You've heard this scream a hundred times and didn't even know it.

"The Wilhelm Scream" is a short piece of audio inserted into films by sound designers as an in-joke. The brief yelp was pulled from the 1951 film Distant Drums. After the audio was used in the original Star Wars by sound designer Ben Burtt it began to be used by others. Today it is commonplace to hear this scream in films and television.

Below are two collections of The Wilhelm Scream being used, including the use in Star Wars, you can hear it as a stormtrooper falls into the chasm after being shot. Please note that the scream is often used as a minion is being dispatched by the hero. This means violence. This means those who are not wild about seeing violence will probably just want to skip these compilations as they are wall-to-wall people getting shot and throw off high places.



Note that in the first clip shown they call the guy "Wilhelm". This is where the name for the audio comes from.

This second collection has more violence in it but has better audio and video.

Labels: movie watching tip