There’s a new trailer for the next Dune
movie. It reveals the Emperor of the Universe, Shaddam Corrino. It shows surprising tensions
between Chani and Paul. And it explores the story’s theme of political and religious
messiahs. So what happens in the trailer, and how does it compare to the
Dune book? This video has no big spoilers for the movie – just some background
information to prepare us for Dune Part Two. The trailer begins with the sun and moons
of Arrakis. This sun is called Canopus, which is a real star – it’s the second-brightest
star in Earth’s night sky, so Canopus has mythic significance in many real-world cultures, and
is referenced in many other sci fi stories. Arrakis has two moons, and the larger moon has a
shape on it that looks like a human hand. While the smaller moon has a shape that looks like
a kind of kangaroo-mouse found on Arrakis, called Muad’Dib. We saw the Muad’Dib mouse
three times in the first movie. The Fremen admire Muad’Dib for its ability to survive in the
desert. So there’s a constellation named after the mouse that points north – Muad’Dib is a guide
to the Fremen. And as we see in this trailer, Paul takes Muad’Dib as his name, as he too
becomes a guide and a leader to the Fremen. Paul says “This world is beyond cruelty”. The
environment of Arrakis is harsh, so to survive, the Fremen learned to withstand suffering, and to
make “brutal judgments” . Like in the first movie when the Fremen were gonna kill Paul and Jessica
to take their water . In the desert, brutality and suffering aren’t good or bad, they’re not
cruel, they are just.. necessary to survive – so in that sense, Arrakis is “beyond cruelty”.
We see Paul’s hand on the sand, which is just like a vision Paul had in the first movie.
Dune explores how people change environments, and how environments change people. So how
will this harsh environment change Paul? We see a Harkonnen gunship firing, maybe attacking
some Fremen. The ships in these movies have organic, curving shapes inspired by nature – like,
this ship was based on the shape of an armadillo. This harvester looks like a sinister squid or
spider. This gunship was inspired by bubonic plague infections, and gangrenous tumors,
as though the Harkonnens are a sickness, an infection on this land. Director Denis
Villeneuve calls the Harkonnens “invaders”, “colonizers”, and “predators”. The bulging
shape of the hovering gunship also looks like the fat levitating Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
We see the Baron and Beast Rabban with a Harkonnen army. There’s more sinister, hungry-looking
Harkonnen architecture behind them, reminiscent of the old H.R. Giger Dune concept art. This place
might be Carthag, the Harkonnen city on Arrakis, which is 200km from Arrakeen, the smaller older
city where the Atreides settled. it looks like the Baron has some.. floating globes attached to
him – maybe this is a medical device, like a sci fi IV drip, cause remember the Baron was poisoned
in the first movie, maybe he’s still recovering. In the first movie, the Baron told Rabban
to kill all the Fremen – maybe that’s what this army is for. But killing all Fremen won’t
be easy – we learned in the first movie that the Fremen are much more numerous and more
powerful than the Harkonnens realise . And now Paul and Jessica have joined the Fremen.
Paul says the Fremen have fought the Harkonnens for decades – because the Harkonnens ruled
Arrakis for eighty years before the Atreides took over. But the Atreides have fought Harkonnens
for centuries. Cause these two families have hated each other for ten thousand years, ever since
the Battle of Corrin. This battle is when House Corrino rose to power – the ancestors of the
Emperor Shaddam and Princess Irulan established their empire. And after this battle, an Atreides
got a Harkonnen banished for cowardice, starting a blood feud that continues to this day. The
Baron wants to finally win this ancient conflict by exterminating the Atreides. He also wants to
cover up that the Emperor helped the Harkonnens with his Sardaukar soldiers – cause if the other
houses find out that the Emperor helped attack the Atreides, the houses would all turn against
Shaddam . So that might be why the Harkonnens burn all these corpses, destroying the evidence.
We see Paul reflecting on the death of his father Leto. Paul now has Leto’s ducal
signet ring. Because in the first movie, Yueh took this ring from Leto, and got it to
Paul. Cause the ring represents the leadership of House Atreides. With Leto dead, Paul is now
the Duke, and the ten thousand year Atreides dynasty is now his responsibility. Can he
defeat the enemies who killed his father? We see a religious painting of Leto. Cause
the prophecy of the Lisan al-Gaib, or Madhi, suggests that Paul is a messiah who will save
the Fremen , and Paul’s parents Leto and Jessica are also considered sacred. In the book, Paul has
visions of a shrine with his father’s skull – and you can see the teeth of Leto’s skull atop the
shrine here. And in the visions, this skull shrine feeds the wild fanaticism of a holy war .
So Paul’s parents are not just important to Paul personally, his family has profound religious and
political significance to the fate of this planet. We see a fight scene where Paul and Chani
wait to ambush some Harkonnen soldiers in the desert. Paul grabs an enemy sword
and kills a Harkonnen with a *cool spin move*. Jessica kills a Harkonnen with a rock.
We also see this huge battle, with Chani fighting against the Emperor’s Sardaukar. This shot looks
like a vision Paul had in the first movie, of himself fighting Sardaukar. We see Paul shouting
Chani’s name – he looks distressed to see his love Chani swept up in the violence that he foresaw.
In the book, we don’t see Paul or Jessica or Chani fighting random soldiers. We do hear about some
fights and battles that happen off-screen – like, it’s mentioned that Paul goes on raids with the
Fremen , and Chani has a badass moment. But we don’t see these fights happen in the book.
Because the book is focussed on thoughts, conversations, visions, plans, and politics. The
book is less about sword fights, and more about battles of the mind. Of course, it’s difficult
to show thoughts on a screen – and that’s why Dune is so hard to adapt into a movie. So Dune
Part Two adds new fight scenes and explosions, to make this an “action-packed” “war movie”,
a visual spectacle. But hopefully it won’t lose the thoughtful tone, and the meaning of
the book – cause Dune is not about violence, Dune is about the power of the mind.
In the trailer, Paul and Chani attack a spice harvester. Maybe they’re
disrupting Harkonnen spice mining, like at the start of the first movie.
Chani uses a big weapon to blow up an ornithopter, which is similar to a bit in the book – Paul
gives the Fremen rockets to use against enemy aircraft. You can see this explosion contained
within the thopter’s shield for a moment. Maybe this weapon shoots a slow projectile that
can pass through a shield before exploding, like the slow bombs we saw in the first movie.
We see Fremen climbing under the spice harvester, maybe to plant explosives, or steal spice. Paul
jumps onto Chani, maybe to protect her from that gun we saw in the first trailer. Remember, in
the Dune universe, people usually don’t use guns, because most soldiers have shields that block
bullets, making guns useless. But Fremen don’t use shields, because on Arrakis, shields attract
sandworms, and shields are often disabled by electrical storms. So in the book, the Harkonnens
realise that since Fremen don’t use shields, they can use guns and lasguns against them . But
the Fremen also have their own advantage – like, they know this land, and can use
guerilla tactics against the Harkonnens, striking then disappearing into hidden caves
. And the Fremen now have Paul on their side. In the trailer, a Fremen tells Paul
“You're not welcome here”. Cause there are many different Fremen tribes on
Arrakis. Stilgar’s group may accept Paul, but other Fremen may not. The Dune books explore
some unusual and extreme Fremen subcultures, like the legendary Iduali of Jacurutu . So how will
Paul and Chani deal with Fremen who oppose him? Chani goes to translate the Fremen’s words, but
Paul interrupts and says he already understands, thanks. It’s a moment of sarcastic dry
humour from Paul. Cause in the book, Paul is usually serious, stressed, haunted by
visions, high on spice, walking a tightrope through a political and religious storm. But
it looks like this movie tries to humanise Paul with some more light-hearted dialogue.
In the trailer, Paul reunites with Gurney – Paul and Gurney are close friends in the book. In the
first movie, it seems like Duncan is Paul’s best friend, but in the book, Gurney is his favourite.
Gurney now has longer hair, and Paul has blue eyes, which is caused by exposure to spice
over time. So it looks like months or years have passed. Paul and Gurney have both struggled
to survive on this alien world separate from their friends and familiar faces, so it’s emotional
when these guys reunite. After their time apart, Paul and Gurney are confronted by how much
they’ve both changed . This reunion is also a nice scene in the 80s David Lynch Dune
movie, with Gurney played by Patrick Stewart. Later, we see Gurney facing Beast Rabban. Gurney
was once a slave of the Harkonnens – Rabban destroyed Gurney’s family, and gave Gurney the
scar on his face, so Gurney wants revenge . The Dune book never tells us exactly what happens
to Beast Rabban in the end . But it looks like the movie might give us a dramatic clash
between these old enemies. This could be a good opportunity to show off Gurney’s fighting
skills, because in the book, Gurney is one of the most skilled warriors in the universe .
It also looks like Paul faces Rabban at one point. So there’s a bunch of new Rabban stuff in this
movie, and Rabban does not look ready. Director Villeneuve say “there’s something touching about
Rabban”, he wants to please the Baron, but he’s “not very intelligent”, he doesn’t have the brain
for this war. That said, there are hints in the book that Rabban may be smarter than he seems,
so they might also play with that in the movie. Stilgar is in charge of a group of Fremen,
he’s the naib of Sietch Tabr . He is a strong, intelligent , leader. But now he’s becoming a
follower of Paul. In the trailer, Jessica asks “Do you believe in Paul?”, and Stilgar says “There
are signs”. Stilgar is impressed that Paul rides this huge sandworm. And that Paul killed Jamis in
the first movie. In the trailer, he raises a knife for Paul fanatically. And says “I don't care what
you believe! I believe”. It looks like Stilgar believes that Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib, the
prophesied leader who will save the Fremen . And we see strength and passion in Stilgar’s faith.
But it’s also kinda tragic and wrong. Because the Lisan al-Gaib prophecy was made up by the Bene
Gesserit to manipulate the Fremen. Paul says it’s “not a prophecy”, just a “story”. Jessica says it
gives the Fremen hope, but Paul says “That's not hope”. Paul does have real power, he has visions,
he may be the Kwisatz Haderach gigabrain from the Bene Gesserit breeding program, but the prophecy
of him saving the Fremen is a lie. Dune explores what it means to believe, the impact of religion
on cultures and on people . So how will faith change Stilgar and his relationship with Paul?
Gurney says it’s good that the Fremen think Paul is a messiah. He says to use
that power. But Paul is reluctant, because he has visions of a terrible holy war –
an unstoppable tide of violence sweeping across the universe with him at its centre. Gurney says
Paul is scared of losing control. But Paul says he’s scared of gaining control – Paul worries that
his choices could bring disaster . And it’s hard, cause Paul’s visions are uncertain, they’re always
changing and shifting. Like, in the first movie, Paul had a vision of Jamis being his friend, and
a vision of Chani stabbing Paul, and those things didn’t happen – Paul’s visions don’t always come
true, they’re just “possible futures” . So in the book, Paul is haunted by these terrible
visions, trying to use them to survive, but also trying to prevent the holy war . You can
see the visions in Dune as a metaphor for our own hopes and fears, plans and predictions. There are
dangers in trying to make our dreams come true. Paul asks if Chani believes in him. Cause when
Paul plays the role of a leader and messiah to the Fremen, Chani looks angry. Chani says “This
prophecy is how they enslave us”. She sees the truth, that the prophecy is a lie meant to
exploit the Fremen. And Chani says she’s not fighting for Paul, she fights for her people.
And this is a change from the book. In the book, Chani doesn’t question the prophecy, she’s a
mostly passive character who just supports Paul. The book does explore how wrong it is that the
Atreides use prophecy to manipulate the Fremen, but that’s mostly done through the thoughts
of Paul and Jessica . It looks like the movie makes this theme more explicit by having Chani
loudly reject the exploitation of her people. But at the same time that she criticises Muad’Dib
the messiah, Chani loves Paul. Paul says “I will love you as long as I breathe”, and Paul and
Chani cry together. Crying is a powerful sacred act to the Fremen, because crying wastes moisture,
when Fremen culture is about conserving moisture. Crying is called “Giving water to the dead”.
So this an intense emotional scene. Paul says “I will do what must be done” – what terrible
choices or sacrifices must he make that he and Chani weep for the dead? And how will they resolve
the tension of Chani opposing Paul’s religion? How does it feel when your boyfriend is space Jesus?
There’s also a shot of Chani thumping the ground with her fist – it’s like in the first movie when
Kynes thumps the ground to attract a sandworm. We see visions of Paul’s mother Jessica. If Paul
is the messiah, what is her destiny? Director Villeneuve says Jessica “lost everything”. She’s
still grieving the death of her partner Leto, and the loss of her home on Caladan. But she’s
also carrying new life – remember Jessica is pregnant – Paul had a vision of her baby in the
first movie. So Jessica struggles to adapt to Arrakis, but she focusses on protecting her son
and unborn child. In the book she believes they must use the Fremen to secure her family’s future
. So we see more of this ritual, with this liquid, the Water of Life. We see Jessica gasp, with
blue eyes, and see this old Fremen woman, Ramallo. This is called the Ceremony of the Seed
– it’s one of the great Fremen mysteries, and it is transformative – what will Jessica become?
Then we see the Padishah Emperor of the Universe, Shaddam Corrino, played by Christopher Walken.
Twenty years ago, Walken was in a music video that referenced Dune – the lyrics “Walk
without rhythm and it won't attract the worm” refers to Dune’s sand walk. So it’s
funny that now, Walken’s in a Dune movie. In all the big Dune adaptations, the Emperor is
played by older men. But that’s not how he looks in the book. In the book, Shaddam is seventy-two
years old, but he looks like he’s thirty-five – presumably cause Shaddam takes spice, cause
spice extends your life, makes you live longer, and look younger. In the book, Shaddam is slim and
elegant, with a thin face and cold eyes, and he has red hair. Apart from the hair, Shaddam looks
a lot like Paul’s father Leto, because they’re cousins – the Atreides and Corrinos are related.
Leto has dark olive skin in the book , and Shaddam’s grandson is “saturnine”, so Shaddam
probably also has dark olive skin in the book. So Christopher Walken does not look like the 35
year old dark-skinned red head described in the book. But what his personality? Who is Shaddam?
As the Emperor of the Universe, Shaddam appears to be the most powerful man alive. In the book
he wears military Sardaukar uniforms to show his strength. He acts confident, arrogant, wrathful
and demanding, like a man who must be obeyed. But Shaddam is not as powerful he seems.
Cause the Emperor’s power is limited by the Bene Gesserit. Shaddam’s wife Anirul is
a Bene Gesserit, all his children are Bene Gesserit trained. And the Bene Gesserit control
Shaddam’s reproduction – they don’t let him have a son. The Bene Gesserit plan to put a Bene
Gesserit on the throne after Shaddam. And the Spacing Guild also have influence on Shaddam.
So while Shaddam acts like he’s all-powerful, he doesn’t have control of his succession, or
over his own reproduction. Irulan writes “he was a man fighting constantly to escape the bars of an
invisible cage”. So all Shaddam’s pretentions to power, the pomp and pride and fury, is impotent,
and pathetic. You get a sense of that helplessness from Shaddam’s slumped posture in the trailer
here. He and his daughter Irulan play a board game with little pyramids. [like a mashup of
chess and go and Cones of Dunshire]. The Dune book mentions a game called “pyramid chess”, or
“cheops”, named after the real Egyptian pharaoh who built the great Giza pyramid. Pyramid chess
is a “nine-level” game about putting the king in check and putting the queen at the apex. Which
is a nice metaphor for Shaddam – Shaddam is like a king in chess, because he’s not a powerful
piece – it’s the queen, the Bene Gesserits, who have the real power. So we might imagine that
Irulan is winning this game against her father. They play in a beautiful sunlit garden.
This is probably the Corrino planet, Kaitan. This comfortable leafy environment is
a contrast to the harsh deserts of Arrakis. To the Fremen, this garden would be
an unimaginable luxury, a paradise. In the book, Shaddam indulges in the “pomp”
and opulence of court – he flaunts his wealth with useless luxury and fancy events . He sits
a massive throne carved of fiery quartz from the “Jewel Planet”. And this luxury is important,
because the book explores how indulgence can make you weak. The 1984 Dune movie captured
this opulence well, but in this new trailer, we don’t see any opulence – Shaddam and his
attendants wear simple plain clothes. Hopefully other scenes will rizz up Shaddam’s drip.
In the trailer, Irulan tells Shaddam that Paul is still alive. And Shaddam says to
“Deal with this prophet”, which perhaps leads to Irulan’s investigation plotline
hinted in the first trailer. None of that’s in the book – it looks like the movie creates
new scenes to explore Shaddam and Irulan more. In the trailer, Shaddam says Paul’s father
Leto was “weak”. Which is odd. Because Shaddam attacked Leto because he was worried about Leto’s
strength. The book says that Shaddam feared Leto. And also respected him. Shaddam wished that Leto
had married his daughter Irulan, he wished Leto could’ve been his son-in-law. So when Shaddam
calls Leto weak, maybe he just says that out of spite and envy and frustration, projecting his
own weakness onto Leto. Shaddam is a complex character, a man of terrible wrath and superficial
charm and sad impotence. Hopefully Christopher Walken captures these layers to Emperor Shaddam.
At the end of the trailer, we see this reflective spherical orb, which looks like the Imperial
spaceship in the first Dune movie. This orb may be Shaddam’s ship – and the structure beneath it is
this metal tent glimpsed in the big battle scene. We see more of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen fighting in
an arena. We see Feyd’s two blades – in the book, Feyd has a black glove holding a long
knife, and a white glove holding a short poisoned knife. It’s surprising that
Villeneuve didn’t include that black-and-white imagery in this black-and-white scene.
But the Baron looks down on his nephew Feyd and says “Show me who you are”. Cause the fights
in Dune are all about revealing your potential through focus and challenge. What is Feyd capable
of? And what are the Baron’s plans for Feyd? We see Feyd fighting Paul – another
black-and-white duality between a Harkonnen beast and a mindful Atreides. This shot of Feyd
raising his knife matches the shot of Paul raising his knife. In some ways, Feyd and Paul are alike
– they are both the young heirs to ancient houses. And they both are products of the Bene Gesserit
breeding program. In the book, the Bene Gesserit planned for Jessica to have a daughter not a
son, and that daughter was going to marry Feyd, and their child together was meant to be the
super-powerful Kwisatz Haderach. But instead, Jessica had a son, and now that son is fighting
the man who he was kinda meant to marry. >Which is a disaster for the Bene Gesserit plan. What
happens these two powerful opposites clash? Feyd’s knife at Paul’s face looks like the gom
jabbar and the hunter-seeker at Paul’s face – a deadly challenge. We see Paul thump his chest
with his fist, like how Jamis thumped his fist – Paul remembers the lessons of the Fremen.
In the trailer, Paul raises his knife to a huge crowd of Fremen. And he shouts “Long live the
fighters”. He says this in the Fremen language that was invented for these movies by David J.
Peterson. >Peterson also created the Valyrian and Dothraki languages for Game of Thrones. But in the
Dune book, these words are different – the phrase meaning “Long live the fighters”, is “Ya hya
chouhada”, which is loosely based on real Arabic. The author Frank Herbert seems to have got this
phrase from a 1961 article about the Algerian War, when Algeria won independence from the French. The
article describes a leader raising a hand over a crowd, and they roar “Ya Hya Chouhada”, which
the article says is Arabic for “long live the fighters”. The Dune book, published just a few
years later, has a very similar scene – Stilgar raises a knife over a crowd, and they roar
“Ya hya chouhada”. >Frank even uses the same words as the article – “throng” and “roar”. This
translation and anglicisation of the Arabic is not very accurate, but the point is that this
line in the book is inspired by real Arabic, and by a real war between Muslim freedom fighters
and European colonists, which has similarities to the Fremen fighting the Harkonnens. Frank was also
inspired by a book about Muslims in the Caucasus fighting the Russian Empire. And by Lawrence
of Arabia with the Bedouin. Frank drew from many different Arabic, North African, and Islamic
cultures to create the Fremen, and the Dune book makes this explicit in their language. The Fremen
use lots of Arabic and Islamic terms including Ramadan , “bourkas”, sharia , and the hajj .
The new movies include some Arabic words – like, Lisan al-gaib, Shai-Hulud, Madhi, and Muad’Dib
are all loosely based on Arabic . But the movies also make changes to remove Arabic words.
Like, in the book, Paul has visions of a jihad – but the movies just call this “holy war”.
Changing the words for “long live the fighters” is another example of these movies removing and
minimising the Arabic and Islamic roots of Dune. So Dune Part Two makes changes from the book.
It adds more fight scenes and explosions. It adds new scenes with Irulan and Shaddam, and
Rabban. And creates a tension between Chani and Paul. But this trailer does focus on the central
theme of the book – the danger of political and religious messiahs – so hopefully this movie
will capture the heart and meaning of Dune. We’ll make more Dune videos after
the new movie comes out. For now, we’re working on a big video about Jon
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