“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. It was reprinted in his collections The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), R is for Rocket (1962), The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980), Dinosaur Tales (1983) and A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005). It was later reprinted in The Young Oxford Book of Timewarp Stories. The Locus Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections lists it as the first of the top ten most republished science fiction stories [1] Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... Colliers Weekly was a United States magazine that was published between 1888 and 1957. ... This article is about the book. ... R is for Rocket is a short story collection written by Ray Bradbury, containing the following stories: R Is for Rocket The End of the Beginning The Foghorn The Rocket The Rocket Man The Golden Apples of the Sun A Sound of Thunder The Long Rain The Exiles Here There... The Stories of Ray Bradbury (ISBN 0394513355) is, as the title suggests, an anthology containing 100 short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury and was first published by Knopf in 1980. ... A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories cover A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005) is a collection of thirty-two of the most famous short stories by Ray Bradbury. ... Locus Online (1997-) is the online component of Locus Magazine. ...

Plot introduction

This well-known story about time travel revolves around a business called Time Safari, Inc. Time Safari promises to take people back in time so they can hunt prehistoric animals, such as a 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. Travellers 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. Hunting trophies are not taken; no souvenir is allowed except a photograph of the hunter standing next to the dead monster. Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... Prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is the period of human history prior to the advent of writing (which marks the beginning of recorded history). ... Binomial name Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905 Synonyms Manospondylus gigas Dynamosaurus imperiosus Dinotyrannus megagracilis Nanotyrannus lancensis? Tyrannosaurus (IPA pronunciation or ; from the Greek τυραννόσαυρος, meaning tyrant lizard) is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur. ... For other meanings of Paradox, see Paradox (disambiguation). ... A mounted snow leopard. ... For other uses, see Souvenir (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Photograph (disambiguation). ...

Plot summary

In the story, a hunter simply known as “Eckels” is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: to travel back into the past on a prehistoric safari and kill a Tyrannosaurus rex. As the participants wait to depart, they chat about the recent presidential elections, in which an apparently fascist candidate, Deutscher, has just been defeated by the more moderate Keith, to the relief of many people. After the party arrives in the past, Eckels is warned about the necessity of minimizing their effect on events when they go back, since tiny alterations to the distant past could snowball into catastrophic changes in history. This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ... Species T. rex (type) Osborn, 1905 Synonyms Manospondylus Cope, 1892 Dynamosaurus Osborn, 1905  ?Nanotyrannus Bakker, Williams & Currie, 1988 Stygivenator Olshevsky, 1995 Dinotyrannus Olshevsky, 1995 Tyrannosaurus (pronounced IPA: , meaning tyrant lizard) is a genus of theropod dinosaur. ... An election is a process in which a vote is held to choose amongst candidates to fill an office, or amongst political parties offering a slate of potential office holders for a house of representatives. ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Look up Candidate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... “Moderates” redirects here. ...

Despite his earlier eagerness to begin the hunt, Eckels loses his nerve at the sight of the tyrannosaur. Travis, his guide, tells him he can leave, but Eckels panics and veers off the path. The two guides kill the dinosaur, and shortly afterward, the tree that would have killed the dinosaur in the absence of human intervention falls on the corpse. Travis' elation quickly changes to fury when they find Eckels and see his muddy boots, which prove he went off the path. Travis threatens to leave Eckels in the past unless Eckels removes the bullets from the dinosaur’s body, as they can’t be left in the past. This article is about the projectile, for other uses see bullet (disambiguation). ...

Upon returning to the present, Eckels notices subtle changes. English words are now spelled strangely, people and buildings are different, and, worst of all, Deutscher has won the election instead of Keith. Looking at his boots, Eckels finds a crushed butterfly(spelling butterfly), whose death was apparently the cause of the changes. He pleads to Travis to take him back into the past to undo the damage, 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 reveals the meaning of the title—the story’s final words are, “There was a sound of thunder.” Present redirects here. ... Superfamilies and families Superfamily Hedyloidea: Hedylidae Superfamily Hesperioidea: Hesperiidae Superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilionidae Pieridae Nymphalidae Lycaenidae Riodinidae A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. ... The past is the portion of the timeline that has already occurred; it is the opposite of the future. ... For other uses, see Rifle (disambiguation). ...

Meaning

The story is a fictional exploration of the principle in chaos theory which later came to be called the Butterfly Effect (or “sensitive dependence upon initial conditions,” in the words of Edward Lorenz) through the literary device of time travel. Although both the story and the scientific principle use a butterfly as an example of a seemingly insignificant thing whose actions can ultimately lead to vast differences in outcomes, there is no evidence that one directly influenced the other. Bradbury's story pre-dates Lorenz's work by nearly 10 years. The two examples refer to different phenomena: changes in weather patterns caused by tiny disturbances introduced by a butterfly flapping its wings in one case, and the effects of killing an organism on the course of history via time travel. Furthermore, Lorenz's initial example was that of a seagull flapping its wings, which he changed to a butterfly later. For other uses, see Chaos Theory (disambiguation). ... Point attractors in 2D phase space. ... Edward Norton Lorenz (born May 23, 1917), a research meteorologist at MIT, observed that minute variations in the initial values of variables in his primitive computer weather model (c. ... Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ...

Novelized Sequels "Dinosaur World"

A series of six novels were written in the mid-90's based on the short story. The author of the series is Stephen Leigh. First publications by Avon Books: May 1992 (Dinosaur World), February 1993 (Dinosaur Planet), November 1993 (Dinosaur Samurai, w/ John J. Miller), June 1994 (Dinosaur Warriors), March 1995 (Dinosaur Empire, w/ John J. Miller), and October 1995 (Dinosaur Conquest). The books are sold as "Ray Bradbury Presents ..." "A Sound of Thunder" is reproduced in "Dinosaur Planet." Steve Leigh is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. ... Dinosaur Planet is a novel by Anne McCaffrey Dinosaur Planet is the name of two planets in the Star Fox series, as well as a working title for the video game Star Fox Adventures Dinosaur Planet - Real Big Stories, an entertaining 2003 DVD release, animated by Meteor Studios Dinosaur Planet...

Adaptations

• An episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater featured this story.
• The story was again adapted in comic form by Richard Corben with The Best of Ray Bradbury: The Graphic Novel. ISBN 1-59687-816-9.
• The EC comic book Weird Science-Fantasy published an adaptation in 1954, illustrated by Al Williamson.
• The 2005 film A Sound of Thunder is loosely based on this story, continuing where Bradbury ended. This movie was originally slated to appear in 2002, but flooding on location postponed the production.

The Ray Bradbury Theater was an anthology series that ran for six seasons on HBO from 1985 to 1992. ... Heavy Metal Magazine cover by Corben featuring three of his Neverwhere characters: The Queen, Den and Catherine Wells Richard Corben (born November 1, 1940) is an American comic book artist best known for his illustrated fantasy stories in Heavy Metal (HM) magazine. ... Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ... Weird Science-Fantasy was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. ... Al Williamson Al Williamson (March 21, 1931 - ) is an American cartoonist of partly Colombian descent. ... A Sound of Thunder is a 2005 film directed by Peter Hyams, which is loosely based on the short story of the same name by Ray Bradbury. ...

References

Story

• Full illustrated text
• The Stories of Ray Bradbury (ISBN 0-394-51335-5), which includes the story.
• Bradbury 13 Audio Version Information
• “A Sound of Thunder,” Review and Analysis

Other media

• Official Movie Site
• A Sound of Thunder at the Internet Movie Database
• Ray Bradbury Theater production
• Preview of A Sound of Thunder for Gameboy Advance
• Review of A Sound of Thunder for Gameboy Advance