A Sound of Thunder: Encyclopedia - A Sound of Thunder

A Sound of Thunder

"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), and A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005). The Locus Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections lists it as the first of the top ten most republished science fiction stories [1]

A Sound of Thunder - Plot

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 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 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 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 somewhat different from the one they left. It is a world without beauty. All of history has been changed slightly by the death of a single butterfly in the distant past. Although it is impossible to predict the effects of disturbing the past, it is likely that the placing of the floating path, the fleeting presence of people, or simply the passage of the bullet through the air would be sufficient to perturb the atmospheric circulation and the entire course of history.

This is a fictional exploration of how the Butterfly Effect (or "sensitive dependence upon initial conditions," in the words of Edward Lorenz) could affect time travel. However, this story pre-dates the work of Edward Lorenz by nearly 10 years, long before the term was coined and the principles understood by the scientific community (although the same effect occurs in planetary dynamics and was studied by Poincare in the 1900's, but never had a catchy name). These subjects are grouped into the mathematical field of chaos theory.

A Sound of Thunder - Alternate media versions

• The EC comic book Weird Science-Fantasy published an adaptation in 1954, illustrated by Bernard Krigstein.
• The story was dramatized on audio tape in 1984, on Bradbury 13.
• An episode of Ray Bradbury Theater featured this story.
• It was parodied in the Simpsons episode 109, Treehouse of Horror V.
• This was also parodied in the cartoon Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law episode, Beyond the Valley of the Dinosaurs, when Harvey Birdman, Peter Potamus, 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.
• A Game Boy Advance game of the same title, and based upon this story, was released by Mobius Entertainment in 2004.
• A song by Duran Duran, "Sound of Thunder", is based on the story.
• A movie inspired by the Butterfly Effect was released in 2004
• The 2005 film [2]. The plot appears to be loosely based on the original story, starting off where Bradbury ended. This movie was originally slated to appear in 2002, but flooding on location postponed the production.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "A Sound of Thunder", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki