one should not play God by trying to influence complex structures, since one can never transform the world to the satisfaction of everyone and ultimately never know exactly what one is does.

The time travel concept

The film deals with the concept of time travel . Similar to the film The Jacket (2005), the protagonist does not travel through time using the technical equipment of a time machine , but solely through mental or spiritual processes. He jumps back into memory gaps that happened to him in his youth, whereby these become moments of the supernatural transmigration of souls or mental time travel, in which the ego is temporarily shut down as long as the time travel lasts.

The narrative structure with its fast and confusing jumps in the plot or with different levels of action or realities shows similarities to the films Memento (2000) or eXistenZ (1999).

Awards

Others

  • There are allusions to David Fincher's film Seven . An excerpt from this film can be seen in the cinema scene. Evan Treborn's diaries are modeled on those of John Doe.
  • The name of the main character Evan Treborn should originally be Chris Treborn ((Christ reborn) literally Christ [is] born again) . However, the writers changed this before filming began.
  • Furthermore, the last name Treborn is an allusion to the fact that Evan was born three times (three = three) . (Mrs. Treborn had two miscarriages before she had Evan .) The scene in which Mrs. Treborn talks about it has been removed from the film and can only be seen on the director's cut DVD of the film.
  • The song that runs as background music in the trailer is It's been a while by the band Staind .
  • The film ends with the song Stop Crying Your Heart Out by Oasis .
  • The film was shown for the first time in Germany on August 14, 2004 as part of the Fantasy Film Festival .
  • The Free TV - premiere took place on 11 July 2007 at the Swiss program SF two instead. The film ran for the first time on Austrian television on May 1, 2008 on ORF and on the German channel RTL .
  • Butterfly Effect grossed more than $ 57 million in US cinemas in the first few months, which is roughly five times the cost of production.

Continuation as a film series

Due to its considerable success, a film with the title Butterfly Effect 2 followed in 2006 , which was released in the United States on October 10, 2006 and in Germany on December 8, 2006 as a direct-to-DVD production . The title of Butterfly Effect 2 alludes to the very successful film Butterfly Effect and suggests a sequel , but has no connection to the previous film in terms of content or cast. A third part was released in 2009 under the title Butterfly Effect 3 - The Revelation in January in the United States and in November in Germany also directly on DVD. This part is also independent from the others.

Complete cast

Actress role
Logan Lerman Evan Treborn at age 7
John Patrick Amedori Evan Treborn at age 13
Ashton Kutcher Evan Treborn
Melora Walters Andrea Treborn
Callum Keith Rennie Jason Treborn
Cameron Bright Tommy Miller at 7
Jesse James Tommy Miller at age 13
William Lee Scott Tommy Miller
Sarah Widdows Kayleigh Miller at age 7
Irene Gorovaia Kayleigh Miller at age 13
Amy Smart Kayleigh Miller
Eric Stoltz George Miller
Elden Henson Lenny Kagan
Jake cheese Lenny Kagan at 7
Kevin Schmidt Lenny Kagan at age 13
Nathaniel DeVeaux Dr. Redfield
Lorena Gale Mrs. Boswell
Ethan Suplee Thumper

synchronization

The film was dubbed by RC Production Rasema Cibic, Berlin. The dialogue book is by Klaus Bickert , the dialogue director was Tobias Meister .

figure actor Voice actor
Evan Treborn Ashton Kutcher Marcel Collé
Andrea Treborn Melora Walters Marina Krogull
Kayleigh Miller Amy Smart Anna Carlsson
Lenny Kagan Elden Henson Dennis Schmidt-Foss
Tommy Miller William Lee Scott Björn Schalla
George Miller Eric Stoltz Andreas Fröhlich
Carlos Kevin Durand Tobias Kluckert
Cricket Camille Sullivan Peggy Sander
Dr. Redfield Nathaniel DeVeaux Roland Hemmo

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for Butterfly Effect . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ^ Butterfly Effect. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ Carsten Baumgardt: Butterfly Effect. Criticism from the FILMSTARTS.de editorial team. In: Filmstarts.de. Retrieved July 28, 2014 .
  4. ↑ US revenue Butterfly Effect ( Memento from March 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ dubbing , German dubbing index