A Sound of Thunder (film)

"Well, you're a hunter, so shoot me."

"History is not a class struggle, it is a vision struggle. It's people like me trying to get free from narrow-minded pricks like you. Nothing moves without us, we're the goddamn engine."

"Today you stood shoulder to shoulder with Columbus discovering America. Armstrong stepping on the moon, Brubaker landing on Mars. You are true pioneers on the very last frontier: Time."

"John Wallenbeck: I haven't seen any wildlife yet. We could be in downtown Pittsburgh, for all I know."

"When I was the president of the Urbana High School Science Fiction Club, this would have been my favorite movie. But the movies have changed and so have I and today there is something almost endearing about the clunky special effects and clumsy construction of A Sound of Thunder. The movie is made with a gee-whiz spirit, and although I cannot endorse it I can appreciate it. There’s a fundamental difference between movies that are bad because they’re willfully stupid (“Deuce Bigalow, European Gigolo”) and movies that are bad because they want so much to be terrific that they explode under the strain. A Sound of Thunder may not be a success, but it loves its audience and wants us to have a great time. The movie is inspired by a famous short story by Ray Bradbury, arguing that to travel back in time and change even one tiny element in the past could completely alter the future. In that it is firmly Darwinian, and indeed if the common ancestor of all primates had died without reproducing, where would that leave us? In the movie, a greedy entrepreneur (Ben Kingsley) charges millionaires a small fortune to travel back in time, kill a giant prehistoric reptile, and return with a video of themselves. In theory this will not change the present because (a) frozen liquid nitrogen bullets are used, which will evaporate making no difference, (b) the targeted beast is selected because in another second it would have died anyway, and (c) the travelers never leave anything behind."

"For the film it was necessary to not only create a recognizable Chicago of the future, but also have it destroyed and transformed into a primal jungle through four stages as the world changes to a different evolutionary timeline. Julian Caldow was tasked with the conceptual work on what the city of Chicago would look like in the future. Black Mountain Studio in Stuttgart, Germany, created futuristic buildings from scratch, which were then comped into the familiar landscape. A program developed for the telecommunications industry to assist in placing towers within Chicago had an extensive database that was tapped for building details. Real downloads from scans of the city generated an accurate three-dimensional city plan. This optimized the shooting schedule, allowing the filmmakers to know when and where to shoot and selectively adjust the camera for the real layout. Knowledge of the real widths of the actual streets helped in choreographing the bat chase sequence. The tarmac could be dressed to look like the road should at this point in the movie. Camera and car speed could also be tested in advance of shooting. Sebastian Greese and Michael Landgrebe worked as lead artists and Robert Kuczera modeled for Black Mountain."

"Evolve or die."

"Some Rules Should Never Be Broken."

"Catherine McCormack - Sonia Rand"

"Edward Burns - Travis Ryer"

"David Oyelowo - Marcus Payne"

"Ben Kingsley - Charles Hatton"

"Jemima Rooper - Jenny Krase"

"Wilfried Hochholdinger - Dr. Lucas"

"August Zirner - Clay Derris"

"Corey Johnson - Christian Middleton"

"Heike Makatsch - Alicia Wallenbeck"

"Armin Rohde - John Wallenbeck"

"William Armstrong - Ted Eckels"