If you’re parents didn’t get together, you wouldn’t exist. So, if you were able to go back in time and make sure that the parents of that bully in your office never got together and he didn’t exist, would you do it? But wait! How would he not existing anymore in the past before he got to your office alter your situation in the present? Are all things good or bad that are connected to your life forever effected if one element changes?
The Butterfly Effect and The Butterfly Effect 2 do their best to explore the possibilities and dangers of altering the past in order to shape a better future. What may seem like innocent meddling at first may actually result in drastic and horrific consequences in the future. And do you really want that? Do you?
First up is The Butterfly Effect starring Ashton Kutcher. It’s about a guy who has had blackouts throughout his childhood where he doesn’t remember things he’s done. Luckily, he writes what he did during those blackouts in a journal. As an adult, he finds the journal and is able to piece together what took place in the blackouts. And then things get a little crazy as he soon realizes that he has the power to alter events that took place in the blackouts by going back in time, thus altering the present and catapulting himself into unknown future consequences. Yikes!
The Blu-ray edition (which is The Director’s Cut) includes the following special features:
The Science and the Psychology of The Chaos Theory; The History and Allure of Time Travel; Director’s Cut Fact Track; Director’s Cut Commentary with Co-Directors and Co-Screenwriters Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber; The Creative Process; Visual Effects; Storyboard Gallery; and Deleted/Alternate Scenes.
Using the same basic concept, The Butterfly Effect 2 gives hero Nick (Eric Lively) the ability to change the past and save his girlfriend who recently died in a car accident. But Nick can’t stop with that one event, and he soon starts to alter several events from his past, which in turn leads to unforeseen destruction and danger in his present and his future.
Special features include audio commentary; and the featurette Altering Reality: On the Set of The Butterfly Effect 2; and the trailer.
Both films are cleverly done and present intriguing perspectives on time travel and altering the past. I liked the original better than the sequel, but the second was also enjoyable and worth checking out.
The Butterfly Effect and The Butterfly Effect 2 are available NOW on Blu-ray (not as a set, separately).