complex in relation to time and causality. One of the central connections between all of the main characters is the rifle. Over the course of the movie, the viewer finds out that Yasujiro Wataya visits Morocco for a hunting trip and gives the rifle as a gift to his guide, Hassan Ibrahim, who then sells it to Abdullah from where it gets passed on to his sons. Susan Jones, in turn, is shot with that very same rifle which also has a tragic impact on Amelia Hernández' life. It is observable that "all characters are affected by the connections created between them – connections that influence both their individual trajectories as characters and the overall structure of the plot". It shows how a single object can serve as a connection between many different characters (or nodes in a network) who do not necessarily need to know each other. Even though the rifle is not passed on any further, it continues to influence the characters' lives in significant ways. This demonstrates how the smallest actions on one side of the world can ultimately lead to a complete change of another person's life elsewhere, without there being any form of direct contact between the two (also see Butterfly effect). It also creates a small-world effect, in which "characters will intersect again and again" either directly or indirectly and mostly by accident. As Maria Poulaki observes, characters in network narratives "meet and separate not because of the characters' purposeful actions but as an outcome of pure chance". Cast Morocco Brad Pitt as Richard Jones Cate Blanchett as Susan Jones Mohamed Akhzam as Anwar Peter Wight as Tom Harriet Walter as Lilly Michael Maloney as James Driss Roukhe as Alarid Boubker Ait El Caid as Yussef Said Tarchani as Ahmed Mustapha Rachidi as Abdullah Abdelkader Bara as Hassan Wahiba Sahmi as Zohra Robert Fyfe as Tourist Number 14 United States/Mexico Adriana Barraza as Amelia Hernández Gael García Bernal as Santiago Elle Fanning as Debbie Jones Nathan Gamble as Mike Jones Clifton Collins, Jr. as Police Officer at Mexican border. Michael Peña as Officer John Japan Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko Wataya Kōji Yakusho as Yasujiro Wataya Satoshi Nikaido as Detective Kenji Mamiya Yuko Murata as Mitsu Shigemitsu Ogi as Dentist Chieko attempts to seduce. Ayaka Komatsu as Bikini Model in TV Commercial (uncredited). Production Writing In one of the earlier drafts of the script written