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Edward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben Kingsley, Jemima Rooper, David Oyelowo ... see more see more... , Wilifried Hochholdinger , August Zirner , Corey Johnson , Wilfried Hochholdinger , Catherine Mc Cormack

A seemingly insignificant act may cause the fabric of history to unravel in this sci-fi adventure. Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) owns and operates a successful firm known as Time Safari. Thanks to tim... read more read more...e travel technology developed by Hatton's employee Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), Time Safari allows big game hunters to journey back to prehistoric days and shoot living, breathing dinosaurs. Rand picks out the dinosaur in question, who is soon to die, and creates a floating walkway for the hunters, so the impact of their presence will not be felt by the land around them. But on one expedition, things go horribly wrong when a nervous hunter steps off the walkway and crushes a butterfly, a tiny act that proves to have massive consequences over the course of several million years. As the earth's climate and animal life begin to mutate due to this shift in natural history, Time Safari's leading hunting guide, Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), works beside Rand in a desperate attempt to halt the "ripples of time" before modern civilization completely collapses. A Sound of Thunder was based on a classic short story by pioneering science fiction author Ray Bradbury. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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24% liked it

42,779 ratings

Critics

6% liked it

96 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 42 min.

Directed by: Peter Hyams, Ben Kingsley

Release Date: September 2, 2005

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DVD Release Date: March 28, 2006

Stats: 1,541 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,541)

  • CloudStrife84
    May 11, 2012
    CloudStrife84
    Hilariously bad! Has some of the worst CGI effects I've ever seen and some animations are even repeated as if no one would notice. The people behind this movie obviously ran out of money. It's still watchable in a way though, as you have a good time mocking and laughing at all it... read mores sillyness. Do yourself a favour and watch The Butterfly Effect instead, which is based on the same concept, but is far more superior in every single aspect.
  • ScoopOnline
    December 17, 2009
    ScoopOnline
    Some Rules Should Never Be Broken.
  • vierasesine
    October 12, 2009
    vierasesine
    This could have been so much better.
  • kiriyamakazou
    July 3, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    There's a lot of hate directed towards this film and it is mostly understandable. Granted, the effects are, at times, atrocious. The street scenes and cars look like pre-viz treatments. It came as no surprise to find out, that is what they are. The films production company went b... read moreankrupt during post-production and so we are left with an unfinished film. The poor effects allows you to focus on the plot, which will go one of two ways. I found it rather engaging with some nice early ideas, before it descended into action. The designs for lizard apes and giant bats were rather impressive to me. For some reason I just like Edward Burns, he isn't the greatest actor in the world but for some reason I always like him. Kingsley has an interesting character, he adds charisma into the businessman that puts money above all else.

    Others that watch this film may be infuriated and irate with the handling of time travel. I believe in films we must have a suspension of disbelief, but a film still needs to follow it's own rules...Except for time travel movies. To me, time travel is just so complex and theoretical that it is hard to translate well to film, unless you say "Just because..."

    I wasn't bored, I wasn't annoyed (apart from one moment with a hot wiring scientist) and I even felt a little connected to it. It's the sick, dirty puppy at the pound. You find it cute and endearing, but you don't want to take it home.
  • FiLmCrAzY
    April 24, 2009
    FiLmCrAzY
    i thought this was an ok film with a different storyline thats reli quite clever and watchable
  • DerekA101
    July 14, 2008
    DerekA101
    Perfect example of a great concept, but horrible execution. The special effects reminded me of something from the early 90's. The acting was atrocious... There's really nothing good to write home about this crapfest. If you like time traveling movies, check out the Time Machine... read more or the Butterfly Effect.
  • Stinger839
    May 23, 2008
    Stinger839
    This scifi action flick is set in a world where time travel is a relatively new invention, but advanced enough that it can serve a novelty purpose:a T-Rex hunting trip for those that can afford it. Ben Kingsley plays the character running this company, and Ed Burns is a scientist... read more working on the further development of time travel science. A hunting trip goes wrong when guns fail to fire, and members of the group temporarily leave the "time bridge". As a result, history is changed forever and millions of species from this alternate Earth appear in waves, "time ripples", causing massive destruction across the world.
    So -duh - the scientists have to figure out what went wrong and go back and fix it before the new superior predators: hyper-intelligent large simians, insects, and uncontrollable plant life, devour most of the world's species.

    The effects are so-so, with the giant ape/gorilla things looking off at times as well as the plant overgrowth destroying cities.

    It's an alright watch, but nothing to write home about. The scenario is the best part of this movie, and I just conveyed that in the first paragraph and the movie doesn't add much on to it. May be a cult fave in a few years though, as it does have that sort of "good cheesy" feel to it.
  • binky013
    January 31, 2007
    binky013
    Mere words could not express my dismay at the trajectory of Edward Burns' career -- not to mention Ben Kingsley's slide to the bottom. Holy moley this is awful.
  • Godless
    May 20, 2006
    Godless
    The effects are the equivalent to being at an amusment park and being super empossed onto a dinosaur. Oh and the story was wretched. This movies time travel theories made Time Cop's look like fact.
  • mrbungle7821
    May 15, 2006
    mrbungle7821
    A Sound of Thunder[/i], based on the classic short story by Ray Bradbury, is a movie that no one is going to see by design. It was shot way back in 2002, traded directors when Renny Harlin left to make [i]Mindhunters[/i] and Peter Hyams (End of Days, The Relic) stepped in, sat on... read more a shelf for two years, and now is being released without a peep. I have not seen a single TV ad, a single trailer, and until a few days ago I hadn?t even seen a poster for the film. It?s like the studio doesn?t want anyone to know that[i] A Sound of Thunder[/i] exists and that they?re responsible. With zero advertising, the only people who are going to pay to see this are those familiar with Bradbury?s story. [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] will be gone in the blink of an eye. It doesn?t help that the movie is awful.[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred]In the year 2055, time travel is here and available to those with deep pockets. Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) runs a service that allows rich people to travel back millions of years for the ultimate big game hunt ? dinosaurs. The time squad is led by Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), a brilliant scientist biding his time working for the man. The time travel inventor (Catherine McCormack) warns about the dangers with playing around in the past. The tiniest alteration could drastically change the future. Hatton assures everything is safe; they hunt the same dinosaur that is just about to be destroyed and touch nothing else. Of course something does go wrong. On one hunt the clients run off the safe path and accidentally step on a butterfly. This causes ?time waves? to sweep the present-day Earth and kick start some evolutionary changes. Travis is left to figure out what went wrong and fix it before humankind is wiped off the planet with the next wave.[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred]The movie pretends to play with brainy sci-fi principles, but [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] is really an empty vacuum of logic. As a precautionary measure, the team only travels back in time and hunts the same damned dinosaur. This dinosaur is special because it?s minutes away from getting stuck in a tar pit and then being obliterated by an exploding volcano. The team picks this dinosaur because hunting it won?t disrupt the fabric of time. Gotcha, but then why does stepping on a butterfly even matter? Is a butterfly seriously going to survive the oncoming volcanic blast and wall of ash? If the butterfly is just moments away from it too being destroyed, then why does killing it seconds earlier affect all of evolution? And how come these changes in time are always disastrous? Can?t someone just as reasonably step on a butterfly and wipe out cancer?[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred]Let?s talk about [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i]?s alternate evolutionary timeline. In this world, because of our infamous butterfly stomping, apes and dinosaurs have inexplicably become linked. They?ve evolved into some weird hybrid, with a baboon head and the body of a dinosaur. This seems entirely implausible to me that two very different creatures would just blend together. At least [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] could have gone all out and had other animal mash-ups, like a whale/hummingbird or a walrus/cheetah. [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] could be rivaled by The Wuzzles in evolutionary theory (please tell me I?m not the only one who remembers The Wuzzles). I would have been more interested if [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] presented the future dinosaurs as fully evolved after an additional 65 million years. Let?s see dinos with industry, tools, community, language, and maybe even popular culture. It sure would be more interesting and imaginative than big dumb monsters.

    [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] isn?t a Sci-Fi puzzler; it?s really a monster movie in disguise. After the evolutionary wrench, the film descends into a banal series of chase scenes, with our characters being plucked one-by-one by different monsters. The characters still manage to spout Sci-Fi dribble while on the run. Of course the characters can?t stop themselves from doing stupid things. A guy warns our team to be quiet lest they awaken the hordes of sleeping baboon-dinos hanging overhead. So what do they do? They make sure to shine their flashlights repeatedly in the creatures? faces. [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] is more preoccupied with what can go bump in the night than sci-fi brainteasers.[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] has some of the worst special effects I have ever seen. I?m talking about effects that would be shown up by some half-baked video game from the mid '90s. It?s really hard to fully explain how profoundly bad the effects are. The green screen work is ugly and painful, with characters surrounded by halos and walking on invisible treadmills. The future?s boxy cars look like they were assembled by Lego. The look of the dinosaur is curiously retro, all sleek, entirely green or brown, and lacking definition. It looks like what people in the 1950s thought dinosaurs looked like. In the wake of [i]Jurassic Park[/i], a less realistic, more reptilian dinosaur is not the way to go. The film tries to save money by using the same dinosaur and repeating the scene with diminishing returns. Every special effect in [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] comes across as flimsy from the wildlife, to the skyscrapers, to the dinosaurs, to even a subway car and rising water. Every effect is so terribly obvious and obviously terrible. I?ve seen made-for-TV flicks blow this film out of the water.[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred]The film?s acting is expectantly dull. Kingsley hams it up and has great fun as his money-grubbing business tycoon. He adds a zest to his lines. Burns plays every role so dead-panned that I doubt I will ever see an emotion from him that isn?t accompanied by a smirk. The rest of the actors couldn?t find their way with an industrial flashlight to shine in a monkey-dino?s eyes.[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] is an inept Sci-Fi flick more concerned with hungry monsters than ideas. The special effects are abysmal, the acting is wooden, the plot holes are glaring, and the atmosphere is laughable. This giant schlockfest is so bad that it achieves a fun campy value, destined to become a drinking game for science fiction nerds. Only Ray Bradbury fans will be at the theater to see [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i], so in turn that means only Ray Bradbury fans will be disappointed with how terrible the film adaptation is. Everyone else will be at home scratching their heads; certain that a film called [i]A Sound of Thunder[/i] never existed. Just like the studio wants.[/color][/font]

    [font=Arial][color=darkred]Nate's Grade: D-

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Critic Reviews

Scott Brown
September 7, 2005
Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly

So perfect in its awfulness, it makes one seriously consider a theory of unintelligent design. Full Review

Joshua Land
September 6, 2005
Joshua Land, Village Voice

The movie's most political aspect may be its quaint respect for the basic principles of evolution. Full Review

Geoff Pevere
September 2, 2005
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

Many video games look more authentic than this. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
September 2, 2005
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

If movies have personalities, this one has an appealing one, combining scientific inquisitiveness with giddy pleasure in creating tension for viewers. Full Review

James Berardinelli
September 2, 2005
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

A Sound of Thunder takes an interesting science fiction concept and relegates it to the secondary role of servicing a limp action/adventure movie. Full Review

Jason Anderson
September 2, 2005
Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail

Kingsley proceeds through his scenes on autopilot, and Burns is the kind of actor you cast as the hero when a piece of wood is unavailable. Full Review

John Monaghan
September 2, 2005
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press

The filmmakers of A Sound of Thunder, like a T. rex with indigestion, have simply bitten off more than they could chew.

Philip Wuntch
September 2, 2005
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News

The dialogue strives for witty banter, but most laughs are unintentional. Full Review

(CNN.com) Paul Clinton
September 2, 2005
(CNN.com) Paul Clinton, CNN.com

Watching A Sound of Thunder could possibly lower your IQ into the single digits. Full Review

Roger Ebert
September 2, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A Sound of Thunder looks cobbled together from a half-baked screenplay and underdone special effects, but it's made with a certain heedless zeal that makes you smile if you're in tune with it. Full Review

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  • Pierce Brosnan was originally set to star and Renny Harlin was set to direct, but Harlin was fired due to creative differences with Ray Bradbury.
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A Sound of Thunder Trivia

  • What is the name of the movie in which the characters go back in time to shoot a dinosaur, but their project messes up causing, time waves to come and change humanity?  Answer »
  • In the movie A Sound Of Thunder (2005), what type of dinosaur did the time travelers encounter on each visit?  Answer »
  • If you change something in the past, will it affect the present? Yes, says this time-traveling thriller based on this Ray Bradbury story directed by Peter Hyams. Name this 2004 movie....  Answer »
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