The Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm scream is an iconic stock sound effect that has been used in many films, television programs and other media, originating in the 1951 film Distant Drums, where the scream was allegedly voiced by actor Sheb Wooley.

The scream is often used in scenarios when someone is shot, falls from a great height or is thrown from an explosion. The scream 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. This was its first use following its inclusion in the Warner Bros. Pictures stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River was the third film to use the effect. It was used in all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films prior to Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm.

History

The Wilhelm scream originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 film Distant Drums.

In a scene from the film, soldiers fleeing a Seminole group are wading through a swamp in the Everglades, and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The screams for that scene, and other scenes in the movie, were recorded later in a single take. The recording was titled "Man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." It is thought to have been voiced by actor Sheb Wooley (who also played the uncredited role of Pvt. Jessup in Distant Drums).

Because the costs of creating sound effects were high at that time, the scream was reused in a number of other Warner Bros. films in that era. Other films using the scream include Springfield Rifle (1952), The Charge at Feather River (1953), A Star Is Born (1954), Them! (1954), Land of the Pharaohs , The Sea Chase , Sergeant Rutledge , PT 109 , The Green Berets (1968) and The Wild Bunch.

The Wilhelm scream became iconic in popular culture when motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who had come across the original recording on a studio archive sound reel, incorporated it into the scene in Star Wars (1977) in which Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper off a ledge.The effect is heard as the Stormtrooper is falling. Burtt named the scream after Pvt. Wilhelm, a minor character from The Charge at Feather River who appears to emit the scream, and adopted it as his personal sound signature.

Burtt also found use for the effect in More American Graffiti (1979); and over the next decades he incorporated it into other films that he worked on, such as Willow (1988), Gremlins, Anchorman, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Lethal Weapon 4, The Fifth Element, and several George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films. Notably, the rest of the Star Wars films made under Lucas and all the Indiana Jones movies included the effect.

Following its use in Star Wars, other sound designers have picked up and used the sound effect in works. Inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among a certain community of sound designers. The National Science and Media Museum said that the Wilhelm scream had been used in more than 400 films.

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream