The film’s title is an allusion to a line of Alexander Pope’s poem "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot": “Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?” The line is usually interpreted as questioning why someone would put massive effort into achieving something minor or unimportant, or who would punish a minor offender with a disproportional punishment.
butterfly | Madama Butterfly | Butterfly | Iron Butterfly | Ferris wheel | Swallowtail butterfly | Four Wheel Drive | The Wheel of Time | Monarch butterfly | M. Butterfly | Four-wheel drive | four-wheel drive | Catherine Wheel | Butterfly stroke | Falkirk Wheel | Wheel Squad | Swimming at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 50 metre butterfly | Pelton wheel | Heart Like a Wheel | front-wheel drive | The Butterfly Effect | Small Heath (butterfly) | Julia Butterfly Hill | Joe Butterfly | International versions of Wheel of Fortune | Front-wheel drive | El Segundo blue butterfly | Diary of a Butterfly | Breaking wheel | Wheel of Time |