Similarly, the Universal logo. There's just something about that fanfare... (its James Horner-penned predecessor was a pretty tune, but the Jerry Goldsmith replacement conveys "epic opener" as much as the Fox one)
To many a Batman fan who'd been skeptical of Heath Ledger as The Joker and really wanted to be proven wrong, his Evil Laugh at the end of the first The Dark Knight teaser filled their hearts with warmth as a chill traveled down their spine.
Luke Skywalker's second lightsaber makes a distinctive sound on ignition (described as "snap-hiss") that is heard nowhere else in the Star Wars galaxy.
Similarly, Darth Vader's breath mask. Even the prequels and the Narm-iestBig "NO!" in the series couldn't take away from the chill when Darth Vader takes his first tech-assisted breath.
That "powering up" sound when Han pulls on the levers and makes the Falcon jump to lightspeed never fails to send a thrill down my spine.
Similarly, the "powering down" sound that the tractor beams make when Obi Wan turns them off.
The opening fanfare. The first few notes especially. There's something about the blasting trumpets coupled with the giant STAR WARS logo that has the tendency to make one squee with delight. There's a reason that the first track on any Star Wars soundtrack CD is the 20th Century Fox fanfare..
The noises Chewbacca makes.
The sounds of the giant turbolasers mounted to the capital ships.
WHRRRRRRRRRR thunkCLANK - sound of AT-ATs walking, which is just the sound of a mechanical punch press (like those used to stamp out body panels in auto factories).
The deep, powerful chugging of Sebulba's podracer in The Phantom Menace.
To a slightly lesser degree, the sound of Slave I's laser cannons. They have a unique combination of high pitched ringing and deep bass booms.
If you grew up in the mid-'90s, and you were first introduced to Star Wars via the 1995 VHS releases, you got treated to an awesome introductory trailer—narrated by the legendary Jim Cummings—every time you popped the movies in. Cummings' whole speech is incredible—but when he says "The Force...is forever!"? Those four words can give any Star Wars fan the chills.
None other than Darth Vader's iconic breathing, returning to the big screen properly for the first time in over a decade. The sound of Vader's lightsaber igniting in the darkness (after nearly two hours of the weapon being absent from its home franchise) was also enough to invoke glee.
The sound of the turbolaser emplacement on Eadu. It really finally sounds and feels like the heavy weapon platform it is. BOOM.
The Rise of Skywalker had Palpatine'sForce Lightning attack be accompanied by an earth-shaking bass drop. Palpatine chucking around lightning is nothing new of course, but this was Force Lightning on steroids, something that this noise really helped hammer home.
The Ringwraith scream is one of the most chilling, coolest sounds ever. It's actually a slightly pitched-up recording of a shriek delivered by Peter Jackson's LOTR co-writer/co-producer and wife, Fran Walsh. As PJ tells it, he asked her if she'd like to try, and when she did, the sound guy almost fell out of his chair.note The joke at the time was that he rolled tape and told her he was going to work on a production of The Silmarillion.
Alternately, the car-stalling glub noise the Nazgûl-steed makes in its death throes.
The very voice of the Ringwraiths, especially when interrogating that farmer: "Ssshhhhiiiiire...Baaaaaggginnnnssss...."
Pretty much all the horns, but first prize goes to the horn of the Rohirrim.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.
The roar of Godzilla. "SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOONKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!"
The first sound recorded for the Big G was a bird-like chirping; used later for other monsters. Gojira's original roar is a double-bass's strings being rubbed with a leather glove covered in rosin. Slowed down and re-recorded. It has been modified to sound like speech, notably in Son of Godzilla.
The sound he makes when "charging up" his signature atomic breath.
The distinctive windup and loud crack of Indiana Jones' bullwhip, which really is the sound of Harrison Ford cracking the whip for the microphones.
Special mention goes to the “CLANG” “CLANK” of Tony building the mask of his first suit, which is heard in the main theme for Iron Man 3, and even in the very end of Avengers: Endgame as a tribute to the hero that started it all.
The Green Goblin's cackle returning for the first time in many years was seen as a highlight of the teaser. And in the movie proper, the return of the pumpkin bomb's famous dreadful beeping.
Peter-3 awkwardly greeting Ned and MJ and attempting to reassure Ned's lola...in the voice of Andrew Garfield, with his variant's trademark Motor Mouth stammer, had audiences cheering before his mask was even off.
That sort of shriek that happens in Highlander...and the occasional bits of vocalisation from Freddie Mercury in the background. I can't really write them down, but they really add to the atmosphere.
The gun sounds in Blade Runner: The Final Cut are just amazing.
While THE SOUND can never really be matched, the more complex transformation sounds in the Transformers movies are a wonderful symphony of mechanisms, with special mention being given to the "whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR" of Optimus Prime's wheels spinning into place in robot mode.
The title character in Black Dynamite is accompanied by a funky musical sting whenever he appears or does something cool: "DY-NO-MITE! DY-NO-MITE!" was practically made to become a ringtone.
The sound of the Alien Mothership starting up towards the end of District 9.
The War of the Worlds. The sounds made by the Martian war machines' weapons: the Skeleton Beam's firing and the Heat Ray's warm-up sequence and firing.
Every time a pump-action shotgun is cocked in a movie.
Hell, every time any weapon is cocked in a movie. And when a minigun is spinning up.
In the new Red Tails movie, the roar of the Rolls-Royce and Allison engines used by the American fighters, or the Daimler-Benz engines used in the German Me-109s. Rather than being the lawnmower buzz you might normally associate with a propeller plane, the sound of these engines is more like a shrieking roar.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: The four twinkly, etherial music box-esque notes that effectively constitute "Pure Imagination"'s "riff" have a surprisingly otherworldly feel to them.
Whenever the .44 Magnum fires in the Dirty Harry series. It was also used in countless other films, TV shows and videogames, but is now considered to be a stock sound effect.
Speaking of gun sounds, a few films by PM Entertainment have plenty of satisfying gun sounds, except for the stock ones.
Many of the car engine sounds from Redline, as well as the ones from 2014's Need for Speed make everyone's pulses race in pure satisfaction.
Logan: In the climax of the film Logan sets off in pursuit of the Reavers, who are in turn chasing down the escaping Transigen kids. Exhausted from the days of fighting and running, his healing factor burned out, and growing sicker day-by-day from adamantium poisoning, Logan injects the entire bottle of serum Rictor gave him. Cue a bone-chilling, animal howl as The Wolverine is fully unleashed one last time.
The new arrangement of the "Prologue" track from the original film, used to open both trailers released in 2016, can immediately tug at one's heartstrings and bring on some nostalgia.
The orchestral version of "Beauty and the Beast" from the third trailer is magnificent. The synching of the movements with the beat of the music just adds to it.
Pitch Black: The bioraptors' echolocation is oddly beautiful-sounding.
Star Trek: First Contact: the sound of quantum torpedoes firing. Listen on a good sound bar for the full effect.
. Let's hear it in THX