Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
McAfee Secure sites help keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams
Stacy Conradt
10 Places You’ve Heard the Wilhelm Scream
by Stacy Conradt - January 26, 2009 - 3:12 PM

q10

No one knows who recorded the Wilhelm scream, but sound designer Ben Burtt coined its name based on the 1953 Charge at Feather River – the character Private Wilhelm is hit with an arrow and screams the scream. Burtt uses it a lot, but other filmmakers and sound guys have picked up on the inside joke and hide it in their movies, too. Here are 10 of them!

scream1. Return of the Jedi. Actually, there are Wilhelms in all of the Star Wars, but this one is the most interesting because Ben Burtt is the one who actually lets loose with the Wilhelm. Han Solo knocks a man over a ledge and that man is Burtt, who impersonates the Wilhelm scream using his own voice instead of using the usual stock sound.
2. Titanic. When the engine room is flooding, a crew member Wilhelms when a jet of water hits him.
3. Spaceballs. Barf reflects laser beams back at guards and one of them Wilhelms.
4. Toy Story. When Buzz Lightyear gets knocked out of a window, he screams.
5. Reservoir Dogs. You’ll hear the Wilhelm twice, if you listen closely. The first is when Mr. Brown is shot in his car; the second is when Mr. Pink shoves someone while running down a sidewalk.

6. Willow uses it twice as well: when soldiers crash their carriage and when the Brownies hit some enemies with a big spears.

7. Poltergeist, sort of. Little Carol Ann is watching a war movie on T.V. and the Wilhelm occurs in that movie.

8. The Green Berets. A grenade is thrown, enemies are launched into the air, the Wilhelm is screamed.

9. Them!. Three times, actually: when ants attack the crew of the ship, when James Whitmore is killed, and when a soldier gets hit by debris in the sewer.

10. Beauty and the Beast. Chip says, “You gotta try this thing!” and then the castle is shown from the outside, where a battle ensues. A Wilhelm can be heard right after Chip’s exclamation from one of the outside rioters.

And, after reading those 10 examples, you still can’t quite place the scream, here it is… several times.

And, an extra bit of trivia: Ben Burtt is also the guy who created the voice of R2-D2, the sound of the lightsabers and Darth Vadar’s heavy breathing (it’s Burtt’s own breathing in a SCUBA regulator).

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Comments (15)

  1. Ha ha Wilhelm! I always hear in like EVERY movie! I always shout out “Wilhelm!” – and then everyone just looks at me funny :P

    Ben Burtt is AWESOME! I forget which episode (I think Episode II, because he explains the desctintive “twang” of the sonic charges used by Jango Fett), but one of the Star Wars DVD’s has a REALLY good documentary on the “Sound of Star Wars”, with Ben, of course. Anyone who’s intrested in the sounds of Star Wars, or sound editting in general, should check that out.

    posted by Steve on 1-26-2009 at 3:45 pm

  2. Don’t forget that Ben Burtt (through much computer alteration) is also the voice of Wall-E!

    posted by Liz on 1-26-2009 at 4:44 pm

  3. I always point out the willhelm, but no one ever knows what I’m talking about. Now I can use this article to let everyone in on what has become an inside joke.

    posted by D Hue on 1-26-2009 at 4:49 pm

  4. YES!! If you play Lego Star Wars you hear it a lot. Now I have started to hear it in all manner of movies. I was going to ask if it were real or part of some foley library. Nice to know what it is and put a name to it. I will say it now distracts me and kills the immersion in serious movies. So it may be getting TOO wide spread.

    posted by S Driver on 1-26-2009 at 5:16 pm

  5. My husband teaches film and he’s a complete dork when it comes to trivia like this. He made sure our son knew about the Wilhelm by the time he was about 3, and they still shout it out in the movies every time they hear it. It’s pretty cute.

    posted by Kristin on 1-26-2009 at 5:23 pm

  6. what about the nearly-as-ubiquitous cat MEE-ROW! and the shattering glass?

    IIRC Wet Hot American Summer made use of the glass shattering quite humorously…

    posted by Brooke on 1-26-2009 at 5:29 pm

  7. I read in an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader that it came from a film where some dude was bitten by an aligator.

    posted by Sara on 1-26-2009 at 8:37 pm

  8. There is also some “radio banter” you always hear whenever a bunch of cops show up during a movie. It’s always at the beginning of the cop scene and it is the exact unintelligible banter by a woman, it sounds like a couple of numbers. I am absolutely sure that it is the same sound effect used in all the movies (as I listen for this sort of thing) but I have never been able to find anything about it on the internet.

    posted by Kevin on 1-26-2009 at 9:17 pm

  9. “Dr. Davis, telephone please.”

    posted by Kirk on 1-26-2009 at 10:45 pm

  10. I hate the Wilhelm scream. It totally ruins the mood. You’re all into whatever’s going on and then you hear this out of context cheesy scream and you realize that you’re really just in a theatre watching a movie. I realize that it’s Burtt’s signature but it’s grossly overused.

    ps. I have to say that sometimes these recaptcha things are almost indecipherable

    posted by crocostimpy on 1-27-2009 at 8:45 am

  11. crocostimpy — my sentiments exactly. It’s completely distracting (and really not that funny beyond the first time you recognize it and think “tee hee hee! I’m a Hollywood insider!”).

    My six year old recognizes it in movies all the time. “Hey, he screamed like that one storm trooper!”

    posted by EV on 1-27-2009 at 9:27 am

  12. I’ll place myself alongside crocostimpy and EV on the “Wilhelm Haters” camp.

    I’m also not a big fan of the “large group of people gasping in falsetto” that makes the rounds mostly in TV commercials and movie trailers, particularly after a pratfall.

    posted by erak on 1-27-2009 at 11:37 am

  13. I have to say, “watching” that vido on the sly at work was kind of hilarious… I put on my headphones and then started working in another window, just listening to the scream over and over without a visual reference. I’m so glad to have this little bit of movie trivia!

    posted by R on 1-27-2009 at 1:59 pm

  14. The Wilhelm Scream was also used in the second Lord of the Ring movie, The Two Towers, when an Elf warrior was thrown from the Deeping Wall during the battle with the Uruk-hai at Helm’s Deep.

    Does know this make me twice the geek I already think I am?

    posted by Em Smith on 1-27-2009 at 2:14 pm

  15. Don’t forget Wesley in The Princess Bride issues a Wilhelm when he’s being tortured on the machine.

    posted by SheElf on 7-16-2009 at 4:30 pm

Comment

commenting policy