Parents Guide for
The Butterfly Effect (2004) More at IMDbPro »

Scenes of mildly explicit sex and nudity. Implications of child molestation.

-A man walks in on his room mate and his girlfriend having sex. (We see her bare breasts and movement under the sheets.) She gets up to leave and the man appears to be masturbating under the sheets. (Movement is seen)

-A woman steps out of the shower, she is fully nude. (We see her bare breasts and vagina.)

-A woman and a man are lying in bed, nude under the sheets. They briefly talk about what just happened.

-A man and woman are having sex in a bed. (We hear moaning and the bed squeaking.

-A man makes two young children act in a porn film (a boy and girl). They are nude but nothing is seen. A man asks them to take their clothes off with a camera on them. Again, no nudity in this scene, other than the boy's bare chest, but nothing graphic.

-A man tries to repeatedly rape another man. The man agrees to perform oral sex on him but as he's about to do it, he stabs him instead.

-A waitress bends down after dropping some plates. A man smacks her bottom.

This movie contains violent/disturbing scenes. Some involve children and animals.

-A boy puts an explosive in a mailbox. We see different outcomes (according to how the main character changes his past etc). One outcome concludes with a woman holding a baby opening the mailbox and setting the explosive off; killing both herself and the baby (we don't see it happen but a news report indicates the scene was 'gruesome.'). The other outcome involves a boy rushing towards the mailbox and being blown back (we see him later on in a wheelchair with his arms missing.) (Disturbing outcomes on both).

-A boy puts a dog in a bag, spraying it with lighter fluid and lights a stick on fire. There are different outcomes. One outcome involves the boy hitting a girl with a wooden board, knocking her unconcious. He hits another boy in the stomach with the board. There is a smouldering bag near to him (implying the dog is still inside and is now dead). Second outcomes sees a boy being hit on the head with a board and being kicked in the stomach. Another boy is seen igniting a bag with a whimpering dog inside. A boy threatens another boy who has a stick in his hand. He says he will "slit your mother's throat in her sleep". The last outcomes concludes with a boy hitting a girl across the face with a board (we see a gash across her cheek). Another boy stabs a boy in the back with a metal shard and the boy lies dead. A boy on the ground is hit repeatedly with a stick on his back and legs and is kicked. The boy on the ground sprays his attacker in the face, punching him and hitting him on the head with a stick, killing him. (These scenes are quite disturbing as the dog is hurt/killed and the fights all involve kids around 12-14 years old.)

-Two men unfasten their trousers. One man gets on his knees, ready to perform oral sex on the other (He is being forced to). He then pulls out a knife and stabs him. (We see blood on their crotches and stomachs.)

-A young man trips up another young man who then turns around and hits him in the face with a metal pole. He then punches and kicks repeatedly.

-A man attacks a boy and tries to strangle him. The man is hit in the back of the head by a guard (we see blood pooling around the man's head). We then see the man's funeral. (We see the attack a few times but he only dies once.)

-A boy slams his hand down onto wire paper holders. (We don't see the aftermath.)

-A man grabs a young man's crotch and threatens him with sodomy and death.

-A boy threatens a man with castration.

-A man punches a young man in the face and grabs him by the hair.

-We hear that a young woman has commited suicide. A young man tries to drown himself in a bathtub.

-A boy threatens a man with an explosive. The explosive rolls towards a girl who picks it up. It explodes and kills her. (We only hear the explosion.)

-A young man has seizures which cause him to thrash around violently and bleed from his nose. (This happens numerous times throughout the film.)

-A man hits his young son on the head and threatens him.

-A young man shoves another young man against a bookshelf and threatens him.

-A young man bounces a pool ball of a table which then lands on a group of people's table, breaking their pitcher of beer. They rise in a threatening manner, making the young man sit back down.

-A young man pushes another against a wall.

-Men yell at a young man entering a prison.

-A boy is hypnotized to recall his past memories. He begins to convulse and his nose bleeds.

-A boy lies motionless on the ground in shock.

-A girl has handprint-shaped bruises on her arm. (It's implied that her father abuses her.)

-A man is strapped to a bed in a hospital.

-A young woman has a scar across her cheek. A young man has a burn mark on his stomach from a cigarette.

-A young man vomits on himself in his sleep. This wakes him up.

51 F-words and derivatives, 7 sexual references, 22 scatological terms, 16 anatomical terms, 16 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for Hispanic-Americans (s**c), 1 derogatory term for African-Americans (n****r), 2 derogatory terms for homosexuals, 4 religious profanities, 5 religious exclamations.

Scenes of drinking. A man briefly smokes marijuana. Children are seen smoking cigarettes.

The movie is about a young man with a particularly traumatic life. It contains many disturbing scenes including death, violence, abuse and cruelty. Some involve animals and children. There's also themes of suicide, murder, child abuse and prostitution.