A Sound of Thunder

This article is about the short story by Ray Bradbury. For other uses, see Sound of Thunder (disambiguation).

"A Sound of Thunder" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier's magazine on June 28, 1952, and later in Bradbury's 1953 collection The Golden Apples of the Sun.^[1]

"A Sound of Thunder"
Short story by Ray Bradbury
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Published in	Collier's
Publication date	June 28, 1952

Plot

In the year 2055, time travel is a practical reality, and the company Time Safari Inc. offers wealthy adventurers the chance to travel back in time to hunt extinct species such as dinosaurs. A hunter named Eckels pays the company to travel to the Mesozoic to hunt a Tyrannosaurus rex. The company emphasizes strict rules to avoid altering the future, such as staying on a levitating path and only shooting marked animals destined to die naturally. Eckels, joined by other hunters and guided by Travis and Lesperance, is warned about the catastrophic consequences of even minor disruptions to the past, like killing a single mouse, which could cascade through time and alter history.

During the hunt, Eckels panics upon seeing the massive Tyrannosaurus and steps off the path, despite warnings. The group kills the dinosaur, but Travis discovers Eckels' footprints off the path and forces him to retrieve bullets from the corpse to prevent further disruption. Upon returning to 2055, subtle changes in the air, colors, and a sign's spelling indicate the timeline has shifted. Eckels finds a dead butterfly on his boot, realizing his misstep altered history. The presidential election outcome has changed, with the authoritarian Deutscher winning instead of Keith. Devastated by the realization that his small action caused a dystopian future, Eckels faces Travis' wrath, and the story ends with a gunshot, implied to be Travis killing Eckels.

Adaptations

A comic-book version appeared in issue #25 of EC Comics's Weird Science-Fantasy (1954), adapted by Al Feldstein with art by Al Williamson and Angelo Torres.^[2]

The story was adapted for the first issue of Topp's Publishing's Ray Bradbury Comics (1993) with art by Richard Corben.^[3]

The story was adapted for the fourth season episode six of The Ray Bradbury Theater on October 8, 1989, starring Kiel Martin.^[4]

A film adaptation of the same name starring Ben Kingsley, Edward Burns, and Catherine McCormack was released in 2005.^[5] Famed film critic Roger Ebert stated that while he "cannot endorse it, [he] can appreciate it" as a film that is bad because it "want[s] so much to be terrific that [it] explode[s] under the strain."^[5]

A Game Boy Advance video game based on the film was also released. It was finished in time for the film's planned 2003 release, delayed along with it, and ultimately released in February 2005.^[6] Planned console ports were canceled.

The story is parodied in the Time and Punishment section of The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror V".^[7]

The story is referenced in a brief scene at the beginning of the Doctor Who episode "Space Babies".^[8]

The story is mentioned by the protagonists in the novel 11/22/63 by Stephen King on page 648.

Influence

"A Sound of Thunder" is often credited as the origin of the term "butterfly effect", a concept of chaos theory in which the flapping of a butterfly's wings in one part of the world could create a hurricane on the opposite side of the globe. The term was actually introduced by meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz in the 1960s. However, Bradbury's concept of how the death of a butterfly in the past could have drastic changes in the future is a representation of the butterfly effect and is used as an example of how to consider chaos theory and the physics of time travel.^[9]

See also

• "A Gun for Dinosaur" – Short story by L. Sprague de Camp