Every Wilhelm Scream In The Star Wars Saga

Three years after the release of The Phantom Menace - in a time when three years was both the optimal and widely accepted timeline for a new Star Wars instalment (looking at you, Kathleen Kennedy) - fans were greeted by the uneven but exciting Attack of the Clones.

A grown up Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), on the precipice of eclipsing his master's powers, rekindles his childhood crush as his and (now Senator) Padmé Amidala's lives are thrust into collision. Obi-Wan discovers a secret clone army on the wet and windy Kamino, rallying them to fight (now deceased) Qui-Gon's old master, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), who has teamed up with the Trade Federation to form a separatist alliance against the Galactic Republic.

Kicking off the film with an explosive piece of political sabotage, Senator Amidala's diplomatic barge is blown up by an unseen assassin as she touches down on Coruscant, killing Amidala's decoy - a role since shed by Phantom's decoy handmaiden, Keira Knightley. It is during this sequence that Wilhelm's cry rings out once more, torn from the throat of another falling Naboo guard caught in the blast. Though all sources do seem to indicate this is the Wilhelm scream, there is something undeniably different about this iteration of it, sounding more guttural and less piercing - perhaps Burtt intentionally playing with his EQ and perhaps also his audience. But it seems the jury may be out on this one.

Another Easter egg of sorts can be found in the form of Anakin saying the famous line, 'I've got a bad feeling about this', as he, Padmé and Obi-Wan face a trio of monsters in Dooku's Geonosis arena. The line is attributed to Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in A New Hope, who exclaims it when the heroes find themselves at the bottom of a trash chute in the Death Star; however, it was first uttered by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), as a 'very bad feeling' earlier in the film, and finding its way into every entry in the saga since.