Butterfly effect in popular culture
Encyclopedia
The butterfly effect
is the phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome.
The term is sometimes used in popular media
dealing with the idea of time travel
, usually inaccurately. Most time travel depictions simply fail to address butterfly effects. According to the actual theory, if history could be "changed" at all (so that one is not invoking something like the Novikov self-consistency principle
which would ensure a fixed self-consistent timeline), the mere presence of the time travelers in the past would be enough to change short-term events (such as the weather) and would also have an unpredictable impact on the distant future. Therefore, no one who travels into the past could ever return to the same version of reality he or she had come from and could have therefore not been able to travel back in time in the first place, which would create a phenomenon known as time paradox.
(1946) shows George Bailey how rewriting history so that George was never born would detrimentally affect the lives of everyone in his hometown. In a subtle butterfly effect, snow falls in one version of reality but not the other.
The complex plot of the 1985 film Brazil
by Terry Gilliam
is set into motion when a bug gets caught in machinery, changing the arrest order of "Archibald Tuttle" into the innocent "Archibald Buttle."
In the Polish film Blind Chance
directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
, three parallel outcomes are shown depending on how the protagonist Witek deals with the obstacles on his way to catching a train, and whether he catches it. The film was made in 1981 but only released in 1987, due to suppression by the Polish authorities.
The 1998 British movie Sliding Doors
(influenced by Blind Chance) runs two parallel stories of the same woman, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow
). In one universe, Helen manages to catch a London Underground train home on time, and in the other she misses it. This small event influenced her life dramatically.
The French film Le Battement d'ailes du papillon (2000), translated as Happenstance in the English release, makes direct references to the butterfly effect in title, dialogue, and theme.
In many cases, minor and seemingly inconsequential actions in the past are extrapolated over time and can have radical effects on the present time of the main characters. In the movie The Butterfly Effect
(2004), Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher
), when reading from his adolescent journals, is able to essentially "redo" parts of his past. As he continues to do this, he realizes that even though his intentions are good, the actions he takes always have unintended consequence
s. Despite its title, however, this movie does not seriously explore the implications of the butterfly effect; only the lives of the principal characters seem to change from one scenario to another. The greater world around them is mostly unaffected. Furthermore, the changes made in the past of the principal character are far from minor and in that sense the title of the film is a misnomer. An element of the butterfly effect in general terms is that differences in start conditions for different scenario outcomes are virtually undetectable, and consequences are not related to cause in a directly apparent way.
On the other hand, the movie "Run Lola Run
" (Lola rennt in German - 1998), represents the butterfly effect more clearly. Minor and almost sub-conscious actions in everyday life can be seen to have gross and widespread effects upon the future. For example, the fact that Lola bumps into someone instead of passing by may lead to a painful death after suffering paralysis. As such, seemingly inconsequential actions can be seen to have drastic long-term results. The second film
in the Back to the Future trilogy
also vividly illustrates the cascading and broad effects of what seemed a minor change in the course of events: because the loathsome Biff Tannen
accidentally gets his hands on a sports almanac from 2015, he is able to grow rich and corrupt Marty McFly
's home town. When McFly (Michael J. Fox
) returns to 1985, he finds it utterly degraded from what had used to be.
In the 2000 movie Frequency
, a son, John Sullivan (James Caviezel
), has an opportunity to prevent the death of his father, Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid
), through a miracle of nature in which they were both able to communicate across time
30 years using the same ham radio
, transmitting the signal via a freak occurrence of the Northern Lights
. This one action, however, had several undesirable consequences, including the murder of his mother by a vicious killer known as the Nightingale who was supposed to have never been caught. In the original timeline
, when the killer is lying unconscious in the hospital, he dies from a reaction of two medicines that were administered intravenously
into his system. This was due to an oversight on his medical chart, in which the attending male nurse overlooked the fact that it stated that the patient had received a certain medication which could not be mixed with the other. In the alternate timeline, Frank visits his wife, a nurse, at the hospital immediately after surviving the fire in which he was supposed to die. She alters her routine slightly to see him, and of all things she then sees the wrong medication being administered to the killer. She prevents this from happening, and so the killer survives to murder not only her, but several more people; all nurses. Also, this film illustrates a theoretical side effect of the butterfly effect, where John is able to remember the original future time, as well as other alternate future
s that were created each time his father changed something in the past.
In the 1990 movie "Havana" with Robert Redford and Lena Olin, Redford even makes a direct reference to: "And a butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. I believe it. They can even calculate the odds. It just isn't likely and it takes so long." He's referring to the probability of the two of their characters ever getting together. Redford's character was a gambler in late 50's Cuba and Olin was spotted earlier in the movie looking at books on the Theory of Numbers and Probability in the apartment of Redford's character.
In the 2005 movie A Sound of Thunder
(borrowing the title from the Ray Bradbury story mentioned in the next section), an accidental killing of a butterfly literally triggers time waves that change the present bit by bit.
The 2009 Japanese film Fish Story directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura
depicts how a mistake made by an inexperienced translator helps humankind survive more than 50 years after the original mistake itself is made.
The concept is referred to specifically - when describing how Nemo Nobody's parents met - and generally throughout the film Mr. Nobody
(2009). In the plot, multiple stories are told consecutively with the differences being the result of choices made by the main character, Nemo Nobody.
Two episodes of Ugly Betty
viz. "The Butterfly Effect Part 1" and "The Butterfly Effect Part 2".
, wrote about the interconnectedness of nature and the butterfly effect before the term was coined in his books New Lands
(1932) and Wild Talents
(1941). In "New Lands" he makes reference to a migration of birds in New York that could cause a storm in China.
In the 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury
, "A Sound of Thunder
", the killing of a butterfly during the time of dinosaurs causes the future to change in subtle but meaningful ways: e.g., the spelling of English and the outcome of a political election.
The butterfly effect was invoked by fictional chaotician
Ian Malcolm in both the novel Jurassic Park and subsequent film adaptation
. He used it to explain the inherent instability of (among other things) an amusement park with dinosaurs as the attraction.
In Terry Pratchett
's "Interesting Times
," the magical "Quantum Weather Butterfly", whose wings have finite area but infinite length
, has the ability to manipulate weather patterns. These microclimate
s, which the butterfly uses to attract mates and fend off predators, play an important role in the resolution of the plot.
In the 1632 series
of time-travel science fiction by Eric Flint
and David Weber
et al., speculation about the butterfly effect that happens when the West Virginia town of Grantville is instantaneously dropped into 1632 Germany. The speculation is that the events which lead the genetic makeup of a human are so sensitive to chance that every human born in the world changed by the "Ring of Fire" event would be genetically different than they otherwise would have been within a very small period of time, depending on the distance from Germany, but in all cases within a year. Specifically, thousands of sperm vying for entry into an egg would be very sensitive to very small differences in position or timing that would assuredly result in a different sperm winning out, and a different person (a brother or sister, but no closer related than that) being born. The speculation centers especially on the birth of Baruch de Spinoza in Amsterdam a few months following the Ring event.
The (practical) applications are explored in Greg Egan
's Permutation City
. The premise is that if the details of the chaotic system can be determined with sufficient accuracy, then the butterfly effect could be used to leverage small actions into much larger desired consequences. E.g., deliberately flap the butterfly in just the place and time so as to end a drought
, or prevent a hurricane from forming.
Kevin and Kell
refers to Bradbury in the March 10, 1998 strip, which has Coney eating a butterfly while the family is in the Stone Age
. A caption reads "When they return to 1998, they'll discover that a writer named Ray Bradbury
never existed".
In the videogame Second Sight
, main character John Vattic is able to change the present by having flashbacks to six months earlier, where he does things differently, affecting the future; only he remembers the alternate futures.
In the videogame Resident Evil 2, there's an interesting variation of the butterfly effect. Based on whether or not you choose Claire or Leon to start a new game, the story drastically changes. The alternate scenarios are shown to be caused by whether or not Leon's police cruiser crashes head first into a pole (choosing Claire's scenario first) or the car spins around and crashes back end first (choosing Leon's scenario first). This drastically alters the story, including what happens to several of the supporting characters and who faces specific boss enemies.
The company behind the video game Eve Online, CCP used the Butterfly Effect in one of their advertisements.
The sports blog The Dubious Goals Committee run a feature called The Butterfly Effect, which details how sporting landscapes could have changed based on a single moment in history.
Halloween episode, "Time and Punishment", Homer repeatedly travels back to the time of dinosaurs with a time machine (à la Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder
"). Each time there, Homer's actions (involving intentional and unintentional violence) drastically alter the current universe. Some of the changes include: A totalitarian society with a world dictator (which was Ned Flanders
), a universe where his family is rich and classy and it rains donuts, and a seemingly normal universe, with the exception of everyone having long reptilian tongues.
In the Family Guy
episode "Meet the Quagmires
", Peter, with the help of Death
, repeatedly travels back to the 80's to live up his teenage years and cancel a date with Lois. This leads to her marrying Quagmire and Peter marrying Molly Ringwald
among other things, causing two drastic changes of the present (Chevy Chase
is host of The Tonight Show
, and Al Gore
is president of the United States
) and finally when things seem normal again it turns out Roger from American Dad!
is living with them.
In a 2004 television episode of comedy sitcom Scrubs
called "My Butterfly
", the episode is shown in two parts: The first in which a butterfly lands on a woman sitting in the hospital's waiting room, and the second where time is rewound and the butterfly instead lands on the man next to her. Both halves of the episode show the noticeably (albeit sensationally) different outcomes that stem directly from the original choice of landing locations of this butterfly.
In a first-season episode of the stop-motion animation show Robot Chicken
titled "Operation: Rich in Spirit" there is a sketch where a young boy tries to explain the butterfly effect to a young girl. When the young girl squishes the butterfly, it causes earthquakes in Japan. A Japanese woman retaliates, stepping on a butterfly, which causes a volcano to erupt behind the children. The boy retaliates as well, ripping a butterfly in half, which causes Godzilla to terrorize Japan.
In a second season episode of CSI
titled "Chaos Theory", the entire CSI team investigates a disappearance of a young woman at a local university. Forensics leads them to possible suspects, and possible suspects all have probable motives, but nothing seems to pan out. This leads the team to discuss the "Chaos Theory": when combined, many seemingly innocuous events may have a deadly outcome, and closure is not always within reach.
In a third season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled The Wish, Cordelia
, upset after catching her boyfriend Xander
kissing their friend Willow
, wishes "that Buffy Summers
had never come to Sunnydale
" while talking to the vengeance demon Anyanka
. She fulfills that wish and the world changes: now they're in an alternative reality in which Buffy has not come to Sunnydale (becoming instead the resident slayer for the Hellmouth in Cleveland) and the vampire population has multiplied and gained in power, to the point that Xander and Willow are the Master's lieutenants. Giles
meets with Cordelia before she dies and manages to discern what has happened. He subsequently summons Anyanka and destroys her necklace. As a result, Anya is made mortal again and the world returns to normal.
A Malcolm in the Middle
episode shows Hal and Lois arguing about which one of them will take Malcolm and Reese to bowling
and which one will stay at home with Dewey. After that, the episode will show two timelines: one where Lois takes them and another one where Hal takes them. An event from the timeline where Lois goes to the bowling is shown as a flashback
in a later episode, implying that timeline to be the one in canon.
A Star Trek: Voyager
episode "Year of Hell" features a large starship that is capable of erasing objects of various sizes from time, often introducing other consequences into the timeline. The original timeline is restored by causing the ship to erase itself, and therefore preventing all the erasures it had caused from ever happening.
In the series 3 episode of Doctor Who
called The Shakespeare Code
, Martha
says that she's worried about that she can change the future of human race by stepping on the butterfly after landing in Elizabethan London (à la Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder
)- Which Doctor
acknowledges as " I'll tell you what then, don't.... step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you?" In the season 4 episode called Turn Left
, Donna
has a parallel universe created around her where she turns right instead of left, at the request of her mother, thus taking a different job that results in her not meeting The Doctor. As a result The Doctor dies fighting the Racnoss, and millions of people die from events The Doctor prevented in the original timeline. It is not until Rose Tyler, with the aid of UNIT and the TARDIS, sends this alternate Donna back in time to before the choice was made. Donna proceeds to jump out in front of a Truck, causing a traffic jam making it impossible for Donna's Car to turn right, so she turns left, and correct time is restored.
In an episode of Frasier
entitled "Sliding Frasiers", the story switches off between the possible two storylines/outcomes if Frasier was to wear a sweater vs. a suit. The title is a play on "Sliding Doors" (see above).
An episode of the third season of Heroes
was entitled "The Butterfly Effect
", in which the character of Peter Petrelli
travels from the future to alter the timeline caused by his brother Nathan
revealing the existence of humans with special abilities. His mother, Angela
, who has the power of precognitive dreams, is aware of his actions, and warns him that his seemingly minor alterations to the timeline can have major consequences, alluding to Ray Bradbury
's short story A Sound of Thunder
to explain the butterfly effect to Peter.
In the television show Primeval
, the entirety of seasons 2 and 3 are the results of the butterfly effect, caused by Cutter time traveling in the first-season finale. The changes include replacing a character named Claudia Brown with a nearly identical woman named Jennifer Lewis, and causing the team to be based in a headquarters called "The ARC". Being the ones who time traveled, only Cutter and Helen were aware of these changes.
Dennis Miller
touched on the issue in an episode of Dennis Miller Live
, linking the flapping of a butterfly's wings, dislodging some dust, which makes a monkey sneeze, which startles a herd of gazelle into a stampede, which causes a nearby dam to break, sending increased moisture into the air, causing a powerful storm in the upper atmosphere, which causes his cell phone signal to deteriorate and drop calls (which he immediately blames on the butterflies themselves).
The CBS series Early Edition
used the butterfly effect in many of its story lines.
In the SciFi Original Series Eureka
4th season premiere, Titled "Founder's Day", Five people are sent back in time, and when they return, they bring the town's founder with them, causing a change in the timeline.
In the sci-fi anime series and game, Steins;Gate
, the butterfly effect is used extensively in the gameplay and plot, and is the device the main character, Okabe Rintarou, uses to save his friends from their fated deaths. It is also one of the core explanations for the series' science, along with the Many-worlds interpretation
.
band Moonspell
refers to the concept in their 1999 experimental album The Butterfly Effect.
French Singer Bénabar
wrote a song called "l'effet papillon" ( "the Butterfly effect") referring loosely to the concept on his 2008 album Infréquentable.
The Spanish band La Oreja de van Gogh
touches on the effect in their song "Mariposa".
The Australian rock band The Butterfly Effect
is named for the concept.
The song "Butterflies and Hurricanes
" by the English rock band Muse
is also based on the concept of the butterfly effect.
The British rock band The Verve
have touched upon the topic in the songs "Butterfly
" and "Catching the Butterfly
".
Jonathan Coulton
refers to the phenomenon when, in the song "Mandelbrot Set
," he speculates that Benoit Mandelbrot
's birth was preceded by the flapping of a butterfly's wings a million miles away.
Violinist Diana Yukawa
's 2009 pop album is called The Butterfly Effect
.
The American band Red Hot Chili Peppers referenced the idea in their song 'Savior' from their 2000 album 'Californication'.
South Korean hip hop group Epik High
produced a song titled "Butterfly Effect" on their 2008 mini album Lovescream
Butterfly effect
In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state...
is the phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome.
The term is sometimes used in popular media
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
dealing with the idea of time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, usually inaccurately. Most time travel depictions simply fail to address butterfly effects. According to the actual theory, if history could be "changed" at all (so that one is not invoking something like the Novikov self-consistency principle
Novikov self-consistency principle
The Novikov self-consistency principle, also known as the Novikov self-consistency conjecture, is a principle developed by Russian physicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov in the mid-1980s to solve the problem of paradoxes in time travel, which is theoretically permitted in certain solutions of general...
which would ensure a fixed self-consistent timeline), the mere presence of the time travelers in the past would be enough to change short-term events (such as the weather) and would also have an unpredictable impact on the distant future. Therefore, no one who travels into the past could ever return to the same version of reality he or she had come from and could have therefore not been able to travel back in time in the first place, which would create a phenomenon known as time paradox.
Films
In arguably the earliest illustration of the butterfly effect in a story on film, an angel in It's a Wonderful LifeIt's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
(1946) shows George Bailey how rewriting history so that George was never born would detrimentally affect the lives of everyone in his hometown. In a subtle butterfly effect, snow falls in one version of reality but not the other.
The complex plot of the 1985 film Brazil
Brazil (film)
Brazil is a 1985 British science fiction fantasy/black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm...
by Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
is set into motion when a bug gets caught in machinery, changing the arrest order of "Archibald Tuttle" into the innocent "Archibald Buttle."
In the Polish film Blind Chance
Blind Chance
Blind Chance is a Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Made in 1981, the film was suppressed by the Polish authorities for several years, until its delayed release in 1987...
directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
, three parallel outcomes are shown depending on how the protagonist Witek deals with the obstacles on his way to catching a train, and whether he catches it. The film was made in 1981 but only released in 1987, due to suppression by the Polish authorities.
The 1998 British movie Sliding Doors
Sliding Doors
Sliding Doors is a 1998 British-American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, and featured John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Virginia McKenna. The music was composed by David Hirschfelder...
(influenced by Blind Chance) runs two parallel stories of the same woman, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
). In one universe, Helen manages to catch a London Underground train home on time, and in the other she misses it. This small event influenced her life dramatically.
The French film Le Battement d'ailes du papillon (2000), translated as Happenstance in the English release, makes direct references to the butterfly effect in title, dialogue, and theme.
In many cases, minor and seemingly inconsequential actions in the past are extrapolated over time and can have radical effects on the present time of the main characters. In the movie The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American sci-fi psychological thriller film that is written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber and starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart...
(2004), Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
), when reading from his adolescent journals, is able to essentially "redo" parts of his past. As he continues to do this, he realizes that even though his intentions are good, the actions he takes always have unintended consequence
Unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
s. Despite its title, however, this movie does not seriously explore the implications of the butterfly effect; only the lives of the principal characters seem to change from one scenario to another. The greater world around them is mostly unaffected. Furthermore, the changes made in the past of the principal character are far from minor and in that sense the title of the film is a misnomer. An element of the butterfly effect in general terms is that differences in start conditions for different scenario outcomes are virtually undetectable, and consequences are not related to cause in a directly apparent way.
On the other hand, the movie "Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run is a 1998 German crime thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 German marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life...
" (Lola rennt in German - 1998), represents the butterfly effect more clearly. Minor and almost sub-conscious actions in everyday life can be seen to have gross and widespread effects upon the future. For example, the fact that Lola bumps into someone instead of passing by may lead to a painful death after suffering paralysis. As such, seemingly inconsequential actions can be seen to have drastic long-term results. The second film
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 American science fiction comedy film and the second installment of the Back to the Future trilogy. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson...
in the Back to the Future trilogy
Back to the Future trilogy
The Back to the Future trilogy is a comedic science fiction adventure film series written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, directed by Zemeckis, produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The main plot follows the adventures of a high school student Marty McFly and...
also vividly illustrates the cascading and broad effects of what seemed a minor change in the course of events: because the loathsome Biff Tannen
Biff Tannen
Biff Howard Tannen is a character in the Back to the Future trilogy, serving as the primary antagonist of the first two films. He is played by Thomas F. Wilson in all three films as well as the ride, and Wilson voiced the character in the animated series....
accidentally gets his hands on a sports almanac from 2015, he is able to grow rich and corrupt Marty McFly
Marty McFly
Martin Seamus "Marty" McFly, Sr. is the protagonist in the Back to the Future film trilogy, and is portrayed by actor Michael J. Fox. Marty was also the protagonist in the animated series where he was voiced by David Kaufman...
's home town. When McFly (Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...
) returns to 1985, he finds it utterly degraded from what had used to be.
In the 2000 movie Frequency
Frequency (film)
Frequency is a 2000 science-fiction film that contains elements of the time travel, thriller and alternate history film genres. It was directed by Gregory Hoblit and written by Toby Emmerich. The film stars Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel as father and son, Frank and John Sullivan respectively. It...
, a son, John Sullivan (James Caviezel
James Caviezel
James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...
), has an opportunity to prevent the death of his father, Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
), through a miracle of nature in which they were both able to communicate across time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
30 years using the same ham radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
, transmitting the signal via a freak occurrence of the Northern Lights
Aurora (astronomy)
An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere...
. This one action, however, had several undesirable consequences, including the murder of his mother by a vicious killer known as the Nightingale who was supposed to have never been caught. In the original timeline
Timeline
A timeline is a way of displaying a list of events in chronological order, sometimes described as a project artifact . It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labeled with dates alongside itself and events labeled on points where they would have happened.-Uses of timelines:Timelines...
, when the killer is lying unconscious in the hospital, he dies from a reaction of two medicines that were administered intravenously
Intravenous therapy
Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the infusion of liquid substances directly into a vein. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein". Therapies administered intravenously are often called specialty pharmaceuticals...
into his system. This was due to an oversight on his medical chart, in which the attending male nurse overlooked the fact that it stated that the patient had received a certain medication which could not be mixed with the other. In the alternate timeline, Frank visits his wife, a nurse, at the hospital immediately after surviving the fire in which he was supposed to die. She alters her routine slightly to see him, and of all things she then sees the wrong medication being administered to the killer. She prevents this from happening, and so the killer survives to murder not only her, but several more people; all nurses. Also, this film illustrates a theoretical side effect of the butterfly effect, where John is able to remember the original future time, as well as other alternate future
Alternate future
In science fiction stories involving time travel, an alternative future or alternate future is a possible future which never comes to pass, typically because someone travels back into the past and alters it so that the events of the alternative future cannot occur.An alternative future differs from...
s that were created each time his father changed something in the past.
In the 1990 movie "Havana" with Robert Redford and Lena Olin, Redford even makes a direct reference to: "And a butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. I believe it. They can even calculate the odds. It just isn't likely and it takes so long." He's referring to the probability of the two of their characters ever getting together. Redford's character was a gambler in late 50's Cuba and Olin was spotted earlier in the movie looking at books on the Theory of Numbers and Probability in the apartment of Redford's character.
In the 2005 movie A Sound of Thunder
A Sound of Thunder (film)
A Sound of Thunder is a 2005 science fiction film directed by Peter Hyams. The film was planned originally for a 2002 release. However, flooding in Prague and other financial difficulties—including the bankruptcy of the original production company during post-production—resulted in a delayed...
(borrowing the title from the Ray Bradbury story mentioned in the next section), an accidental killing of a butterfly literally triggers time waves that change the present bit by bit.
The 2009 Japanese film Fish Story directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura
Yoshihiro Nakamura
is a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for his 2005 horror film Būsu or The Booth.- Life :He was born on the 25th of August 1970 in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. He went to Seijo University Department of Arts and Literature...
depicts how a mistake made by an inexperienced translator helps humankind survive more than 50 years after the original mistake itself is made.
The concept is referred to specifically - when describing how Nemo Nobody's parents met - and generally throughout the film Mr. Nobody
Mr. Nobody (film)
Mr. Nobody is a 2009 Belgian science fiction drama film directed by Jaco Van Dormael, starring Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Sarah Polley, Natasha Little, Rhys Ifans and Daniel Mays. This movie tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on Earth. Nemo is 118 years old and lives...
(2009). In the plot, multiple stories are told consecutively with the differences being the result of choices made by the main character, Nemo Nobody.
Two episodes of Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
viz. "The Butterfly Effect Part 1" and "The Butterfly Effect Part 2".
Literature and print
Charles FortCharles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Today, the terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print today.-Biography:Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, of Dutch...
, wrote about the interconnectedness of nature and the butterfly effect before the term was coined in his books New Lands
New Lands
New Lands was the second nonfiction book of the author Charles Fort, written in 1925. It deals primarily with astronomical anomalies.Fort expands in this book on his theory about the Super-Sargasso Sea - a place where earthly things supposedly materialize in order to rain down on Earth - as well...
(1932) and Wild Talents
Wild Talents
Wild Talents is the fourth and final nonfiction book written by paranormal author Charles Fort, published in 1932.-Overview:Like Fort's previous works, this book deals largely with a number of anomalous phenomena, as well as his ongoing attack on scientific dogma...
(1941). In "New Lands" he makes reference to a migration of birds in New York that could cause a storm in China.
In the 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, "A Sound of Thunder
A Sound of Thunder
“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. As of 1984 it was the most re-published science fiction story up to the present time...
", the killing of a butterfly during the time of dinosaurs causes the future to change in subtle but meaningful ways: e.g., the spelling of English and the outcome of a political election.
The butterfly effect was invoked by fictional chaotician
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
Ian Malcolm in both the novel Jurassic Park and subsequent film adaptation
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
. He used it to explain the inherent instability of (among other things) an amusement park with dinosaurs as the attraction.
In Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's "Interesting Times
Interesting Times
Interesting Times is the seventeenth novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.The opening lines explain that the title refers to the phrase "may you live in interesting times".-Plot summary:...
," the magical "Quantum Weather Butterfly", whose wings have finite area but infinite length
Fractal
A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...
, has the ability to manipulate weather patterns. These microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
s, which the butterfly uses to attract mates and fend off predators, play an important role in the resolution of the plot.
In the 1632 series
1632 series
The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire series, is an alternate history book series and sub-series created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by Eric Flint and published by Baen Books...
of time-travel science fiction by Eric Flint
Eric Flint
Eric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
and David Weber
David Weber
David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Weber and his wife Sharon live in Greenville, South Carolina with their three children and "a passel of dogs"....
et al., speculation about the butterfly effect that happens when the West Virginia town of Grantville is instantaneously dropped into 1632 Germany. The speculation is that the events which lead the genetic makeup of a human are so sensitive to chance that every human born in the world changed by the "Ring of Fire" event would be genetically different than they otherwise would have been within a very small period of time, depending on the distance from Germany, but in all cases within a year. Specifically, thousands of sperm vying for entry into an egg would be very sensitive to very small differences in position or timing that would assuredly result in a different sperm winning out, and a different person (a brother or sister, but no closer related than that) being born. The speculation centers especially on the birth of Baruch de Spinoza in Amsterdam a few months following the Ring event.
The (practical) applications are explored in Greg Egan
Greg Egan
Greg Egan is an Australian science fiction author.Egan published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness...
's Permutation City
Permutation City
Permutation City is a 1994 science fiction novel by Greg Egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, via various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality. Sections of the story were adapted from Egan's 1992 short story "Dust" which dealt with many of the same...
. The premise is that if the details of the chaotic system can be determined with sufficient accuracy, then the butterfly effect could be used to leverage small actions into much larger desired consequences. E.g., deliberately flap the butterfly in just the place and time so as to end a drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
, or prevent a hurricane from forming.
Interactive media
The webcomicWebcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
Kevin and Kell
Kevin and Kell
Kevin and Kell is a furry comedy webcomic strip by syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook. The strip began on September 3, 1995. It is one of the oldest continuously running webcomics....
refers to Bradbury in the March 10, 1998 strip, which has Coney eating a butterfly while the family is in the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
. A caption reads "When they return to 1998, they'll discover that a writer named Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
never existed".
In the videogame Second Sight
Second Sight (video game)
Second Sight is an action-adventure video game developed by Free Radical Design and published by Codemasters for Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Windows. It was released on September 21, 2004...
, main character John Vattic is able to change the present by having flashbacks to six months earlier, where he does things differently, affecting the future; only he remembers the alternate futures.
In the videogame Resident Evil 2, there's an interesting variation of the butterfly effect. Based on whether or not you choose Claire or Leon to start a new game, the story drastically changes. The alternate scenarios are shown to be caused by whether or not Leon's police cruiser crashes head first into a pole (choosing Claire's scenario first) or the car spins around and crashes back end first (choosing Leon's scenario first). This drastically alters the story, including what happens to several of the supporting characters and who faces specific boss enemies.
The company behind the video game Eve Online, CCP used the Butterfly Effect in one of their advertisements.
The sports blog The Dubious Goals Committee run a feature called The Butterfly Effect, which details how sporting landscapes could have changed based on a single moment in history.
Television
In The SimpsonsThe Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
Halloween episode, "Time and Punishment", Homer repeatedly travels back to the time of dinosaurs with a time machine (à la Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder
A Sound of Thunder
“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. As of 1984 it was the most re-published science fiction story up to the present time...
"). Each time there, Homer's actions (involving intentional and unintentional violence) drastically alter the current universe. Some of the changes include: A totalitarian society with a world dictator (which was Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
), a universe where his family is rich and classy and it rains donuts, and a seemingly normal universe, with the exception of everyone having long reptilian tongues.
In the Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode "Meet the Quagmires
Meet the Quagmires
"Meet the Quagmires" is the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox on May 20, 2007. The episode features Peter after he goes back in time, in order to live the single life a little longer, before he met his wife, Lois...
", Peter, with the help of Death
Death (personification)
The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood...
, repeatedly travels back to the 80's to live up his teenage years and cancel a date with Lois. This leads to her marrying Quagmire and Peter marrying Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, singer and dancer. Having appeared in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles , The Breakfast Club , and Pretty in Pink , Ringwald has been frequently named the greatest teen star of all time...
among other things, causing two drastic changes of the present (Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
is host of The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
, and Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
is president of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) and finally when things seem normal again it turns out Roger from American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
is living with them.
In a 2004 television episode of comedy sitcom Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
called "My Butterfly
My Butterfly
"My Butterfly" is the 16th episode of season three and the 62nd episode overall of the American comedy-drama Scrubs. It originally aired on March 16, 2004 on NBC....
", the episode is shown in two parts: The first in which a butterfly lands on a woman sitting in the hospital's waiting room, and the second where time is rewound and the butterfly instead lands on the man next to her. Both halves of the episode show the noticeably (albeit sensationally) different outcomes that stem directly from the original choice of landing locations of this butterfly.
In a first-season episode of the stop-motion animation show Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
titled "Operation: Rich in Spirit" there is a sketch where a young boy tries to explain the butterfly effect to a young girl. When the young girl squishes the butterfly, it causes earthquakes in Japan. A Japanese woman retaliates, stepping on a butterfly, which causes a volcano to erupt behind the children. The boy retaliates as well, ripping a butterfly in half, which causes Godzilla to terrorize Japan.
In a second season episode of CSI
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
titled "Chaos Theory", the entire CSI team investigates a disappearance of a young woman at a local university. Forensics leads them to possible suspects, and possible suspects all have probable motives, but nothing seems to pan out. This leads the team to discuss the "Chaos Theory": when combined, many seemingly innocuous events may have a deadly outcome, and closure is not always within reach.
In a third season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled The Wish, Cordelia
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
, upset after catching her boyfriend Xander
Xander Harris
Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as in numerous items in the series Expanded Universe, such as comic books, tie-in novels and video games...
kissing their friend Willow
Willow Rosenberg
Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan...
, wishes "that Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
had never come to Sunnydale
Sunnydale
Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror...
" while talking to the vengeance demon Anyanka
Anya Jenkins
Anya is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also appears in the comic book series based on the television show. Portrayed by Emma Caulfield, the character appears as a guest star in the third and fourth seasons of the show before...
. She fulfills that wish and the world changes: now they're in an alternative reality in which Buffy has not come to Sunnydale (becoming instead the resident slayer for the Hellmouth in Cleveland) and the vampire population has multiplied and gained in power, to the point that Xander and Willow are the Master's lieutenants. Giles
Rupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
meets with Cordelia before she dies and manages to discern what has happened. He subsequently summons Anyanka and destroys her necklace. As a result, Anya is made mortal again and the world returns to normal.
A Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...
episode shows Hal and Lois arguing about which one of them will take Malcolm and Reese to bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
and which one will stay at home with Dewey. After that, the episode will show two timelines: one where Lois takes them and another one where Hal takes them. An event from the timeline where Lois goes to the bowling is shown as a flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
in a later episode, implying that timeline to be the one in canon.
A Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
episode "Year of Hell" features a large starship that is capable of erasing objects of various sizes from time, often introducing other consequences into the timeline. The original timeline is restored by causing the ship to erase itself, and therefore preventing all the erasures it had caused from ever happening.
In the series 3 episode of Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
called The Shakespeare Code
The Shakespeare Code
"The Shakespeare Code" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 7 April 2007, and is the second episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 7.23 million viewers and was...
, Martha
Martha Jones
Martha Jones is a fictional character played by Freema Agyeman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. She is a companion of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, replacing Rose Tyler...
says that she's worried about that she can change the future of human race by stepping on the butterfly after landing in Elizabethan London (à la Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder
A Sound of Thunder
“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. As of 1984 it was the most re-published science fiction story up to the present time...
)- Which Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
acknowledges as " I'll tell you what then, don't.... step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you?" In the season 4 episode called Turn Left
Turn Left (Doctor Who)
"Turn Left" is the eleventh episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by showrunner Russell T Davies and broadcast on BBC One on 21 June 2008....
, Donna
Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
has a parallel universe created around her where she turns right instead of left, at the request of her mother, thus taking a different job that results in her not meeting The Doctor. As a result The Doctor dies fighting the Racnoss, and millions of people die from events The Doctor prevented in the original timeline. It is not until Rose Tyler, with the aid of UNIT and the TARDIS, sends this alternate Donna back in time to before the choice was made. Donna proceeds to jump out in front of a Truck, causing a traffic jam making it impossible for Donna's Car to turn right, so she turns left, and correct time is restored.
In an episode of Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
entitled "Sliding Frasiers", the story switches off between the possible two storylines/outcomes if Frasier was to wear a sweater vs. a suit. The title is a play on "Sliding Doors" (see above).
An episode of the third season of Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
was entitled "The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect (Heroes)
"The Butterfly Effect" is the second episode of the third season of the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes and thirty-sixth episode overall. It was written by series creator/executive producer Tim Kring and directed by Greg Beeman...
", in which the character of Peter Petrelli
Peter Petrelli
Peter Petrelli, portrayed by Milo Ventimiglia, is a fictional character on the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes. He is a hospice nurse-turned-paramedic in his mid-20s with the power to absorb and mimic the powers of other people with special abilities, or powers...
travels from the future to alter the timeline caused by his brother Nathan
Nathan Petrelli
Nathan Petrelli, portrayed by Adrian Pasdar, is a fictional character on the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes. He is a New York lawyer-turned-senator with the power of self-propelled flight. Ambitious and pragmatic, Nathan has a decidedly anti-hero streak, which exacerbates his complex...
revealing the existence of humans with special abilities. His mother, Angela
Angela Petrelli
Angela Petrelli , portrayed by Cristine Rose, is a fictional character featured in the television show Heroes. She is the mother of Nathan and Peter Petrelli. The character is based upon the Angela Lansbury character Mrs. Iselin in the film The Manchurian Candidate...
, who has the power of precognitive dreams, is aware of his actions, and warns him that his seemingly minor alterations to the timeline can have major consequences, alluding to Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
's short story A Sound of Thunder
A Sound of Thunder
“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. As of 1984 it was the most re-published science fiction story up to the present time...
to explain the butterfly effect to Peter.
In the television show Primeval
Primeval
Primeval or primæval may refer to:* Primeval, a British science fiction television series.* Primeval , a 2007 film* Primeval , a score of music from the BBC TV series Doctor Who...
, the entirety of seasons 2 and 3 are the results of the butterfly effect, caused by Cutter time traveling in the first-season finale. The changes include replacing a character named Claudia Brown with a nearly identical woman named Jennifer Lewis, and causing the team to be based in a headquarters called "The ARC". Being the ones who time traveled, only Cutter and Helen were aware of these changes.
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
touched on the issue in an episode of Dennis Miller Live
Dennis Miller Live
Dennis Miller Live is a weekly talk show on HBO, hosted by comedian Dennis Miller. The show ran 215 episodes from 1994 to 2002, and received five Emmy awards, plus an additional 11 Emmy nominations...
, linking the flapping of a butterfly's wings, dislodging some dust, which makes a monkey sneeze, which startles a herd of gazelle into a stampede, which causes a nearby dam to break, sending increased moisture into the air, causing a powerful storm in the upper atmosphere, which causes his cell phone signal to deteriorate and drop calls (which he immediately blames on the butterflies themselves).
The CBS series Early Edition
Early Edition
Early Edition is an American television series that aired on CBS from September 28, 1996 to May 27, 2000. Set in the city of Chicago, Illinois, it follows the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before it is actually published, and who uses this...
used the butterfly effect in many of its story lines.
In the SciFi Original Series Eureka
Eureka (TV series)
Eureka is an American science fiction television series that premiered on Syfy on July 18, 2006. Since then four seasons have aired, and a fifth is currently being filmed. The second half of season 4 began on SyFy on July 11, 2011 and ended on September 19, 2011...
4th season premiere, Titled "Founder's Day", Five people are sent back in time, and when they return, they bring the town's founder with them, causing a change in the timeline.
In the sci-fi anime series and game, Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate
is a Japanese visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus, and was released on October 15, 2009 for the Xbox 360. This is the two companies' second time collaborating together after Chaos;Head. A port to the Windows operating system on the PC was released on August 26, 2010 and a port for Sony's...
, the butterfly effect is used extensively in the gameplay and plot, and is the device the main character, Okabe Rintarou, uses to save his friends from their fated deaths. It is also one of the core explanations for the series' science, along with the Many-worlds interpretation
Many-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
.
Music
The Portuguese gothic metalGothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
band Moonspell
Moonspell
Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band from Brandoa, Lisbon. Formed in 1992, the group released their first EP Under the Moonspell in 1994, a year before the release of their first album Wolfheart...
refers to the concept in their 1999 experimental album The Butterfly Effect.
French Singer Bénabar
Bénabar
Bénabar is a French songwriter and singer, who could be compared to Vincent Delerm and other singers from his generation. As many of them he was influenced by Georges Brassens, Renaud, Jacques Higelin and also Tom Waits. His songs describe day-to-day life events with humour and a tender cynicism...
wrote a song called "l'effet papillon" ( "the Butterfly effect") referring loosely to the concept on his 2008 album Infréquentable.
The Spanish band La Oreja de van Gogh
La Oreja de Van Gogh
La Oreja de Van Gogh is a Latin Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated Spanish pop band from Donostia-San Sebastian. The name of the band refers to the famous post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh who cut off the lobe of his own ear...
touches on the effect in their song "Mariposa".
The Australian rock band The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect (band)
The Butterfly Effect are an alternative metal band from Brisbane, Australia, formed in 1999. The band consists of Clint Boge , Ben Hall , Glenn Esmond and Kurt "Puddles" Goedhart . Their debut album received high rotation play on influential radio station Triple J.-The Butterfly Effect EP:The band...
is named for the concept.
The song "Butterflies and Hurricanes
Butterflies and Hurricanes
"Butterflies and Hurricanes" is a song by Muse from their third album, Absolution, and was the last single released from the album. It was one of two songs recorded with a string section, both of which were recorded, along with an early version of "Apocalypse Please", during the initial stages of...
" by the English rock band Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
is also based on the concept of the butterfly effect.
The British rock band The Verve
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
have touched upon the topic in the songs "Butterfly
A Storm in Heaven
A Storm in Heaven is the debut studio album by English rock band The Verve , released in June 1993 on the Hut Recordings label...
" and "Catching the Butterfly
Urban Hymns
Urban Hymns is the third album by English rock band The Verve, released on 29 September 1997 on Hut Recordings. It earned nearly unanimous critical praise upon its release, and went on to become the band's best-selling release and one of the biggest selling albums of the year...
".
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...
refers to the phenomenon when, in the song "Mandelbrot Set
Mandelbrot set
The Mandelbrot set is a particular mathematical set of points, whose boundary generates a distinctive and easily recognisable two-dimensional fractal shape...
," he speculates that Benoit Mandelbrot
Benoît Mandelbrot
Benoît B. Mandelbrot was a French American mathematician. Born in Poland, he moved to France with his family when he was a child...
's birth was preceded by the flapping of a butterfly's wings a million miles away.
Violinist Diana Yukawa
Diana Yukawa
is an Anglo-Japanese solo violinist. She has had two solo albums with BMG Japan, one of which opened to #1.-Early life:Diana Yukawa was born in Tokyo, Japan to English ballet dancer Susanne Bayly and Japanese banker Akihisa Yukawa one month after her father died in the 1985 Japan Airlines Flight...
's 2009 pop album is called The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect (Diana Yukawa album)
The Butterfly Effect is the third album by violinist Diana Yukawa. It is expected to be released worldwide in 2010.- Track listing :# Overture # Flying# Children# Sail Into The Sunset# My Instinct...
.
The American band Red Hot Chili Peppers referenced the idea in their song 'Savior' from their 2000 album 'Californication'.
South Korean hip hop group Epik High
Epik High
Epik High is a South Korean indie hip hop group from Seoul, South Korea. The group is composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz...
produced a song titled "Butterfly Effect" on their 2008 mini album Lovescream
Lovescream
LoveScream is the first EP by Korean hip hop group Epik High, released on September 30, 2008-Track listings:1. Butterfly Effect2. Fallin' 3. Harajuku Days4. 습관...
External links
- The meaning of the butterfly: Why pop culture loves the 'butterfly effect,' and gets it totally wrong, Peter Dizikes, Boston Globe, June 8, 2008