The Foley Stage is used to record sounds that directly relate to actor moves, and have to synchronise exactly with action (e.g. footsteps, fight sounds, falls etc.)
However, many other sounds are used to make up the soundtrack of a movie. As technology has improved, the quality and density of the soundtrack has increased rapidly. Many thousands of pre-recorded sounds are available to editors now, but in times past, there was a much smaller range. Many of those sounds are familiar to movie audiences the world over:
Castle Thunder was originally recorded for Frankenstein in 1931, and until the advent of digital recording in the 1980s was more often than not used as a thunderclap in movies.
More about Castle Thunder
The Universal Telephone Ring was heard throughout the 1970s and 1980s in every office scene in (almost) every Universal TV series. It was most famously heard in the title sequence of each Rockford Files episode.
More about the Universal Telephone Ring
The Wilhelm Scream has been heard in films as diverse as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Toy Story and was first recorded in 1953 for a man being killed by alligators.
More about the Wilhelm Scream and it's history
