Last Saturday, we saw that the Time Safari crew had set out to find two businessmen, one of whom has dramatically altered Earth’s timeline. These alterations come in the form of waves washing over Earth, altering life forms. Soon, the last wave will wash over the present day and permanently alter humanity’s evolutionary development. After losing one of their friends, Marcus, the crew finally finds the first of the businessmen, Eckles.

A puzzling story change

This was one of the Sound of Thunder (2005) film’s departures from the famous 1952 short story that I didn’t appreciate. In the story by Ray Bradbury, Eckles is the one who messes everything up. But for some inexplicable reason, the writers of the film chose to make Eckles the red herring. In their telling, Eckles is not the one who stepped off the path. I wish I knew why they did this. It seems somebody thought they were being clever, but I found the change to be slightly annoying and disrespectful. At any rate, Eckles tells the group where Middleton, the last suspect, is living, and so the group sets off to find him.

When they find Middleton, he has been been poisoned by some toxic brambles, and he’s so mad and guilt-stricken that he kills himself. Dr. Rand and Ryer confirm that Middleton stepped on a butterfly. Now that they knowing what specific event they need to stop in the past, they begin their trip back to the lab. Along the way, poor Lucas is carried off by bat/pterodactyl hybrids, batadactyls, and the group is forced to go on without him. But then the next wave approaches, and once again, things go from bad to worse.

Desperate measures 

When the three survivors, Jenny, Ryer, and Dr. Rand, return to the lab, they find Hatton dead and the lab without power. Desperate, the only thing Dr. Rand can think to do is go to the college where she first built TAMMY and use the AI in her lab. So, the group dismantles TAMMY and packs it up for the trip. However, while preparing to move TAMMY, the group comes across Derris, who refuses to leave his hiding place.

He points up to the ceiling, where the Gorzillas are now sleeping. For some reason, the Gorzillas have developed the ability to sleep upside down like bats. So, now I must dub them Gorzillavamps. Jenny, Ryer, and Dr. Rand leave the lab with the dismantled TAMMY.

At first, Derris refuses to go, but then he changes his mind. However, when he tries to follow the trio, he wakes up the Gorzillavamps — and that’s the end of him.

Not wanting to face the batadactyls again, Ryner decides to go underground through a subway system that is half-submerged underwater. This is a very bad choice. Before long, the group is trapped in a subway car while the tunnel fills up with water. Then a giant eel bursts through a window and eats Jenny. Ryer is almost killed fighting the eel, but he survives, and he and Dr. Rand make it to the college.

As Dr. Rand works with TAMMY and Ryer prepares for his next trip into the past, the last timewave approaches. It’s a photo finish. TAMMY is just able to transport Ryer to his destination before the last wave washes over the city.

As for what happens to Dr. Rand, well, how do I put this? She’s turned into what I can only describe as a knockoff of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. She stares at the camera in a scene that was meant to be freaky, but I personally found it awkward.

What happens to Ryer?

He reaches the botched time safari destination. The first thing he does is make sure that the past version of Jenny catches him on her recorder. That way the group has proof that a previous jump went awry. He explains how Derris and Hatton shut off the biofilter, then he stops Middleton from stepping on the butterfly by tackling him.

Upon seeing Ryer on top of him, Middleton screams. But I’m not sure why he does this. Was it because he thought there was another Ryer, or was it because he was holding back his fear during the entire safari and only then decided to let his terror out? I don’t know, but the scene is humorous.

Then Ryer disappears, which means that he technically dies. I have to give the writers credit for this. They were committed to their premise. They didn’t find some loophole that allowed Ryer to live. There is no ridiculous multiverse scenario, creating an infinite regress of Ryers traveling up and down the timeline. They snuffed that character out of existence. It’s a little sad, but there’s no other way to handle the situation and I applaud them for it.

 The perspective of the movie now shifts to the new cast. Jenny tells Derris to turn the biofilter back on. She gives the new Ryer the hollow disk that contains the recording of the old Ryer and urges him to sneak it out of the lab. Ryer does so, and after watching the recording, goes to Dr. Rand, who he’d met before the botched safari. Dr. Rand offers Ryer a cup of coffee, and the movie ends.

Is this movie any good?

I would say overall yes, but with some qualifiers. First of all, it takes an act of sheer will to look past the horrible graphics and the terrible soundtrack. For most moviegoers, that’s more than enough to shut the film off after five minutes, and I wouldn’t blame them for it. But it’s hard to blame the makers of the movie for this because a budget is a budget. Their resources were limited.

Plus, it’s more than apparent that the writers of this movie were not so much interested in the plot as the premise. Some scenes in this film are lazy, but I’d argue they’re no worse than many scenes in modern films. They didn’t really care about the events in the story, just the idea of merging evolution with the butterfly effect. Now, I’ve already written a review explaining why I don’t think this idea works, but I have to compliment the writers for their imagination. There are some truly original ideas within this story. I found the Gorzillas particularly compelling. They were a legitimately scary antagonist, bad graphics and all.

In short, there are kernels of a good movie in this film. If one is willing to look past the poor production. So, I’d recommend it. It’s a great B film to make fun of on a Saturday night, but there’s enough unique content to create an interesting discussion if one is so inclined.

Here are the first six parts of my seven-part review of A Sound of Thunder:

Does the famous butterfly effect make sense? I am going to look at the 1952 short story first — the premises and the plot — before tackling the 2005 film. I think “A Sound of Thunder” has remained popular partially because the butterfly effect is a unique idea if nothing else.

A Sound of Thunder: Comparing the film with the short story What’s the same? What’s changed? What works and what doesn’t? I compliment the writers for constructing a scenario where it is actually conceivable for time travelers to enter the past without altering it.

A Sound of Thunder: Time travel for fun and profit — and tragedy. In this third part of my review, I look at the adaptations leading up to the climax — the ones that worked and the ones that didn’t. We learn that expedition leader Ryer is hoping to use his time travel trips to help bring extinct species back to life.

A Sound of Thunder: Surfing the time waves when the tide is high When plants start growing through cement walls, it is obvious that there is a problem. We learn that the butterfly effect only alters the evolution of biological material and the weather, and the effects start with plants.

A Sound of Thunder: Can chance and the butterfly effect coexist? In Part 5 of my review of the sci-fi classic, I look at whether the effect could really upend evolution, however it is typically understood. The butterfly effect is one of those possibilities that sounds frighteningly plausible until one starts going into detail.

and

A Sound of Thunder: How To fix a mess when everyone forgot about it. In Part 6 of my continuing review of the 2005 sci-fi classic, we look at efforts to go back in time and fix the disastrous timewave problem. A conundrum emerges: Even if they can reset the timeline, the time travelers will have no way of warning their future selves that this incident ever happened.