The concept of chaotic and complex systems as shown in "The Butterfly Effect" Hollywood movies

Have you ever wanted somehow to magically travel back through time and make your younger self act differently in a particular situation? Oh yeah, you did. We all want to be able to alter our present by changing our past. With our adult minds, we would be able to act rationally in situations that would make our present different. By knowing the outcome of the present, we would certainly know what to do in the past. One would go back in 6th grade to have another go on their math test, or go back to high school and don?t be afraid to ask their crush on a date, and some would go and invest in Google or maybe even bet that Leicester would win the Premier League in 2015. 

The Butterfly Effect is a science fiction film that dabbles in this matter. Based on the butterfly effect, a hypothesis that tells us that small differences can create significant consequences over time, this film was nominated for The Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Awards in 2004, and it won the Pegasus Audience Award in Brussels. Although receiving poor critical reception, The Butterfly Effect was a commercial success as it bagged $96 million from film theaters.

Like any good film, The Butterfly Effect received a sequel in 2006, unrelated to the original, and let me tell you it wasn?t on the Godfather or Lord of the Rings level, per se. It was heavily criticized that it used the same plot from the first movie, but with a different set of characters. Some even called it ?unwatchable.?

In 2009 the film received its third and final installment. Titled The Butterfly Effect: Revelations, this film was an improvement of the sequel. It stars Chris Carmack as the film protagonist Sam Reide and Rachel Miner as his sister Jenna.

The plot revolves around Sam. He can travel back through time in his own body, but with his present consciousness. With this ability, he helps the police as a psychic to investigate murders. Sam?s girlfriend Rebecca is murdered, and Elizabeth, her sister, believes that the man that is accused of her murder, Lonnie Flennons is innocent. She asks for Sam?s help to find the actual murderer. Sam meets with his tutor Goldberg, and he reminds him of the ground rules: He is not to alter his past, and cannot use his ability without his body being supervised. In the past, Sam used his ability to change the time to help his sister Jenna from dying in a house fire. Instead, their parents were killed. In the film, Sam travels multiple times to the past to find out who killed Rebecca and alters the present multiple times. Jenna, his sister, tells Sam that his tutor Goldberg tries to implicate him in the murders. The police chase Sam, after he is the main suspect in the murder of Vicky, the bartender and Jenna help him escape. Sam once again uses his ability to travel back in time and finds Goldburg severely injured on an auto plant. Running for help, he is trapped by a foothold trap. 

The murderer reveals to be his sister Jenna, who has an incestuous love for Sam. A time traveler like her brother, she killed his sweetheart Rebecca because she perceived her as a rival to Sam?s affection. Sam once again travels back in time and rescues his parents instead of Jenna in the house fire. The film ends with Sam and his wife Rebecca, and his daughter Jenna visiting his parent?s house for a barbecue. In the end scene, their daughter Jenna sets her doll on the grill and smiles as it burns.