A Sound of Thunder (2005)

A single mistake in the past, by a time travel company in the future, has devastating and unforeseen consequences.

Director:

Peter Hyams

Writers:

Ray Bradbury (short story), Thomas Dean Donnelly (screen story)

Stars:

Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley, Catherine McCormack

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Armin Rohde	...	John Wallenbeck (as Armin Rhode)
Heike Makatsch	...	Alicia Wallenbeck
Jemima Rooper	...	Jenny Krase
David Oyelowo	...	Payne
Wilfried Hochholdinger	...	Dr. Lucas
Edward Burns	...	Travis Ryer
August Zirner	...	Clay Derris
Ben Kingsley	...	Charles Hatton (as Sir Ben Kingsley)
Catherine McCormack	...	Sonia Rand
Alvin Van Der Kuech	...	Young Technician
Andrew Blanchard	...	George the Doorman
William Armstrong	...	Ted Eckles
Corey Johnson	...	Christian Middleton
Nikita Lespinasse	...	Newswoman on TV (as Nikita Le Spinasse)
Scott Bellefeville	...	Onlooker (as Scott Bellefeuille)

Storyline

Chicago, 2055. Charles Hatton has made a fortune by founding 'Time safari', which offers rich 'big game hunters' short time travels to kill off dinosaurs just before their natural death. When scientist Travis Ryer notices the weather and wildlife are not behaving as usual, he consults Dr. Sonia Rand, the contractually invisible inventor of the supercomputer which controls time. They soon face 'time waves', each worsening the effects in 2055 of evolutionary distortions, lower lifeforms first. They attempt to identify and rectify the past alteration, but each attempt gets harder in their distorted present.

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Plot Keywords:

time travel | hunter | alternate reality | plant | forest | 

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Taglines:

Some rules should never be broken.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence, partial nudity and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

The change in the timeline is caused by a single butterfly. This alludes to the "butterfly effect", in which a small change in one state of a system can result in large differences in a later state.

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Goofs

After the crew returns from the trip, Ryer talks to Payne about the malfunction. Payne then mentions the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and that is says nothing can be certain. Actually, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle does not state that "nothing can be certain". It states that the momentum and position of any object cannot both be exactly known. As the precision with which one of these properties is known increases, the precision of the other property decreases. Similarly, with time and energy. This uncertainty in knowing these pairs of values is not due a defect in any instrument; it is a fundamental law of nature.

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Quotes

Sonia Rand: What did you change?
Travis Ryer: We don't know.

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Crazy Credits

Opening Card: In the year 2055, A new technology was invented that could change the world... or destroy it. a man named Charles Hatton used it to make money.

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Alternate Versions

For the Dutch DVD release the aspect ratio was changed from 2,35:1 to 1,78:1.

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind (2007)

User Reviews

No budget for FX or Advertising...

I have lived in the Los Angeles area for about a year now. When I can, I enjoy seeing free screenings of movies. As I understand it, these test screenings are done by marketing-research companies at the behest of the movie studios. You watch a movie for free and then you fill out a form explaining what you liked and didn't like about the movie. The company then selects a smaller group of viewers for a Q & A focus group.

So I saw a free screening of A SOUND OF THUNDER about six months ago. We were told that the special effects were just "mock-ups" and therefore to not judge those effects too harshly. And we were promised that for the actual release the special effects would look spectacular.

I just watched A SOUND OF THUNDER on its opening Friday and the special effects were EXACTLY the same. They used the mock-ups, the "pretend special effects," for the release.

Which leaves me to believe that the test screenings got such bad feedback that the studio decided to cut its losses. They didn't advertise this film very much and they didn't spend any REAL money on the special effects.

One thing they may have changed was some of the editing. The pace felt a little better than the original free screening. I mean the movie has a lot of problems but it seemed like some small things were cut or at least cut differently.

I'm hoping that the DVD will have a commentary track so we can hear the behind-the-scenes story of what really happened. But I doubt the studio will put any bells and whistles on the DVD release.

I agree with everyone else. This is a bad movie (with the exception of Ben Kingsley's interesting character work). But it was made worse by the studio's lack of commitment and backing.

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [United States]

Country:

Czech Republic UK Germany USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

2 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Sound of Thunder

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$917,398, 4 September 2005

Gross USA:

$1,900,451

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,665,465

Company Credits

Production Co:

Franchise Pictures, Crusader Entertainment, ApolloMedia Distribution

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min 102 min (Cinemax)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1