History of a Famous Star Wars Scream

An anonymous reader writes "There is a very famous scream in Star Wars (Episode IV) that occurs when one of the stormtroopers falls into the Death Star chasm. No doubt all geeks are familiar with this scream, but may not know that it has been used in dozens of other movies and even has a name - "The Wilhelm". There is a fascinating interview (transcript and audio) from NPRs "On The Media" that discusses the now cult-like following and history of this scream."

Comments

Re:That's the sound of their server dying

[pizzaman100]

Here's another link (about 2/3 down page) to the scream, at least until it dies as well. :)

Re:huh?

[PCM2]

I don't completely get it... So a sound file was used again and again...isn't this common place?

Sure, but it is kinda fun when you start to recognize these things. You'll hear more of them if you like to watch B-movies. When people say that, most folks think "movies from the 1950s-60s, but the fun thing is that you'll still hear the same sound effects in some brand-new, edited-on-Final-Cut, direct-to-video release that came out this year.

My personal favorite is the BBC audio "spooky werewolf" sound effect. You still hear it all over the place. It starts with the sound of a wolf (or old junkyard dog?) howling, then immediately follows that up with a cat giving two aggravated-sounding meows. The actual sound effect (you can get it on old BBC sound effects records; your library may have some) repeats this sound about 3-4 times, and it's always the same: Wolf howl, cat. Wolf howl, cat. It cracks me up when modern movies actually let the tape loop run through more than one sequence, cuz it's one of the goofiest things I've heard.

Re:Can anyopne confirm these?

[FatalTourist]

There are many standard sound effects libraries (Warner Bros, Lucas Film, etc.) that TV/game studios purchase for use, so don't be surprised if you keep hearing the same sounds.

I heard a camel in some Jackie Chan movie make the same sound that a Doom grunt makes. It freaked me out man.

List of Movies That Contain "The Wilhelm"

[bief]

Here is a website that tries to list all of "The Wilhelm" occurrences in films.

They claim "A series of short painful screams performed by an actor were recorded in 1951 for the Warner Brother's film "Distant Drums." They were used for a scene where a man is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The recording was archived into the studio's sound effects library -- and it was used in many of their films since.

"Star Wars" Sound Designer Ben Burtt tracked down the scream recording - which he named "Wilhelm" after a character who let out the same scream in the film "Charge at Feather River." Ben has adopted the scream as sort of a personal sound signature, and has included it in many of the films he has worked on. He and a small circle of sound effects people, including myself and Richard Anderson, continue the crusade to keep Wilhelm alive. The Wilhelm Scream continues to be heard in new films every year."

Nope (but close)

[DreamerFi]

Sheesh, no dutch moderators today, looks like. The National Athem is called "Wilhelmus".

Used in ROTK, too.

[AxB_teeth]

When the Nazgul attack Faramir and his troops when they're sent back to Osgiliath, one of the soldiers is picked up by a Nazgul and dropped. He screams the Wilhelm on his trip to the ground.

Re:Come on, this is pretty cool!!!

[BiggerBoat]

"How about the sound at the end of Doom II, when the spawn-cubes shoot out??"

That's on Sound Ideas' "The General" series 6000 sound effects library. Disc 6015, track 28-1: "Fire,Ball - Impact and large fire burst, rumble."

Re:I saw a great video compilation of the Wilhelm.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://download.theforce.net/video/wilhelm_48mb.mo v

Re:people keep mentioning doom..

[BiggerBoat]

Most of those sounds are in Sound Ideas' "The General" 6000 series, copyright 1992.

That sound IS a camel!

[lysium]

The Doom grunt sound is actually a recorded camel grunt. So yes, it is the same sound, but it actually belongs to the camel more than the game. Another common sound are the Imp sound effects, which are originally from a tiger.

=========

If u want to hear WILHELM in Star Wars IV, V, VI

[danidude]

Here they are A New Hope: 88m39s of film The Empire Strikes Back: 28m12s and 94m57s The Return of The Jedi: 33m00s