A Sound of Thunder

"A Sound of Thunder" is a short story by Ray Bradbury. It was first published in 1952 in Collier's magazine. "A Sound of Thunder" is a science fiction story with time travel.

Plot

In the year 2055, some men run a time travel company taking tourists back in time to hunt dinosaurs and other animals in the past.  They are careful to only kill animals that are about to die anyway and not to change anything in the past because they know that could change the present.  The day after a United States presidential election, they take customers back in time to kill a Tyrannosaurus rex. One customer is careless and steps on a butterfly, killing it.  When they return to the present, they find that the outcome of the election the day before has changed—a dictator was elected President of the United States.

Adaptation

In 2004, "A Sound of Thunder" was made into a movie.  The movie did not do well.

In popular culture

In the Halloween 1994 episode of The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror V, Homer Simpson goes back in time over and over and accidentally kills things, changing the present each time.  The story was called "Time and Punishment."

References

Category:1950s short stories
Category:American literature
Category:Science fiction
Category:1952 works
Category:Short stories