the wilhelm scream

[-Super Hans-]

just watching QI (funny british show) and learned something quite interesting, a sound affect scream thats been used in hundreds of movies that im sure you will all recognise:


the story:

One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm.

In 1951, the Warner Bros. film "Distant Drums" directed by Raoul Walsh starred Gary Cooper as Captain Quincy Wyatt, who leads a group of soldiers to stop some Seminole Indians from threatening settlers in early 19th Century Florida. During a scene in which the soldiers are wading through a swamp in the everglades, one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator.

As is usually the case with the making of a movie, the scream for that character was recorded later. Six short pained screams were recorded in a single take, which was slated "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." The fifth scream was used for the soldier - but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film when three Indians are shot, one after another, during a raid on a fort.

After "Distant Drums," the recording was archived into the studio's sound effects library, and was re-used in many Warner Bros. productions.

the scream : https://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm/wilhelmtk4.html

all the movies its been used in :https://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm.html



eg, boba fett falling into sarlacc pit

funny stuff

 

[Nuka Cola Kidd]

You didnt know of this?

 

[-Super Hans-]

You didnt know of this?

nope

 

[winter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

 

[CelticPredator]

EAAHHHYAHHH!!!

 

[CelticPredator]

Woah! All caps post!

 

[Studio49]

We need a Wilhelm smiley.

 

[-Super Hans-]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

starts to get annoying after a while though

 

[Darth Waller]

Boy, the Lucas sound guys love that scream.

 

[Darth Madden]

That scream is really getting dumb now. Time for somebody to come up with something good.

 

[SwedishHeat]

haha, a bunch of those don't even make sense.

 

[Karaduin]

The Wilhelm Scream has been around for ages! I read it was used alot because its an in joke with film-makers?

My most memorable usage of the Wilhelm scream is when a stormtrooper gets blasted by Luke in ANH during the Death Star shoot-out just before him and his banjo playing sis swing across the chasm.

 

[Cap'n Cook]

It was in Watchmen too was it not?

When someone gets thrown over the railings in the prison, before Big Figure tries to get to Rorschach.

 

[Morbo]

I hate that scream so much, every time I hear it in a movie a tiny part of me dies.

 

[Khev]

If I remember correctly Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom still has the record for most amount of Wilhelm screams at three. Return of the King used it twice.