A few months ago, I happened to catch the Sci-Fi channel’s Saturday night movie A Sound of Thunder.
The premise of a time-traveling expedition to prehistoric times which resulted in disastrous repercussions on the modern world seemed vaguely familiar. I forgot to check the credits at the end of the movie to see just what element of this story had niggled at something in my memory. Soon enough, I forgot all about it.
By some odd chance a couple of months later, I happened across my old copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Golden Apples of the Sun. Nostalgic about the stories that inspired my love of science fiction, I decided to re-read it. To my surprise, there it was on page 108 – the short story “A Sound of Thunder,” written by Bradbury circa 1952; the basis for a movie adaptation released in 2005!
While great creative liberties were taken, the movie wasn’t half-bad, really. It was an edifying reminder that stories written by people like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry, Stanislaw Lem and Larry Niven still resonate in our consciousness so many decades later.
Even now, I am electrified every time I read the final words of this story:
“He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited shivering. He heard Travis breathe loudly in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch and raise the weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.”
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