Why You ALWAYS Hear This Scream In Movies 

It also breaks immersion on any scene that is supposed to be taken seriously. It’s like a clown jumping out of a box during “John Wick”.

I cant help but notice the scream every time I hear it! Unfortunately though it always "takes me out" of the movie im watching for a second

I love how the guy gently falls into the water whilst making the ridiculous over the top scream.

There are also many sounds from Doom (1993) that can be heard in many games and movies. The hydraulic door opening, Doomguy grunting in pain, and an imp dying are all quite common. Of course, the developers of Doom got all those sounds from a compilation of stock sounds they had on hand, so they didn't creat them themselves, but it's fun to listen and find them in various other media.

I once considered creating an updated scream compilation because I wasn't completely happy with the ones that existed on RU-vid, but then I calculated that, if I wanted to do the video justice, it would take hundreds of hours sifting through movies and some TV examples to cover a two minute video that almost no one would watch.

One of my favorite uses of the scream is the Ratchet and Clank movie. During a huge battle, a soldier is shot down and lets out the scream. This prompts another soldier to cry out to their fallen comrade, "Wilhelm!"

The Wilhelm Scream never fails to make me laugh. 😂

Yes, the Wilhelm scream is so iconic. Please cover the yowling cat stock effect during every offscreen crash!

In Rachet and Clank someone falls and screams and his friend runs over and yells “Wilhelm!” After him

I love the Wilhelm Scream when used "correctly" in my opinion. Once, maybe twice at most in an entire movie. It's a nice reference. But I've seen overuse and that just breaks immersion.

It actually kind of sounds right in that original scene. That seems obvious, of course, but it’s weird hearing it in its actual context

I often struggle to think about something that could even THEORETICALLY happen in a film that could take me out of a movie more than the Wilhelm scream.

The Wilhelm scream is in so many lego games, that's how I first heard it growing up. Then I recognised it in lots of films, which made me reallise it wasn't a TT games sound effect.

its interesting how it actually kind of works in its source material, despite being such an immersion breaker anywhere else

I actually noticed the Howie scream before the Wilhelm scream, so it was always the more noticeable scream to me and should also get its recognition. The Wilhelm is iconic too though.

There's some stock sound effects that are just joys to hear. Like the jar breaking, the one 2x4 falling to the ground etc. There's some that make you roll your eyes every time. Like the stock child's laughter. But the Wilhelm started at joy and is close to crossing over to eye roll territory.

4:01 I still think it would have been funnier if all 4 of them had the Wilhelm Scream.

when i was a kid i always was wondering why this scream was in so many films. HUGE thanks for revealing this mystery, I appreciate that.

Just wanted to say this was a cute easter egg when it was just a reference amongst sound editors and not in every movie ever made

The sound even makes it's way into games. It appears as an easter egg when you knock a certain enemy in Ori and the Blind Forest it makes this sound. I was so happy when it popped up and it's my personal favorite use of the scream

Why is this one of the most insightful videos I've watched this year

This scream NEVER gets old! Even with the Disney-Pixar animated short, Lifted at the very end 🤣🤣🤣 At first I was like no human being on Earth would scream like THAT! 'Til I done research afterwards since The Wilhelm Scream is forever the funniest screams/sounds in both human and film history!

I love the clips of Blow Out and The Conversation throughout this one. Nicely done!

Whenever my friend hears it, he tells the screen "Bye, Wilhelm!"

I also like those groans you hear in Goldeneye n64 and used in alot of action films

Bro the Wilhelm scream is my actual text message tone 😂 One of my favorite sound effects of all time

Fascinating. I've seen other things about this over the years, but this one has been the most informative.

One of the most frustrating moments to me in movies is in lord of the rings where during the battle of helms deep - one of my favorite scenes ever - there is a very obvious and loud wilhelm scream, and I can never unhear it

I just realized... I think Lego Star Wars is the only videogame I can think of that uses the scream. That needs to be a more common thing in games!

Whenever I point out the Wilhelm scream, my parents never know what I’m talking about, even if I’ve explained it multiple times. They just think I’m crazy or lying

Thanks for including the screenshot from Craig Smith's Freesound account: just signed up for free and checked out his entire archive of original nitrate optical sound effects from the 1930s & ’40s created for Hollywood studios. Brilliant stuff!

Not that I've ever experienced it, but I don't think I'd scream like that if I was bitten by an alligator 😅

Question: what's the worst case you've seen of a TV show or movie using this scream? Like maybe a serious role and they ruined it by using this scream? Like it was out of place or just used someplace it really shouldn't have been. One that stands out for me was fear the walking dead. People on reddit were absolutely going in on the show afterwards for using it during a serious scene lmao. That's actually what caused me to discover it

As funny as I find it to be watching a movie and go “haha wow they used the Wilhelm scream” it really breaks immersion sometimes to be laughing about meta-humor in the middle of an action sequence.

I was looking for something that explained this scream because I heard so much I was like "This is not a coincidence, this is the same sound effect". Finally I found a video about it!

What an interesting bit of information. Thanks for this short and entertaining video.

Its interesting, I'm sure I've heard one of the other takes of the scream in the Star Wars prequels, clone trooper I think. Star Wars was the first time I ever heard the Wilhelm scream and I always knew it as the "trooper scream" since it was used often for Stormtroopers and Clonetroopers

Yes George Lucas and Steven Spielberg seem to be very big fans of it.

I knew I was not the only one who heard that scream in some popluar movies I seen and great video man :]

im so glad that i came upon this video because I wanted to know for years but didn't know how to search for the answer, thank you for this vid!

It would be nearly impossible to watch a movie without that scream effect in it now, i can't remember i have seen a movie without it.

I love that a scream is a reoccurring motif in pretty much all action films.

you could argue Sheb Wooley has appeared in the most films because of this

Not just films, i recently heard the Wilhelm scream in Baldurs Gate 3

I hate *Hate **_HATE_* the Wilhelm Scream! Nothing takes me out of the experience as much as that does. Even someone standing up in front of me doesn't do it as much as that frelling scream. Given my reaction, and the statistical inevitability there are others feeling the same way, I'm surprised it appears as often as it does. I would think this is counter to virtually every filmmaker's goal. 🤷🏼‍♂️ *My gawd, **_how I hate it!_* Sadly, I am having to place this video into my _Watch Later_ queue for now. But wanted to give my 2¢ before it is even a day old. _"All hail the algorithm!"_

Now I'm gonna be listening for this in every movie or show I watch. Thanks a lot lol

Very interesting. Thanks for the research. But there is another sound effect I have noticed over the years, which was used over and over agin. It’s a falling SFX. I’ve noticed it first in ENTER THE DRAGON (73), when Lee is kicking O’Hara and he’s is falling down in slow motion. As a kid, I saw this movie a lot and and soon recognised it in tons of TV shows of the 60s and 70s like THE ROCKFORD FILES, CHARLIES ANGLES, CANNON, etc. Sometimes they used it a few times in a row, for example, when the character was tumbling down a hill. I don’t know how this SFX is called, but I would describe it something like: “falling on ash / dirt floor”. If you want to hear it, just search for BRUCE LEE VS BOB WALL, or LEE VS OHARA, ENTER THE DRAGON and wait till O’Hara gets up again and uses the smashed bottles against Lee. Actually, if you hear closely, you can hear it in almost every tournament-fight scene in ENTER THE DRAGON.

I first noticed it in the green berets with John Wayne, then a couple days later watching another movie from like 2 decades later. It’s haunted me loads since then.

It always pulls me out of the film 😂 I often hear the same creaking metal door sound or children laughing.

I don't think I can scream like that guy could. The original recording with 6 different scream was pure magic.

It's amazing to learn this history about the Will helm scream

Just started Baldurs Gate 3 and they had the Wilhelm Scream in the intro mission, made me laugh

"Ben Burtt, who made the beeps for R2D2, the screams for TIE fighters, and the hum for lightsabers. And his friend Richard L. Anderson" Always love it when one person gets an intro and then the second guy is relegated to pretty much the sidekick role and just gets his name said and the video quickly moves on lol.

Ever since my roommate put it as his text notification tone I hear it every time. The scream was also used to great effect once in each season of the show Galavant, one of my favorite shows ever.

For years anytime my daughters and I are watching a movie and hear a Wilhelm scream, we turn to each other, announce it and crack up. It’s a cinematic mini game where we each try to be the first to catch it. I have a feeling they’ll one day play it with their children as well.

I hate this scream with a passion. I have been noticing it for years and it breaks my immersion every time. I learnt what it was on an episode of QI.

5:28 I knew there were other takes! I've watched compilations of Wilhelm Screams and that fifth take, and possibly that sixth one. And I feel those other takes have popped up here and there too. I know a lot people these days don't like it being used, but I love hearing the Wilhelm Scream in movies.

I've always recognized this particular sound throughout my childhood, my brother and I would always call it out in excitement "hey that scream again!!", it's good to finally know it's origin story

Yes. This scream is so iconic. I first heard it in Star Wars

It's interesting that they originally went with that out of that set. The first take sounds the most appropriate, imo.

I never get tired of that sound!😁

Best video about the Wilhelm scream I have ever seen. This breakdown is God Damn Beautiful.

I need a rapid fire vid with every single scream used in movies in order.😂🍻

it's easily the most iconic scream of all time.

I never get tired of that sound!. it's easily the most iconic scream of all time..

I hadn’t heard it in anything new for a while, but then there it was in Indy 5. They even managed to sneak in the millennium falcon’s engine shutdown sound near the end too.

The only thing more pervasive than the Wilhelm Scream.... is the Howie Scream.

I love the scream. Always makes me smile when I hear it in a movie.

It’s just like a globally understood joke in movie development and I love it

One of my early memories is of playing the first Lego Star Wars game and jumping off a cliff with R2-D2 repeatedly just so I can hear this funny scream a bunch

Not just Movies but T.V shows and commercials too. That scream without a doubt is the most famous gag of all time.

Even in god of war 3 opening scene

My absolute favorite use of the scream was in TFS DBZA where the frieza soldiers are tying to mimic it and fail until they actually get shot lol

So cool, this has literally been a mystery to me since I saw "A new hope" when I was a kid! Now I know!

The scream from that recording session recorded just before the wilhelm is also in star wars. I can't remember where but I recognised it instantly.

One of my favourite wilhelm scream discoverys was whilst playing one of the red dead redemption games... I was in a saloon and there was an npc rocking in his chair... I pulled a gun on him and the guy fell backwards off his chair letting out this famous scream as he did so. I was so pleased I put the controller down

I've definitely heard a few other sounds that are used just as frequently as this one. There's one female scream that's more of a scream of terror, that I seem to hear absolutely everywhere, although I have no idea of it has a name like, "Wilhelm Scream", but I would definitely call it the female equivalent. I'd love to know more about that one, about why it's used so much.

One of my favorite uses of the Wilhelm Scream is during the castle battle sequence in _Beauty and the Beast_ (1991), right after Chip says, "You guys gotta try this thing."

Great video.

I like it. It’s a filmmaker’s and cinephile’s inside joke. 99.999% of people don’t catch it and don’t think anything of it. But we do and for a split second you feel connected to the filmmakers and the “behind the scenes” artistry. Granted, there’s use and then there’s misuse and abuse.

I like how Tarantino started using his own version of the Wilhelm scream. It was Kurt Russell bawling in pain from Death Proof

On my Twitch channel, I have the Wilhelm scream as a sound alert option that viewers can play on stream while I’m playing a video game… one of the single most iconic sounds in any medium of entertainment

My favorite use comes from Robot Chicken where two guards are talking about it and one of them does a poor impression of it. The other is like "no its more like *gets shot* [actual Wilhelm Scream]" then the first gets shot and does it too. Died laughing. 😂

Funnily enough, after hearing the term "Wilhelm scream" for the first time many moons ago, it was several years before I actually realized what it was, as I had been misattributing the term to a different scream. I was simply told it was the name of "that scream you always hear in movies," but I'd never noticed the actual Wilhelm scream in any movies up to that point -- the one that I did notice was a scream I'm still not sure of the name of. I mostly remembered hearing it from movie trailers at the time, though of course now that I'm thinking of it, I can't think of or find any specific examples of where it was used. But I'm certain others must have heard it as well -- it's a much more intense scream than the Wilhelm, almost sounding like it's been post-processed a bit to add a little extra oomph, and somewhat resembling a human imitation of a Pterodactyl cry or something. As such, it works just as well as a death scream (one would imagine dying in absolute agony) as it does an almost supernatural-grade war cry. Once I finally learned that that was NOT the Wilhelm scream, I started to notice the Wilhelm scream in media a lot more, though the Pterodactyl scream (as I've dubbed it) was also still omnipresent for quite a long time. I'd love to know what the industry name is for that other scream, if anyone knows (and if it even has a name, though I'm sure it must!). EDIT: Found the scream I was thinking of in another RU-vid video titled "Stock Scream Effects." It's listed as the YOUURRGH, though I somehow doubt that's its actual name. ;)

There's another scream that I always associated with the Mortal Kombat movies but I heard in a couple of movies... Also the dang honk or airhorn thats always played anytime a car / truck is shown driving off in reality TV. Those would be cool next topics to research

Another great video, thank you. May I suggest the story of Alan Smithee?

You're telling me that the SAME guy got lightsaber noises AND tie fighter noises? Both of these are so incredibly perfect

Wow, it's fascinating how that iconic scream seems to find its way into so many movies! It's like a little inside joke among filmmakers

Eye-roll inducing every time I hear it. How to immediately take your audience out of the movie.

The Wilhelm was in every single episode of the Caustic Soda podcast, in the intro. ICONIC!

When I think of an iconic scream I hear everywhere it’s not this one, it’s the other one.

why would they use this scream when more and more people recognize it as the wilhelm scream? it always takes me out of the experience

It only serves to pull me out of the scene and ruins it for me. Every time. Folly is meant to be hidden, not in your face. It should not stand out. It's simply bad sound design.

The best use of the Wilhelm Scream is without a doubt the LEGO Ninjago Movie, where it’s played like 5 times back to back for a gag

I still remember the Wilhelm scream from halo reach, in the opening cutscene of ‘Tip of the Spear’. It really did make its way to everything.

I'm honestly not a fan of the scream. It can totally ruin a movie or scene especially if the movie is not a comedy. Takes me out of the experience that I'm watching a film.

I understand keeping it around as a fun easter egg, but its a really bad and out of place scream that just doesn't fit in anywhere.

I myself first noticed it in an old iPad adaptation of the board game Loot & Scoot. The game itself isn't great (mostly just building up your team and rolling the dice to see what happens), but the mobile version greatly enhanced the presentation of this standard medieval fantasy board game that otherwise takes itself a bit too seriously, by having your characters' eyes cartoonishly pop out when you fail a roll before the monsters take them out and sometimes they do the Wilhelm scream.

Thank god I was obsessed about what's this scream all about for so long

The Wilhelm scream ruined movies for me. Every time I hear it it irritates me and takes me out of the movie. Time to let it die out.