Every Wilhelm Scream In The Star Wars Saga

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect originally recorded by Sheb Wooley, which has since made its way into over 400 films, and the pop culture canon, perhaps most notably as a mainstay in the Star Wars saga, providing a popular Easter egg for attentive fans.

Though the effect was recorded by Wooley for 1951's Distant Drums - where one Private Jessup (Wooley) is dragged underwater by an alligator - it actually takes its name from a character in 1953's The Charge at Feather River. Private Wilhelm - played by Ralph Brooks - is struck in the leg by an arrow, and he releases the improbable, iconic sound that has crept its way into Hollywood history. The sound is used several times throughout Feather River, for several different characters, but it is with Wilhelm that it ultimately stuck.

A sound designer by the name of Ben Burtt incorporated the sound effect into the original 1977 release of Star Wars before running with the gag and slyly adding it into the mix of many of the films he worked on, including the Indiana Jones series. It has since found a permanent place in our culture, shifting into non-Burtt related films for Pixar and Disney, and other media, including high-profile video games like Grand Theft Auto.

With the saga's final entry, The Rise of Skywalker, cresting the horizon, we take a look back at the trail of screams that lie in its wake.

The maligned first episode, and fourth entry in the Star Wars saga, The Phantom Menace, follows the fates of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (a post-Trainspotting Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) as their paths cross for the very first time. Charting a course from Naboo to Coruscant, the film tracks Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (a pre-Taken Liam Neeson) and his apprentice, Obi-Wan, as they try to protect the young queen of Naboo from evil Trade Federation forces, navigating encounters with the infamous Jabba the Hutt and Sith Lord Darth Maul.

As Phantom is now experiencing something of a resurgence in popularity, thanks in no small part to the comparative backlash against the new sequel trilogy, this may be the time to take another look and uncover some of its secrets.

The scream doesn't crop up until the film's third act, as Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) storms her palace in an effort to wrest it back from the Trade Federation Viceroy. A brave Naboo soldier runs headfirst into the fray in the Theed Palace hangar, falling almost instantly to Federation battle droid blaster fire and releasing Wilhelm's iconic vocal.

While Wooley's scream is often apparent to the attentive viewer, the Star Wars films are peppered with other little curiosities that require a finely tuned dial and set of military-strength macrobinoculars. Among these are the THX-1138 references - an added bonus alluding to director/creator George Lucas's 1971 original feature film. In Phantom, the code is featured on the backpack of a battle droid that breaks down in front of the unsung hero of this film: Jar Jar Binks.