It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.
– Chaos Theory

In the film, The Butterfly Effect, the main character, Evan Treborn, experiences blackouts during traumatic childhood events. Also during his childhood he keeps a journal of his day’s activities on the advise of his psychologist.
Now an adult Evan rediscovers the childhood journals and how he can change the present day by reliving events in his journals. So it seems that some of those tramatic events play a huge role in present day.
This is all part of the butterfly effect…that is if you were to travel back in time to change even one minute detail, the whole future could be suddenly altered…that is all things are connected somehow by past events…by decisions one makes, no matter how inconsequental it may seem at the time.
The film itself is intriging and keeps the viewer interested throughout. And it makes the viwer wonder…is there a past event you could change, what would it be? Is there an event that had it turned out differently, would it make one less introverted, more trusting of others, less paranoid, and ulitmately make for a more fuller life? One has to wonder…
Ultimately one needs to forget about the past…as the past has a tendency to hold one back from future pursuits. Mankind is always looking back toward the past since the future is so difficult to imagine. It is this past that puts us on nostalgia trips and sometimes guilt trips.