The Butterfly Effect

It's really been a while since I was last surprised by a film. “The Butterfly Effect” simply did it!

Its witty plot and sudden ending strike me as cruel yet brilliant. The story begins with a flashback of our tragic hero, Aven, who seemed desperately running away from someone, or more likely, something. Before knowing better, we traveled through time to witness his childhood traumas such as accidentally bombing a baby, being sexually harassed and finally, giving up his true love, Kelly.

The grown-up Aven, now an average college student, one day discovered his rather cursed gift of time traveling. He realized he could change the past so to make the future, or at least, the present, better. He went back to change the crucial moments and to mend his regrets. However, everything went wrong in one way or another. He indeed stopped the harassment, but he didn’t prevent himself from committing a murder. Therefore, he had to go back again. This time, he stopped the bomb, but his limbs were blown off and he became a handicapped and thus Kelly was in love with someone else. So he was back again, but still no luck. He killed little Kelly.
He was sent away to prison and the doctor decided to lock him up forever. He knew if he had to start it all over, he had to get back to the very beginning, where he was still a pregnant baby in his mother’s womb. He reached there and chocked to death in the womb.

The story of Aven never existed because he was never born. His death, however, brought new beginnings for the rest of the people. Kelly grew up and married well and his mother had another baby later.

This is the most ironic and tricky part of the movie. If Aven never existed, how could there be a story? He existed to not exist! That’s the story! He figured in the end that it’s best for him to die. He ran away from his memory and from his life.

The term, “butterfly effect,” is first coined in scientific fields, meaning a small change could cause major differences. The differences are in chaos. No one can predict what might happen. The term is now borrowed by literary criticism, economic theory and even fortune-telling. The movie symbolically used the similarity of human brain X-ray pictures and butterfly wings to say that it’s all about mind and memory. Memory, which is a trace of time, is where the chaos occurs.

I recall a professor once said after seeing the film that details matter. I observe instead that memories matter. We can actually change the memory, though not literally. We can change our perspectives on things that had happened. Memories haunt us, but we can fight back.

Aven failed to stop the tragic from happening because he didn’t change his mind about things. He just wished that things go his way. In H. G. Welles’ “Time Machine,” he sharply denied the chance to change the past. It’s the future that one can really control. I agree with Welles. The purpose of life is to look forward and only turn your face back to give a big smile to the past. It’s gone and one should be grateful about that.