A Sound of Thunder

work by Bradbury

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Last updated

July 22, 2026

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"A Sound of Thunder" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury that explores the concept of the butterfly effect. The story follows a man named Eckels who travels back in time to hunt dinosaurs. He is warned to stay on a designated path to avoid altering the future. However, Eckels accidentally steps off the path and crushes a butterfly. Upon returning to his own time, he discovers that this small action has drastically changed the course of history, illustrating how minor events can have significant and unpredictable consequences in complex systems.

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science fiction
Time travel
…is exemplified in Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder (1952; film 2005), in which a tiny misstep by dinosaur hunters grimly affects the consequent course of history. In Robert Silverberg’s Up the Line (1969), voyeuristic thrill seekers from the future infest the past.
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…is exemplified in Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder (1952; film 2005), in which a tiny misstep by dinosaur hunters grimly affects the consequent course of history. In Robert Silverberg’s Up the Line (1969), voyeuristic thrill seekers from the future infest the past.
Read More