Characters who have super-powerful screams can do things like scream out sonic booms, and screech so loud it can paralyze people by making their eardrums bleed.
Comes with an unusually high level of Required Secondary Powers (most importantly, super-resilient eardrums and respiratory tract), and often involves Acceptable Breaks from Reality, like a visual that indicates the sound, to depict. On top of that, logically thinking, this power would be Awesome, but Impractical, seeing as a sonic boom would practically level everything in a spherical radius from the hero (including themselves). But most straight examples don't portray this aspect of it.
Occasionally, characters with this power also have the Compelling Voice ability, if the character has sufficient fine control over it.
Subtrope of Make Some Noise. Glass-Shattering Sound is a sister trope for sounds, both supernatural and mundane, that only shatter brittle materials. Sound sources other than voices that have a physical effect on people or things are covered by Gale-Force Sound. Sometimes combined with Razor Wind and can overlap with Breath Weapon. Compare Loud of War, Musical Assassin, as well as the sonic variants of Brown Note. For the lethal weapon version of this, see Sonic Stunner.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
- Catch! Teenieping: In "Happying's Back", Romi and the other Royal Teeniepings confront Giggleping, who is no longer wearing the badge on his scarf that has kept him corrupted. As a result, he gains Super-Strength, and his yells create powerful shockwaves that prevent Romi or anyone else from getting close to him.
- The Authority arc "Godhead" brings us Sister Voice, who leveled Salt Lake City with a powerful rendition of Paul Anka's Puppy Love.
- In Buzz!, this is the power of the Spelluminati champion. The sound of their screams is enough to temporarily deafen the Black Queen. It doesn't affect Webster though, because the champion is also his sister and thus he's used to her screaming at him.
- In a Darkwing Duck miniseries, one-time character Screaming Mimi could send several men flying backwards with one scream. Alas, she wasn't so useful once they learned to squirt water into her mouth.
- The DCU:
- Black Canary, member of the Justice League of America and Birds of Prey, pictured on the opening page, with her "Canary Cry", a potent sonic attack able to damage and stun foes or objects, to the point of shattering metal.
- Shy Crazy Lolita Canary of the Super Young Team.
- The alien version of Starman (DC Comics).
- Former Teen Titans member Herald gained this power through a super voice box. Unfortunately, as Vox, he can't turn it off — while he can control sound, anything he actually says will kick the ass of everyone in the area.
- Great Ten: The original Perfect Physician devised a way to use sound to find and heal ailments, using a mere click of his tongue to cure cancers. His successors extrapolated this ability: the second learned to stop earthquakes with a growl, and the third turned back a Mongol horde with a shout. Because the collective memories of the Perfect Physicians are passed on to each new title-holder, successive Perfect Physicians have been able to perform all these feats and more.
- The Global Guardians had the Taiwanese Liang Xih-k'ai aka Thunderlord, a Religious Bruiser who could not only use sonic screams but also imitate voices and sounds. His shout could shatter an entire building.
- Legion of Super-Heroes: Legionnaire Tyroc has a variety of effects that he can make with a variety of screams (there's a different sound effect for each... effect.)
- Superman:
- In Final Crisis, Superman finally kills Darkseid by screaming so loud that the evil god shatters. The effort nearly ruins Supes' vocal cords.
- In For the Man Who Has Everything, when an enraged Superman roars Mongul's name upon being freed from the Black Mercy, he shouts so loud that he nearly knocks Robin over.
- In The Great Phantom Peril, Faora kicks Superman's neck from behind, forcing him to cry out in pain. His shout's soundwaves accidentally shatter an unfortunate skyscraper's windows.
- Long time Superman foe Silver Banshee is not only loud, but if she knows your real name, then hearing her scream results in instant death. She can't kill Supes because she doesn't know his real name, Kal-El. She can still blow out his eardrums, though.
- Supergirl (2005): Kara fights Silver Banshee in Why The World Doesn't Need A Supergirl, where the latter's sonic scream almost kills an innocent passerby off. Later, in Death & the Family, Kara herself becomes briefly a banshee with her own powerful sonic scream.
- In Last Daughter of Krypton, Supergirl displays this power a couple of times: while experiencing Sensory Overload for the first time, Kara lets out a cry of pain whose sound blast throws her armored attackers away. Later, after confirming that her parents are dead, Kara lets out an anguished, grieving scream whose explosive soundwave overturns furniture, blows machines away and cracks walls.
- In Supergirl (2011), Supergirl used sonic screams when fighting Black Banshee. He specifically notes it and mocks it as a pale reflection of his own powers, before giving her a demonstration.
- In the beginning of Red Daughter of Krypton, Siobhan Smythe has to reluctantly turn into Silver Banshee again to try to hold a berserker Kara back. Her ultrasonic wails can hurt her because they are magic-based.
- In Supergirl (2016), Kara is trapped inside a contraption which adapts to her skills. She cannot break free until she realizes she can hear the machine, which means its adaptive cells speak to each other on a specific frequency. Supergirl isolates the sound and then she shouts, flooding the air with the same frequency the adaptive cells use to coordinate countermeasures, deafeaning them so they cannot work together to adapt to her.
- In an Action Comics issue, Jon "Superboy" Kent shattered every window in the house by accident while jumping for joy over his father seemingly beating Doomsday.
- Banshee Jeanette, of the Secret Six, can leave you comatose with her screams.
- In Wonder Woman all versions of the villainess Silver Swan from Helen Alexandros on have this.
- The Joker gets this power in a Judge Dredd crossover when he makes a deal with Judge Death to become the fifth Dark Judge. Joker's laugh is now able to blow up people's heads en masse.
- Suicide Squad member Shriek's main ability is this.
- Wonder Woman (1987): The Pillar of Pallor cries out and moans so loudly in pain and sorrow that it incapacitates first Diana and later Hippolyta. It is only quieted by the vulture guide Ares sent Hippolyta showing it empathy.
- The Swedish comic James Hund once featured the Tibetan Scream Ninjas, who practiced the "especially Oriental" art of screaming buildings apart.
- Marvel Universe:
- The all-time champion is probably Black Bolt, who can level buildings just by whispering, because his voice isn't just super-sonic, but actually causes massive disruptions in electrons. When he declares war, he's not mixing metaphors. In an Alternate Universe, he committed genocide by yelling at the top of his lungs. However, since he cannot actually control it — as in any whisper from him will destroy buildings, etc. — this makes his position as King of Attilan and leader of the Inhumans extremely reliant on his cousin and wife Medusa's ability to read his body language. He's gotten so good at laser-guided body language that characters have commented on how uncanny it is that they always know what he means. In Marvel Zombies, he managed to wipe out half an army being led by the Incredible Hulk. By saying "Brains", of course.
- What If? (Marvel Comics) #34 (the Rule of Funny issue) asked: "What if Black Bolt got the hiccups?" [cue destroyed Manhattan]
- X-Men: Sean Cassidy aka Banshee and his daughter Theresa aka Siryn. Screaming also lets them glide like flying squirrels, bouncing their screams off nearby surfaces to push air back into the wingsuit portions of their costumes. Oh, and they can talk while using it. Hilarity ensued in the animated series when Banshee had to give Wolverine a ride.
Wolverine: With you making all that noise, we might as well try sneaking into this place with a marching band.
Banshee: If you think that's bad, you should hear me sing. - On the villain side, there's Ruckus
.
- Cosmo, the psychic dog from Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy, seems to have a sonic bark.
- Iron Fist ranks the "Silent Scream" among his "upper-tier abilities". A hypersonic attack that can KO an entire room of thugs, it also leaves him unable to speak for a month.
- The Wolverine story "Roar" features a beast whose roar is so powerful it leaves an entire town with bleeding ears, and when Wolverine shows up he has to keep regrowing his eardrums to fight it.
- Spider-Man has a couple of characters with this set up.
- Most obviously, there's 90s villain Shriek. Her actual offensive use of sound is a sonic beam she fires from her hands, while her scream acts like a Hate Plague.
- Phil Urich, the heroic Green Goblin was indicated to have a "Lunatic Laugh" that leaves people stunned in pain and is powerful enough to harm symbiotes, which are weak to sonics. Interestingly, the power was premised on the idea that the Green Goblin (whoever he/she was) had a Creepy High-Pitched Voice, but more recently, the Green Goblin is presented as Evil Sounds Deep. When he return as Hobgoblin he's also back as a cackling, shrieking villain.
- B-lister villain the Shocker, despite sounding like he uses electrical attacks, actually uses a harness to create vibrated waves of air that literally shake things apart, leaving him somewhere between here and Blow You Away.
- The Queen had this as one of her powers. The force was loud enough to cause Spidey to bleed from his ears, and being in close range of it just twice was enough to knock him out.
- Lady Lark from Squadron Supreme, an Expy of Black Canary.
- Melissa Joan "Mel" Gold debuted as the minor villain "Screaming Mimi", using sonic blasts to commit crimes. When she was recruited for the first iteration of the Thunderbolts, she was outfitted with a cybernetic vocalizer which expanded her repertoire to the point she could create "solid sound constructs", which allowed her to take the new identity of Songbird. She ultimately went straight and became a genuine superhero by that moniker.
- In the MonsterVerse spin-off graphic novels Godzilla: Aftershock and Kingdom Kong, the Titans Jinshin-Mushi/MUTO Prime and Camazotz respectively emit weaponized shrieks that can cripple Godzilla and King Kong respectively.
- Played for Laughs in PS238 here
. Tyler doesn't have this, he just screams a lot.
- Weiss and her two Pokémon all know Round in Boldores and Boomsticks, but Whisper can't use it yet.
- The Scream Horn from Calvin & Hobbes: The Series invokes this.
- Also, the "Stupendous Scream" from "Wild Movie".
- One of Dr. Brainstorm's trademark shouts manages to knock Jack off his feet in "Thunderstorm".
- The Conversion Bureau has Joakim Bróden singing Attero Dominatus in "Metal Ripper". It produces a shockwave powerful enough to shatter every window in Canterlot Castle's throne room and send the Royal Guards flying.
- Shadowwalker of the Warriors in Drunkard's Walk II
has a scream that seems to be the sonic equivalent of a laser, a beam of coherent sound that pounds, slices and shatters whatever it touches.
- Enchanted Miracle Pretty Cure: In addition to her super hearing, Dolores has a super-sonic voice as Cure Sound.
- Homecoming, 2026: Implied that's sound manipulation is what a "siren talent" is:
The teenager came to a stop a couple meters away from the leaders and turned to face towards the flag fluttering at one end of the stadium. After a few moments, the stands fell silent, and she began to sing. A few stanzas into the song, it became apparent the the soft sound of the accompanying bells from the campus bell tower were actually a manifestation of her siren talent.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: Aside from his legendary Force Drain, Darth Nihilus's second unique Force ability is his Force Scream. He unleashes a scream through the Force so powerful that it instantly kills anyone in close proximity to him. It was his Signature Move during his time as a Jedi, back when he was a Screaming Warrior in battle. In the present, he still has access to this power and uses it to kill a significant number of students attending the Vytal Festival after hijacking control of Jaune's body.
- In the Daria/Legion of Super-Heroes Crossover Legion of Lawndale Heroes, OC Julia Carlyle (one of the Royals Who Actually Do Something who's attending a Hero Academy that also acts as a Military School and Military Academy, which is where she first encountered the Legionnaires) has this as one of her primary abilities (along with being a Winged Humanoid with a Healing Factor).
- A New Order has Usagi use this in her first youma fight, and then keep using it in almost all of her subsequent fights. It isn't at all lethal, but it can make most villains curl up in a ball of pain.
- The Night Unfurls: Kyril's Beast Roar works like this, unleashing a roar that can repel nearby foes while damaging them internally if they get too close, as shown in Chapter 2 of the original. It makes a return in Chapter 5 of the remastered version, with Kyril deflecting Olga's fire attacks via this method.
- Of The Earthling Saiyan: One of Raditz's unique abilities is a ki-boosted shout which is louder than any Saiyan should be capable of. He occasionally uses it as an attack. While it doesn't directly do any damage to most targets, it can stun them or send them flying.
- Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy:
- Cure Vanilla's first attack, "Pretty Cure Vanilla Echo", had her scream into a giant yellow megaphone made of light, producing soundwaves that went straight to the enemy, killing it as of episode 5.
- Word of God says that Cure Tangerine's upcoming power-up attack, "Pretty Cure Tangerine Silver Wail", has her scream out orange soundwaves which do the same thing.
- Pokémon Wack: As is the case in most fanons, the Sound-type appears. Moves that were Normal-type originally (such as Sing, Relic Song, Roar, and Echoed Voice) become this type, and Pokemon such as the Whismur line, the Jigglypuff line, Chatot, Noibat and Noivern, and Chimecho) gain the Sound-type.
- The Rainsverse: Baroness Adagio Dazzle is quite proficient with sonic magic.
- In Red Lightning, Ensemble Dark Horse Conner gained this power through the storm, in the form of a biological sound system in his chest.
- The Rigel Black Chronicles: A Wailing Charm is the only attack available to Harry that seems to be effective against an adolescent dragon, but the backlash bursts her own eardrums.
- This is one of the more common superpowers that turns up in Rise of the Galeforces, and one of the rare few to be used by more than two Supers. Apparently, the Sonic Scream, as it's officially called, used to be quite popular.
- somanyrobots: At 11th level, the Troubadour gains the ability to perform (which can be through screaming) a special note of power that can dispel silence effects or damage objects/creatures through sheer magical loudness.
- In Take a Stand: The Broken Mirror, it's revealed that this is the power Esso Reese was abducted by Doctor Doom for. It's put to use for the first time in the Cauldron riot planned by Clara.
- This Bites!: With his Noise-Noise Fruit powers, the Baby Transponder Snail Soundbite can emit a burst of sonic vibrations, tuned to a specific frequency, that is capable of shattering bone, stone, and steel. Unlike most examples, he has to be in physical contact with the target in question to use this ability, at least until he Awakens his Devil Fruit.
- The titular villain of Ultrasonic has a particularly destructive version of this power, thanks to an akuma-possessed microphone.
- John in With Strings Attached can make a creepy, inhuman, bird-like screech, though he doesn't use it much, and it doesn't have any damaging effect—or, at least, he's never bothered to find out if anything can be done with it.
- However, in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, he uses it to extremely good effect when escaping from the psionics in the Guardians.
- Used by the protagonist in Beowulf against Grendel (and combined with "I! AM! BEOWULF!") as a result of Grendel having freakishly sensitive eardrums.
- In Disney's Bolt, the Superbark is among the many superpowers the title canine has in the Show Within a Show. Thanks to on-stage stunts and post-production special effects, he thinks he has it for real.
- Minions: The Rise of Gru does this twice with Master Chow and the Minion Trio (Kevin, Stuart and Bob). The first happens when Chow defends the Minions from Wild Knuckles’ henchmen, and the second happens in the climax when the transformed Kevin, Stuart and Bob use the same power to repel the transformed Vicious 6 away when they try to finish off Gru.
- In Turning Red, Ming's shouting as a giant red panda is powerful enough to momentarily knock Mei off balance.
- Black Canary, who's the Trope Codifier in the comics, finally gets to make her silver screen debut in Birds of Prey. She cracks a glass while singing at the beginning of the film and uses her full power combat exactly once in the climax given that she Fights Like a Normal, and using it at full power drains her heavily.
- In Carrie (2013), when Carrie snaps after she's doused with blood at the prom, she lets out a furious howl that knocks back all the decorations and students in the gym.
- In Critters 3 the crite known as Blackie sends out a distress call to the others when cornered by Annie (though it had no reason to, as the previous films established a single crite is more than capable of taking down a grown man and she was an unarmed pre-teen girl), the scream is loud enough to shatter glass and cause pain to the rest of the apartment attendants.
- In Danger Diva, after getting the enhancement, Devi's voice is so powerful it can shatter glass, triplex, and even kill people. It can also energize and soothe the masses as a form of mind-control when sung at a softer pitch.
- The monster portrayed by Awa in Dark Floors is a ghost with a glass-breaking screech. Tobias refers to her as "the Scream Queen", and she is the only one given an in-movie name.
- In Dogma, God's voice kills any mortal who hears it, forcing the Metatron to speak on Her behalf instead.
Metatron: We went through five Adams before we figured that out.
- In Dune (1984), Paul and the Fremen use sonic weapons that are activated by shouting.
- Freaks (2018): Chloe uses her mind control on three ADF agents at once near the end by screaming. This is the only time this happens-otherwise she's shown to just speak or will it.
- Gyaos, the monstrous reptilian bird foe of Gamera, uses a hypersonic shriek amplified into a laser as his primary offensive weapon. It's powerful enough to slice through anything but Gamera's shell. The Gyaos mutation Irys can also use the sonic laser, but fired from the pincers on the ends of her tentacles, and these CAN penetrate Gamera's shell if they're focused long enough on one spot.
- Godzilla:
- Titanosaurus has a sonic beam in Unleashed, sonic energy being what led to his defeat in the movie, which is explained by Word of God as him using sonic waves to navigate the depths of the ocean. Considering animals like whales and dolphins do use sonic energy (in the form of sonar clicks) to navigate dark areas of the ocean and locate a potential meal, and could probably be messed up if a sonic device was used on them when they were using said sonar, scrambling the inner ear and brain of the target, this is a case of Truth in Television.
- The monster in Godzilla (1998), as part of the film's attempt at a more "realistic" depiction of Godzilla, lacked the usual atomic breath. However, its roaring is loud enough to cause cars to explode.
- Subverted in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in which the Fat Lady attempts to break a glass by singing/screeching at it, but ends up quickly smashing it against the wall instead.
- At one point, the Big Bad in Heroic Trio emits a scream that destroys a character's weapon.
- The Incredible Mr. Limpet gained a vocal weapon when he was turned into a fish. Though it's less a sonic shriek and more a sonic boom, as he generates a thundering percussive shockwave. It's put to good use at the climax of the movie when he uses it to guide "thrum" seeking German torpedoes to destroy the Nazi U-boats that launched them.
- Karate a Muerte en Torremolinos: Malvedades and Orloff both have a whistle-based attack. Malvedades also knows a whistling spell.
- The Landlady from Kung Fu Hustle uses a technique known as the Lion's Roar that's basically this. In the fight against the Beast, she breaks the top off a large bell and uses it as an amplifier for the attack, blasting him through several walls (and destroying most of the rest of the room) .
- Meet Dave, albeit unintentionally. He's tweaking his voice and accidentally set the pitch so high it makes empty wine bottles explode.
- True to her video game roots, Sindel of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has this power.
- Played with in The Muppet Movie. Bunsen is setting up the sound system in the studio and requests a sound level. Animal steps up to the microphone and yells, "TESTING!" at the top of his voice as a joke. Cue smoking headphones and shaking glasses.
- Joey from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors discovers he has this power when he cuts loose with a Big "NO!" as his friends are being overwhelmed by Freddy's duplicates. Unfortunately for Joey, Freddy is shrewd enough to negate his power in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, drowning him in a waterbed so the teen has no breath with which to scream.
- In Police Academy: Back in Training, Zed unhinges a door at the training grounds by screaming at it.
- The Bleeders in Push have this power, and they get their name from what happens to people who listen to their screams.
- This was only demonstrated once in The Return of Hanuman, as Maruti hoots to scare off his school's bullies.
- Screamers. The titular Killer Robots are called this because of the high-pitched scream they emit while attacking. You can either cover your ears or hold and fire your weapon properly, but not both.
- In The Shout, Crossley claims to possess the ability to utter a shout that can kill anyone who hears it. Within the story he tells, this is certainly true.
- Siren (2010): Silka is a siren. Sung softly, her song acts as Mind-Control Music. Sung loudly, it can cause deafness, madness and even death.
- Coach Boomer from Sky High (2005). Woe betide anyone who disagrees with his choice of 'Hero' or 'Sidekick'.
Coach Boomer: SIIIIIIIDE-KIIIIICK!!!
- Another unintentional example: Splash. The mermaid language does not function well in land-dwelling society.
- During the Master Exploder song in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny JB's capable of setting a microphone on fire and literally blowing somebody's mind with his voice given a supercharge by the titular pick.
- Oskar Matzerath in The Tin Drum can shatter glass by yelling. This may have been the inspiration for a similar trait of Lola in Run Lola Run.
- In Victor/Victoria, "Victor" is showing off her vocal range as a man out in the hallway balances on a wine bottle. Hilarity Ensues.
- She uses this ability to break glass and surprise people throughout the movie.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Roger can let out a noise like a steam whistle that can shatter glass, but only after he drinks strong liquor.
- X-Men Film Series:
- Siryn, one of the students in X2: X-Men United, has this power. She wakes up as Stryker's men are sneaking around and screams, which alerts everyone else in the mansion.
- In X-Men: First Class, Banshee's mutation involves making very powerful sound waves that can break glass (among other things). They're also very effective at locating things underwater, in similar variant of echolocation. In an unusual variation, this includes the power of flight, by bouncing sound waves off the ground back into a wingsuit.
- The Howlers from Animorphs have a scream that plays havoc with their prey's nervous systems (the more so the more complex the nervous system).
- Chrysalis (RinoZ): Various monsters, including Tiny the ape, can produce a shout/scream powerful enough to rattle brains. Anthony even meets a carnivorous flower that can do it.
- In The Court Of The Air, warrior-grade steammen can modulate their voices to shatter glass, ceramic, or even rock. They don't advertise this ability, preferring to retain it as a surprise attack.
- The Dinosaur Lords: The favoured mount of many dinosaur knights is a hadrosaurus, or a duck-bill, largely because it can generate a powerful infrasound "scream", which can be downright crippling to people and beasts caught in the blast.
- Discworld's Agnes Nitt, AKA Perdita X Dream. She once threatened a man of screaming so hard that his brains will came out of his nose. And yes, she can do that.
- Earth's Scariest Monsters!:
- The werewolf David can unleash ultrasonic howls. The howls are accompanied by visible blue soundwaves.
- In her Samhain Form, the ghost Nicholette can unleash ultrasonic Ghostly Wails powerful enough to blow others away. The loud wail is accompanied by visible green soundwaves made of ecto energy.
- In Gelsomino in the Land of Liars by Gianni Rodari, the main character has a voice that makes fruit fall off trees, breaks windows etc. Eventually he learns to control it somewhat, since after the book's events he becomes an opera singer.
- The Mandrakes of mythology and, among others, Harry Potter, have screams of instant death.
- Her Spell That Cursed Me: The Crone malefician can scream so powerfully that it causes quakes and harms people who hear it.
- Journey to Chaos: Eric describes Retis' voice as a physical thing that can knock people over.
- In The King of Katoren, the birds populating the city of Decibel have had this ability for so long that the city's inhabitants have gotten used to it by constantly using earplugs and shielding their walls and windows; Stach, the main character, notes that due to the ensuing loss of interpersonal communication across the years, the two people in town who actually more thoroughly studied the problem have never been able to share their plans and combine them into the actual solution to the problem.
- Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, has sound control as her magic in Magical Girl Raising Project. She mostly uses it for super hearing and vocal projection, but weaponizes it in her fight against Swim Swim.
- Magnus has the 'Sword of the Lord', a sonic scream powerful enough to trigger earthquakes.
- Manifestation: A character in one key scene has the ability to generate sonic pulses with his voice. Later another also displays this ability.
- In Catherine Webb's book Mirror Dreams, Laenan Kite weaves a spell into his scream, manipulating the pressure of the air so that glass shatters and the guards are killed.
- In the Percy Jackson and the Olympians novel Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth Pan gives his panic-causing cry to Grover, who uses it to help win the battle.
- In The Trials of Apollo series, this is one of the few cases of the otherwise mortal Apollo getting his power back, screaming so loud at Commodus he is evaporated.
- In the Rainbow Magic series, Jack Frost does this by accident with the magical megaphone in Keira the Film/Movie Star Fairy's book. The day is saved with earplugs for everyone, including the goblins.
- The Great Shout in The Riddle Master Trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip can start avalanches (if you're not careful), knock down towers, and complete the year's nut harvest remarkably quickly if you do it right. Everybody is a potential Shouter — you just have to be sufficiently moved. Among the famous Shouts is that vented by Queen Cyone of An on her wedding day. Neither she nor the King ever told anybody just what inspired it.
- Zhang Fei in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms during his stand at Chang Ban bridge, shouted so loudly it halts the advance of Cao Cao's army. Also rumoredly, one peon DIES at the mere shout of it.
- In The Runelords books the big bad Raj Ahtan gets enough voice augments that he goes from having a compelling voice to a sonic weapon capable of bringing down castle walls.
- In The Samurai’s Wife, the victim is killed by a shout so violent that it shatters his bones and ruptures his organs. Detective Sano Ichiro identifies it as a weaponized kiai from a second-hand description of the body, though the other investigators dismiss the idea as superstitious nonsense until they witness its power firsthand.
- Helva, The Ship Who... Sang is as a shellperson unable to breathe or open her mouth, but learned how to develop a Beautiful Singing Voice between vocal control and speakers. These can be quite loud but aren't usually on the level of a weapon - in Dramatic Mission she tries shouting at a passenger to keep her from murdering someone, and only manages to stagger her. However, when she's kidnapped in The Ship Who Dissembled and forced to perform, she pretends she wasn't given enough volume to sing properly and so is given more power. Starting low and quiet, she gets the kidnappers to lean close and subjects them to a Last Note Nightmare that, because of the drugs they were on accentuating the shock, actually kills some of them.
- In The Paths of the Perambulator, the fifth Spellsinger book, Jon-Tom is briefly turned into a howler monkey. He's understandably pretty irritated by this, so when he starts trying to sing a counterspell, his voice, augmented by his magic and his anger, comes out as a hurricane-force sonic blast that knocks down trees for a hundred yards in front of him.
- The "divine wind" ability of Celestial dragons in the Temeraire series, which is demonstrated to be powerful enough to cause a mini-tsunami in the case of skilled users. That can sink an entire fleet of warships in one shot. Described as "not so much sound as force" the first time it occurs onstage.
- In James H. Schmitz's The Witches of Karres, the Leewit (do not call her just "Leewit") can whistle at, and thereby break, almost anything. Glass, crystal, eardrums...
- The 4400: In "Try the Pie", Billy gains the ability to produce a sonic scream after injecting himself with promicin. He uses it to incapacitate Tom so that he can't escape from Evanston.
- A one-shot villain in Alphas was introduced as having sonar powers. It turned out that his abilities were much more dangerous, allowing him to weaken buildings with gradual vibrations, and finally flat-out blast people.
- Lorne of Angel can hold a song note at any pitch, pretty much forever. His screams brought several demons to their knees holding their ears in pain, and, judging from the background noise, it can shatter glass as well. The real irony is that where he comes from, singing in general is considered a sonic weapon because they have no concept of music; he's viewed as something akin to a Person of Mass Destruction with none of a nuclear warhead's huggableness. In a multi-episode arc where the group goes to his home dimension, he holds off a lynch mob by bursting into a Mo-town number (until someone rides by on a horse and just knocks him out).
- Arrowverse:
- The franchise's first take on the Black Canary, Sara Lance, carries a sonic-emitting device which is meant more to disorient than hurt people and mainly used to announce her presence rather than as a genuine combat tool. After Sara dies, her sister, Laurel, inherits her mantle and the device. She has Cisco Ramon modify the device, amplifying it and enabling it to be worn as a choker, so all she has to do to activate the device is scream.
- Black Siren, Laurel's Earth-2 counterpart introduced near the end of The Flash season 2, has an organic Canary Cry that the comics' Black Canary is known for, as she is a metahuman. The scream is several orders of magnitude more powerful than the sonic device; it can genuinely hurt and kill people and even bring down buildings if she concentrates her power. Also, unlike the sonic device, there is a visual cue whenever the Cry is used.
- One of the new recruits from Arrow season 5, Dinah Drake, has an organic Canary Cry much like Black Siren, though her scream is different (probably because Juliana Harkavy has a Contralto of Strength). In the season finale, there is a scene where she and Black Siren try to blast one another at close range. Naturally, both are flung back by the force of their screams interacting. In season 7, Dinah has her throat slit by the Star City Slayer and loses her Canary Cry as a result (this gets undone after the Crisis).
- Siren-X, Laurel's Earth-X counterpart introduced in The Flash season 4, relies on her Canary Cry for pretty much everything, unlike her Earth-2 counterpart who Fights Like a Normal (in her defense, she is undoubtedly the most powerful Black Canary incarnation in the multiverse). This proves to be her weakness as she gets knocked out of the game after Barry figures out how to avoid her screams.
- Supergirl has the Rogues' Gallery Transplant Siobhan Smythe (Silver Banshee), whose metahuman ability of excruciating screams is passed down through the female line of her family.
- Mika from Danger Force has this power, hence her superhero name "ShoutOut".
- Doctor Who:
- In "The Ice Warriors", Victoria screams to cause a Hair-Trigger Avalanche that kills the Ice Warrior coming after her.
- In the story "Fury of the Deep", Victoria's screaming defeated the seaweed creature.
- Domino Day:
- Domino makes Jason vanish in Episode 1 with one after he angers her with attempted blackmail. It turns out she'd also done this with Silas, her ex-boyfriend, to defend herself.
- In Episode 2 when Cal locks Domino inside his basement, she blows open the door to escape using it too.
- Doom Patrol (2019): Revealed to be Kay’s power, with her scream both destroying the Underground and causing the Doom Manor bus to crash violently.
- Jool from Farscape. Notable in that her scream melts metal. Which others have weaponized simply by scaring or hurting her, particularly on her feet, and as she's a Spoiled Rich Bitch, she screams a lot (much to the frustration of the rest of the crew). Becomes Cursed with Awesome when she gets handcuffed.
- In the CBBC series Freephonix one of the three 'Freewavers' and Protectors of the 'Thirteenth Note' can use her singing voice as a weapon.
- In the short-lived Inhumans show, Black Bolt, like in the comics, can do incredible damage with barely a whisper, much less a shout. In a flashback, we learn that he accidentally killed his parents with a question "Why?" Since then he's trained himself to never utter a sound under any circumstances, even in his sleep.
- Kamen Rider OOO: The Orca Medal gives OOO echolocation powers.
- In The Librarian Simone Renoir shatters all the windows of a defunct abbey-turned-nightclub with a single high C. Of course she is a vampiric opera singer who's had centuries keep her voice well trained. More importantly, she was standing in the one spot in the abbey that would amplify her voice to levels loud enough to shatter all the windows.
- Queen Mab from the 1998 miniseries Merlin. Apparently, she was the inspiration for the myth of the banshee.
- From the other Merlin is Mordred. On being surrounded by knights he lets loose a terrible scream which kills them all.
- Also Morgana, who lets loose a scream that causes destruction and structural damage to the castle after Morgause is badly wounded.
- Merlin has this ability as part of his dragon lord powers. It's not used that often, but when he does break it out, be prepared to get thrown into solid objects at high speeds.
- Motherland: Fort Salem: The witches' vocalizations can knock enemies off their feet, and even call up storms.
- In Power Rangers Zeo, the Monster of the Week Boo-Hoo the Clown put a curse on a baby that caused his crying to do this by accident.
- Raised by Wolves (2020). Necromancer androids use a high-pitched scream that makes enemy soldiers explode into a cloud of blood and gore.
- Catalina's Sonic Blast on Space Cases, which apparently all people from Saturn have.
- BRIAN BLESSED, though not in Real Life (As far as we know..!) is portrayed this way in Spitting Image.
- Teen Wolf has Lydia, who turns out to be a banshee. Her scream won't do sustained damage, but it will daze people and shatter glass.
- In season 5B, we learn that it can do far more than that. A few voice training sessions with fellow banshee Meredith reveal that her scream can grievously injure and even kill people at maximum power. Gabriel Valack learns this the hard way after forcibly amplifying Lydia's abilities. In the finale, Lydia's supernatural voice allows her to banish the spirit of the Beast of Gevaudan by shouting the name of its host.
- The Witcher:
- In the Netflix series, Ciri's magic can manifest as a piercing shriek which blasts away whatever's in its path, and deafens anyone with eardrums. She unlocks this ability as Cintra falls to Nilfgaard, using it to defend herself against a soldier from Nilfgaard eager to kidnap her.
- The bruxa is a vampiric, bat-like creature whose scream is strong enough to knock over someone from a distance. In "A Grain of Truth", an episode of the Netflix series, Geralt is pressed against a wall in Nivellin's mansion, struggling to break free despite being damn fit.
- Celtic Mythology:
- The spirit of Irish Folklore, the Banshee, is often depicted as having this power, as part of their whole "wailing death spirit" theme.
- The Morrigan had a war scream capable of killing 100 warriors in a single blast.
- There is also the Dord Fiann (Door-d feen), the war cry of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his warriors. It was typically done in a low register and had the ability to bolster the courage of allies and instill fear in enemies. It could also be used to offensively strike an enemy, often being used to break troop formations as effectively as a physical attack would. The dord fiann was stronger when performed by a group, becoming more powerful the more people performed it at once.
- The Chinese children's tale The Ten Brothers is about ten mystically-borne siblings that exhibit X-Men-worthy superpowers — the second youngest of the ten has a super-destructive cry.
- Russian Mythology and Tales: From the Byliny (great epic poems of Russia), we have Solovey-Razboynik, or Nightingale the Robber, a human/bird hybrid monster who could stun or kill with a whistle. He was one of the arch-enemies of the Russian folk-hero Ilya Muromets.
- The Book of Jasher: Simeon is described to have a scream so loud that all pregnant women within a twenty-five mile radius will have a miscarriage.
- Classical Mythology:
- Pan is able to do a cry that would cause deranged terror in all mortals who heard it, and is the source of the English word "panic".
- The neades were large beasts with roars so powerful that they could split the ground apart. They apparently drove their kind to extinction by roaring at each other so much they accidentally buried themselves alive.
- In Beti-Pahuin Mythology Ntoutoume Mfoulou was known for his supernatural vocalizations. During the cave battle against Oveng’s forces he screamed a mob of Gorillas into the walls before killing them. When the leadership of Engong needed undivided attention he would yell with such hurricane-like force that people, animals, and even rivers would stop in place to listen.
- Arduin: Blue bellowers are immense beetles know and named for their propensity for roaring loud enough to deafen people close to them.
- Chaosium:
- Stormbringer. The Stormbringer Companion had the Crimson Xoar, a gigantic (60+ feet high) water buffalo whose bellow could damage the blood vessels and tissues of anyone within a mile of it.
- Supplement All the Worlds' Monsters Volume III. The None Such is a cross between a blink dog, a Greater Demon and a phase spider. It can give off a scream that causes 1-12 Hit Points and stuns opponents for 1-3 melee turns.
- In Cybergeneration, a spinoff of R. Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk, you can play an "Evolved" character — basically a kid that's been enhanced by nanomachines that are spreading like a virus. The supplement MEDIA FRONT has an Evolved type called Jammers whose modification is that their throat, eustachian tubes and ears are replaced with a non-newtonian, metallic super-carbon polymer kind of like living mercury. In addition to the standard screaming, they can alter their throats to mimic any sound, use the vibrations in their voice to hypnotize or persuade, and modify their ears to enhance their hearing.
- Dungeons & Dragons
- The 1st/2nd Edition androsphinx has a roar that can cause Hit Points of damage (in addition to deafening, fear, loss of strength, paralysis and being knocked over) to anyone close by.
- Third edition officially includes "sonic" as one of its energy/damage types and provides spells, magic items, and monsters that make use of it. (In 3.0 and 3.5 at least it was arguably one of the more effective damage types because few creatures had inherent resistance to it — unlike, say, fire or cold — and an object's hardness would not protect said object's hit points against it.) This is to say nothing of effects that invoke the trope but don't technically do sonic damage, such as "Wail of the Banshee".
- Savage Species includes a Feat that does stuff like this. It requires you to be at least Large in size. Blowhard can literally bowl over your opponents. It's also restricted in that you can't combine a breath weapon with it.
- 4th edition has "thunder" damage, which is basically sonic damage with a more "fantasy appropriate" name. This change remained in 5th edition.
- Red slaadi can emit loud, resounding croaks that leave non-slaad creatures stunned.
- Emerald dragons' breath weapon is a keening wail that deals sonic damage and can deafen victims. Sapphire dragons are an odd example in that their version of this mostly inaudible, but nonetheless deals sonic damage.
- A saltor's main offensive tool is a loud screech capable of inflicting sonic damage.
- The epitome of this trope is the shout spell, with its sonic damage, deafening, and object-shattering effects... all with just one very loud noise.
- Games Workshop games:
- Warhammer and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:
- Tomb Banshees have a ghostly howl that can, depending on the game and edition, either scare mortal foes into running away, or scare them to death.
- The massive, dragon-like bats known as Terrorgheists are able to unleash a piercing Death Shriek that can kill an entire unit of knights as their blood freezes in fright.
- The roar of the wyvern-like Maw-krushas from Warhammer: Age of Sigmar is so loud that it is capable of bursting the internal organs of enemy warriors.
- Skarbrand the Bloodthirster is so deep into Unstoppable Rage that his roaring is a powerful ranged attack that can kill lesser beings that stand too close to him.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Noise Marines mostly use their Blastmasters or Sonic Blasters to tear apart enemies with The Power of Rock, but the Doom Siren weapon — appearing as either an amplifier over the mouth or a backpack-mounted mini-pipe organ — allows vocalists to get kills too.
- Slaaneshi daemons have the Warp Scream ability that paralyzes foes with fear.
- The Night Lords use deafening shrieks and cries to disorient and incapacitate their targets.
- The Loyalists may not use many sound-based weapons, but the ones they use trump the above handily: Ordinatus Mars was a Wave-Motion Gun version that shook apart an entire fortress by liquefying it and the ground under it. Ordinatus Ulator are the tiny versions of the above, which are still pretty damn huge; the sonic cannon is the only weapon worth mentioning, but thanks to the fact it pierces right through everything in a huge path and that the bigger the target hit the more damage is done to it, it's one hell of a weapon that can reduce half an army to junk and corpses in a single shot.
- Eldar Howling Banshees have amplifiers built into their helms that make their screams into effective sonic weapons.
- Warhammer and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:
- Gamma World. In 1E the Sonic Attack Ability mutation damaged all creatures within 10 meters.
- GURPS: There are weapons in GURPS: Ultra-Tech, appropriately called "screamers", that can melt a person with soundwaves.
- A Nobilis character with enough points in Aspect can (with effort) shout loud enough to kill someone, and with a little extra push, deafen entire countries.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse:
- The Gene-Bound Banshee, a minion in Voss's deck, which does, and is immune to, sonic damage.
- In the lore as revealed on The Letters Page, there's The Shrieker, who was part of the Freedom Five in the Golden Age and had sonic-based powers. In the Silver Age retool, she was forgotten about, then reemerged as the latest Glamour.
- The World of Darkness:
- Orpheus: One of the character classes is the Banshee Shade. The base skill, Wail, ranges from causing subtle changes in emotions to ripping apart someone's body and mind with a scream.
- In Vampire: The Masquerade a Daughter of Cacophony can use the bloodline-specific discipline of Melpominee to create all sorts of effects and damage through their voice. The truly damaging ones are granted at about 4 dots.
- Wraith: The Oblivion: The Keening Arcanos, practiced by the Chanteurs, ranges from emotional manipulation to rending someone's corpus with a shout.
- BIONICLE: The Makuta's "Power Scream" has enough power to shatter solid stone.
- In Ball and Chain, Lollipop Girl has this power. She channels it through sound holes (not mouths} in her hands. It is very effective
- Critical Miss: Here
, Erin accuses The Dragonborn of Scrabble Babble. Unfortunately for her, FUS RO DAH proves to be this trope instead.
- After forming the band "Facebath" in Dominic Deegan, Gregory proves he's got a voice capable of literally blowing a crowd away. So when Luna casts a spell on him to make him even louder
...the outcome is not surprising.
- In Drowtales, Bards can use magic to raise the volume of their voice to metal-concert levels. In combination with an empath plying the minds of their enemies to be suggestive, they can force entire armies to literally sit down and wait for their execution.
- Very frustrated Mikilu picks up a rock, throws it in the air and screams at it to destroy it
. It may be partially magic, as she is powerful. A mighty scream indeed.
- Very frustrated Mikilu picks up a rock, throws it in the air and screams at it to destroy it
- Vlad from El Goonish Shive had a sonic shriek.
- Gantus from Furry Fight Chronicles can bark so loud that he creates shock waves. It manages to intimidate Kalita into retreating.
- The Rumbletoys
in Girl Genius uses subsonic wave throwers to liquefy rock. It's often used for road construction purposes, but it could easily double as a siege weapon.
- This DC fan comic
from Hark! A Vagrant has Black Canary discovering the Metal Scream.
- In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Jean's shouting ability may not be literally superhuman, but it's danged impressive. Most of the local sasquatch clan are scared to death of it.
- Tsukiko in The Order of the Stick uses the spell called Shout to kill a Chlorine Elemental. It is a standard Dungeons & Dragons spell (as described in the Tabletop Gaming section).
- Related to this trope is that the druid Leeky Windstaff's walking tree minions are only vulnerable to sonic attack. Durkon uses thunder
to achieve this effect.
- Related to this trope is that the druid Leeky Windstaff's walking tree minions are only vulnerable to sonic attack. Durkon uses thunder
- In Pacificators, this is one of the two types of the power of air (the other is Blow You Away). Generally, most of users of air could do both. The people we know of who have this power are Taffe, Gincoi, and Enlil. However, they don't always attack by shouting; sometimes, clapping does the trick.
Another neat trick they can do is whisper and have it carry far.
◊
- In an interesting case of Combat Pragmatist, Taffe won against Gincoi twice because he doesn't know that she's deaf. See his shock
and confusion
when his attack failed
twice.
(The last link also contains a more typical Gale-Force Sound attack, done via voice. The last two links contains spoilers, however, so click at your own risk.)
- In an interesting case of Combat Pragmatist, Taffe won against Gincoi twice because he doesn't know that she's deaf. See his shock
- Questionable Content:
- In a side comic
, Yelling Bird hosts a New Year's Eve party at a woman's apartment (without her consent) and demands she take her pants off. When she refuses, it yells so loudly that they are torn off, shattering windows and blowing away her friend and the sofa in the process.
- Faye
is no slouch either, blasting Angus out of Coffee of Doom with a SCORN! after hearing that he had been enjoying anime with Hannelore and Marigold.
- In a side comic
- In Rusty and Co. the bard Roxanne is seen learning the Shout spell with the help of the wizard Prestige, and she later uses it to great effect against the gnoll Grinner.
- Sonar in Strong Female Protagonist has this power – it makes sense, since he looks like a human-bat hybrid.
- Alex from Superline has a sonic scream that can create earthquakes and shatter glass.
- DSBT InsaniT: Robo-Wolf can emit shockwaves by howling.
- Mahu: In "Frozen Flame" prince Arius and his fleet face sirens while exploring the seas. Some of the strongest do not only know how to charm, but also create sonic waves with their shrieks strong enough to shatter a boat and its crew, while damaging many others.
- So, you thought Octocat's droning scream at the end of Part 1 of Octocat Adventure was just random? Well, in the climax, he causes such a loud, long scream that he shatters the sky and the universe.
- The "REEEEE!!!" meme, which entails a certain frog (no, not Kermit) letting out an extended shriek of outrage, often to the point of distorting the screen. Usually used to mock the overly-sensitive (including mocking one's own overreactions).
- In The Salvation War, an angel obliterates a Russian jet fighter by yelling at it.
- SCP Foundation:
- SCP-1048 ("Builder Bear")
. One of SCP-1048's creations, SCP-1048-A (a teddy bear made out of human ears) gave off a high-pitched shriek that caused intense pain in the ears and eyes of everyone within 10 meters. All persons within five meters started growing ears all over their bodies within 20 seconds and died within three minutes.
- SCP-1420 ("Tartary Eggs")
. One of the creatures hatched from SCP-1420 could produce a sound that rendered nearby human beings unconscious. It later died from internal hemorrhaging in its throat.
- SCP-2337 ("Dr. Spanko")
does it unintentionally. His whispering sounds like someone screaming their lungs out, and when excited he starts disintegrating flesh from sheer volume; initial containment attempts were difficult because the thing's friendly greetings were interpreted as an all-out assault on the recovery team, and considering three of the team lost their eardrums from that greeting, one can't fault them.
- SCP-2424 ("Hostile Walrus Cyborg ''research ongoing''")
. The Boss Battle opponent Bruiser is stated to have a "high pitched sonic blast" that is capable of killing the character Moe the Eskimo.
- SCP-2812 ("Echoes of Yesterday")
. SCP-2812-2 are humanoid entities that operate in the area of effect around the SCP-2812-1 record player. They have a speaker cone inside their mouths that broadcasts the same music played by SCP-2812-1, but it has a stronger effect, causing cerebral hemorrhaging in living creatures.
- SCP-1048 ("Builder Bear")
- The Spiffing Brit: In his Skyrim videos he says that his character, Reanu Keeves is so powerful that he risks breaking out of the game and into reality. He advises pledging your allegiance to Reanu Keeves as it will yield benefits like not killing you with his shouting power.
- Kaya Seratin from To Welcome Oblivion can scream loud enough to shatter glass or break down concrete walls. At one point she even reduces someone to a puddle of broken bones and bloody mulch.
- In the webfiction Whateley Universe, there's an entire category of mutant superpower covering voice-related powers: the 'siren'. Different sirens can do different this with this, with a Super Scream being one of the more common effects, alongside Compelling Voice. At least one student at the Superhero School Whateley Academy, Screech, suffers from Power Incontinence similar to Black Bolt: she can't speak at all, for fear of disintegrating everything and everyone in front of her.
- In Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy, a number of students attend a 'special topics' course in Winter Term where the whole course is learning how to do more things with their Siren powers. This leads to it being shown that Screech has managed to learn some control over her powers, allowing her to speak normally again for a few moments at a time.
- Triumph from Worm can shout hard enough (and focused enough) to punch holes in concrete or blast regenerating monstrosities across the street.
- Cricket can project sound at a frequency that lets her echolocate and induce nausea in her foes.
- Shatterbird projects a combination of sound and telekinesis to control glass at tremendous ranges.
- Screamer has more general sound manipulation, which she uses to conduct psychological warfare by messing with communications, giving conflicting orders, or mimicking the voices of people the targets know, and to a more normal combat advantage by screeching very loudly.
- Jack Atlas in the one-shot Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Abridged accidentally destroyed a city by yelling into a microphone.
(flashback) Jack: Testing! Testing! One...Two...THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
(present) Yusei: Strangest part was that the mic wasn't even plugged in.

