A Sound of Thunder

By aleegan002

  • Exposition

    In the beginning of the story, the characters are introduced. These characters are Eckels and Travis. The year is 2055 in the United States, and Eckels has bought a ticket to go back to the time of dinosaurs to shoot a T-Rex. Eckels is a hunter, so the thrll of bringing down game that large intigues him. Travis works for the Time Safari Inc., an association that sends people back to early times to hunt game.

  • Rising Action

    Eckels and his time travel group get in the time machine and go back 60 million years. Once they arrive in the right time, Eckels gets told the rules of being back in that time period, including not stepping off of the Path, a hovering path that prevented the time travelers from creating a future problem. Travis describes the importance of this path to Eckels, which also foreshadows the story. The rules are then fully explained to Eckels. They then set out to find the T-Rex.

  • Climax

    As the group converses, the T-Rex comes into view. Eckels stares in awe at the T-Rex (A moment of visual imagery for the audience). He decides to turn back and retreat after asking Travis what to do. When returning to the ship, Eckels steps off the path and, not knowingly, kills a butterfly.

  • Falling Action

    Once back in the time machine, Travis sees that Eckels stepped off the Path by the mud on his shoe. He threatens to leave Eckels there for this, which is quickly silenced when Eckels offers a hundred thousand dollars. Eckels is forced to get the bullets out of the dinosaur, then the time machine is sent back to the time that they came from.

  • Resolution

    Once back in 2055, the hunters exit the time machine to find out that Deutscher won the presidency, not Keith who was elected before they left. The sign on the wall that was easy to read before had also changed to a different lettered sign that meant the same thing. Eckels looked at his shoe to see that he had killed one butterfly, and he knew that had caused the big change. He cried out, asking why he can't go back, then waited as Travis pulled the trigger of his gun.