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“A Sound of Thunder” uses time travel to explore the consequences of human actions. The story is set in the year 2055, in which a company, Time Safari, Inc., offers opportunities to hunt prehistoric prey. Their advertising reads: “You name the animal. We take you there. You shoot it.”
The story begins as the protagonist, Eckels, stands nervously before a desk, paying ten thousand dollars for a trip. He asks if the company can guarantee that he will come back alive, but the man behind the desk answers that they guarantee nothing “except the dinosaurs.” He introduces the guide, Travis, and explains that Travis has complete control, noting that there are significant penalties for violating Travis’s instructions.
Eckels is excited by the time machine, and he holds an unrelated conversation with the man behind the desk. In the recent presidential election, Keith beat Deutscher, the latter of whom—the two men agree—would have created a dictatorship. The man tells Eckels that people asked if they could use time travel to escape, had Deutscher won.
The conversation continues, and the man behind the desk warns that the dinosaurs are hungry, telling Eckels that he has time to tear up his check. Angered, Eckels asks if he is trying to frighten him, and the man says he is. He says that six guides and a dozen hunters died in the previous year.
Eckels refuses to give up, and the man turns him over to Mr. Travis. They head to the machine, put on their helmets, and hold their rifles. The group comprises Travis, his assistant Lesperance, two other hunters, and Eckels.
Travis explains how to kill a dinosaur, and they arrive in the past. They learn that the company selects animals that are about to die naturally. They can shoot these animals because their deaths would not disrupt the timeline. Lesperance already has marked these animals with red paint for easy identification.
Travis explains that they must stay on the assigned track, a metal path hovering above the ground, so that no one accidentally steps on any organism. Any accidental death, even that of a blade of grass or that of a mouse, they are told, might trigger a chain of events that would have disastrous effects on the future. The whole course of history might be altered.
Travis reveals that the “government doesn’t like us here” and admits that the company paid large bribes to operate. After a discussion of whether the theory about time necessarily holds true, he tells the hunters to get up; it is time for the hunt.
Eckels is excited and waves his gun a bit too carelessly. Travis orders him to be more careful. As they approach the Tyrannosaurus, he tells Eckels to take the first shot. Amazed at the lush, primeval jungle, Eckels’s confidence increases until he sees the animal. Its size sends him into a state of panic, and he flees, accidentally stepping off the track. In the chaos and noise, the Tyrannosaurus charges the group. They manage to shoot and kill it. After its death, the other hunters vomit, and all are terrified.
Enraged, Travis discovers Eckels hiding in the time machine. He wants to abandon Eckels in the past, in part because of the financial damage the company will face when they report what happened, but Lesperance talks him into allowing Eckels to return. Travis orders Eckels to retrieve the bullets from the carcass. The group travels to the present.
On return, Eckels and Travis notice a subtle change in the environment. The same man sits behind the desk, but something differs about him. They cannot identify what. Eckels notices that the sign now says: “Yu naim the animall. Wee taek yu thair. Yu shoot itt.” Horrified, he frantically searches the mud stuck to his shoes. He discovers a dead butterfly.
He cannot believe his eyes. He tries to convince himself that the death of a butterfly could not have resulted in significant change, but he asks the man behind the desk about the election. The dictatorial Deutscher has won. Eckels wails loudly. He hears the sound of Travis’s breath and Travis releasing his rifle’s safety. Travis raises the weapon, and the story ends with “a sound of thunder.”
