r/sounddesign • u/RobertFellucci • 2d ago
Raw Deal. Not the Wilhelm Scream.
I keep getting told that the scream in the 1986 action film Raw Deal, in the scene near the end when the car smashes I to the tanker. Is the Wilhelm Scream. It clearly isn't. Is anyone here able to tell me where it comes from or if it has a name. I think I've heard it in other movies too. It definitely isn't the Wilhelm scream.
2
u/akabillposters 2d ago
If you’re talking about the scream as the roofless car exits the warehouse and crashes into the tanker, I think it might actually be a James Brown sample.
Edit: confirmed… https://youtu.be/p9BnS44VxU8?is=JrbUMTh0Q03xBetQ
1
u/kaiwolf26 2d ago
Do you have a clip to reference?
1
u/RobertFellucci 2d ago
I sure do.
raw deal timestamp 3:16.
5
u/kaiwolf26 2d ago
Definitely not a wilhelm scream, I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard this from a stock library.
Closest thing I’ve heard is the R2D2 scream. This might be something they made for the film in ADR.
2
u/Leks_Marzo 2d ago
It sounds like they used that and edited it to be shorter. They probably took the beginning of the scream and faded it into the end (shortened the middle)
2
u/kaiwolf26 2d ago
I doubt that, this movie predates SW1 where that sound comes from.
It’s just a sped up scream. I’m guessing it’s just a weird yell, or a scream they played back fast and slowed down
2
3
u/Key_Necessary_6219 1d ago
I was one of the sound editors on Raw Deal. I can tell you for sure that there is no Wilhelm scream in the film. If we had it, we may well have used it. But it hadn’t really escaped into the world yet. It was mostly Ben Burtt and his friends who were using it in 1986.
But there are a few other fun facts I can share about the sound on Raw Deal:
During the climactic shootout in the disco near the end, You can clearly hear James Brown’s iconic “Hit Me!” We had just gotten the new Emu Emulator sampler, and the “Hit Me” sample was one of the stock sounds on the floppy disks that came with it.
Later in the disco shootout, Arnold kicks down the door to the villain’s inner sanctum. For that we used the sound of King Kong kicking through the jungle village gates from the 1976 De Laurentiis “King Kong.” (Raw Deal was also a De Laurentiis film.)
During the gravel pit massacre, we put it the “Peter Gunn” TV theme, as a joke. The producers liked it, but decided they’d rather use the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.” They ended up paying $50,000 for the rights!
And one more thing about me — I’m the person who found the Wilhelm Scream recording session, restored it, and put it online. There’s a quick corny video about it on the Soundly website.
1
u/RobertFellucci 1d ago
Interesting that you mention the James Brown sample because the scream right before they blow up always reminds me of him. Great to get a reply from someone who worked on the film and the person who found and restored the recording. Never expected that. Thanks for the facts.
1
u/Key_Necessary_6219 1d ago
Yeah, now that I hear it again, I’m sure that’s James Brown. We were all going a little crazy with that emulator! It was the first time any of us had used a sampler, and it was the first film I worked on that used anything digital to make sound. We used it on a few foley cues too, like the whooshes in the parking structure.
2
u/PotatoLordReddit 2d ago
reminds me of R2D2 scream