History Main / SilenceIsGolden

* Most of ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'' #2 (1983) plays out not only without any dialogue but without any sound effects at all, due to the power of the assassin known as The Silencer to perfectly mute all sound.

* Discussed in the DVD commentary of ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''. Some of the people involved in the film thought that the bonding sequence between Toothless and Hiccup would never work, because it was somewhere in the range of three minutes long and right in the middle of the movie. Luckily, the filmmakers insisted and even the skeptics changed their mind when the sequence was finished. The romantic flight scene with Astrid is also an aversion of FillingTheSilence. Both moments are instead held up by wonderful animation and John Powell's hypnotizing score.

* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' has a deliberately sparse script to let the exquisite music and cinematography do the talking. A wise move, as [[NonActorVehicle most the principal cast were professional bodybuilders, athletes and models]] (note that Creator/JamesEarlJones, Creator/MaxVonSydow, and Creator/{{Mako}} are given the bulk of the expository dialogue).

* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' has a deliberately sparse script to let the exquisite music do the talking. A wise move.

* ''WebAnimation/{{TETRISD}}'': There is no dialogue or even sound effects, only just a remix of the ''Videogame/{{Tetris}}'' theme for BackgroundMusic.

* ''WebAnimation/Musophobia2012'': There is not a single line of dialogue in the film as it instead uses the main character's expressions to express the terror they're going through during the nightmare they're having.

* Snout, a mongrelfolk, is the protagonist of ''[[Webcomic/DominicDeegan The Legacy of Dominic Deegan]]'', and the story is told from his perspective. As he is deaf, there is no dialogue in the story, except for some TalkingWithSigns.
* ''Childhood Friend Yuri'' is a ''Website/{{Pixiv}}'' one-shot about the unnamed protagonist reunited with the titular childhood friend, who came out as trans woman. Aside from usage of symbols, this story was told without dialogue at all.

* The WebVideo/HitlerRants [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sruLxzPlivM video]] where Hitler is informed of nothing and says nothing.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE2V9hanhE8 Little Boat.]] It only takes 4 minutes to tell its story.
* ''WebAnimation/SimonsCat'' has a cat but it doesn't talk. Popular with cat lovers and owners.

* Priscila's application video for ''WebVideo/FuturoExPorta'' was praised by the judges for conveying sarcasm and humor despite her not saying a single word in it.

* Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl 2006'' short.
* The ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBeaks'' ChristmasEpisode "It's Christmas, You Dorks!" has no dialogue throughout the entire special, mimicking the feel of ''Fantasia''; the only dialogue comes from Old Man Winter providing the BookEnds for the episode.
* Creator/GenndyTartakovsky is so fond of practicing this that, if it wasn't for [[WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania his theatrical work]] lacking it, it would unquestionably be his SignatureStyle. [[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory All]] [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack of his]] [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars television]] [[WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan series]] feature several extended dialogue-less sequences driven only by music, if not just sound effects and ambient noise. Entire {{No Dialogue Episode}}s also aren't uncommon; his ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'' series is the pinnacle of this, as all but one FormulaBreakingEpisode lacks dialogue (barring small bits of foreign languages the audience aren't meant to understand).
* The holiday cartoon ''ComicBook/TheSnowman'', based on a similarly dialogue-less picture book of the same name.
* ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep'' has no dialogue whatsoever.
* Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse:
** One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has a silent segment when he's fighting [[MakeMeWannaShout Shriek.]] Batman enters a car factory to hide. Shriek responds by tuning out all noises in the area except Batman's footsteps, which he amplifies. The show makers did this because 1) they'd ''always'' wanted to do a silent scene and 2) when the noise filter shorts out and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Shriek is rendered deaf by the sudden onslaught of amplified noise]] it's more obvious.
** The original DCAU Batman movie ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMysteryOfTheBatwoman'' had a short piece called "Chase Me" featuring Batman pursuing Catwoman through Gotham which was run silent this way except for some soft jazz as musical accompaniment.

* The ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode ''Operation: T.H.E. F.L.Y.'' is entirely silent, except for music.
* Most WesternAnimation/PixarShorts are without dialogue, with the exceptions of ''WesternAnimation/{{Boundin}}'' and ''Lava'' (both of which are musical and feature characters speaking in song), and movie tie-ins.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': The episode "Ploys R' Us" features a whole dialogue-free montage of the girls using the Professor's sleepwalking to rob a toy store and give the toys to them overnight.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleIsland'' is a philosophical argument between three men without any dialogue. Interpretation is left up to the viewer.
* To commemorate the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF commissioned animators from around the world to create cartoons illustrating each article of the Convention; because one of the requirements was that anyone be able to understand the cartoon regardless of what language they spoke, all have no dialogue (and if they do it's in gibberish), and instead rely on gesture and music to convey the message.
* Creator/HannaBarbera's "Blast-Off Buzzard" (a segment of their 1977 ''WesternAnimation/CBBears'' show) was the studio's first, and only, television cartoon with no dialogue.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Each episode plays a short clip over the credits to wrap things up or get in another quick gag before it's over. The episode "Not What He Seems" just shows [[spoiler: two young boys who resemble Stan and Ford Pines quietly sitting on a swing set, with but the quiet beach breeze for company]]. Especially effective because of [[WhamEpisode what immediately preceded it.]]

* The animated short ''WesternAnimation/TheDamKeeper'' by Creator/TonkoHouse has no dialogue with the characters at all besides a few gasps and laughs from the character and the only speaking character is TheNarrator.
* With the exception of the beginning and the ending, the episode "Fish Out of Water" episode of ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' is completely silent due to most of the episode taking place underwater.

* In the Season 5 finale of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', "Rickmurai Jack", Morty's trust in Rick shaken worse than ever before, and he demands answers repeatedly until Rick exasperatedly offers to let Morty see his memory scan [[spoiler:that he stole back from Evil Morty earlier]], which will reveal his "crybaby backstory". Morty immediately does so, and the ensuing flashback is a two-and-a-half-minute montage with no dialogue, only somber music.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' film "The Daffy Doc," the head surgeon asks for quiet in the operating theater. Among the signs Daffy holds up is "Silence Is Foo!"

* Downplayed in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' during the climax. After Thanos snaps his fingers, the following sequence takes place without any BackgroundMusic and subdued ambient sounds and dialogue, to drive home the impact.
* ''Film/MyLifeAsADog'': After Ingemar learns [[spoiler: that his beloved dog Sickan has been euthanized]], there is a flashback of Ingemar back home with his dog, running into his mother's room and driving her nuts with his shenanigans. He dives under his mother's bed with Sickan and pretends not to hear his mom. This whole scene is played in slow motion without sound, underscoring Ingemar's overwhelming feeling of loss.
* ''Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs'': The chapters "Near Algodones," "Meal Ticket" and "All Gold Canyon" are quite limited in dialogue and have long stretches of silence.
* ''Film/AintThemBodiesSaints'' features a few sequences of silence or limited dialogue.
* ''Film/AGhostStory'' features very limited dialogue. Other than the opening few scenes, some untranslated Spanish, and a single scene featuring a long speech, the bulk of the film is completely free of any speaking.
* ''Film/CODA2021'': At the choir recital, there is a sequence during Ruby's solos that is played without sound, showing the perspectives of Ruby's family. The prolonged scene poignantly illustrates how Jackie, Frank, and Leo cannot hear how good Ruby is or the audience's enthusiastic reactions.
* ''Film/MeeksCutoff'': There is very little dialogue in the film, and there are long stretches of silence as the pioneers travel by wagon train, with only the only sound being the buzzing of insects and squeaking of wagon wheels.
* ''Film/JohnWick'': The first twenty or so minutes go by with rather minimal dialogue as John Wick goes through the motions following the death of his wife. The dialogue doesn't really begin to pick up until after Iosef Tarasov and his buddies kill John's new dog and steal his car.
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', when Harvey wakes up from the traumatic events of the previous day, we hear his panicked breathing for a moment, before all sound gets muted save for a soft musical tone slowly growing in intensity. He looks over to his bedside, sees the coin he previously gave to Rachel, reaches for it, and takes hold of it. The he flips it around and sees [[spoiler:the burned other side. Rachel is dead. Harvey begins to sob, but after about half a second, he lets out a scream that the audience can't hear, and rips the protective gauze off of the burned side of his face. Two-Face has been born]]. Only after all of that does normal sound return as the scene changes.
* The opening sequence of ''Film/PleaseMurderMe'' of Craig Carlson walking along the street, buying the gun, catching a cab, loading the gun, entering his office, and putting the file and the gun in his office desk drawer is done with dialogue. It ends with Craig picking up the microphone and starting to dictate his recording to the district attorney.
-->''[[DeadManWriting To Ray Willis, district attorney. Dear Ray, in exactly 55 minutes I will be dead. Murdered.]]''
* The heist itself in ''Film/GrandSlam'' is conducted in almost total silence. As a ShoutOut to ''Film/{{Rififi}}'', Gregg and Agostino crack the safe in total silence--they cannot speak because of the sound sensitive security system--and, because of the soundproof corridor, the only incidental sound is the faint noise of their tools. Weiss panicked run through the sewers has the background noise of the Carnival, but no dialogue because he is alone. Dialogue only returns when the action switches back Mary Ann's apartment.

* ''Series/SwitchedAtBirth'' aired an episode called "Uprising" which is told entirely through American Sign Language and subtitles. (One of the main characters is deaf.)
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' had a silent-film-style sketch with a man attempting to undress in public.
* The opening sequence of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' episode "Seed" has no dialogue, just ambient noises as unspeaking characters scrounge for supplies at a walker-infested house. It's ''very'' effective at conveying just how long they've been doing this, and how badly their scavenging existence has beaten them down.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Elmo imagines the world without sound. And Bob told Elmo that how it's like to be deaf, No sound.
* ''Series/{{Vikings}}'': the blood eagle execution scene serves as the climax of an episode and is played with soundtrack music only.
* The final act of "Exodus, Pt. 3", the last episode of the first season of ''{{Series/LOST}}'', has no dialogue. Only the musical score is heard during a few flashbacks and the iconic final scene of Jack and Locke staring down the shaft after blowing the hatch open. Season 2's first episode, "Man of Science, Man of Faith", also has no dialogue in its cold open, which at first appears to be an unknown character's flashback, but is actually showing Desmond's morning routine inside the Hatch, ending with a shot looking back up the very same shaft at Jack and Locke, establishing that this is a continuation of the same scene.
* In the ''Series/MasterOfNone'' episode "New York, I Love You", the segment highlighting a deaf cashier and her social life has no audio at all. The people shown instead deliver their dialogue in either American Sign Language (conveniently subtitled for viewers who don't know much about it), written word, or a combination of lip movements and descriptive body language.

* ''Series/TheRedSkeltonShow'' typically wrapped up each episode with "The Silent Spot", in which Skelton would perform a pantomime skit.

* Music/TypeONegative's The Misinterpretation of Silence and its Disastrous Consequences and the remix The Misinterpretation of Silence and Its Disastrous Consequences (Wombs and Tombs mix)
* This trope is part of the appeal of StopAndGo.

* Baez's "The Swallow Song" ends with several rhetorical questions, one of which references this trope.
-->''And will the breezes blow the petals from your hand?\\
And will some loving ease your pain?\\
And will the silence strike confusion from your soul?''
* "Silence Is Golden" by the Four Seasons (later covered by the Tremeloes), was about the singer keeping his mouth shut as his former girlfriend's new boyfriend cheats on her.

* {{Ballet}} is always wordless. In place of speech, there's a language in the precise miming motions of the dancers.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsWake'': The game uses no text or dialogue to tell the story. Instead, the plot is conveyed through images shown during loading screens, paintings that the player can discover in the levels and the events of the game itself.
* ''VideoGame/Journey2012''. The one means of communication and interaction available is "singing" a near-melodic tone, and the only text is in the title, the pause screen, and the credits.

* Most of the mini-games from ''VideoGame/LandfallArchives'' are devoid of dialogue, instead relying on music and atmosphere to convey the game's ambience.
* The ''VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame'' series (up to ''Lego Batman 2'') uses no dialogue in cutscenes. ''VideoGame/LegoStarWars: The Skywalker Saga'', while normally also using extensive voice acting, brings this back as a toggled feature called "Mumble Mode".
* ''[[VideoGame/LonaRealmOfColors Lona: Realm Of Colors]]'', is a game that focuses on "art and music narration" and features no dialogue whatsoever, using it's watercolour-style visuals and music to tell the story. Basically, you're [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS-Z5V_fbl4 a young girl exploring an art world]]...
* Many ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}''-style games are like this. You get a short speech in the prologue or opening scene, the occasional bit of dialogue when you encounter another character ... and most of the game is just exploring and playing with objects.
* InteractiveFiction takes this to the logical extreme: no graphics, no sound. Not only is the gameplay silent, the story often is too, because it's a pain to program [=NPCs=] who can talk and most creators don't bother to include descriptions of the auditory environment (more's the pity). With a typical parser, you can "say [dialogue]" if you wish, but you'll get no response.
* The story of ''VideoGame/TheSubspaceEmissary'' mode of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' is told entirely without dialog (disregarding CallingYourAttacks). The only time anyone speaks is when Snake breaks the fourth wall. Once.
* The Caveman arc of ''VideoGame/LiveALive''. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the fact that language hasn't been invented yet.

* Everyone in ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'' are rather silent, unless they happen to be animals.
* ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'': To really hammer down the lonely atmosphere of the game, most of the game is spent silent, with no BGM and no one to talk to. Becuase the game is lauded for it's emotional and beautiful music, the tearjerking effect when said soundtrack is actually used has much more impact.
* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'' is also dialogue-free. Needless to say, this is a contributing factor to the staggering amount of WildMassGuessing it's become infamous for.
* There are no spoken lines in the original edition of the first ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' game (besides a computer saying, "WARNING: SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED".) The [[SceneryPorn beautiful environments of Talon IV]] show you the story of the fallen Chozo civilization, and there are plenty of [[ApocalypticLog written logs lying around in case you couldn't figure it out yourself.]] Samus is quiet, but you can tell she's thinking ''something''. A narrator was added at the start of and end of the game in the European/Australian version onward, but other than that, the atmosphere remains the same.
* ''VideoGame/ThePath'' has no speech at all; instead the tone of conversations is conveyed through character animation, music and color. The "tutorial" instructions are two lines long, and expected to be ignored. Textual descriptions of items encountered are also quite sparse.
* ''VideoGame/PoppyPlaytime'': With the exception of recordings from the tapes, almost the entirety of chapter 1 is without dialogue until the player frees Poppy from her case. There are more lines spoken in chapter 2, with talking characters like Poppy and Mommy Long Legs being involved in the plot. Though the majority of chapter 2 is still silent.

* ''VideoGame/TheMisadventuresOfPBWinterbottom'' as a {{homage}} to silent films has absolutely no dialogue or narration.
* Happens during some of the more Dramatic (and Heartbreaking) moments of ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath''.
* ''VideoGame/TheyBleedPixels'' has screams and BlackSpeech, but the only intelligible words are occasional bits of writing.
* Episode I of the ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' trilogy was notable for taking place largely in cavernous, abandoned (except for the occasional monster) areas and having no dungeon or town BackgroundMusic, leading to several long segments of the game where the only noises are the character's own footsteps and whatever might be happening in the background around them. The second and third games fix this by having near-constant BackgroundMusic playing away in towns and dungeons.
* ''VideoGame/DontLookBack'' has a title screen and a few lines of instructional text, but no dialogue.

* ''VideoGame/SnowBros'' has a rare UsefulNotes/MegaDrive version that features original cutscenes similar in style to those from ''VideoGame/ZeroWing'', but with neither Engrish nor Japanese text.

* ''{{VideoGame/Vanish}}'': There is no dialogue at all in the game. A few frightened gasps from the protagonists, and you can read some notes, but that's it.
* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', the usual victory {{fanfare}} after defeating a boss is nowhere to be heard after little Toroko is force-fed the game's PsychoSerum against her will and is turned into a mindless [[TheBerserker berserker]] TragicMonster, leading to [[PlayerPunch the player having to fight and kill her themselves]] to [[MercyKill put her out of her misery]]. The silence indicates that [[BeingGoodSucks this "victory" is not one to be celebrated.]]
* ''VideoGame/SpiritOfTheNorth'' is told entirely without words, as the characters are foxes, spirits or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs spirit foxes]]. Even the tutorials for the controls are done through pictograms.
* ''VideoGame/CastleCrashers'' only has dialogue for shopkeepers, tutorial [=NPCs=], and a couple of {{Broken Bridge}}s. Apart from that, the game runs entirely on visual storytelling.
* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'', the only dialogue is the [[WorldTree Spirit Tree]]'s narrations and [[ExpositionFairy Sein]]'s advice, both of which are in subtitled {{Simlish}}. Downplayed in [[VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps the sequel]], where there are many more NPC's to converse with, though the audible speech is still Simlish.
* ''VideoGame/{{Gorogoa}}'' is completely devoid of any dialogue or speech. Even the text that appears in-game is completely asemic and only used to convey a sense of written communication rather than anything coherent.

* ''Webcomic/MyCardboardLife'' uses this sometimes.

* The end of the non-canon "Goonmanji 2" arc of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' involves characters going on a [[http://egscomics.com/egsnp/2018-04-30 transformation rampage]] with no written dialogue. There is the occasional PictorialSpeechBubble, but even that is used very sparingly.

* E. Elias Merhige's ''Film/{{Begotten}}'' is completely silent.
* An afficionado of silent films, Creator/GuyMaddin has made several himself, including ''Film/BrandUponTheBrain'' and ''Film/CowardsBendTheKnee''.
* The [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black-and-white]] Japanese BodyHorror film ''[[Film/TetsuoTheIronMan Tetsuo]]'' (sometimes known as ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Tetsuo: The Iron Man]]''), which was influenced by ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'', also uses minimal dialogue.
* The 1973 experimental film ''Film/{{Themroc}}'' features no intelligible dialogue, but plenty of gibberish, screaming, and grunting.
* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' has a deliberately sparse script to let the exquisite music do the talking. A wise move.
* Creator/CharlieChaplin's first two sound films, ''Film/CityLights'' and ''Film/ModernTimes'', were essentially silent films with recorded soundtracks. The latter only had dialogue that came from either recordings or loudspeakers (i.e., not natural speech), Chaplin's way of [[PaintingTheMedium pointing out what he felt was the artificiality of sound film]]. Chaplin himself never did a "Talkie" until ''Film/TheGreatDictator'', and even then, there are long segments of silent comedy.
* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'' has several long periods of silence, and no score until the credits.
* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478160/ Into Great Silence]]'', a documentary about life in the French monastery of Grand Chartreuse, who keep talking to a minimum.
* The 1955 film ''Dementia'' is completely devoid of speech, although a version with narration by Ed [=McMahon=] (but still no dialogue) was later released as ''Daughter of Horror''.
* Luc Besson's directorial debut ''Le Dernier Combat'' (''The Last Battle'' in English) has no dialogue, as humanity has lost the power of speech.
* ''Film/TheThief'', a '50s Cold War [[SpyFiction Spy Drama]] starring Ray Milland, is dialogue-free.
* ''Film/DefencelessABloodSymphony'' features no dialogue, but extensive screaming to compliment the [[{{Gorn}} aggressively unpleasant imagery]] taking place on screen.
* Jan Švankmajer's 1996 ''Film/ConspiratorsOfPleasure'' features no dialogue.
* The 1983 film ''Film/LeBal'', which depicts 50 years of French history through a ballroom in France, includes no dialogue.
* ''Film/TheIllusionist1984'' (1984) has no dialogue other than some unintelligible mumbling.
* The Hungarian film ''Film/{{Hukkle}}'' has almost no dialogue, apart from a song at the end.
* The "sound" work of director Tod Browning is punctuated by extended scenes of silence and visual expressionism. By the time he did ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' he figured out how to do this without resorting to the minimalistically stylized dialogue he used in ''Film/{{Dracula 1931}}''.

* Compared to some of his other incarnations who [[TalkingIsAFreeAction just won't shut up]]; Bumblebee in the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' is a mute who uses the radio of his car form to communicate (by playing songs and broadcasting messages that fit his intentions).
* Most of Creator/JacquesTati's films are like this. In the classic French film ''Film/MrHulotsHoliday'' (as well as in his other films), spoken dialogue is mostly limited to the role of background sounds. When they were released in theaters internationally, Tati insisted that there be no subtitles, as they would distract from the visual gags that make up his films. Tati's films though lacking in dialogue are full of carefully detailed and thought of soundtracks of foleys, ambience sounds and other details which simply can't be achieved "silently". For his film, ''Playtime'', he took a year working on the soundtrack alone.
* ''Film/{{Moon}}'' has a number of long silences, though not as many as you'd think for a film about a man, alone, on the moon.
* The German film ''Film/{{Tuvalu}}'' is a throwback to the silent era that even goes so far as to have monochromatic film. There is sound and music but no actual words spoken aside from the names of people and places (even then, it isn't very often).
* In Kim Ki-Duk's ''Film/ThreeIron'' (Bin-Jip), the two protagonists have only two lines of dialogue, spoken at the very end of the film.
* Documentary filmmaker Godfrey Reggio is possibly the contemporary king of this trope, considering that his ''-qatsi'' trilogy of films (beginning with 1983's ''Film/{{Koyaanisqatsi}}'') are all films with no dialogue in them and the only sound evident being the musical score. One of the ''-qatsi'' cinematographers, Ron Fricke, also made his own no-dialogue documentary in the same vein as Reggio's documentaries, 1992's ''Baraka''.
* The 2002 film ''Marathon'', directed by Iranian-American filmmaker [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Naderi Amir Naderi]], features a young woman who is trying to complete as many crossword puzzles as she can in 24 hours while riding the New York City subway system. Shot in black and white, its other distinguishing feature is that it features very little dialogue (consisting of one brief interaction between the protagonist and a young man riding the subway and a few answering machine messages left by the protagonist's mother) and the only soundtrack running throughout the film is the background noise of the subway system.
* The Creator/MarxBrothers
** Due to Harpo being TheSpeechless, some of his comedy routines involve no dialogue.
** The famed MirrorRoutine in ''Film/DuckSoup'' is performed without dialogue or sound effects of any kind.
** An episode of the Anthology Series ''General Electric Theater'' "The Great Jewel Robbery" starred Chico and Harpo Marx in an all-silent story, except one line at the very end delivered by SpecialGuest Groucho.
* ''Film/TheArtist'' is a 2011 silent black and white drama about a romance of two actors respectively falling and rising in Hollywood's difficult transition to sound. Subverted in that the lead character realizes that he feels trapped in silence and [[EarnYourHappyEnding earns his happy ending]] when his love shows him that he has the talent to succeed when he accepts the reality of sound films.
* The French short film ''Film/TheRedBalloon'' has practically no dialogue.
* Both speech and score cease during the final battle in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', only picking up again when a ship emerges and attacks making the fight far more dramatic.
* When the Alien Queen is revealed in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', there is no speech or score.
* French caper film ''Film/{{Rififi}}'' (1955) has a burglary scene that lasts 32 minutes without dialog or music. TheHeist requires near-absolute silence in order to defeat the burglar alarm.
* The car chase scene as well as the final battle [[BattleInTheRain which took place in the rain]] contains no music in the ''Film/JackReacher'' movie.
* Creator/AlfredHitchcock managed to successfully create dramatic scenes without dialogue even after the silent era ended.
* ''Film/UpstreamColor'' has a number of stretches without dialogue. Much of the plot is implied rather than outright stated.
* ''Film/CirqueDuSoleilWorldsAway'': Most of the spoken lines are in the opening sequence before the story goes DownTheRabbitHole. After entering the Cirque world what little dialogue they have is mostly SpeakingSimlish.
* As polarizing as ''Film/SpiderMan3'' was, one thing that even its detractors have nothing but praise for is the quiet, somber, and emotionally charged [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to29LvuColU birth of Sandman]].
* ''Film/TheHost2006'' had two scenes that were completely void of sound entirely; the moment where the monster first captures Hyun-seo, and the moment where the monster regurgitates a load of corpses and bones into the sewer.
* ''Film/{{Hush}}'' is just under 90 minutes long and contains less than 15 minutes of dialogue, which makes sense considering the protagonist is deaf. In certain scenes the ambient noise will also slowly fade out to make it more obvious how the main character is perceiving the world.
* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' had the aftermath of [[spoiler:Sirius' death]] completely silent save for the emotional music (which drowns out all other audio), which makes it all the more [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] to watch as Harry lets out of cries of utter anguish while constrained by Lupin. One reason the music was included was that during this part, Creator/DanielRadcliffe reportedly let out a scream ''so agonizing'' that the original audio wasn't included in the film.
* In ''Film/AntMan1'', after Scott [[spoiler: shrinks down into the Quantum Realm, we get an extended, very trippy sequence of him floating through a kaleidoscope-like dreamscape as he gets smaller and smaller and smaller. After that ends, there is a smash cut to him floating through that space, and it is absolutely ''dead silent''.]]
* With the exception for the intro and the hunter scenes, there's no dialogue in ''[[{{Film/Benji}} Benji the Hunted]]''.
* The first 10 minutes of ''Film/TheBookOfEli'' are completely free of dialogue.
* In ''Film/{{Riddick}}'', good portion of the beginning is free of dialogue until the second half of the movie.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': After Anakin's [[FallenHero fall]], his more disturbing actions (leading the sack of the Jedi Temple, [[WouldHurtAChild murdering the younglings]], [[PayEvilUntoEvil slaughtering the Separatist Council]]) are done without dialogue. Well without ''him'' saying anything anyway, several of his victims beg.
** ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'': The speederbike chase scene has about one line of dialogue and, unusually for the series, no music; only the sound effects.
** Rey's EstablishingCharacterMoment in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' has no dialogue at all until the very end, as we watch her scavenge from a wrecked Star Destroyer, sell the parts for food, and return home to eat dinner all alone, the same as she's been doing for her entire adult life. Without a word from Daisy Ridley, [[ShowDontTell we learn]] her loneliness, independence, desperation to be part of something greater, and feeling of insignificance against a vast and dangerous universe, shown visually when she puts on a salvaged Rebel flight helmet and watches the stars while sitting in [[RuleOfSymbolism the shadow of the destroyed AT-AT]] in which she makes her home.
** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' has both sound and score cut out completely during a moment when [[spoiler:Vice Admiral Holdo [[RammingAlwaysWorks rams her cruiser]] into First Order MileLongShip ''Supremacy'' '''at lightspeed''', cleaving it in two and shredding the First Order's fleet]]. Though intended to underscore the drama, the silence actually unnerved some moviegoers, to the point that some theaters [[https://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-last-jedi-silent-scene-not-glitch-amc-warn/ had to post a disclaimer]] about the moment being intentional.
* The opening five minutes of ''Film/CircusOfFear'' contain no dialogues: allowing TheHeist to play out with only naturalistic sounds.
* This is the entire point of ''Film/AQuietPlace''. A family struggles to survive by communicating with the sign language because the creatures are attracted by the sounds.

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* Creator/TsutomuNihei owns the silence the way Creator/OhGreat owns Ecchi.

* The two ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'' movies, also by Oshii, have very little dialog as well. Most fight scenes don't have any spoken lines at all and instead show in great detail what the characters are doing and seeing, leaving it to the audience to assume what they might be thinking.

* ''Manga/YokohamaKaidashiKikou'' actually needs a very high silence-to-dialog ratio to achieve its mellow, contemplative tone.
* The first episode of ''Anime/{{Texhnolyze}}'' has approximately ten lines of dialogue, all in a couple of scenes coming near the end of the episode after 11 minutes of near silence. While the rest of the series is more talkative, it's not uncommon to have several minutes without spoken dialogue in many episodes. The main protagonist Ichise is an extremely quiet man who often lets others (including Ran, a girl only slightly less silent than him) talk in his stead.
* Only two segments in ''Anime/RobotCarnival'' featured any dialogue. And it even had a Shonen and Shoujo segment that managed to be completely coherent despite this.
* ''Manga/{{Gon}}'', fitting of a series staring a not-very-anthropomorphic dinosaur, has no dialogue.
* ''Anime/PetitEva'' has no dialogue whatsoever.
* In ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', the gigantic explosion at the end makes no noise, only having organ music playing over it (soft vocals in the American dub).

* Used to utterly hilarious effect in ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}'', such as the scene where Yuko is trying to build a tower of cards without people knocking it over.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' has a lot of long stretches with little to no dialogue, preferring to let the visuals and soundtrack do the talking. A memorable sequence depicts a villain's origin using nothing but sparse electronic music, cold and sterile colors, and shots without much movement, making a remarkable (and terrifying) contrast to the rest of the show's colorful and jazzy style.

* The ''Manga/FairyTail'' manga has two chapters, "Lone Journey" and its sequel "Lone Journey II", which are both vignettes that 1.) focus on [[ADayInTheLimelight Gildarts]] during his [[WalkingTheEarth journey across Earth-land]], and 2.) are completely devoid of dialogue bubbles. TheMovie also has a long stretch of silence where Natsu and his friends take a leisurely tour through a new city, and two others in the anime where the team travels to Warrod's house before and after completing a mission, focusing mostly on wide landscape shots.
* ''Manga/JoshiKausei'' or [[{{Joshikousei}} Jyoshikausei]] is your typical {{moe}} [[SchoolgirlSeries schoolgirl manga series]]. But with no dialogue!
* The 2009 stop-motion series "Komaneko: The Curious Cat" has no dialogue at all besides a few grunts and a few characters calling there names. But is mostly silent.
* The "Rainy Day" episode of ''Anime/TheAdventuresOfMiniGoddess''. Not one word spoken, but with that score, it doesn't need any.
* This happens with ''Manga/TheDisastrousLifeOfSaikiK'' with Chapter 226 which is another New year's day themed chapter along with its adaptation from the final short of Season 2 Episode 20 until the end.
* The manga version of ''Manga/OnePiece'' emphasized Fisher Tiger returning Koala to her home in a flashback by having no dialogue with it; the characters' expressions do the talking for them.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the chapter that [[TheReveal revealed]] that [[spoiler:Tobi is Obito]] was almost entirely silent, with the only dialogue being a single line on the last page consisting of three words: [[spoiler: "You are... Obito?"]].

* Jeff Smith's ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' comics will often go many pages without any spoken dialogue.

* ''ComicBook/AgeOfReptiles'' contains not a single word. Given that it's set in the Mesozoic and the characters are all dinosaurs, the lack of speech is unsurprising, but there are no sound effects or narration, either.
* ''Mister Amperduke'' was created deliberately as a comic with absolutely no SpeechBubbles at all, partly because the creator didn't like his artwork being broken by speech bubbles in other comics.

** Marvel Comics has also done a number of issues this way over the years, including an earlier [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]] comic which inspired the "'Nuff Said" promotion.
** In one Silver Age ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' comic featuring the brilliant artwork of Gene "The Dean of Light and Darkness" Colan, Creator/StanLee {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this trope with a brief caption at the start praising the artist and stating that sometimes (as in this case) "superfluous words" were unnecessary, and therefore he was going to let the rest of the comic speak for itself.
** Most of ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'' #2 (1983) plays out not only without any dialogue but without any sound effects at all, due to the power of the assassin known as The Silencer to perfectly mute all sound.
** Probably Marvel's earliest exploration of the technique was a ComicBook/NickFury, Agent of SHIELD story by Jim Steranko. Steranko does a complicated battle scene without any dialog or sound effects. His editor at the time threatened to dock his pay for the issue since obviously he couldn't get paid for writing a sequence without words!
* Creator/SergioAragones is a master of this trope, having drawn numerous wordless pieces for ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''. In some cases, he even draws SpeechBubbles with ''pictures'' in them.
* Fellow ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' alum Antonio Prohías also did this just as a matter of style. While his most well-known series, ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'', is almost completely devoid of sound effects (save for explosions, gunshots, and the odd esoteric animal noise), looking back shows that all of his comics had a dialogue volume ranging from very little to none whatsoever.
* Boerke (roughly translates as: little farmer) is a Belgian comic by Pieter De Poortere that almost never has the characters speak. On the rare occasions that something is said, it's in symbols/drawings never in words. For example, the 60 pages comic book 'the son of' has a fairly complicated plot and has in total two whistling bubbles, two talk bubbles and one thinking bubble. Both speech bubble have the face of one of the characters in them and nothing else. The thinking balloon has an image of an A-Bomb.

* Comix 2000, published by L'Association in 1999. Two thousand pages, not a single word.
* Anything by Creator/ShaunTan, particularly ''ComicBook/TheArrival''. This is helped out by LOTS and LOTS of SceneryPorn.
* Issue #28 of ''ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGirls'' had a story, "Princess For A Day," which save for the narrator and a two-word balloon from Princess Morbucks, was entirely sans dialogue.
* ''Comicbook/GodzillaInHell'' has no human characters, and none of the Kaiju characters speak except for roars and growls.
* ''ComicBook/Jonesy2018'': No Dialogue or sound is present in the entire comic.
* ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'': The emotionally intense climax in ''La Vallée des bannis'' is entirely silent.

* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' mimes its dialogue in some of the more comedic Sunday strips. The effect is oddly like a Creator/CharlieChaplin movie in comic-strip form.

* Part of what makes the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AfterTheAbusePartOne'' so bizarre is that there's no dialogue at all- the reader is just told everything that happens. This is not the right way to go when your story consists of an incoherent RandomEventsPlot.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The silent films of F. W. Murnau are known for using title cards and written exposition very sparingly, letting the actions on screen tell the story visually. ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', ''Sunrise'' and ''Film/TheLastLaugh'' are notable examples.

* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' is 141 minutes long, but there's only forty of them where anyone says anything.
* The ending of Franco Zeffirelli's version of ''Film/{{Romeo and Juliet|1968}}'' had very little in the way of dialogue compared to the original text's ending.
* Creator/SergioLeone's movies were usually very sparse dialogue-wise, letting the visuals and Ennio Morricone's music tell the story instead.
** ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' is a great example; the film runs ten minutes before anybody speaks. Also, in the final climactic three way duel, there is no dialogue at all for over five minutes, and the film relies entirely on the score, and closeups of the three main character's faces, each trying decide whether to move first. It is widely considered to be one of the most dramatic and tense moments in film history.
** The opening of ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' has no dialogue as a trio of gunman wait for their target to arrive on a train. The final showdown is over nine minutes long, in which a total of 8 words are spoken.
* Mel Brooks' ''Film/SilentMovie'', of course. The only spoken word in the entire movie is said by [[{{Irony}} mime Marcel Marceau]].
* In addition to being in [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black-and-white]], ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' has very little music and keeps the dialogue to the barest minimum, while even the tiniest background noises are unusually audible, enhancing the eerie, nightmarish quality of the movie.
* ''Film/TheCallOfCthulhu'', based on the 1926 Creator/HPLovecraft classic, which was [[{{Retraux}} intended to look it could've been made around the time that the original story was written]].

* ''Childhood Friend Yuri'' A ''Website/{{Pixiv}}'' one-shot about the unnamed protagonist reunited with the titular childhood friend, who came out as trans woman. Aside from usage of symbols, this story was told without dialogue at all.

* ''ChildhoodFriendYuri'' A ''Website/{{Pixiv}}'' one-shot about the unnamed protagonist reunited with the titular childhood friend, who came out as trans woman. Aside from usage of symbols, this story was told without dialogue at all.

->'''Art Spiegelman:''' Samuel Beckett once said: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness".\\

* One ad for Kotex was completely silent to show how quiet their new maxi pads are. It even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it]] at the end with "Now back to your noisy commercial.".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' is unsurprisingly light on dialogue, only having around 950 lines in the entire film; much of the movie is completely silent with only music, animal sounds, and the occasional gunshots. A fan analyzed the film and discovered that (not counting the non-diagetic songs and non-speaking voice effects), the film [[https://vimeo.com/340720744 only has around 11 minutes of dialogue total out of its 1:10 runtime.]] The midquel, however, has much more dialogue.

* ''Animation/TheMindsEye'' is full of this, with most of the sound being music, with sound effects occasionally peppered in. As the series goes on, this is slowly eroded. Exceptions to this trope are listed here.