It probably shouldn't surprise you that filmmakers like to reuse their material. If you're going to spend millions and millions of dollars making a movie, then it makes sense to take the stuff that you make and wring the absolute maximum amount of value out of it.
One of the most common reuses of material is in sound effects, and the standard 'horrified scream' is one that is used and reused over and over again.
Advert
In fact, it even has it's own name the Wilhelm Scream effect, which was first used in a 1951 cowboy movie called Distant Drums has been recycled for literally hundreds of times since, including in every Star Wars movie.
It can be found across all of George Lucas' work, featuring in the Indiana Jones movies as well as Star Wars, and also in Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy, Titanic, Avatar, Django Unchained, Venom...I could go on.
The scream is reportedly that of Sheb Wooley, an actor and singer who starred in Distant Drums and a host of other Westerns. He was actually better known as a singer than an actor and produced a string of novelty country hits in the 1950s, but also lent his voice to Distant Drums, creating the well known effect.
It is thought that a later use of the scream, in 1953 movie The Charge At Feather River, was the direct influence on Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt, who liked the effect and decided to put in the original film. Since then, it has appeared in hundreds of pictures, usually linked to a character being shot or falling off something high up.
The Wilhelm Scream has become something of an in-joke in the sound effects community, with designers seeking to smuggle it into as many films as possible. Beyond the world of cinema, a punk band, A Wilhelm Scream, named themselves after it and British musician James Blake named a track after it.
Despite over 60 years in showbiz, it is rumoured that the next Star Wars film will retire the iconic sound effect.
"In this movie, we decided to move from the Wilhelm scream," said Matthew Wood, the supervising sound editor
on Star Wars: The Last Jedi. "We're letting the past die, as Kylo Ren says."
"We've started another scream that we like. It's actually been in this film and Rogue One, and some other films that are not Star Wars-related. But it's our own little calling card."