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The Wilhelm Scream


The Wilhelm Scream is a film and television stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums.   The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars and many other blockbuster films as well as television programs and video games. The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.
The sound is named for Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge At Feather River, a 1953 western in which the character is shot with an arrow. This was believed to be the third movie to use the sound effect and its first use from the Warner Brothers stock sound library.




And yet more....




Once the Wilhelm Scream gets into your brain, you'll always recognize it in films.

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