Wilhelm scream

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in at least 400 films and TV series (as of April 2020),[1] beginning in 1951 with the film Distant Drums.[2] The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.

For the band, see A Wilhelm Scream. For the song by James Blake, see The Wilhelm Scream.

The sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 Western in which the character gets shot in the thigh with an arrow, and is believed to be voiced by actor and singer Sheb Wooley.[3] This was its first use from the Warner Bros. stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River is believed to have been the third film to use the effect.[4]

The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in the Star Wars franchise, the Indiana Jones films, and animated Disney and Pixar films such as the Toy Story and Cars series, Up, Monsters University, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Hercules. Many other blockbuster films, television programs, cartoons, and video games have also made use of the scream.[5]

History

The Wilhelm scream originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 movie Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers are wading through a swamp in the Everglades, and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The scream for that scene was recorded later in a single take, along with five other short, pained screams, which were labelled "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screamed." The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene—but the fourth and sixth screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film — reportedly when three Native Americans are shot during a raid on a fort.[6] Although takes 4, 5, and 6 are the most recognizable, all the screams are referred to as "Wilhelm" by those in the sound community.

The Wilhelm scream's major breakout in popular culture came from motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who discovered the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labeled "Man being eaten by alligator") and incorporated it into a scene in Star Wars in which Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper off of a ledge, with the effect being used as the Stormtrooper is falling.[7] Burtt is credited with naming the scream after Private Wilhelm (see The Charge at Feather River).[8] Over the next decade, Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films on which he worked, including most projects involving George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, notably the rest of the subsequent Star Wars films, as well as the Indiana Jones movies. In February 2018 it was announced Star Wars will no longer use the Wilhelm scream, with The Force Awakens (2015) being the last film in the series to use it.[9][10]

Other sound designers picked up on the effect, and inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among the community of sound designers.[5] A scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom features a man being eaten by a crocodile accompanied by the scream. Sound designer Gary Rydstrom included the effect for his 2006 directorial debut in Pixar's short, Lifted.[11]

Research by Burtt suggests that Sheb Wooley, best known for his novelty song "The Purple People Eater" in 1958 and as scout Pete Nolan on the television series Rawhide, is likely to have been the voice actor who originally performed the scream. This has been supported by an interview in 2005 with Linda Dotson, Wooley's widow. Burtt discovered records at Warner Brothers from the editor of Distant Drums including a short list of names of actors scheduled to record lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. Wooley played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in Distant Drums, and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. Wooley performed additional vocal elements, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator. Dotson confirmed Wooley's scream had been in many Westerns, adding, "He always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films."[4] Despite the usage of the sound, no royalties are paid.

Additionally, the sound can be heard in the video game Red Dead Redemption (2010) during gunfights.[12] It is also featured in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV (as an easter egg during the mission Final Interview), Grand Theft Auto V (also as an Easter egg in the mission Father/Son when a character is thrown from a boat that is on the back of a speeding truck) and in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, when a random character kills himself. In Halo: Reach, the scream can be briefly heard after a trio of soldiers fail to land a jump in their Warthog during the beginning cutscene of the mission "Tip of The Spear." In Borderlands 3 it can be rarely heard when hijacking a vehicle. Additionally, the scream can faintly be heard in a Halo 4 trailer. The sound was also heard in the movie Paul, which is an homage full of Easter egg references to many science fiction film franchises, including Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ice Age and more.

See also

References
  1. "IMDB list of movies allegedly incorporating the Wilhelm scream". Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  2. Lee, Jaes (September 25, 2007). "Cue the Scream: Meet Hollywood's Go-To Shriek". Wired (15.10). Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  3. "Does That Scream Sound Familiar?". ABC News. October 14, 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  4. Malvern, Jack (May 21, 2005). "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!!". The Times. Retrieved December 12, 2009.
  5. Garfield, Bob; Gladstone, Brooke (December 30, 2005), "Wilhelm", On the Media
  6. "Hollywood lost and found: The Wilhelm scream". Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  7. Rinzler, J. W. (2010). The Sounds of Star Wars. San Francisco: Simon & Schuster. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-8118-7546-2.
  8. Lee, Steve (May 17, 2005). Burtt, Ben; Anderson, Richard; Mitchell, Rick; Rydstrom, Gary; Schulkey, Curt; Boyes, Chris; Whittaker, David; Stone, David; Kovats, Phil; Fein, David; Linke, Chris; Malvern, Jack; Dotson-Wooley, Linda (eds.). "The Wilhelm Scream". Hollywood Lost and Found. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  9. Kurp, Josh (21 February 2018). "A 'Star Wars' Tradition Dating Back To The Original Movie Has Been Retired". Uproxx. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  10. Dillon, Ananda (21 February 2018). "Star Wars Has Abandoned the Iconic Wilhelm Scream". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  11. "2007's Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts: Three Fords, a Vespa and a Kit Bike". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
  12. Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2015. Guinness World Records. 6 November 2014. p. 45. ISBN 9781908843715.
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