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A Sound of Thunder

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Short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in 1952. It can now be read several anthologies, including The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980) & A Sound of Thunder (1987).

This well-known story about time travel revolves around a business called Time Safaris. Time Safaris promises to take you back in time so you can hunt prehistoric animals, such as Tyrannosaurus Rex.

In order to avoid a time paradox, 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 shoot animals which are already about to die, and they are required to stay on a path which hovers above the ground. Hunting trophies are not taken; your only souvenir can be a photograph of yourself standing next to the dead monster.

In the story a man leaves the floating path and tramples a butterfly. Upon returning to the present, everyone finds the world to be a somewhat different from than the one they left. All of history has been changed slightly by the death of a single butterfly in the distant past.

This is an fictional exploration of how the Butterfly Effect (or "sensitive dependance upon initial conditions", see Edward Lorenz) could affect time travel.

This story was dramatized on audio tape in 1984, on Bradbury 13.

A Gameboy Advance game of the same title, and based upon this story, was released by Mobius Entertainment in 2004.

A movie is scheduled for release, also in 2004, and is currently in post-production. The plot appears to be loosely based on the original story, starting off where Brandbury ended. This movie was originally slated to appear in 2002, but flooding on location postponed the production.

References

Story

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