The Willhelm Scream

The Wilhelm Scream is a film and TV stock sound effect that was first used in the 1951 film Distant Drums. Since then, it has been used in Star Wars, the Indiana Jones series, Disney cartoons and many other blockbuster films, TV series and video games. It is used when a character (mostly someone that we don’t really care about) falls from a great height, is thrown from and explosion or is hit with a bullet, arrow or other wounding missile.

It’s also the inspiration for the James Blake song Wilhelm’s Scream, which is a pretty cool song if you ask me, but doesn’t actually contain the Wilhelm Scream.

The use of the Wilhelm Scream has become a bit of an insider joke. It has been used in over 225 movies in 2011 alone!

Let’s play a game, next time you watch a movie, listen out for the Wilhelm Scream. Where else does it pop up? Are there more places you’ve heard it?

Source: static-on-the-screen