Here’s What You Missed Last Time on Dune

Dune came out in 2021. Can you believe that? Two and a half years ago? The world was totally different; no one knew about pink sauce yet and Queen Elizabeth was still alive. When Part Two’s autumn release got pushed to this spring during the joint SAG-WGA strike last summer, the message was clear: it would take a lot of work to remember what happened during a movie that came out two and a half years ago. While you might have two and a half hours to set aside to rewatch Dune prior to seeing the sequel, you also might use that time to watch that new Kate Winslet HBO Max show this weekend instead. In case you’re inclined to do the latter, here’s a brief catch-up on all the big plot points from Dune.

Do I need to rewatch the first Dune ahead of seeing Dune: Part Two?
That seems like a real case-by-case basis. What do you remember about the first one?

The sand worms, mostly.
Okay, well, that’s plenty. It seems like the sand worms are going to be a big part of the new movie, if the AMC buckets are to be believed.

And Timothée Chalamet is going off to train one of the worms?
Kind of. Dune: Part One ends with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) going off into the desert with the Fremen, the indigenous people of Arrakis. That’s, the spice-rich planet where the brutish and cruel Harkonnens previously ruled and are threatening to take control once again.

“The Fremen” means Zendaya.
Right — Zendaya plays Chani, a Fremen fighter who Paul has been having visions of in his sleep. There’s also Stilgar (Javier Bardem), the leader of a particular Fremen tribe known as the Sietch Tabr. The Fremen have hesitantly taken Paul and Jessica with them after Paul won a challenge to the death against a Fremen warrior named Jamis. Stilgar and certain of his followers believe the Fremen will take back control of their own planet under the leadership of a messiah who is the son of a Bene Gesserit (more on them shortly), as Paul just so happens to be.

Why do the Fremen take them in? Didn’t Paul’s family conquer their planet?
Sort of — Arrakis was previously controlled by the Harkonnens, who mined spice, the sparkly stuff you see in the sand on that planet. It’s a psychotropic substance that is also used in interstellar travel, like if you put LSD into your car, or something. The Fremen have long existed in conflict with whoever is colonizing their planet, but the Harkonnen years were particularly bad. The inciting incident in Dune: Part One is that the Padishah Emperor (of space) takes Arrakis away from the Harkonnens and gives it to the Atreides. Paul’s father Leto (Oscar Isaac) was determined to patch the relationship between the Fremen and the Atreides, which would help the Atreides to harness desert power.

I remember when Oscar Isaac was doing a triangle hypotenuse in a chair.
Right, during the siege in Dune: Part One, the Harkonnens paralyzed Leto with the intent of trading him for Jessica, as she is more valuable, powerful, and a member of the Bene Gesserit, a witch-like, possibly psychic sisterhood (compared to Leto who is basically, like, just a guy). Luckily, Leto has a poison capsule in his tooth that he cracks down on. As you’ll recall, I’m sure, it poisons Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and while he doesn’t die, his troops later find him floating on the ceiling.

Oh, yeah. How did he get up there?
I don’t know — it looked really cool, though!

Why is Jessica always making Paul use “the Voice”? Did putting his hand in the box have something to do with that? 
Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit who broke away from her sisterhood to be Leto’s concubine (their word, not mine). One of the skills of the Bene Gesserit is using “the Voice,” a tone of speech that can force the listener to obey. Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) gives Paul a test in which he has to keep his hand in a box no matter how much pain it inflicts. She promises to kill him if he removes his hand. Paul passes the test, meaning he can go ahead with his continued Voice training, even if the Bene Gesserit still aren’t happy that Jessica and Leto are together.

What was up with this guy I see memes of on Twitter sometimes?

That’s one of the Sardaukar, the emperor’s army, who join up with the Harkonnens to take back Arrakis.

I don’t get why the emperor would take Arrakis away from the Harkonnens to give to the Atreides if the Harkonnens were just going to join up with the emperor’s elite army to take the planet back.
Yeah, it’s sort of a muddle, but if you’re the emperor, you want the various parties and houses that make up your world(s) to be in conflict with each other, rather than you. Maintaining consistent war and rivalries between the houses keeps the emperor’s power intact. That’s part of why it feels so important that Paul wants to work with, rather than against the Fremen.

And Jason Momoa is Duncan Idaho?
Yes. Duncan, the swordmaster and Paul’s BFF is, as far as we know, dead — killed by the Sardaukar (that’s the emperor’s army) at the end of Part One.

What about Josh Brolin?
We last saw Paul’s mentor Gurney going into battle during the Harkonnen siege on the planet. While his fate is supposedly unknown, Brolin has been a significant part of Part Two’s press tour and appears in the extended trailer that aired in front of the Tenet re-release, so it’s safe to say that Gurney will be back.

What was up with that spider thing?
Just a one-off, I fear. The spider is not going to war against the worms.

I feel like there’s more I’m missing. The guy from Lady Bird doing math in his head, Charlotte Rampling’s scary outfit…
You have the gist of it, which is that Paul is hoping to reclaim Arrakis from the Harkonnens and overpower the emperor by teaming up with the Fremen. Is he just another colonizer? Will he one day ride a worm? Is Duncan Idaho alive? Who is Anya Taylor-Joy playing? All of that will play a big part when you see Dune: Part Two, which you’re now caught up enough to sit through comfortably.

They should make Oscar Isaac sit in the chair like that again.
I agree.

Fran Hoepfner , 2024-03-01 00:00:20

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