# The Butterfly Effect (Spoilers!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349 "2005-04-14T20:52:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/21 "2005-04-21T03:27:27Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > What? The director’s cut of True Romance is definitely improved. The final scene at the producer’s place is vastly better than what was pictured without it. Refresh my memory. I know Christian Slater was originally written to die, and then Patricia Arquette escapes with the money, pulls off on the side of the road and blows her own head off in a fit of grief, but that never made it past storyboarding. Is it that Patricia shoots the cop, (Chris Penn), instead of the mafia guy? Yeah, that’s much better IMO. I’ll give you that. It’s the over-the-top screaming after Arquette kills James Gandolfini that bugs me beyond belief. I used to love that scene, but now I FFWD through it or (worse) change channels because I find it so incredibly grating. Drives me up a wall. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/22 "2005-04-21T03:29:12Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’ve yet to see a “director’s cut” that wasn’t inferior to the theatrical cut. In addition to those argued above, I’d throw out _Bladerunner_ and _Brazil_ as films that are definitely superior as director’s cuts ( or at least unbutchered in the case of _Brazil_ 🙂 ). - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![chefjef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@chefjef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chefjef)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/23 "2005-04-21T19:34:26Z")
Okay, i haven’t seen the movie, so i scrolled through the thread really quickly so i don’t totally spoil the movie for myself. But i have heard great things about this one, and heard ashton kutcher did a pretty good job. i’m going with a friend this weekend to check out his latest flick, a lot like love. one of the main reasons i’m seeing it is because i have a huge respect for amanda peet. i think she’s a tremendous actress. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/24 "2005-04-21T20:19:19Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Refresh my memory. I know Christian Slater was originally written to die, and then Patricia Arquette escapes with the money, pulls off on the side of the road and blows her own head off in a fit of grief, but that never made it past storyboarding. Whoa, thank god for that! That’s totally out of character. > [@](#): > > Is it that Patricia shoots the cop, (Chris Penn), instead of the mafia guy? Yeah, that’s much better IMO. I’ll give you that. Yes, for me it is a nice feeling of reciprocation from the “that’s so romantic” episode with Drexl. Otherwise, the scene you mention is extended as is some of the violence from Clarence v. Drexl. It is the wrap up at the producer’s house that really makes it for me, though. I wonder why that was cut. Maybe the ratings board didn’t want the good guys to shoot the cops? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/25 "2005-04-21T20:40:26Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > The director’s cut of _The Abyss_ is far superior to the theatrical cut, mainly because the theatrical cut completely eliminates a crucial motivating factor in the whole story. I don’t remember a “crucial motivating factor”, unless you’re talking about how the “aliens” indict all of humanity for being violent and war-faring, thus subjecting us to scare tactic tidal waves and ham-fisted moralizing for an extended 20 minutes. Which is exactly why the director’s cut is dramatically worse–turning a good film with a weak ending into an insufferably preachy film with a bullshit ending. ---
**Author:** ![Hoffman1030](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@Hoffman1030](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoffman1030)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/26 "2012-12-16T07:18:48Z")
I know I’m quite late on this thread, but just finished watching this movie for about the tenth time, and in doing the same ritual at the OP, came across this thread. Personally, I love the director’s cut ending, but I feel that the theatrical ending is more in sync with the rest of the film. Yes, the DC ties things up a bit nicer, but the theatrical doesn’t necessarily not tie things up. > [@JohnGalt](#): > > Glad to see this thread, as I also just watched this on Starz. I understood the part where he tells the girl he hates her when they both met, but here’s my question: > > What’s up with the 7-year old’s picture of him with a knife? Did he have a chance to change the picture by going back in time? What’s its significance? Or is it part of a deleted scene/storyline? > > Thanks > [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](#): > > Well from other sites I saw, they said it was somehow related to the later prison cell flashback scene, but it never did make much sense to me. First of all, it seems to me to be a major plothole - if he did something that drastic, you would think it would have seriously altered the course of his life. Why not just use a pencil to poke himself in the hand by accident? I guess it is supposed to be a picture of himself killing Tommy. Because the picture is what started the journal incident, and the blackouts represent periods of time where he is mucking around from the future, maybe it was his way of ensuring that he kept the journals, making it easier to remember the things he needed to remember later? > > I dunno, thinking about that too much makes my head hurt. It’s awfully circular. The concept behind that scene is actually a few things, one of which, the second quoted post covers. The picture Evan draws is a depiction of the two prisoners he had just stabbed before traveling back into the school scene. It wasn’t an image of him killing Tommy. Also, yes, the picture is what caused the beginning of the journals, so this was essentially a fixed point in time (An event that has to happen. It doesn’t matter how it happens, but it must always happen). If he didn’t draw the picture, it wouldn’t have caused the journals to have been written, which would have stopped him from being able to go back into the past, but at that current point he was in the past. That’s the beginning of a paradox, which, as most time-travel enthusiast know, is bad. I’m assuming by the post in the second quote, the comment about a drastic event refers to Evan impaling his hands on the two spikes? Not necessarily a drastic, life-altering event. Just a serious injury. He was already headed to a mental institution after doing that drawing, chances are the spike incident just got thrown into the already existing conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/27 "2012-12-17T01:17:30Z")
> [@Hoffman1030](#): > > I’m assuming by the post in the second quote, the comment about a drastic event refers to Evan impaling his hands on the two spikes? Not necessarily a drastic, life-altering event. I thought the premise was that it didn’t _take_ a drastic life-altering event to cause one’s life to go in a radically different direction. That Evan stabbed his own hands and ended up back in the same prison with the same cellmate annoyed me. Well, that and how he ended up in prison in the first place, after a clear case of self-defense. He must have had a lousy lawyer in both timelines. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/28 "2012-12-17T04:56:27Z")
Despite its flaws, I found it to be an otherwise fun time twisted tale that only oversteps into the ridiculous a few times. The premise is great, and they explore it well enough. Although the screenplay and direction could’ve used some sharpening up, it was disturbing and entertaining. I haven’t seen it since I saw it at the theater. I think I’ll rent it again. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349/29 "2012-12-17T07:12:19Z")
It’s a good concept but it would have needed genius-level screenwriting to take that idea and make a “great” movie. Like… Memento level execution. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-effect-spoilers/299349.md?page=1)