Severance Season 2 Has One Of Star Wars' Most Famous Sound Effects

This post contains spoilers for season 2, episode 2 of "Severance."

After ending its first season on a heart-thumping cliffhanger, "Severance" has returned to delve deeper into Lumon's dark web of conspiracies. While the latest season picks things up from the perspectives of the innies (who experience the unsettling aftermath of their revolt), episode 2 focuses on the outies, and how they are dealing with the incident that concluded season 1 of the show. While outie Dylan (Zach Cherry) struggles to get a new job due to his severed status, outie Irving (John Turturro) makes a covert payphone call while being tailed by outie Burt (Christopher Walken). Meanwhile, Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) is seen scrambling to salvage Lumon's tarnished reputation, which necessitates drastic administrative changes that feel more ominous than comforting.

Amid this subdued chaos engulfing the world outside Lumon's stark offices, outie Mark (Adam Scott) wrestles over potential revelations about his seemingly dead wife, Gemma, and is considering quitting Lumon. However, an ever-persistent Milchick (Tramell Tillman) — who has now replaced Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) as floor manager — persuades him to stay. When outie Mark encounters Ms. Cobel leaving her home, he confronts her, demanding answers about her involvement, and the deception brought about due to it. Instead of rewarding him with answers, Ms. Cobel expresses disappointment because he hasn't quit yet. "You're so easy to sway," she quips, just before attempting to drive away.

When Mark blocks her path and asks her if she knows anything about Gemma, a long, loud silence follows. Just when we think Cobel is going to open up, she backs up and nearly runs Mark over as she flees from the scene. If you listen closely, an iconic stock sound effect can be found buried beneath the sonic elements that contribute to this exact moment. You've heard this sound a thousand times before, even if you don't consciously realize it. I'm talking about Hollywood's most-used "secret" sound effect: The Wilhelm scream.

You're watching 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" and reach the scene where Han, Luke, and Leia are using blasters to get some pesky stormtroopers off their trail. Just then, a lone stormtrooper comically falls off a ledge, and this action is accompanied by a brief, high-pitched scream. The film's sound designer, Ben Burtt, popularized this existing stock sound by incorporating it in that moment, and since then, every "Star Wars" film has included this effect as a sort of running gag. An even wider impact ensued, with more than 400 Hollywood films utilizing the Wilhelm scream to varying degrees and effects, making this wildly popular yelp of terror a staple inclusion in a significant chunk of American cinema.

This begs the question: How and when did the Wilhelm scream originate? Well, it was a stock sound effect recorded for the 1951 Raoul Walsh film "Distant Drums," used during a scene where a soldier is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator while wading through a swamp. This same sound effect was later used by a character named Pvt. Wilhelm in "The Charge at Feather River," which is where Burtt sourced it from and subsequently coined the term it's currently known by. Even before "Star Wars" kickstarted the Wilhelm scream craze, it was used in numerous titles to help lessen sound effect costs, including in 1954's "A Star Is Born," "Land of the Pharaohs," and "The Wild Bunch."

Everything from the "Indiana Jones" movies to "War for the Planet of the Apes" has made use of this sound, and you can even find it in popular shows and video games, like "The Simpsons" and "Grand Theft Auto V." There are three separate instances where it has been used in the "Toy Story" movies to evoke different emotions: Once when Buzz Lightyear screams before being thrown out of a window, and two other times where characters are in situations that generate suspense or terror. Given the flexibility of the Wilhelm scream on screen, it's not surprising "Severance" used it during a dramatic moment that's meant to feel both mildly humorous and deliberately anti-climactic.

New episodes of "Severance" season 2 drop on Apple TV+ every Friday.