Wicked’s Emotional Finale Features A Hidden Fortnite Sound Effect

Fans of Wicked certainly felt a stirring when the film finally got to the musical’s best-known song, Defying Gravity, but they probably didn’t notice the subtle Fortnite sound effect during its final sequence. That’s right: Some of the sounds of Elphaba flying in the final sequence are straight from your nephew’s favorite battle royale game.

Per Eurogamer, you can see this unlikely detail in a video from the Rough Cut that features Wicked editor Myron Kerstein breaking down the complex final scene of the film, which features a wild mix of visual effects along with the music. At around the 7:20 mark in the video, you can see “All Skydiving Fly Sounds (Fortnite) – Sound effects for editing” right in the middle of the editing timeline.

This is the sound effect that plays when you jump out of the Battle Bus and shoot towards the ground. Fortnite developer Epic Games released the sound as a royalty-free library sample, and it seems that Kerstein used it to full effect. The Rough Cut video is quite an interesting watch if you’re interested in film production or just curious about the amount of work that goes into even a relatively short scene in a big film like Wicked.

Artists aren’t shy about using samples, whether that’s in video games, movies, or even music, and you can find lengthy YouTube videos that investigate the origin of these audio clips. For example, here’s a 25-minute video exploring the sources for the music of the Spyro series. In other Wicked news, the hit film got a Lego set and other merch that’s definitely worth checking out.