The Force Awakens was filled with nods to the original trilogy of Star Wars films, from the holographic Dejarik game board on the Millennium Falcon to a cameo by the fish-faced Admiral Ackbar. Another easy-to-miss reference: a sound effect of a man screaming theatrically that has been used in every film in the series to date as a sort of in-joke among sound designers.The sound effect, which has come to be known as the "Wilhelm Scream," was first used in the 1951 picture "Distant Drums." It rose to prominence again in the late 1970s, when sound editor Ben Burtt noticed that multiple B-movies had used the same sound sample and tracked down the original recording, which was straightforwardly labeled "Man Being Eaten by Alligator."Burtt decided to slip the 26-year-old clip into a film he was working on at the time. Its title? Star Wars, later rebranded as A New Hope. You can hear it in a scene when Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia shoot an Imperial Stormtrooper on board the Death Star.The scream found its way into all three films in the original trilogy, as well as the much-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special. Decades later, it was used again in all three prequel films. During the interceding years, the joke caught on in Hollywood, where it appeared in dozens of blockbusters from the Indiana Jones films to Batman Returns, Reservoir Dogs" and Toy Story. (In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the joke comes full circle, with the sound playing as a character is again eaten by an alligator.)"It's an inside geek joke among sound designers," Skywalker Sound's Matthew Wood told Wired of the Wilhelm Scream back in 2007.Now, the Wilhelm Scream can be heard in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when—mild spoilers follow—Finn and Poe shoot up a hangar bay with a stolen TIE fighter. The Wilhelm Scream seems quieter than usual, and it plays at the same time as a loud explosion, almost as though the filmmakers wanted it be subtler than normal.
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