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Wilhelm scream

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For the band, see A Wilhelm Scream.

The Wilhelm scream is a legendary film and television stock sound effect that has been used in more than 200 movies, beginning in 1951 for the film Distant Drums.[1] The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.

Most likely voiced by actor and singer Sheb Wooley, the sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western in which the character is shot with an arrow. 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 movie to use the effect.[2]

The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Indiana Jones series, Disney cartoons and many other blockbuster films as well as many television programs and video games.[3]

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 slated as "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screamed." The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene—but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film—when three Indians are shot during a raid on a fort. Although takes 4, 5, and 6 are the most recognizable, all of the screams are referred to as "Wilhelm", by those in the sound community.

Revival

The Wilhelm scream's revival 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.[4] Burtt is credited with naming the scream after Private Wilhelm (see The Charge at Feather River).[5] Over the next decade, Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films he worked on, including most projects involving George Lucas or Steven Spielberg. (It is used in all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.) Other sound designers picked up on the effect, and inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among the community of sound designers.[3] In what is perhaps an in-joke within an in-joke, one of the scenes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually features a man being eaten by an alligator accompanied by the scream.

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.[6] Dotson confirmed that it was Wooley's scream that had been in so many westerns, adding, "He always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films."[2]

Appearances

The Wilhelm scream has become a cinematic sound cliche, and by 2011 had been used in many instances, including more than 225 movies, television shows and video games (and video game advertisements).[7][8] Some directors, most notably George Lucas (Star Wars original trilogy and prequel trilogy movies), Quentin Tarantino, and Peter Jackson[8] (in two of the Lord of the Rings movies and also The Hobbit) include it in almost every one of their productions.

In video games

The popular 2010 video game Red Dead Redemption also uses the scream as a death sound effect. The online webcomic Homestuck features a flash animation in which a character plays the sound bite several times on a keyboard.[9] The 2012 video game Borderlands 2 features a boss enemy named Wilhelm, along with an achievement/trophy called Wilhelm Screamed. Defeating him unlocks the achievement "Wilhelm Scream". The popular video game Grand Theft Auto V also uses the Wilhelm scream once someone falls off a boat in the mission 'Father & Son', and the handheld game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars also features an appearance during a scene when a man jumps from a bridge into a river, believing to have lost his keys. The scream also makes an appearance in Assassin's Creed III, when an American soldier is injured by an explosion. It is also used "Ben 10: Race Against Time", it also makes appearances in many video games such as "Rayman Origins", "Rayman Legends", "Lego Star Wars: The Video Game", "Star Wars: Bounty Hunter", "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed", "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2", "Duke Nukem Forever" and "GoldenEye 007" and "GoldenEye 007: Reloaded". This one also appeared in Just Dance 4 in the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley when the dancer fails to fly while he falls to the ground.

In television and film

It was also used by the ITV Television series "Primeval" on numerous occasions. Recently the scream can be heard in 2010's "Despicable Me" "Toy Story 3",and 2013's "Despicable Me 2",Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, "The Harry Hill Movie", Monsters University, Man of Steel, "Blue Harvest", "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", "It's A Trap!", "Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale", the Regular Show episode "Exit 9B, "Lethal Weapon 4", "My Little Pony: Equestria Girls", "My Name Is Bruce, "Die Hard With a Vengeance", "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". It was also featured in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Oral Report", The High Fructose Adventures Of Annoying Orange episode "Meet The Oranges". "Toy Story" and "Paul (film)" and the Adventure Time episode "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain". and 2014's The Lego Movie, and it can also be heard in the car chase scene from Esther.

In a Twix commercial, there is a Wilhelm when a person is sent through the air. This commercial aired in early 2014.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lee, James (25 September 2007). "Cue the Scream: Meet Hollywood's Go-To Shriek". Wired Magazine (15.10).
  2. ^ a b Malvern, Jack (May 21, 2005). "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!!". The Times. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  3. ^ a b Garfield, Bob; Gladstone, Brooke (30 December 2005). "Wilhelm". On the Media.
  4. ^ Rinzler, J. (2010). The Sounds of Star Wars. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-8118-7546-2.
  5. ^ Lee, Steve (17 May 2005). "The Wilhelm Scream". Hollywood Lost and Found.
  6. ^ Distant Drums at IMDb
  7. ^ "Portal is Free (720p HD)". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
  8. ^ a b IMDb Wilhelm-scream tagged objects
  9. ^ Andrew Hussie. "[S] ACT 6 ACT 6". Retrieved 2014-02-01.
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