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			{{Short description\|1952 science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury}}
	:''For the film adaptation, see ]''.
			{{About\|the short story by Ray Bradbury\|other uses\|Sound of Thunder (disambiguation)}}
			{{Use American English\|date=December 2022}}
			{{Use mdy dates\|date=December 2022}}
			{{Infobox short story
			\| name = A Sound of Thunder
			\| title_orig =
			\| translator =
			\| author = ]
			\| country = ]
			\| language = ]
			\| series =
			\| published_in = '']''
			\| pub_date = June 28, 1952
			\| genre = ]
			}}
			"'''A Sound of Thunder'''" is a ] ] by American writer ], first published in '']'' magazine on June 28, 1952, and later in Bradbury's 1953 collection '']''.<ref name="Birx2009">{{cite book\|last=Birx\|first=H. James\|title=Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3ddWSxmi9cC&pg=PA109\|access-date=November 22, 2015\|date=January 13, 2009\|publisher=Sage Publications\|isbn=9781412941648\|pages=109–}}</ref>

		⚫	==Plot summary==
	'''"A Sound of Thunder"''' is a ] ] by ], first published in '']'' magazine in 1952. It was reprinted in his collections '']'' (1953), '']'' (1962), '']'' (1980), and '']'' (2005). It was later reprinted in ]. The ] Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections lists it as the first of the top ten most republished science fiction stories
			In the year 2055, ] has become 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 ]. A hunter named Eckels pays $10,000 to join a hunting party that will travel back 65 million years to the ] period, on a guided safari to kill a '']''. As the party waits to depart, they discuss the recent presidential elections in which a candidate, Deutscher, has been defeated by his opponent Keith, to the relief of many concerned.

			When the party arrives in the past, Travis, the hunting guide, and his assistant warn Eckels and the two other hunters about the necessity of minimizing the events they change before they go back, since even the smallest alterations to the distant past could snowball into catastrophic changes in history. Travis explains that the hunters are obliged to stay on a levitating path to avoid disrupting the environment, any deviation will be punished with hefty fines and prosecution, Time Safari scouts had been sent back to select and tag prey whose death will have minimal effect on the future prior to the hunt, and the time machine "steps aside" to prevent people from encountering themselves in the past.
⚫	==Plot==
	This well-known story about ] revolves around a business called Time Safari, Inc. Time Safari promises to take people back in time so they can hunt ] animals, such as '']''.

			Although Eckels is initially excited about the hunt, when the monstrous ''Tyrannosaurus'' approaches, he loses his nerve. Travis tells him to go back to the time machine, but Eckels panics, steps off the path, and stumbles into the forest. The other four shoot and kill the dinosaur and see that Eckels has found his way back to the time machine. Travis threatens to leave him in the past before ordering him to remove the bullets from the dinosaur's body, as they cannot be left behind.
	In order to avoid a ], they are very careful to leave history undisturbed on the principle that even the slightest change can cause major changes in the future. Travelers are only allowed to shoot animals that are already about to die, and they are required to stay on a path which hovers slightly above the ground. ] are not taken; no ] is allowed except a ] of the hunter standing next to the dead monster.

			Upon returning to 2055, Eckels and the rest of the party notice major changes; English words are now spelled ], and worst of all, Deutscher has won the election to the approval of the ] populace. Looking at the mud on his boots, Eckels finds a crushed golden butterfly, whose death has apparently changed the nature of the alternative present to which the safari has returned. He frantically pleads to undo the damage, and the story ends on a gunshot fired by Travis.
	{{spoiler}}

			==Adaptations==
	In the story, a hunter simply known as "Eckels" is about to embark on his trip. A ] man named Keith had just won the presidential election the day before, defeating a supposed ] named Deutscher. He seems jittery in the time machine, and when he sees the tyrannosaurus, he seems scared and declares killing the ] impossible, and wants to leave. His guide, Lesperance, who is trying to kill the dinosaur himself, tells him he can leave, but Eckels goes the wrong way and veers off the path. Lesperance and the other guide, Mr. Travis, manage to kill the dinosaur but when they go back to the time machine Travis is furious when he sees Eckels' boots, realizing he went off the path. Travis threatens to leave Eckels in the past, but he lets him back on if Eckels removes the bullets from the dinosaur's body, as they couldn't be left in the past.
			A comic-book version appeared in issue #25 of ]'s '']'' (1954), adapted by ] with art by ] and ].<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://www.comics.org/issue/11548/#99449/ \|title=Weird Science-Fantasy #3 \|publisher=Grand Comics Database \|access-date=February 4, 2019}}</ref>

			The story was adapted for the first issue of Topp's Publishing's ''Ray Bradbury Comics'' (1993) with art by ].<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://www.comics.org/issue/52596/ \|title=Ray Bradbury Comics #1 \|website=TV.com \|date=May 22, 2007 \|access-date=October 5, 2013}}</ref>
	Upon returning to the ], Eckels notices subtle changes. English ] is different, people and buildings are different, and, worst of all, Deutscher has won the election. Looking at his boots, the man finds a crushed ], apparently the cause of the changes. He pleads to Travis to go back into the past, but Travis refuses and fires his rifle. It is left untold what he shoots, although it is presumed that he kills Eckels. The dark ending is the meaning of the title (the story's final words are "There was a sound of thunder".)

			The story was adapted for the fourth season episode six of '']'' on October 8, 1989, starring ].<ref>{{cite web \|url=http://www.tv.com/shows/the-ray-bradbury-theater/a-sound-of-thunder-110331/ \|title=The Ray Bradbury Theater — Season 4, Episode 6: A Sound of Thunder \|website=TV.com \|access-date=February 4, 2019 \|archive-date=November 6, 2016 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106205026/http://www.tv.com/shows/the-ray-bradbury-theater/a-sound-of-thunder-110331/ \|url-status=dead }}</ref>
	The story is a fictional exploration of the ] (or "sensitive dependence upon initial conditions," in the words of ]) through the literary device of ]. Interestingly, the story pre-dates the work of Edward Lorenz by nearly 10 years, long before the term was coined and the principles understood by the ]. The same effect occurs in planetary dynamics and was studied by ] in the 1900's, but not under its modern name. These subjects are grouped into the mathematical field of ].

			A ] starring ], ], and ] was released in 2005.<ref name="Ebert2013">{{cite book\|last=Ebert \|first=Roger\| author-link= Roger Ebert\| title=Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SbAEim_dVQkC&pg=PA648\| access-date= November 22, 2015\|date=February 5, 2013\| publisher= Andrews McMeel Publishing\|isbn=9780740792199\|pages=648–}}</ref> Famed film critic ] stated that while he "cannot endorse it, can appreciate it" as a film that is bad because it "want so much to be terrific that explode under the strain."<ref name= "Ebert2013"/>
	==Alternate media versions==

	*The ] comic book '']'' published an adaptation in 1954, illustrated by ].
			A ] ] 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.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://ca.ign.com/articles/2005/03/02/a-sound-of-thunder-2 \|title=A Sound of Thunder \|publisher= IGN \| work= ca.ign.com \|date=March 2, 2005 \|access-date=October 5, 2013}}</ref> Planned console ports were canceled.
	*The story was ] on ] in 1984, on '']''.

	*An episode of '']'' featured this story.
			The story is parodied in the ''Time and Punishment'' section of '']'' episode "]."<ref name="RogersStevens2015">{{cite book\|last1=Rogers\|first1=Brett M.\|last2=Stevens\|first2=Benjamin Eldon\|title=Classical Traditions in Science Fiction\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eA27BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA322\|access-date=November 22, 2015\|date=February 9, 2015\|publisher=Oxford University Press\|isbn=9780190228330\|pages=322}}</ref>
	*It was ] in the ] ], ].

	*This was also parodied in the cartoon ] episode, ], when Harvey Birdman, ], Avenger, Peanut, and Phil go to the time of the dinosaurs by accident. Phil gets Peanut to round up some hunters and they kill off many wild dinos.
			The story is referenced in a brief scene at the beginning of the '']'' episode "]."<ref name="DoctorWho2024">{{cite AV media \|people=Gatwa, Ncuti (actor) and Gibson, Millie (actor) \|date=May 4, 2024 \|title=The Butterfly Effect! {{!}} PREVIEW {{!}} Space Babies {{!}} Doctor Who \|trans-title= \|type=YouTube preview \|language=English \|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHGW3PlUKMY \|access-date=June 10, 2024 \|archive-url= \|archive-date= \|format= \|time= \|location= \|publisher=BBC Studios \|id= \|isbn= \|oclc= \|quote= }}</ref>
	*A ] game of the same title, and based upon this story, was released by ] in ].

	*A song by ], "Sound of Thunder", is based on the story.
			The story is mentioned by the protagonists in the novel '']'' by ] on page 648.
	*A ] inspired by the ] was released in ]

	*The ] film '']'' . The plot appears to be loosely based on the original story, starting off where Bradbury ended. This movie was originally slated to appear in ], but flooding on location postponed the production.
			==Influence==
			"A Sound of Thunder" is often credited as the origin of the term "]", a concept of ] 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 ] 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 ] and the physics of time travel.<ref>{{Cite web \| url = http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/evolution/Time-and-The-Physics-of-Ray-Bradbury--.html \| title = The Physics of Ray Bradbury's 'A Sound of Thunder' \| work = ] \| date = June 15, 2012 \| access-date = September 2, 2015 \| first= Faye \| last = Flam}}</ref>

			==See also==
			* {{annotated link\|A Gun for Dinosaur\|"A Gun for Dinosaur"}}

	==References==		==References==
			{{Reflist\|35em}}
	===Story===

	*
			==Further reading==
	*
			* {{Cite book \|last=Paradowski \|first=Robert J. \|chapter=Ray Bradbury \|title=Critical Survey Of Long Fiction \|edition=4th \|year=2010 \|pages=1–9 \|publisher=Literary Reference Center}}
	*
			* {{Cite book \|last=Weller \|first=Sam \|title=The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury \|location=New York \|publisher=William Morrow \|year=2005}}
	*
			* {{Cite journal \|last=Holmes \|first=Neil \|title=Fateful butterfly \|journal=New Scientist \|volume=182 \|issue=2443 \|year=2004 \|page=31 \|url=https://www.newscientist.com/letter/mg18224435-500-fateful-butterfly/}}

			==External links==
			{{Spoken Misplaced Pages\|20120607 wiki ASoundOfThunder.ogg\|date=June 7, 2012}}
			* {{ISFDB title\|id=61488}}
		⚫	* {{IMDb title \| 0683183 \| A Sound of Thunder}}

			{{Ray Bradbury\|state=collapsed}}
	===Other media===
			{{Authority control}}
	*
⚫	* {{~~imdb~~ title\|~~id=0318081~~\|~~title=~~A Sound of Thunder}}
	*
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	*

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Latest revision as of 13:13, 18 December 2024

1952 science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury This article is about the short story by Ray Bradbury. For other uses, see Sound of Thunder (disambiguation).

"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

"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.

Plot summary

In the year 2055, time travel has become 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 $10,000 to join a hunting party that will travel back 65 million years to the Late Cretaceous period, on a guided safari to kill a Tyrannosaurus rex. As the party waits to depart, they discuss the recent presidential elections in which a candidate, Deutscher, has been defeated by his opponent Keith, to the relief of many concerned.

When the party arrives in the past, Travis, the hunting guide, and his assistant warn Eckels and the two other hunters about the necessity of minimizing the events they change before they go back, since even the smallest alterations to the distant past could snowball into catastrophic changes in history. Travis explains that the hunters are obliged to stay on a levitating path to avoid disrupting the environment, any deviation will be punished with hefty fines and prosecution, Time Safari scouts had been sent back to select and tag prey whose death will have minimal effect on the future prior to the hunt, and the time machine "steps aside" to prevent people from encountering themselves in the past.

Although Eckels is initially excited about the hunt, when the monstrous Tyrannosaurus approaches, he loses his nerve. Travis tells him to go back to the time machine, but Eckels panics, steps off the path, and stumbles into the forest. The other four shoot and kill the dinosaur and see that Eckels has found his way back to the time machine. Travis threatens to leave him in the past before ordering him to remove the bullets from the dinosaur's body, as they cannot be left behind.

Upon returning to 2055, Eckels and the rest of the party notice major changes; English words are now spelled phonetically, and worst of all, Deutscher has won the election to the approval of the pro-fascist populace. Looking at the mud on his boots, Eckels finds a crushed golden butterfly, whose death has apparently changed the nature of the alternative present to which the safari has returned. He frantically pleads to undo the damage, and the story ends on a gunshot fired by Travis.

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.

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

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

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

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. Planned console ports were canceled.

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

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

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.

References

Birx, H. James (January 13, 2009). Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture. Sage Publications. pp. 109–. ISBN 9781412941648. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
"Weird Science-Fantasy #3". Grand Comics Database. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
"Ray Bradbury Comics #1". TV.com. May 22, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
"The Ray Bradbury Theater — Season 4, Episode 6: A Sound of Thunder". TV.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
^ Ebert, Roger (February 5, 2013). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007. Andrews McMeel Publishing. pp. 648–. ISBN 9780740792199. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
"A Sound of Thunder". ca.ign.com. IGN. March 2, 2005. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
Rogers, Brett M.; Stevens, Benjamin Eldon (February 9, 2015). Classical Traditions in Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. p. 322. ISBN 9780190228330. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
Gatwa, Ncuti (actor) and Gibson, Millie (actor) (May 4, 2024). The Butterfly Effect! | PREVIEW | Space Babies | Doctor Who (YouTube preview). BBC Studios. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
Flam, Faye (June 15, 2012). "The Physics of Ray Bradbury's 'A Sound of Thunder'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved September 2, 2015.

External links

Listen to this article (4 minutes)

This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 7 June 2012 (2012-06-07), and does not reflect subsequent edits.(Audio help · More spoken articles)

A Sound of Thunder title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
A Sound of Thunder at IMDb

v t e Ray Bradbury
Bibliography (Short fiction)
Novels	The Martian Chronicles (1950) Fahrenheit 451 (1953) Dandelion Wine (1957) Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) The Halloween Tree (1972) Death Is a Lonely Business (1985) A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990) Green Shadows, White Whale (1992) From the Dust Returned (2001) Let's All Kill Constance (2002) Farewell Summer (2006)
Short stories	"Hollerbochen's Dilemma" (1938) "The Scythe" (1943) "I, Rocket" (1944) "The Lake" (1944) "Frost and Fire" (1946) "The Million Year Picnic" (1946) "The Small Assassin" (1946) "I See You Never" (1947) "Fever Dream" (1948) "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" (1948) "The Long Years" (1948) "Mars Is Heaven!" (1948) "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" (1949) "The Exiles" (1949) "Marionettes, Inc." (1949) "The Long Rain" (1950) "The Rocket" (1950) "There Will Come Soft Rains" (1950) "The Veldt" (1950) "Ylla" (1950) "Embroidery" (1951) "The Fog Horn" (1951) "Here There Be Tygers" (1951) "The Pedestrian" (1951) "The April Witch" (1952) "A Sound of Thunder" (1952) "The Wilderness" (1952) "The Flying Machine" (1953) "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind" (1953) "The Meadow" (1953) "The Murderer" (1953) "Sun and Shadow" (1953) "All Summer in a Day" (1954) "The Dragon" (1955) "The Aqueduct" (1979) "Banshee" (1984) "The Toynbee Convector" (1984) "Is That You, Herb?" (2003)
Collections	Dark Carnival (1947) The Illustrated Man (1951) The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953) The October Country (1955) A Medicine for Melancholy (1959) The Day It Rained Forever (1959) The Small Assassin (1962) R Is for Rocket (1962) The Machineries of Joy (1964) The Vintage Bradbury (1965) S Is for Space (1966) Twice 22 (1966) I Sing the Body Electric! (1969) Ray Bradbury (1975) Long After Midnight (1976) The Fog Horn & Other Stories (1979) The Last Circus and the Electrocution (1980) The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980) The Fog Horn and Other Stories (1980) Dinosaur Tales (1983) A Memory of Murder (1984) The Toynbee Convector (1988) Classic Stories 1 (1990) Classic Stories 2 (1990) The Parrot Who Met Papa (1991) Selected from Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (1991) Quicker Than the Eye (1996) Driving Blind (1997) Ray Bradbury Collected Short Stories (2001) One More for the Road (2002) Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (2003) The Cat's Pajamas: Stories (2004) A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005) The Dragon Who Ate His Tail (2007) Summer Morning, Summer Night (2007) A Pleasure to Burn (2010) The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury (2011, 2014)
Plays	The Meadow (1947) The Flying Machine: A One-Act Play for Three Men (1953) The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays (1972) Pillar of Fire and Other Plays (1975) The Martian Chronicles (1986) The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1986) Fahrenheit 451 (1986) Dandelion Wine (1988) The Veldt (1988)
Adaptations	It Came from Outer Space (1953) Moby Dick (1956 screenplay) "I Sing the Body Electric" (1962) The Autumn People (1965) Tomorrow Midnight (1966) Fahrenheit 451 (1966) The Picasso Summer (1969) The Illustrated Man (1969) The Martian Chronicles (1980 miniseries) The Electric Grandmother (1982) Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) Bradbury 13 (radio series, 1983–84) Fahrenheit 451 (1984) "The Burning Man" (1985) The Veldt (1987) The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV series, 1985–86, 1988-1992) The Halloween Tree (1993) Dandelion Wine (1997) The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998) A Sound of Thunder (2005) Ray Bradbury's Chrysalis (2008) The Whispers (2015) Fahrenheit 451 (2018)
Miscellaneous	Futuria Fantasia (1939–1940) The Mummies of Guanajuato (1978) Zen in the Art of Writing (1990) It Came from Outer Space (2003 book)
Characters	Guy Montag
Related	Bettina F. Bradbury (daughter) Spaceship Earth Ray Bradbury Center Bradbury Landing Ray Bradbury Award Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury Dandelion crater "Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes"

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