Does anyone know what things the phrase "a sound of thunder" represents?

I've never seen that question asked. I would have to venture a guess that it has to do with an event that causes an impact that is ominous and intimidating. In the story, the event that causes the change is minor -- he steps on a butterfly. The consequences appear to be far out of proportion to that. When lighting is far off, the lightning itself seems less intimidating, but the thunder can come rolling in over the plains with a kind of powerful, frightening sound. When the lighting is close, of course, the thunder shakes walls and rattles windows. A sound of thunder, in the context of this story, seems to have something to do with the fact that the impact of the lighting appears in the thunder. But, as I say, I've never thought about that before. I'm interested to see what others come up with on this one.

"A Sound of Thunder" seems, evidently, to refer to a Brontosaurus, the "thunder lizard."

In addition, the T. Rex makes a sound of thunder when it walks, falls "thunderously" in the story, and the noise is ironically mirrored in the gunshot of the end.

Resurrecting an old thread just to post a link: (what appears to be) the full text of Bradbury's short story (nothing new there - it can be found in many places on the web), with some illustrations form one of the comic book adaptations. Followed by a brief analysis of the story:

http://www.scaryforkids.com/a-sound-of-thunder/

UK writer Brian Sibley (friend and sometime adaptor of Bradbury) has just blogged about the new LIVE "Walking with Dinosaurs" show. Amazing animatronics! Plenty of video clips, here:

http://briansibleysblog.blogsp...09/08/dinomania.html

Resurrecting an old, old thread... to post some new, new news:

I've just guested on the podcast Take Me To Your Reader, which discusses science fiction films based on literature. The episode I appear in covers "A Sound of Thunder".

If you've got 90 minutes to spare, take a listen to the lively discussion here:

http://pavementpodcast.com/pod...r-feat-phil-nichols/