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The Butterfly Effect
Release Date	January 23, 2004
Genre	Sci Fi, Time Travel
Director	Eric Bress J. Mackye Gruber
Screenwriter	J. Mackye Gruber Eric Bress
Stars	Ashton Kutcher Amy Smart Eric Stoltz Elden Henson Ethan Suplee
Studio	New Line Cinema

In The Butterfly Effect (2004), writer/directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (who also co-wrote Final Destination 2) created a movie that expresses the "butterfly effect," or what is known in the field of chaos theory as "a sensitive dependence on initial conditions." In other words, altering so little as one flap of a butterfly's wings can result in an enormous change in the world.

Ashton Kutcher plays a college psychology student named Evan Treborn, who has suffered blackouts since childhood. While reading his journals, he discovers that he can temporarily return to his past and choose different actions. Each episode, corresponding to his blackouts, results in a new reality. His past is filled with harshness and terror, including an encounter with a child pornographer, and he becomes obsessed with creating a new reality in which he and his friends will find happiness and fulfillment. Most of the changes lead to even worse situations. Perhaps the most interesting dilemma in the movie occurs when Evan's changes result in good lives for his friends but crippling injuries for Evan himself.

A disturbing and dark experience, The Butterfly Effect did not take the box office by storm. Its young cast, Kutcher in particular, turned in outstanding performances, although Cameron Bright and Jesse James as Tommy Miller (at different ages) nearly steal the show with their anger-filled outbursts. Amy Smart shines as Kayleigh Miller, the love of Evan's life, and Eric Stoltz is duly sinister as the Millers' father. A sequel, The Butterfly Effect 2 was [[released in Fall 2006 to international audiences but went directly to DVD in the United States]]. The sequel had an all new cast, director, and writers.