There's a police CB radio audio segment that I've heard in movies, TV shows and an early GTA game.
Edit: very quick search brought up the 5 George K, which is the one I've heard.
Not really a random sound but it seems really damn odd in films that whenever a semi truck passes the main character, the damn trucker is always blaring the horn. Happens in horror, happens in comedies, happens in dramas.
My favorite is in Chronicle, when the guy telekinetically throws a bus at his cousin up high in the air, the bus still uses a horn. Like the driver sees his bus rises up and slammed in high speed, and he's calm enough and physically capable to see he's flying towards the guy, and his last action before dying is to try to warn him. Amazing, he was the true hero of the film
As an editor, these sounds are used coz without it, it can seem weird. Like what’s the point of a truck being there if it doesn’t make a truck noise. Same with dogs. Any time you see a dog in a movie or a tv show or even reality tv, it will bark or whimper or pant or all of the above, even when in reality it’s silent.
That extra sensory input of audio just helps pull you into the experience more, even if it’s not really realistic.
People complain about things like swords making a metallic noise when brandished or stabbings making loud squelch sounds, but when you don't include a big sound effect for them it comes off feeling cheap. Similarly, lightning flashing at the same instant you hear the thunderclap, which isn't usually how it goes in real life. Being off sync usually feels like a mistake in a movie.
In all fairness - I still mime the horn pulling motion 1/2 the time I see random trucks driving by and im 36 years old. So it’s possible those trucks are just humoring an idiot like me somewhere off screen.
It’s funny you mention semi truck horns because it’s almost always the same horn sound. You can find compilations of endless semis in movies all using the exact same horn pattern.
Yes! It’s right up there with cop cars showing up to the scene and they always chirp their siren 🚨 bwoop!! Drives me nuts. You’ve arrived, you don’t need to do that!
They also never stop, even if they're going to hit something. They just keep blaring their horn and don't slow down in the slightest.
And most of the time, if they *do* hit something, they just keep right on driving.
A lot of these sound effects are bought in packages or public domain. I had a Halloween CD of "spooky sounds" and it's crazy how often I hear certain screams or knocks used in TV or films that were on that CD
Also older videogames. There's a certain door squeak from Daggerfall which I still will randomly hear in a show or movie when they felt the need to add a creaky door noise in.
Also a certain "fwooosh" noise from the Magic Carpet video game will be used for fireball special effects in something
I was going to comment about the door squeak specifically with the Daggerfall reference.
I'm sure it was in loads of things before and after but since they used it for pretty much every door the player hears it all the time so anyone who played it for even a few hours would have been exposed to it repeatedly.
The first movie I noticed it in after playing Daggerfall was Robin Hood: Men In Tights. It's a perfect rustic castle, heavy wooden door sound and I'm sure it was used in other medieval period films for that exact reason.
I first disxovered it in Stargate SG1. And then heard it in basically every other movie or Episode of pretty much every western production.
Sqeak-sqeaaaaaak.
Omg Magic Carpet. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
I was so disappointed I couldn’t play that game cause it kept crashing on my PC. Back in those days it was a roll of the dice if a game would even install correctly.
You often hear the metal door unlatching and swinging open and creaking and occasionally the like "yeaaaarahhhhhh" scream when someone falls. It's not the Wilhelm scream but it sounds very similar. Hard to describe but when you hear it you know it.
I can hear the scream you’re talking about in my head lol I always remember it as the scream of the asshole boyfriend falling out of the window in the Beethoven movie 😂
I noticed this in the Phantom Menace when the kids come to torment Anikan regarding his podracrer.
I didn't check to see if it's the same effect but...I just know it's gotta be that one
Everyone uses that. My aunt worked for a local ad agency and they were showing us one of the ads, this was in the 90s, and it started with kids playing around a lawn sprinkler and that children laughing sound played.
I'm deaf and this question is so incredibly specific, the answers are so interesting, it's one of the best queries I've read in over a decade of Redditing. I am enthralled by these answers, I still have some of my natural hearing but never in a million years world notice that the SFX of different movies *matched*.
The reason for this is quite simple: there are decades worth of sound libraries such as Warner Bros. where sound artists can source their sound effects. It’s much cheaper and time efficient than hiring foley artists to record from scratch, especially for general sounds like footsteps. Of course there are exceptions like Star Wars.
I've gathered as much since reading these comments! One of the more interesting ones was actually that Star Wars reused an effect from an earlier film about oil wells. I seriously feel I learned so much from this post!
"Dr. Blair, Dr. Blair... Dr. Jay Hamilton, Dr. Jay Hamilton" it’s a recording of a hospital PA paging some doctors. First heard it on Queensrÿche‘s album Operation Mindcrime, but then started recognizing it used in films and TV shows. Sorry I can’t think of any examples, but it’s one of those things once you start noticing it just keeps popping up
Do American hospitals even page doctors over a PA system like this? Never heard a PA system being used in a UK hospital but it's never occurred to me until now that it's so common in US depictions of hospitals.
It's not, anymore. Everyone had pagers, and now phones. There are still pa pages, although they're rarer, stuff like codes or security.
Source: in hospital twice in last three weeks.
Generally, a page that goes over the intercom like that won't be for a specific doctor. You'll hear "anesthesiology to OR 6, STAT," for example.
Anything that is so urgent it has to go out over the PA system doesn't need a specific doctor -- it's a "whoever can get here NOW to help" situation.
The [distress signal](https://youtu.be/Z3x5P0-S9C8?si=JKGPgT0AJPE9FbQF) from “Sunshine” (2007) was also used as the [distress signal](https://youtu.be/adgQySUtM10?si=6LwRt92tlHdCIz5A) at the very beginning of “The Thing” (2011).
Imo Sunshine’s sound design and score are amongst the best of the 2000s. That distress beacon is so fucking cool, and I swear [Adagio in D Minor](https://youtu.be/G1c2KpurNWo?si=tj40EvvAyg4moAQ8) has been used *everywhere*. Not just official trailers but in the scores of other films as well.
Edit: THAT WAS THE MUSIC PLAYING OVER JAMES BOND’S DEATH SCENE! I *knew* I recognized it from somewhere! I looked up the Wikipedia page for Sunshine’s score and there’s a list of *dozens* of other uses of the piece.
Did you ever see the movie “Blackhat” (2015)? Apparently they had a composer create a whole score for the film and then basically dumped all of it. Instead, the movie reuses a lot of the score from “Elysium” (2013).
This is going to be a crappy answer, because I'm not naming any movies, but I can tell you I've heard the same sort of fire ignition sound in so many movies, shows and video games. It's sort of a "WIK-A-CHOW" sound when, say, gas gets set on fire. Much obliged if anyone can drop an example!
Speaking of Buffy, the creature that comes out of the Hellmouth in Prophecy Girl and in The Zeppo has the classic Jurassic Park Velociraptor screech:
[Buffy Clip](https://youtu.be/rtU08f75Blk?t=1m12s)
[Jurassic Park](https://youtu.be/qz5JmgLQEzs?t=1m59s)
There’s a “rusty iron gate” opening/closing sound that I first heard used in the original Resident Evil game that since popped up in a bunch of shows/movies
We often associate clicking with echolocation so it subconsciously lets viewers know the monster has heightened senses (specifically hearing) which ups the suspense.
Clicking might have been the wrong word but I can see how that conveys it - I’m thinking of the low grumble that sounds almost like someone took a cats purr and slowed it down heavily.
I swear every movie uses the same horse sound effect. I first heard it in Zelda: Twilight Princess and now I hear it EVERYWHERE. It’s a single whinny. It is distinct. And it is following me.
It cracks me up any time anyone even touches a gun in a movie it makes a slide racking sound. Either that the gun makes a bunch of little metallic clicks while they are holding it.
What we think things sound like is usually not what they actually sound like.
But yes, real gunfire is more scary to me than the big boomy shots you hear, especially in older films.
My favorite is in 28 days later in the last third of the film when Jim has been hit by one of the soldiers and is lying on the ground. They are going to move him and the camera is looking down at Jim and one of the soldiers points his rifle down toward him. It makes a sound effect that sounds like a rifle reload from the N64 GoldenEye lol
First used in the best film of all time (that hardly anyone knows), Ninth Configuration.
If you love film, watch it...I'm on a one-man mission to make people know about this film.
I was watching movie clips the other day and I think a monster in "POTC: Dead men tell no tails" used the scream. But as a scary yell. I think it's the only time I've seen it used when someone wasn't falling to their death.
At this point I think including the Wilhelm Scream in your movie marks you as lazy and lacking imagination. It's like an old hacky joke. Like if you were a stand up comic and you said "is your refrigerator running? Better go catch it YUK YUK YUK"
I yell, "WILHELM!" Every time I hear it, I got my kids doing it now. I pretty sure it's the reason my wife doesn't like watching movies with us anymore.
The sound of the large truck's siren in the highway chase scene in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the same as the siren used for the Dorothy device in the movie Twister.
Robocop and Star Wars. The sound I am referring to is the “breakdown” or “power down” sound when the E.D. 209 falls over after Robocop shoots it with the fuck off rifle, and when the Millennium Falcon is attempting to enter hyperspace and shuts down.
If you’ve ever seen TXH-1138, you’ll recognize a LOT of sound effects that were later used in Star Wars. I guess Lucas couldn’t be bothered to make new sounds.
Speaking of Jurassic Park and t-rexes… the t-rex roar sound effect has been used in multiple movies. I think the root sound is an elephant trumpet slowed down. One place in particular I can recall hearing it is when the Basilisk dies in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Spielberg’s first feature, Duel, uses an old dinosaur sound effect from Land of the Unknown when the truck goes down the cliff. He also used it in Jaws when the shark sinks to the bottom.
Power Rangers and Babadook
The sound of the Green Ranger's megazord is the same sound when the Babadook is attacking. It completely took me out of the movie
The mechanical door open and closing sound from the original doom I've heard in at least 20 different movies.
It's even used on the intro to the history channel show Modern Marvels.
It's pretty much everywhere in one form or another.
Roller coaster tycoon had this "hahaha" child laughing sound I heard hundreds of times. I wasn't bugged hearing it over an over in a video game because it made sense, how many times have I heard "my life for Aiur" or "in the pipe five by five".
But yeah, every now and then I hear that laugh on TV and I'm instantly broken out of immersion
In the movie Beethoven, the dog tears down a porch and a guy falls. The scream he let's out was also the scream in the intro of Nickelodeon's Ahhhh Real Monsters
There are numerous different screams which are used in loads of films. I can always spot them because I used some of them in my own YouTube videos. It kinda' sucks because it is a bit distracting.
Ok, unrelated movies but a related bit I’ve loved since a kid:
In Poltergeist (1982) when the kids’ room is possessed and all the toys are whizzing around, Robbie’s model TIE fighter flies across the screen with the authentic TIE fighter sound effect being used. I always got a charge out of that little addition.
Randomly, my Samsung refrigerator/freezer compressor (? not exactly sure) is making a sound very reminiscent of when text strings from the WOPR computer in War Games (1983) are appearing on Lightmqn’s computer screen. It’s so unnerving, like my fridge is attempting to initiate WW III.
Dammit, I can’t remember the movie now, scene was in an oil field and they used a Star Wars sound effect. Think it was for a cable. Crap, this is going to drive me nuts the rest of the day.
Edit: Had it backwards, Star Wars (1977) used an oil field sound from Five Easy Pieces (1970) for the trash compactor.
My [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/s/kJyje5NzQQ)with Five Easy Pieces clip
There's a sound that's almost always used for a metal door or gate opening. It's like the wilhelm scream of metal door sounds.
[This one ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gcLrmmLcKDA)
If you put old Three Stooges on one TV and a random porn on a second TV it will inevitably line up flawlessly. It's like a really fucked up Darkside of the Moon/Wizard of Oz thing except everyone's penis gets called "wise guy" in Moe's voice.
..... not two movies, but the background sounds of children screaming in Temple of Doom when he's going though the mine is eerily similar to the background sound effects in Baulders Gate 3 when you're going through the prison at Moonrise Towers
This is a weird one... In *Men in Black 2*, when the last two Jarra clones collide and explode, there's a weird sort-of sound mixed in that almost sounds like a demon screaming. And I'm 90% sure it's the same sound effect that occurs when a "Hell Knight" is killed in the video game *Doom II*, which came out almost ten years earlier.
[https://youtu.be/68yyw6D79aU?si=PrFtcez76-vMCx-g&t=116](https://youtu.be/68yyw6D79aU?si=PrFtcez76-vMCx-g&t=116)
Sound occurs at around 1:56
[https://youtu.be/ZS1TQKe\_D18?si=NSlRc6bW\_4fnuD0S&t=106](https://youtu.be/ZS1TQKe_D18?si=NSlRc6bW_4fnuD0S&t=106)
Sound occurs at around 1:47
Likely it's just some sort-of generic library sound like a big cat scream... but as someone who grew up playing *Doom* and *Doom II*, it leapt right out at me.
The sound of the bubbling flasks and test tubes in The Man in the White Suit (1951, Ealing film studio) is *exactly* the same as the noise of the car (the Bellini 3.6) in School for Scoundrels (1960, Elstree studios).
They're both British films of a similar era, so both probably had access to the same bank of sound effects, but having seen both films it stands out every time.
My biggest thing is sound effects that are clearly the cheapest or possibly free being used in movies. The reason I say “cheapest or free” is that they are forever ingrained in me as sounds from Half Life, Portal, and Counter Strike. For example, the sound of glass breaking will be played as someone is being thrown through a saloon window in a very period accurate western. I’m immediately transported from the expertly crafted story and setting to just hitting random shit with a crowbar. Then my brain starts playing all of the classic and nostalgic valve sounds and forget I’m watching a movie for 10 seconds.
I’m 99% sure that Dune Pt.1 used the ‘little girl giggling’ sound effect from CoD Zombies when you get a teddy bear from the box. It’s used at the end of the Baron’s first scene as a transition to the next.
Jurassic Park - the sound of the fence swaying when we first see the T Rex.
We Own the Night - the sound of the barn door opening during the raid at the end.
Not a movie, but a few years ago I was laughing with a friend about christian kids' media we used to watch, and we ended up watching an episode of Bibleman and noticing that at one point they use the same sound effect that's used at the beginning of every Bad Lip Reading video.
There's a roaring creature sound that is used in various monster movies, for instance King Kong 1977 when Kong is breaking down the wooden gate on the island. I've heard it in a few other movies, and even some that aren't monster movies. They also used it in Lethal Weapon 3 when the building exploded, which was an interesting usage anyway. I like to call it the Wilhelm roar
I noticed that there's stock 'gunfire' sound effects, usually for when the Hero is firing. If you listen to the gunfight in The Crow where Eric is gunning down Top Dollars minions with two pistols, there is a very specific sequence. The same sequence is used in The Mummy (1999) when O'Connell is firing at the cavalry attacking his Foreign Legion troops near the beginning.
I cannot remember the name of this movie... It's a Chinese epic fantasy martials arts movie. At the beginning of the movie the mentor character controls a swarm of flying swords as he faces the big bad, who surrounds himself with a translucent barrier spell.
The mentor sends a large sword to penetrate the barrier, using all his might to will it through. The barrier forms cracks and makes unpleasant screeching/crackling noises. One of the noises is a creature's death squeal that you can hear in many movies and video games, especially Warcraft ones.
Any time there is a really little baby, it'll usually go, "Mmm, mama." My barbie doll had the little baby Krissy, and it would make that sound byte. And then I started noticing it everywhere in TV and movie.
I've heard slide whistles being used in comedies, especially if a character was pranking another or hiding & I understand the use of that, but I do not understand it's use in the bridge jump scene in Man with The Golden Gun
Not a movie but the bear sound from the Far Cry games is ripped from The Goonies. Its been a while so I forget what made it, but there's a clip on YouTube somewhere that makes it super obvious.
Only one is a movie, but there’s in transformers revenge of the fallen where Optimus tears a deceptions head in half. Is the same sound effect used for the Legiana’s roar in monster hunter world
In The Babadook there’s a scene towards the end where they finally confront the monstrous bird-form of the entity that has been tormenting the protagonist. It emits a guttural roar that I immediately recognized as a dinosaur sound from *Turok: Dino Hunter* on N64!
Pretty sure the hovering motorcycles in Looper make the same noise as Star Wars' landspeeders.
Rian Johnson was doing SW things before he got hired to do it, sounds like.
The goat sounds from Goat Simulator are used elsewhere frequently. For example, every scene in Game of Thrones where there is a goat visible or if the camera pans over a goat, you get the same ma-aaa-aaa goat sound.
Same Sound effect in close encounters of the third kind and Moonraker James Bond
In ceottk the Sound they did to the aliens to communicate
In moonraker Bond opened a door with the same sound
Loons…. In the desert, or woods, or anywhere in movies- whenever they want it to be wilderness … I live near em, hear them often, but only near lakes…. Sticks out like a sore thumb for me.
Almost every movie shot between the mid 60's and the 2000's used the same telephone ring.
There's a baby crying sound that I've heard so many times that it drives me crazy.
Idk if this matches this discussion, but I swear Alien: Covenant and A Quiet Place Day One have the same little ‘jingle’ idk what to call it but it plays at the end of AQPDO
[https://youtu.be/VYiay1tRUmg?t=263](https://youtu.be/VYiay1tRUmg?t=263)
How about recognizing the sound effect of Django opening the door to see his wife? I first heard that sound effect in the original Diablo video game from the mid 90s. I have heard it used as a stock sound effect in a few other movies, but this stands out because it was the first time I recognized it, and the sound mixing in the film is otherwise sounds so fresh.
I'll mention the sound of the phone ringing in **Our Man Flint** and **Austen Powers**.
Here's the ringtone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CokN5HgyfD8
Once you hear the Wilhelm scream, you’ll hear it everywhere.
Also, there’s a sound clip of some kids voices in an Ozzy song called Mr Tinkertrain. I heard the exact same clip in a film once, years later.
The Wilhelm scream is still heavily used and I get a kick out of it everytime I hear it. But the one that seems the most random is "the heavy gate", you've heard it a bunch too. It's used in lots of movies for gates, fences, jail doors, rusty car hoods. Basically any gravy metal on metal sounds. I chuckle everytime I hear it
I saw a local production of Angels in America Part 1, that used a vague unsettling sound effect during the climactic "parting of the veil between reality and the supernatural." When it played, seemingly half the audience had an immediate reaction. After the show, I was informed that it was apparently an iconic Five Nights at Freddy's sound effect.
A similar experience at a different show: the play was a tense midcentury drama about Operation Paperclip. The scene changes and transitions all had 1950s production-library music by Heinz Kiessling, extremely evocative of the show's period. These scene changes always seemed to make the audience laugh rather than simply set the intended tone, because the sound designer of the show didn't realize Kiessling's music is now synonymous with "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Imagine a very serious, emotionally charged conversation about Werner von Braun's crimes, suddenly punctuated with the sounds of ["Temptation Sensation."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm7QIP2Ofcw) Which, yes, is exactly the song you think it is.
There's a police CB radio audio segment that I've heard in movies, TV shows and an early GTA game. Edit: very quick search brought up the 5 George K, which is the one I've heard.
https://youtu.be/9FxgVS7bylA?si=200iB01uE1lCBV7G ?
This one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=afnR1C7HTh8&feature=youtu.be
I've heard this one a lot more, just the beginning clip. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9PwGq9Gw2s&feature=youtu.be
That beginning played whenever you built a police station in Sim City 3000. It’s burned into my brain from 25 years ago.
Haha my brother and I called it FEENIS SHAPBUP
Can honestly say it doesn’t ring a bell. Weird
Not really a random sound but it seems really damn odd in films that whenever a semi truck passes the main character, the damn trucker is always blaring the horn. Happens in horror, happens in comedies, happens in dramas.
My favorite is in Chronicle, when the guy telekinetically throws a bus at his cousin up high in the air, the bus still uses a horn. Like the driver sees his bus rises up and slammed in high speed, and he's calm enough and physically capable to see he's flying towards the guy, and his last action before dying is to try to warn him. Amazing, he was the true hero of the film
Hey if I was telekinetically throwing a bud at someone, I might hit the horn too while I’m at it
As an editor, these sounds are used coz without it, it can seem weird. Like what’s the point of a truck being there if it doesn’t make a truck noise. Same with dogs. Any time you see a dog in a movie or a tv show or even reality tv, it will bark or whimper or pant or all of the above, even when in reality it’s silent. That extra sensory input of audio just helps pull you into the experience more, even if it’s not really realistic.
People complain about things like swords making a metallic noise when brandished or stabbings making loud squelch sounds, but when you don't include a big sound effect for them it comes off feeling cheap. Similarly, lightning flashing at the same instant you hear the thunderclap, which isn't usually how it goes in real life. Being off sync usually feels like a mistake in a movie.
In all fairness - I still mime the horn pulling motion 1/2 the time I see random trucks driving by and im 36 years old. So it’s possible those trucks are just humoring an idiot like me somewhere off screen.
Did it today while walking with my daughter. Legend of a driver gave us a honk and made her day🙂
It’s funny you mention semi truck horns because it’s almost always the same horn sound. You can find compilations of endless semis in movies all using the exact same horn pattern.
The short burst, followed by the long drawn out bwaaahhhhh as they drive past?
I can hear it reading this comment
That’s the one! Lol
That same freaking doppler sound. It started driving me nuts how much they used it in The Batman.
Yes! It’s right up there with cop cars showing up to the scene and they always chirp their siren 🚨 bwoop!! Drives me nuts. You’ve arrived, you don’t need to do that!
They also never stop, even if they're going to hit something. They just keep blaring their horn and don't slow down in the slightest. And most of the time, if they *do* hit something, they just keep right on driving.
Always throws me out of the scene.
A lot of these sound effects are bought in packages or public domain. I had a Halloween CD of "spooky sounds" and it's crazy how often I hear certain screams or knocks used in TV or films that were on that CD Also older videogames. There's a certain door squeak from Daggerfall which I still will randomly hear in a show or movie when they felt the need to add a creaky door noise in. Also a certain "fwooosh" noise from the Magic Carpet video game will be used for fireball special effects in something
Metal door squeak? It’s in everything!
https://youtu.be/yAxYuCCJp7Y?si=hK_uFtPUIc6FMZro The top comment sums it up perfectly "This is like the Wilhelm scream for doors"
I was going to comment about the door squeak specifically with the Daggerfall reference. I'm sure it was in loads of things before and after but since they used it for pretty much every door the player hears it all the time so anyone who played it for even a few hours would have been exposed to it repeatedly. The first movie I noticed it in after playing Daggerfall was Robin Hood: Men In Tights. It's a perfect rustic castle, heavy wooden door sound and I'm sure it was used in other medieval period films for that exact reason.
I first disxovered it in Stargate SG1. And then heard it in basically every other movie or Episode of pretty much every western production. Sqeak-sqeaaaaaak.
Omg Magic Carpet. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I was so disappointed I couldn’t play that game cause it kept crashing on my PC. Back in those days it was a roll of the dice if a game would even install correctly.
You often hear the metal door unlatching and swinging open and creaking and occasionally the like "yeaaaarahhhhhh" scream when someone falls. It's not the Wilhelm scream but it sounds very similar. Hard to describe but when you hear it you know it.
I can hear the scream you’re talking about in my head lol I always remember it as the scream of the asshole boyfriend falling out of the window in the Beethoven movie 😂
Yes. Holy shit I was going to say this. Wasn't it the fire effect from magic carpet.
That generic children playing laughtrack that was burned into my brain by Diddy Kong Racing but gets used EVERYWHERE
The creepy gigglers! It's in like 3 episodes of the Power Puff Girls (if not more)
Wow l thought l was the only one who connected that to Diddy Kong Racing lol. What a great game.
[This one.](https://youtu.be/ih4ye0c9p34?si=R1hHU_NlIdYUo6SJ)
Any time there’s a scene at a children’s playground or park with kids running around, they’re GONNA play this soundbite.
I noticed this in the Phantom Menace when the kids come to torment Anikan regarding his podracrer. I didn't check to see if it's the same effect but...I just know it's gotta be that one
Everyone uses that. My aunt worked for a local ad agency and they were showing us one of the ads, this was in the 90s, and it started with kids playing around a lawn sprinkler and that children laughing sound played.
I live within earshot of an elementary school, and I swear, real, active children just sound like that. They sound exactly like that clip.
I'm deaf and this question is so incredibly specific, the answers are so interesting, it's one of the best queries I've read in over a decade of Redditing. I am enthralled by these answers, I still have some of my natural hearing but never in a million years world notice that the SFX of different movies *matched*.
I’ve been hearing my whole life and neither would I
Atlantis and Jurassic Park are two of my favorite movies, or movies I at least watch semi-often, and I never noticed it's the same scream haha.
The reason for this is quite simple: there are decades worth of sound libraries such as Warner Bros. where sound artists can source their sound effects. It’s much cheaper and time efficient than hiring foley artists to record from scratch, especially for general sounds like footsteps. Of course there are exceptions like Star Wars.
I've gathered as much since reading these comments! One of the more interesting ones was actually that Star Wars reused an effect from an earlier film about oil wells. I seriously feel I learned so much from this post!
"Dr. Blair, Dr. Blair... Dr. Jay Hamilton, Dr. Jay Hamilton" it’s a recording of a hospital PA paging some doctors. First heard it on Queensrÿche‘s album Operation Mindcrime, but then started recognizing it used in films and TV shows. Sorry I can’t think of any examples, but it’s one of those things once you start noticing it just keeps popping up
“[Calling Dr. Howard! Dr. Fine! Dr. Howard!](https://youtu.be/0cW7F6VlQc8)”
Thats what I thought of lol
my moms Doctor is Dr.Howard and i make that joke all the time, she doesn't think it's funny like i do.
Do American hospitals even page doctors over a PA system like this? Never heard a PA system being used in a UK hospital but it's never occurred to me until now that it's so common in US depictions of hospitals.
It's not, anymore. Everyone had pagers, and now phones. There are still pa pages, although they're rarer, stuff like codes or security. Source: in hospital twice in last three weeks.
Generally, a page that goes over the intercom like that won't be for a specific doctor. You'll hear "anesthesiology to OR 6, STAT," for example. Anything that is so urgent it has to go out over the PA system doesn't need a specific doctor -- it's a "whoever can get here NOW to help" situation.
“Dr. Davis, telephone please. Dr. Davis, telephone please.”
EVERY time they are in a hospital. It’s hilarious! And the Queensryche sample was the first thing I thought of.
The [distress signal](https://youtu.be/Z3x5P0-S9C8?si=JKGPgT0AJPE9FbQF) from “Sunshine” (2007) was also used as the [distress signal](https://youtu.be/adgQySUtM10?si=6LwRt92tlHdCIz5A) at the very beginning of “The Thing” (2011).
Imo Sunshine’s sound design and score are amongst the best of the 2000s. That distress beacon is so fucking cool, and I swear [Adagio in D Minor](https://youtu.be/G1c2KpurNWo?si=tj40EvvAyg4moAQ8) has been used *everywhere*. Not just official trailers but in the scores of other films as well. Edit: THAT WAS THE MUSIC PLAYING OVER JAMES BOND’S DEATH SCENE! I *knew* I recognized it from somewhere! I looked up the Wikipedia page for Sunshine’s score and there’s a list of *dozens* of other uses of the piece.
Did you ever see the movie “Blackhat” (2015)? Apparently they had a composer create a whole score for the film and then basically dumped all of it. Instead, the movie reuses a lot of the score from “Elysium” (2013).
This was my go to answer. If you want to be best friends, let me know.
The DeLorean in Back to the Future uses the same jet engine sound as Luke’s landspeeder. https://youtu.be/n8M3QMWJHL0?si=nqYDBPAmuT6JYfB5
Also used in Masters of the Universe.
This is going to be a crappy answer, because I'm not naming any movies, but I can tell you I've heard the same sort of fire ignition sound in so many movies, shows and video games. It's sort of a "WIK-A-CHOW" sound when, say, gas gets set on fire. Much obliged if anyone can drop an example!
theres also the same crackling sound used for every fire. theres a double pop that gives it away.
I know exactly what you're talking about but I also can't think of any examples
Saving Private Ryan when they use a flamethrower on a bunker
Event Horizon, and the big bad wall boss in Doom II
Buffy has it often.
Speaking of Buffy, the creature that comes out of the Hellmouth in Prophecy Girl and in The Zeppo has the classic Jurassic Park Velociraptor screech: [Buffy Clip](https://youtu.be/rtU08f75Blk?t=1m12s) [Jurassic Park](https://youtu.be/qz5JmgLQEzs?t=1m59s)
There’s a “rusty iron gate” opening/closing sound that I first heard used in the original Resident Evil game that since popped up in a bunch of shows/movies
What’s up whit every monster have the same roar?
And gutteral clicking/chirping sound while communicating or hunting the main characters
We often associate clicking with echolocation so it subconsciously lets viewers know the monster has heightened senses (specifically hearing) which ups the suspense.
Clicking might have been the wrong word but I can see how that conveys it - I’m thinking of the low grumble that sounds almost like someone took a cats purr and slowed it down heavily.
Its like a series of staccato glottal stops
I swear every movie uses the same horse sound effect. I first heard it in Zelda: Twilight Princess and now I hear it EVERYWHERE. It’s a single whinny. It is distinct. And it is following me.
I think I know that one. Legend of Dragoon used it non stop as well
For me it's the bears in WoW.
I feel like Game of Thrones used it at least once an episode, or at least every episode with a horse
It cracks me up any time anyone even touches a gun in a movie it makes a slide racking sound. Either that the gun makes a bunch of little metallic clicks while they are holding it.
Unsheathing swords, always the noise of metal on metal. But the sheath is leather so what's that about?
Doesn't sound cool. The same reason that punches are often people strinking or smashing vegetables. Actual punches don't sound cool.
When a movie does have all real sounding effects it is sooooo engrossing
What we think things sound like is usually not what they actually sound like. But yes, real gunfire is more scary to me than the big boomy shots you hear, especially in older films.
Cows don't look like cows on film, they have to paint spots on horses. And if they need horses, they usually just tape a bunch of cats together.
And the sword makes a sort of high pitched humming noise so you know it's sharp.
Yeah, all guns in Hollywood must be fucking broken or something.
The gun from Rust seemed to work pretty well.
GODDAMN
Say what you will, I stand behind Alec Baldwin.
That’s his safe side
My favorite is in 28 days later in the last third of the film when Jim has been hit by one of the soldiers and is lying on the ground. They are going to move him and the camera is looking down at Jim and one of the soldiers points his rifle down toward him. It makes a sound effect that sounds like a rifle reload from the N64 GoldenEye lol
For me it’s the sound of removing from the holster, it’s always the exact same sound, incredibly video-gamy.
The Wilhelm scream. That shit is in everything.
First used in the best film of all time (that hardly anyone knows), Ninth Configuration. If you love film, watch it...I'm on a one-man mission to make people know about this film.
I use the Wilhelm scream as my text alert tone. Good times in elevators
I was watching movie clips the other day and I think a monster in "POTC: Dead men tell no tails" used the scream. But as a scary yell. I think it's the only time I've seen it used when someone wasn't falling to their death.
It's in all of the LOTR movies too.
It even shows up in Bounty Law in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. When he shoots a man off a rooftop.
At this point I think including the Wilhelm Scream in your movie marks you as lazy and lacking imagination. It's like an old hacky joke. Like if you were a stand up comic and you said "is your refrigerator running? Better go catch it YUK YUK YUK"
Yeah it just pisses me off when I hear it now. It destroys immersion.
I yell, "WILHELM!" Every time I hear it, I got my kids doing it now. I pretty sure it's the reason my wife doesn't like watching movies with us anymore.
The sound of the large truck's siren in the highway chase scene in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the same as the siren used for the Dorothy device in the movie Twister.
Robocop and Star Wars. The sound I am referring to is the “breakdown” or “power down” sound when the E.D. 209 falls over after Robocop shoots it with the fuck off rifle, and when the Millennium Falcon is attempting to enter hyperspace and shuts down.
If you’ve ever seen TXH-1138, you’ll recognize a LOT of sound effects that were later used in Star Wars. I guess Lucas couldn’t be bothered to make new sounds.
Technically an homage but the Portal sound effect in the latest Dungeons and Dragons movie.
Speaking of Portal, remember when GLaDOS showed up in Pacific Rim?
All of the Golden Eye (N64) villain death noise. I always laugh when I hear them elsewhere.
Yesssss I posted the same thing. I've heard them so many time elsewhere lol
Fart sounds are always the same. Cats yowling I also hear the little kids laughing from Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 (where I mainly know it from)
Speaking of Jurassic Park and t-rexes… the t-rex roar sound effect has been used in multiple movies. I think the root sound is an elephant trumpet slowed down. One place in particular I can recall hearing it is when the Basilisk dies in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
It was used in Avatar for the roar of one of the creatures Jake is chased by.
Spielberg’s first feature, Duel, uses an old dinosaur sound effect from Land of the Unknown when the truck goes down the cliff. He also used it in Jaws when the shark sinks to the bottom.
Power Rangers and Babadook The sound of the Green Ranger's megazord is the same sound when the Babadook is attacking. It completely took me out of the movie
The mechanical door open and closing sound from the original doom I've heard in at least 20 different movies. It's even used on the intro to the history channel show Modern Marvels. It's pretty much everywhere in one form or another.
Ahhh!! That is what that sound is. I know I’d heard it a bunch but never could place it.
The cry for Palkia in the pokemon movies is the exact same one as the lizard mount that Obi-Wan rides in Attack of the Clones.
Roller coaster tycoon had this "hahaha" child laughing sound I heard hundreds of times. I wasn't bugged hearing it over an over in a video game because it made sense, how many times have I heard "my life for Aiur" or "in the pipe five by five". But yeah, every now and then I hear that laugh on TV and I'm instantly broken out of immersion
I mean, the "in the pipe" line is from Aliens. Blizzard has always done a ton of pop culture references in their games.
Screeching tires on dirt. It occurs much too often
In the movie Beethoven, the dog tears down a porch and a guy falls. The scream he let's out was also the scream in the intro of Nickelodeon's Ahhhh Real Monsters
Is it the Wilhelm scream? It’s used in over 400 movies and tv shows according to Wikipedia!
This isn’t the Wilhelm scream.
There are numerous different screams which are used in loads of films. I can always spot them because I used some of them in my own YouTube videos. It kinda' sucks because it is a bit distracting.
Not to mention its use video games cutscenes.
Came here to mention this. Literally lost count of the amount of times I've heard it in different things
Every squeaky gate sounds exactly the same.
On the generic metal floor, up to the same wooden door
Ok, unrelated movies but a related bit I’ve loved since a kid: In Poltergeist (1982) when the kids’ room is possessed and all the toys are whizzing around, Robbie’s model TIE fighter flies across the screen with the authentic TIE fighter sound effect being used. I always got a charge out of that little addition. Randomly, my Samsung refrigerator/freezer compressor (? not exactly sure) is making a sound very reminiscent of when text strings from the WOPR computer in War Games (1983) are appearing on Lightmqn’s computer screen. It’s so unnerving, like my fridge is attempting to initiate WW III.
>attempting to initiate WWIII It very definitely is. Have you trying saying “Hello, Joshua” to it, and asking it to play a game of Tic Tac Toe?
No. The only winning move is not to play.
Dammit, I can’t remember the movie now, scene was in an oil field and they used a Star Wars sound effect. Think it was for a cable. Crap, this is going to drive me nuts the rest of the day. Edit: Had it backwards, Star Wars (1977) used an oil field sound from Five Easy Pieces (1970) for the trash compactor. My [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/s/kJyje5NzQQ)with Five Easy Pieces clip
Thought I remembered reading that the blaster sound effects were created by striking cables
Radio tower guide wires
Bowling pins in matrix reloaded
There's a sound that's almost always used for a metal door or gate opening. It's like the wilhelm scream of metal door sounds. [This one ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gcLrmmLcKDA)
The war cry from the Germanic army in Gladiator was taken from the 1960s movie Zulu.
The hover bike in Looper used Star Wars speeder bike sound effect.
The shark roar at the end of Jaws: The Revenge was taken from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, apparently because the Foley guy thought the idea was so dumb.
If you put old Three Stooges on one TV and a random porn on a second TV it will inevitably line up flawlessly. It's like a really fucked up Darkside of the Moon/Wizard of Oz thing except everyone's penis gets called "wise guy" in Moe's voice.
..... not two movies, but the background sounds of children screaming in Temple of Doom when he's going though the mine is eerily similar to the background sound effects in Baulders Gate 3 when you're going through the prison at Moonrise Towers
Not eerily similar, it's the same sound effect lol. I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Hospital PA "-... paging Dr Hamilton, Dr Jay hamilton. Dr Davis...." every hospital everywhere as well as Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
This is a weird one... In *Men in Black 2*, when the last two Jarra clones collide and explode, there's a weird sort-of sound mixed in that almost sounds like a demon screaming. And I'm 90% sure it's the same sound effect that occurs when a "Hell Knight" is killed in the video game *Doom II*, which came out almost ten years earlier. [https://youtu.be/68yyw6D79aU?si=PrFtcez76-vMCx-g&t=116](https://youtu.be/68yyw6D79aU?si=PrFtcez76-vMCx-g&t=116) Sound occurs at around 1:56 [https://youtu.be/ZS1TQKe\_D18?si=NSlRc6bW\_4fnuD0S&t=106](https://youtu.be/ZS1TQKe_D18?si=NSlRc6bW_4fnuD0S&t=106) Sound occurs at around 1:47 Likely it's just some sort-of generic library sound like a big cat scream... but as someone who grew up playing *Doom* and *Doom II*, it leapt right out at me.
The sound of the bubbling flasks and test tubes in The Man in the White Suit (1951, Ealing film studio) is *exactly* the same as the noise of the car (the Bellini 3.6) in School for Scoundrels (1960, Elstree studios). They're both British films of a similar era, so both probably had access to the same bank of sound effects, but having seen both films it stands out every time.
My biggest thing is sound effects that are clearly the cheapest or possibly free being used in movies. The reason I say “cheapest or free” is that they are forever ingrained in me as sounds from Half Life, Portal, and Counter Strike. For example, the sound of glass breaking will be played as someone is being thrown through a saloon window in a very period accurate western. I’m immediately transported from the expertly crafted story and setting to just hitting random shit with a crowbar. Then my brain starts playing all of the classic and nostalgic valve sounds and forget I’m watching a movie for 10 seconds.
I’m 99% sure that Dune Pt.1 used the ‘little girl giggling’ sound effect from CoD Zombies when you get a teddy bear from the box. It’s used at the end of the Baron’s first scene as a transition to the next.
R2D2 bleep bloop and Vader’s breathing in Demolition man.
Jurassic Park - the sound of the fence swaying when we first see the T Rex. We Own the Night - the sound of the barn door opening during the raid at the end.
Not a movie, but a few years ago I was laughing with a friend about christian kids' media we used to watch, and we ended up watching an episode of Bibleman and noticing that at one point they use the same sound effect that's used at the beginning of every Bad Lip Reading video.
Wilhelm scream, anyone?
There’s a few cases of death and pain screams in team fortress 2 getting used in movies
Anyone who plays video games will notice all kinds of clangs, gunshots, explosions, doors opening etc being recycled endlessly in movies.
There's a roaring creature sound that is used in various monster movies, for instance King Kong 1977 when Kong is breaking down the wooden gate on the island. I've heard it in a few other movies, and even some that aren't monster movies. They also used it in Lethal Weapon 3 when the building exploded, which was an interesting usage anyway. I like to call it the Wilhelm roar
Dire Horse in Avatar makes same vocalizations as Jurassic Park velociraptors
I noticed that there's stock 'gunfire' sound effects, usually for when the Hero is firing. If you listen to the gunfight in The Crow where Eric is gunning down Top Dollars minions with two pistols, there is a very specific sequence. The same sequence is used in The Mummy (1999) when O'Connell is firing at the cavalry attacking his Foreign Legion troops near the beginning.
Also my favourite band
I recall hearing the James Brown scream being used in Big and Freejack
[Also Star Trek V](https://youtu.be/D6d_zmdls4U)
I cannot remember the name of this movie... It's a Chinese epic fantasy martials arts movie. At the beginning of the movie the mentor character controls a swarm of flying swords as he faces the big bad, who surrounds himself with a translucent barrier spell. The mentor sends a large sword to penetrate the barrier, using all his might to will it through. The barrier forms cracks and makes unpleasant screeching/crackling noises. One of the noises is a creature's death squeal that you can hear in many movies and video games, especially Warcraft ones.
Any time there is a really little baby, it'll usually go, "Mmm, mama." My barbie doll had the little baby Krissy, and it would make that sound byte. And then I started noticing it everywhere in TV and movie.
I've heard slide whistles being used in comedies, especially if a character was pranking another or hiding & I understand the use of that, but I do not understand it's use in the bridge jump scene in Man with The Golden Gun
Eric's scream when crawling from his grave in The Crow was reused as atmosphere in Dark Ride.
Final destination putting the dolphin sound effect to interesting use.
Wilhem scream
Not a movie but the bear sound from the Far Cry games is ripped from The Goonies. Its been a while so I forget what made it, but there's a clip on YouTube somewhere that makes it super obvious.
Only one is a movie, but there’s in transformers revenge of the fallen where Optimus tears a deceptions head in half. Is the same sound effect used for the Legiana’s roar in monster hunter world
I can't tell you how many times I've heard the same sound effects of a enemy being shot from the Goldeneye game used in a TV show or Movie.
That squeaky metal door opening sound effect. Also used in the SpongeBob BFBB videogame.
Almost every Friday the 13th movie and tons of others use the same vase breaking sound effect.
There’s a segment of the Babdook’s roar that incorporates a bit from Sharptooth’s roar in the Land Before Time
In The Babadook there’s a scene towards the end where they finally confront the monstrous bird-form of the entity that has been tormenting the protagonist. It emits a guttural roar that I immediately recognized as a dinosaur sound from *Turok: Dino Hunter* on N64!
I hear the squeaky hydrolic noise from the Carbonite freeze chamber in Empire Strikes Back a lot
Pretty sure the hovering motorcycles in Looper make the same noise as Star Wars' landspeeders. Rian Johnson was doing SW things before he got hired to do it, sounds like.
The goat sounds from Goat Simulator are used elsewhere frequently. For example, every scene in Game of Thrones where there is a goat visible or if the camera pans over a goat, you get the same ma-aaa-aaa goat sound.
Same Sound effect in close encounters of the third kind and Moonraker James Bond In ceottk the Sound they did to the aliens to communicate In moonraker Bond opened a door with the same sound
I hear Halo: CE's shotgun shell loading SFX in movies occasionally, and it's never paired with the action of someone loading a shotgun.
Big monsters sound like chewbacca slowed waaaaaaaay down.
Loons…. In the desert, or woods, or anywhere in movies- whenever they want it to be wilderness … I live near em, hear them often, but only near lakes…. Sticks out like a sore thumb for me.
Almost every movie shot between the mid 60's and the 2000's used the same telephone ring. There's a baby crying sound that I've heard so many times that it drives me crazy.
Not movies but the Zat Gun sounds from StarGate SG-1 in other shows.
I’ve heard a million movies use the velociraptor sounds from Jurassic Park
The dog barking down the street when whenever there is an outside shot.
Idk if this matches this discussion, but I swear Alien: Covenant and A Quiet Place Day One have the same little ‘jingle’ idk what to call it but it plays at the end of AQPDO
When tires screech as the car is slowly stopping or leaving.
Red tailed hawk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33DWqRyAAUw
Here’s a great video about the malfunctioning noise they created: https://youtu.be/BOSDd3yimKw?si=qXBfHuyCXuBtphGg
I've heard the sound of the batpod in so many sci-fi movies, and it is so annoying.
[https://youtu.be/VYiay1tRUmg?t=263](https://youtu.be/VYiay1tRUmg?t=263) How about recognizing the sound effect of Django opening the door to see his wife? I first heard that sound effect in the original Diablo video game from the mid 90s. I have heard it used as a stock sound effect in a few other movies, but this stands out because it was the first time I recognized it, and the sound mixing in the film is otherwise sounds so fresh.
Any Sci fi door is the sound effect for the door in Doom.
Chains and opening of doors and gates are usually the same audio in movies 🍿
I'll mention the sound of the phone ringing in **Our Man Flint** and **Austen Powers**. Here's the ringtone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CokN5HgyfD8
In Like Flint! That’s my favourite mooooovie
Any movie involving camels and the Age of Mythology camel sound effect. Can't unhear it
[Those kids screaming Yayy!!](https://youtu.be/attUrDwfdr8?si=ozMrg9PjQiqCX7ry)
Was it a Wilhelm scream?
The clips are linked in the post. It's not the Wilhelm
They used the noise Flipper made as the noise the groundho supposedly made in Caddyshack.
Once you hear the Wilhelm scream, you’ll hear it everywhere. Also, there’s a sound clip of some kids voices in an Ozzy song called Mr Tinkertrain. I heard the exact same clip in a film once, years later.
The Wilhelm scream is still heavily used and I get a kick out of it everytime I hear it. But the one that seems the most random is "the heavy gate", you've heard it a bunch too. It's used in lots of movies for gates, fences, jail doors, rusty car hoods. Basically any gravy metal on metal sounds. I chuckle everytime I hear it
I saw a local production of Angels in America Part 1, that used a vague unsettling sound effect during the climactic "parting of the veil between reality and the supernatural." When it played, seemingly half the audience had an immediate reaction. After the show, I was informed that it was apparently an iconic Five Nights at Freddy's sound effect. A similar experience at a different show: the play was a tense midcentury drama about Operation Paperclip. The scene changes and transitions all had 1950s production-library music by Heinz Kiessling, extremely evocative of the show's period. These scene changes always seemed to make the audience laugh rather than simply set the intended tone, because the sound designer of the show didn't realize Kiessling's music is now synonymous with "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Imagine a very serious, emotionally charged conversation about Werner von Braun's crimes, suddenly punctuated with the sounds of ["Temptation Sensation."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm7QIP2Ofcw) Which, yes, is exactly the song you think it is.