MovieChat Forums > The Butterfly Effect (2004) Discussion > Probably been discussed before, but one...

Probably been discussed before, but one thing that always bothered me.

posted 9 years ago by chilichilipepper
10 replies | jump to latest

I recently rewatched this movie, and i'm a huge fan of it.

The one thing that always bothered me was the ending (all 4 of them). I guess spoiler alert for a 16 year old movie below.

Why didn't Evan just go to the actual explosion and stop the m80 from ever being lit? There was a few times in the movie where he could have prevented the whole "butterfly effect" just by stopping any of the other characters into putting the explosive in the mailbox.

still remains a great movie and vastly underrated (especially Kutcher's roll and acting), but really, the whole movie revolves around the explosive and not once did he even think of just stopping it?

he could have done all of the other things (stopped kaylee's abuse, avoided the jail scene (which makes no sense either really; self defense end of court case), and would have made a much more solid ending than him just writing Kaylee out of his life.

Plus, I'm also on the side of the "true ending" considering that the whole movie was set up for him to become another miscarriage for his mom to break the cycle. But again, there were multiple times he could have just gotten rid of the explosive and would have lived a completely normal life.

[–] jamesdean-13 9 years ago

The hardest thing for me to believe is that Kayleigh's mother just let her go (because she liked a boy?) and that's why they ended up with an abusive father. Yet, when he changes the timeline, Kayleigh's mother says she'll never let them go. Soooo .... she didn't fight hard enough for custody in the first one?

[–] chilichilipepper 9 years ago

Good point, never thought about that one.

Still though, although I really liked this movie, and I think Kutcher is a VERY under rated actor, the simplest ending would have just gone back and when they light the m80, just throw it into the woods.

(i mean maybe a plot hole? but this is also a blackout he has and he tries to change it a few times.... Just toss the firecracker away, bam everything is perfect)

Plus that would have given a little more justification on the ending they chose (where they walk by each other and obviously recognize the other person, but go their seperate ways)

But all in all, the original ending closed all of these plot holes. his mother has had multiple children that in the end, realized that the only way they could stop it was by killing themselves in the womb. Didn't do well with test audiences so they threw in the whole generic ending.

Either way, why not just throw the stupid firecracker away lol?

But I love your view on it James, in the alternate ending, maybe by him being such a jerk to Kayleigh, and she went running crying into her mom's arms made her fight for custody realizing that her husband was a scumbag (or maybe just him being a jerk to Kayleigh made her think about how some guys are jerks). After all, he did say "if i ever see you again I'll kill you), which is a line that Stoltz says sorta when he says something like "if you ever tell anyone about this I'll kill you" etc.

Great point. never looked at it that way.

[–] thulk01 9 years ago

They had already put the dynamite in the mailbox when his blackout started, so it was too late to unlight it. So when he got back he didn't know exactly how much time was left on it, so he just shouted at the lady to get away. She was confused and didn't move so he ran over there and then things got hectic and that's usually when people in real life start acting stupid and stop thinking rationally as well, so it was pretty realistic. And then after his failed attempt, he ended up with no arms in the "never wrote that journal entry" timeline so he couldn't go back to try again.

I also loved the DC ending. But will she just go on having kids who all end up killing themselves forever?

[–] movienchill31 (225) 5 years ago

No. In the end of the DC ending, she marries another man and they have a daughter so the curse was broken at that point. It only existed in the kids she had with Evan's father(can't remember his name)

[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

Thulk01 mentioned below that this wasnt an option. The memory started with the fuse already lit and all of them watching it from across the street.

Either way, I think you're missing the theme of the movie. Every time he tries to go back and fix things, it just ends up worse and his brain takes a little more damage. He got the dad to leave Kaylee alone, but it turned her brother into a psycho. He saved the woman, but lost his limbs and his mother. He saved the dog, but the brother died and Lenny got committed.

[–] dargorrof 8 years ago

He had a blackout right before the explosion thus in the beginning he wouldn't have that written in his journal rendering him unable to go back exactly in time.

[–] Loveunderlaw 8 years ago

"KUTCHER'S ROLE"...

________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/loveunderlaw

[–] PhoenixLotus (21) 6 years ago

Quick answer: this is not your average 'time travel' type movie. Evan can only 'go back' to when he has had previous blackouts. He blacked out when explosive went off, he blacked out when in the basement, just after getting whacked in the face by the crazy boy...........so all in all, he can only change or prevent occurrences within that particular blackout at that particular time.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7969) 6 years ago

I hate the miscarriage ending because it breaks the rule of the whole movie. The rule was he had to read his diary or look at some piece of schoolwork to go back to that point of his life. No way he can go to the time of his mother giving birth to him. What Balogne.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 3 years ago

He could also look at old movies, which he did in both the DC miscarriage ending and the theatrical ending

Jason (his father) used movies, which is where Evan got the idea