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Exposition: Eckel gets ready
Eckel, the main character in this story, is now ready to go shooting in the past to kill his dinosaur. Eckel arrives at the safari building where he will leave for time travel. Eckel signs his waver stating that if he does not come back alive, the company is not responsible for his death or injuries. -
Time to leave
Eckel meets his safari guide and it is now time to leave. They go to the time machine where Eckel, Travis, the safari leader, the assistant, Lesperance, and two other hunters Billings and Kramaer put on their oxygen helmets and strap themselves into the machine. -
Rules of the Hunt
Travis mentions to the crew which dinosaur they will be hunting. The dinosaurs that do not effect the future are the ones that they are allowed to kill. There are researchers who time travel back and forth to see which dinosaurs will die anyway, and then they shoot it with red paint. Eckel, Billings, and Kramer are assigned to shoot a T-Rex. The idea is to shoot it in the eyes first, then go for the brain. -
On Their Way; The Butterfly Effect
As the machine takes off, Travis, the safari leader goes over all the rules about what to do when they get to the past. There will be no stepping off the path, because that may effect the way the future ends up. Stepping on one little thing in the past, could effect the way the future stands. AKA the butterfly effect. The researchers are not sure exactly what would happen to the future, but they do not want to find out or take any chances. -
Seeing yourself
Travis explains to Eckel and the group how the time travel works. Eckel asks how their trip went because Lesperance went back in time that morning to mark the dinosaur. Therfor, Eckel believes that Lesperance mustve seen them coming back from their trip! Yet it does not work like that. On their way into the past, they hit a bump. That bump was themselves going back into the future. -
Time To Rock and Roll
As the machine arrives, the men get ready to depart. Once out of the machine, the five men stay on the track with Lesperance's guidance towards where the dinosaur will show up. After 60 seconds of running to get to their base and Travis commanding them-Eckel to take first shot, Billings second, and Kramer third- the T-Rex shows up in the distance. -
Scared out of your mind
The T-Rex is now seen by all the men. It is large, and horrifying. Eckel believs that the animals cannot be killed, and is commanded to go back to the machine. Not thinking correctly, Eckel walked off the past. As Eckel hides in the machine, the other men kill the T-Rex. -
Clean Up
Now that the dinosaur is dead, the men clean themselves up because they had thrown up out of terror. The hunters are informed that they cannot take home a trohpy of the dinosaur, so they take a picture with their prize and head back to the time machine. -
Get Out!
As Travis comes back into the machine, he notices the dirt on Eckel's shoes. He screams at Eckel for walking off the past and commands him to get out. The other men stick up for Eckel saying that nothing will happen to the future, but Travis makes Eckel go get the bullets out of the dinosaur as a punishment. -
Let's Go Home
Eckel gets the bullets from the dinosaur and re-enters the time machine. Travis threatens Eckel saying that if anything is messed up back home, he will kill him. The men all strap themselves back into the machine, and head back home. -
What Happened?
The men all exit the machine and everything looks well back in the present day, but Eckel has a weird feeling about it. As Eckel scans the room, he looks at the entry sign and finds that the words are spelt differently. Eckel then asks the man at the front desk who won the presidential election yesterday. The man replies saying Deutscher, which is not how everything used to be. -
One little thing...
Eckel realizes that he stepped on a butterfly when he stepped off the path. He yells at himself for being so stupid, and comes to terms with the fact that even one small thing like a dead butterfly, can change the way everything ends up in the future. -
A Sound of Thunder
Panicking, Eckel stumbles towards the dead butterfly pleading to go back in time to fix what he has done. Sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, he hears Travis breathe a deep sigh, put the bullets in his rifle, and lift his weapon.
"There was a sound of thunder." (Bradbury 81)
Travis killed Eckel like he said he would.
