The Wilhelm Scream is the biggest movie Easter egg in history, but many people may not know where it came from. The truth may surprise you as the scream doesn't originate from a person, character, or film involving the name "Wilhelm". Instead, the frequently heard yell has a complicated origin involving sound bytes and popularized by Star Wars.
To get to the bottom of the creation of the Wilhelm Scream, one must go back to 1951 when Distant Drums starring Gary Cooper was released. One scene in the film featured the heroes crossing a lake which has alligators in it. While the main characters of Distant Drums survive the trek, not everyone in the party does. Voice actor and singer Sheb Wooley was brought in to provide some sound effects for the film during post-production, including the now-iconic scream. But, Distant Drums has no character or person involved named Wilhelm, so how did the name come to be?
In 1953, the western movie The Charge at Feather River used the unnamed sound byte from Warner Bros. stock sound library to play when an unsuspecting Private Wilhelm was shot by an arrow. Fast forward to 1977 and a little film called Star Wars was about to be released, and some sound effects were still being added. While searching for a scream to include, sound editor Ben Burtt discovered the hilarious scream labeled as "Man being eaten by alligator". Burtt added the scream to the scene when Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper off a ledge in the Death Star.
After discovering and incorporating the scream in Star Wars, Burtt began researching the origin of the scream. He is the one who found evidence of Wooley being responsible for the scream. But, Burtt also is responsible for naming the scream after Private Wilhelm. The influence of Star Wars helped popularize the Wilhelm Scream from this point forward within the sound community. Burtt included it in the first six Star Wars films, but the recent Star Wars films have abandoned it. Lucasfilm's other big franchise, Indiana Jones, also has a tendency of using it, with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom taking the recurring joke to the next level by playing the scream when alligators rip a man's body apart.
While there isn't an official comprehensive list of every single movie, TV show, or video game that has used the Wilhelm Scream, it is believed that it can be heard in over 400 projects. The usage of the Wilhelm Scream remains a popular Easter egg in some of the biggest movies in the world, with Avengers: Infinity War and Venom both utilizing the effect in 2018. As a result, it has become the biggest Easter egg in Hollywood. It is truly incredible that this is the legacy of the scream considering where it came from.