Ben Burtt created the iconic, terrifying screech of the Star Wars TIE fighters by combining the vocalizations of a highly agitated elephant with the sound of cars driving on a wet pavement.

A closer look

Ben Burtt created the iconic, terrifying screech of the Star Wars TIE fighters by combining the vocalizations of a highly agitated elephant with the sound of cars driving on a wet pavement. When George Lucas needed a menacing noise for the evil empire's disposable space jalopies, his sound designer literally just went to a zoo, annoyed a giant mammal, and mixed it with traffic noise. It is profoundly hilarious that the entire Galactic Empire's signature vehicle of total domination sounds exactly like an angry Dumbo mixed with an aggressive Tuesday morning commute in Seattle. Generations of nerds have spent decades obsessing over the fictional twin ion engine schematics in expanded universe encyclopedias, completely unaware that the harrowing sound of impending doom they were worshipping was just a grumpy elephant named Tanya screaming because someone was probably withholding her peanuts