The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

Sam Reide wakes in an ice-filled bathtub after witnessing a woman's murder, and discovers he can travel back in time by inhabiting his younger body. His sister Jenna monitors his vital signs from the apartment, hinting at a dangerous, secret power. The setup establishes that Sam's actions in the past can ripple into the present.

Elizabeth, Rebecca's sister, arrives at Sam's apartment with a mission. She has read Rebecca's diary and believes Lonnie Flennons is innocent, pressing Sam to uncover the real killer. Sam agrees to help, recognizing his time-travel skill could expose the truth.

Sam meets Goldburg, the man who tutors him on time travel, who lays out the cardinal rules: do not alter the past and never travel with your body unsupervised. Goldburg warns that breaking these rules could unravel reality. The meeting frames the moral cost of Sam's future actions.

Back when Sam was fifteen, a house fire killed Jenna. Sam travels back to save her, but the alteration triggers a different tragedy: their parents die as a consequence of changing the timeline. The example shows that changing the past has dire, unintended consequences.

Sam agrees to help Elizabeth and travels to June 6, 1998. He encounters a drunken Elizabeth and tells her to stay in her car, then discovers Rebecca is dead. Elizabeth herself dies in her car, sealing the murder as an unsolved case.

Back in the present, Sam finds his life has changed: he no longer owns a car, doesn't work for the police, and rents out his couch. He is now a former suspect in Rebecca's murder who keeps asking for the case file. The changed present shows the fragility of his timeline.

Sam visits Lonnie, now a wheelchair-bound lawyer, who explains that on the night of the murder he drove past Sam and Elizabeth and did nothing. The confession adds a new layer of guilt and shifts in the killer's identities.

Goldburg appears again and suggests Sam return to the site of the third murder but observe only. Sam agrees to test the limits without altering the scene further. The plan keeps him from becoming a perpetrator while keeping a watchful eye on events.

Jenna checks on Sam and is better off, living more cleanly, but she refuses to help him with his plan. Her stance underscores a growing rift and the danger of their shared power. The relationship remains strained as Sam continues to experiment with time.

Sam travels back again and witnesses Anita, the third victim, being attacked by her boyfriend who indulges a sexual fantasy. Sam is discovered, and the assault sends him back to the present. Anita survives, and she pepper-sprays Sam when he approaches.

Jenna warns that Goldburg intends to implicate Sam and fears a future version of Sam could be a killer; she demands he stop time-traveling. A drunken Sam propositions Vicki, who is now engaged, and shortly after the killer murders Vicki.

With the bar receipt left behind, the police question Sam. Jenna helps him avoid arrest, but he remains under surveillance. He takes Detective Glenn's evidence notebook and uses it to travel back to before the bodies were found, trying to set things right.

Sam returns to the present to find himself on Jenna's couch; Jenna leaves for work and their roles are reversed. He then goes to the auto plant, where police arrest him, but he convinces Glenn to release him by recounting a personal memory. The quirky alibi buys him time to plan.

Back home, Sam inhales burundanga flowers from Goldburg's greenhouse and time-travels to the auto plant, where he finds Goldburg severely injured. He tries to help but is felled by a foothold trap. The sequence reveals the limits of his power and the danger to those he loves.

Jenna is revealed as the killer and time-traveler with an incestuous fixation on Sam. Sam travels back to the day of the fire to stop Jenna, but instead traps her in her burning room, triggering a final timeline where he is married to Elizabeth with a daughter named Jenna. He awakens at a family barbecue, greeted by his past and a healthier Goldburg, yet a fashion doll burning on the grill hints at a dark, unreliable future.