How Our Choices Affect Us

If you could go back to your past, what choice would you make differently? A Review of The Butterfly Effect (2004).

Have you ever wanted to go back to your past and make different choices? … it’s a lot more complicated than you might assume.

The Butterfly Effect is about is a college student named Evan who tries to piece together his troubled past and to ultimately create an alternative life. As a child, he had many blackouts which would happen during significant events. And when he stumbles on his journals surrounding these times, he reads one of the passages where he finds himself back at that exact time which was written. As he discovers he can revisit the past Evan finds that he can make different choices which will affect how the rest of his life plays out.

The choices that would be made and altered affected not only him but those who were closest to Evan during any specific event from his past; Kayleigh and Tommy (siblings) were considered to be his best friends and were usually always together, and later in their teen years Lenny joined their group; Evan’s father Jason was also affected by his choices; and, on one occasion his mother, Andrea, was affected by cancer that developed from stress smoking.

First, I want to give more background on Jason; he couldn’t be a part of Evans life because Jason was put into a psychiatric hospital from being mentally unstable (or as they word it crazy); he was believed unstable because (like Evan) he said he was able to recall blackouts and make different choices. Jason passed away shortly after Evans first time meeting him; we find out later in the movie this is because adult Evan had gone back to that time to have a conversation with him and get answers. Jason feels that he has to kill Evan to end the cycle of effects, and as he is choking his son, the guards try to restrain him. And, in doing so, he falls back onto the concrete and dies from the impact.

Because Kayleigh was Evans closest and trusted friend I will be mainly focused on the changes surrounding them both. Their strong bond melded from the traumas and abuse faced together made Evan especially protective of Kayleigh. And, while at first the changes made were to help her, it slowly became changes made for selfish reasons; the first change he made, he got to experience the love they both shared for each other, and when that all came crashing down, he wanted to make a change that would pull them closer together. However, each time he tried to do this, it either hurt Kayleigh or pushed her further away into someone else’s arms.

As the movie progresses, you see Evan growing. Where he makes a change, that kills Kayleigh and ruins the lives of everyone involved. This change leads him to be in a psychiatric hospital where he is made to stay ‘indefinitely’. His journals don’t exist in this alternate reality and so he has to try a different approach of going back. Evan does what his father did, he requested the old films from his mom of a party where Kayleigh and Evan had first met as children.

So, at night he decides to make his move. He escapes from his room and tries to find the office of his doctor where the film is at. The guards are trying to find him, so it’s a race against time for Evan. As he is rushing to get the film set up, and get hidden underneath the desk he writes a quick letter which said:

He goes back to this party where everything began and makes a sacrifice for the better of Kayleigh and everyone else. When she goes up to Evan, he whispers to Kayleigh saying that he hates her and a threat for her and her family to stay away from him, or else.

This dramatically shifts the rest of their lives, Kayleigh and Tommy choose to live with their mom away from their dad, away from Evan. They grow up in a healthy environment and are given a chance to succeed in school and to become successful. Evan is able to become a psychologist. And finally, he burns his journals, the films, and the pictures because he realizes he doesn’t need them anymore.

I found this to be an impactful movie and it really did succeed as both a mystery and thriller. It was uncomfortable and made me uneasy, but it did this intentionally. I find the worst thrillers or mysteries make you uncomfortable for the shock value rather than developing a purposeful story.

The way this story was told helped me to understand and sympathize with the characters motivations, even when they weren’t making good decisions; there is an instant in the movie where Evan goes back to save Kayleigh by killing her dad but instead accidentally kills her. Like, I understood why he acted out of impulse, I understood why he felt that the only way to save Kayleigh was by trying to kill the person who hurt her most.

Evan was constantly evolving and growing throughout the movie. In the beginning, you see a man who has repressed much of his past and as a result, he had a cool demeanor and didn’t seem to be affected much. However, as the story advances, Evan starts to unravel more and more, his decisions becoming progressively unhinged.

I saw him teeter back and forth in a struggle for power, captivated by the possibilities. His motivation is Kayleigh; at first, it’s an innocent motivation and then it spirals out of control, his greed to be with her happily forever causes him to make hasty, thoughtless decisions.

But, when Evan realizes he won’t ever get to have a picture-perfect future with Kayleigh, he makes a sacrifice to do what’s best for her; whether or not the choice he’ll make means he will ever see her again.

And, through the decisions made by Evan, each of the other characters were evolved and changed too; I mean, Kayleigh had at least 3 or 4 different personalities.

When it gave a glimpse into Evan’s childhood, I was trying to piece together what happened in the lapses of his memory. And, of course, they didn’t disclose everything all at once.

I was able to discover along with Evan what had taken place. It disclosed clues and hits throughout the entire movie, it didn’t discuss anything that wasn’t crucial to the story. There was a moment in the movie where Evan asked Kayleigh if she had ever thought about them romantically, and she replied, “You were the first person I really ever cared about.”

Near the end of the movie, he makes the decision to go back to when they had both met; threateningly, Evan tells Kayleigh he hates her, and never wants to see her or his family anywhere near him ever again… This causes Kayleigh to choose to live with her mom, away from her abusive dad, allowing her to become a healthy adult.

Although the ending was sugarcoated (and for me, emotional), I thought that the message resonated deeply within me. I mean, even if you were guaranteed the chance to make different decisions, would the result be worth it?

I was able to learn that no matter how much I would love to go back and change my past, I am who I am because of what happened to me. There’s no telling where or who I might be if anything had been different.

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