THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

2004

Conventions• The film begins with a short quote that describes chaos theory: ‘It has

been said that something so small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world’. This is unusual and breaks convention as most thrillers don’t begin with a quote.

• It’s conventional for thriller films to start off quite slowly to build suspense but in this film there’s media res – where the film starts in fast paced from the very beginning with action.

• The opening music is still typical. It feels more epic than a normal thriller’s, like a natural disaster movie, but has the string instruments.

• Breaking convention: the end of the title sequences fades out unexpectedly into a bright sunny day on an open road. No night time or rain as you might expect, and it is a crossroads – the crossroads of life? Perhaps this represents the different paths that he might take, the different places a different butterfly’s flutter will take him.

Use of Titles• There isn’t a long title sequence separate to and before the rest of the movie but

most of the titles are played across on top of the film footage so they do not distract and you can still see what’s going on.

• There is an extreme close up of his hands writing the words SAVE HER but then the paper falls apart into pieces; the pieces turn swiftly into little butterflies flying in darkness. This links back to the quote shown at the beginning of butterflies. They are the key. To save her, this suggest maybe you have to catch the butterflies?

• The main title THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT appears and over it, the butterflies fly into and fit in a human skull – indicating perhaps that this person has the ability to control butterfly effects.

• There’s a blue colour like an X ray – we will be able to see into his head and there fore see everything that happens to him. We know what he knows.

• The butterflies were free and then became trapped inside his head like in a jar – he tries to control it but the butterflies are still struggling, suggesting that they shouldn’t be kept in his head and that this is unnatural (maybe he will lose his grip on reality, or all control).

Sound• The music is typical of a thriller, string instruments mainly giving a very

gloomy atmosphere. It sounds discordant, foreboding and dark – it fits the pacing of the film, making it feel as if the protagonist is being chased.

• The impending sense of doom with the growing speed of the pace and feeling of being chased is enforced by when the security raps hard on the door to find out whether he’s hiding in that room.

Camera Techniques• The camera follows the protagonist relentlessly almost without any cuts with a

tracking shot – like the way security is following him, hot on his heels. • In the beginning the audience look down on him from a high angle, showing that

he is someone inferior and powerless, in a weak position.• When writing there is a close up of his face at a very slight low angle looking up at

his face indicating that at least (though now he might be weak) he does still have some measure of control over his own words that he’s writing, over this seemingly random diary entry.

• At the written word ‘dead’, we hear him breathing heavily and there is a quit cut to a close up of the same windows he was behind a couple of minutes earlier, a torch light shining through the glass – now instead of him, it is the security who seem frightening and dangerous. This increases the feeling of persecution that we are getting from him. The searching torch light is seen from a high angle, targeting him with the light – it is him they want.

• There’s constant extreme close up shots of the diary – indicating that this is the key of the whole movie. Somehow we do not understand yet why, he must risk his life to go back and save a girl’s life.

Mise en Scene• The entire time in the opening two minutes, he never stands straight. From

the beginning when he is behind the window he is hunched over, then entering the room quite suddenly he is flailing. The hunching over reminds one of someone deformed, and at first he does not appear to be walking but rather gliding. You’re not entirely sure if he is human, but a monster or a ghost – you feel like he is dangerous. He must be, because he is the one running and he wouldn’t be hiding unless he had done something wrong.

• He ducks underneath the windows, as if to hide, is then kneeling under the window and lastly is on all fours underneath the table. This is beastly, animal-like and increases the impression of him being wild and hunted like any other dangerous animal that needs putting down along with his unkempt hair and haunted expression.