Tell me some of your memorable movie/film sound effects

Cafe Society
1

Many of my favorite movies rank so high because they have great sound effects, which do their part to complement the theme or the atmosphere of the entire film.

Some of my favorite sounds:

In Aliens, when the door of the Nostromo is cut open by a torch and the probe comes inside, it turns on some type of scan light, and when that light passes over the movie camera, it makes a “humm” noise. Love that sound.

In Blade Runner, while in Deckard’s (sp) apartment, there’s an ambient machine noise, kinda similar to the previous Aliens sound. It’s more like an appliance sound, but it cycles. I’d love to have that sound in my apartment.

Any time a light saber is activated

Surely many of you will agree that the seismic charge explosion on Attack of the Clones made your ears giggle

/

Also, does it really upset anyone when a big budget movie uses stock sounds? I mean, alot of stock sounds are too multi-layered to be instantly recognized, but I can think of two that are just way too overdone:

The “door opening noise” from the PC game DOOM is used in all kinds of sci-fi films, and

The mortal scream that some minor/disposeable character lets out after being shot or from falling off a ledge. I’m sure someone knows which one I’m talking about, it’s a little difficult to describe it. I guess it sounds like someone being crushed or something.

No movie with these two sounds can ever be great, I say.

2

TV:
The Lost in Space “alien appearing/disappearing” sound
In Star Trek: the sound of the ship’s phasers
Movie: In Attack of the Clones: the seismic charge Jango Fett fires at Kenobi in the asteroid field.

3

There’s a glass shattering sound that I’ve heard dozens of different places.

And one of the “kill grunts” from Rainbow Six was once used in a Taco Bell commercial (it was dubbed onto someone diving to get the food being advertised).

How about the pig sound from Star Wars and Dark Forces, the PC game? That pops up a lot.

BTW, Dark Forces also has the scream to which I’m pretty sure the OP refers to. It’s in Mountain Dew commericals too, yes?

4

This might sound lame…but the “PING” in Hunt For Red October. It had such an eerie effect.

5

The shower scene in “Psycho.”

6

The MGM lion.

The T-Rex roars from Jurassic Park.

7

A lot of the sounds that you’ve heard in video games are stock sounds that are available on sound effect tapes - I know that Doom and Goldeneye both use a lot of stock sounds.

8

I know this is simplistic, but in the commercial for the new film Johnny English, he accidentally throws his coat out the window. You then hear a couple of cars crashing and then a cow mooing. That cow mooing cracks me up.

9

I like the sound in every anime movie where a character will draw a sword or perhaps jump in the air and the sun will shine behind them and you hear the CSHWEEEEE sound. It is also used to good effect on Dexters Laboratory, more specifically the episode where he changes a light-bulb.

10

The sonic mine explosions in SW II. I know, you shouldn’t hear anything but it sounds cool anyway.

DD

11

Yep another for the SW2 sonic bombs.

Too damn cool sounding.

12

That might be “The Wilhelm Scream.”

13

X-Men: SNIKT!
X-Men 2: BAMF!

14

That awful rusty gate screeching, or whatever the hell it is, near the end of “Full Metal Jacket”.

15

Also known as “Man Being Killed by Elephant,” which reminds me too much of Hans Moleman’s film Man Getting Hit By Football.

16

Boy, once you recognize the “Wilhelm” you always notice it and it always cracks you up when you do.

17

I wanna hear it! There’s gotta be a .mp3 or a .wav somewhere with the Wilhelm…

18

Here’s the Wilhelm. Click on “Do You Know This Scream?” It’s pretty distinctive, and you’ll know it when you hear it (next time, anyway).

I had a GQ a while back about the Mountain Dew/Dark Forces scream, but nobody knew what it was called.

19

Just after high school my best mate and I made a film called Mutilation Maniacs. Basically, there are a couple of aliens who are mutilating people for no reason. They are opposed by Sheriff Dick Ruffman and Coroner Fred Sadizmo. At one point I turned over the camera to someone else so that I could get killed. I’m pulled off of a motorcycle and the aliens bash my face in with a monkey wrench, saw my leg, and finally tear me in half. (Unfortunately, we didn’t get entrails; but the sound effect made up for it!)

To make the sound of me being torn in half, the guy who shot that scene took a bundle of about 50 or 100 plastic forks and slowly twisted them. They made a nice “wet” tearing sound. :slight_smile:

(Incidentally, Night for Nixie is available on DVD. A low-res VHS copy of Mutilation Maniacs is included on it.)

20

BraheSilver: IIRC In the game StarCraft, something very similar to the Dark Forces Scream is used for the Terran Acadamy SFX. Or am I not remembering correctly?

A cool sound nonetheless.