Dune: Part Two is here! After an extended waiting period (due to the Date“>dual SAG and WGA strikes) and a skillfully constructed promotional campaign that included gorgeous first look photos, teasers, and a jaw-dropping fashion show extravaganza of a promotional tour, the next chapter of Denis Villeneuve’s sweeping sci-fi epic is finally in theaters.
While many of the excited Dune fans I know have rewatched Villeneuve’s Part One and/or reread Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel in preparation for Part Two, I, Kara Warner, took a different approach: I went in blind. In other words, I did not see Part One and have not read Herbert’s novels—not because I had some master plan, but because I missed Part One’s theatrical release and did not want to watch it on my 42″ TV screen.
I had a very fine time watching Part Two: The visuals are as stunning as I expected, and the cast absolutely delivered. But I was left with a few questions about the characters, their world, planets, politics, breathing mechanisms, and why Timothée Chalamet’s character has so many names. For fun, I sent the list to my colleague Anthony Breznican, our resident Dune expert. Because Anthony is always game and legitimately helpful, he tackled even the silliest ones with aplomb and this caveat: “I knew how to answer most of these questions. Some I had to look up, and others…I just made up.” Please enjoy our Dune Q&A below. Oh, and in case you need the warning: The first part contains major spoilers for Dune. The second part contains major spoilers for Dune Part Two.
PART ONE
Where/when are we in time here?
It’s a little vague, but Dune is set thousands and thousands of years from now, when human beings have long since ventured out to colonize distant planets. It’s so far away that what we would consider the distant future is actually the very ancient past to the characters of Dune.
What galaxy is this?
It’s ours—I think. The glossary for the Frank Herbert novel says the desert world Arrakis is “the third planet of Canopus,” which is a star in our own Milky Way. It’s actually known as the second brightest star in the night sky, located at a distance of about 310 light-years, and visible only at southern latitudes. The 1899 book Star-Names and Their Meaning by astronomer Richard Hinckley Allen says the probable origin of the word Canopus is an ancient Egyptian phrase for “golden earth”—which is either a brilliant connection made by Herbert or an interesting coincidence given the nature of Arrakis.
What the heck is “spice”?
It’s this ultra-rare mineral found only on Arrakis that is kind of like meth or LSD—but also can extend your life and expand your mind. Effective deep space travel is only possible in Dune because of pilots whose mental capacity is magnified by spice. Everyone needs it, so everyone is fighting over it. Exposure to it will make your eyes turn bright blue.
What planet is Timmy from, and how did they get to this sandy one?
Chalamet’s Paul Atreides is from a royal family led by Duke Atreides (Oscar Isaac, whose character was killed in the first movie) that starts out on the planet Caladan, which has huge oceans and a Scandinavian-type climate. House Atreides was sent to the desert world Arrakis by the Emperor (played by Christopher Walken in Part Two) to oversee the spice mining operations.
How do you become Emperor of this wild world?
You send in a lot of UPC symbols cut out from cereal box tops. Or you could be the 10th caller in a radio sweepstakes.
Wait, who are these Bene Gesserit sisters? Secret world rulers?
Exactly. Secret galaxy rulers who have woven themselves into the power structure (like Rebecca Ferguson’s character becoming involved with Oscar Isaac’s Duke Atreides) in order to shift things their way. They are patient ladies. The order has been manipulating society for hundreds of years in order to engineer their desired outcomes. One of those outcomes is the “chosen one,” embodied by Chalamet. The Bene Gesserit are all about prophecy—especially the self-fulfilling kind.
What the heck are the rules of the sandworms? Sometimes you walk-dance to avoid being swallowed, but sometimes you don’t?
The sandworms seek out rhythmic pulses, so you do that little shuffle to distract them. To a sandworm, steady footsteps are like blood in the water for a shark. But if you’re standing on solid rock, you don’t have to worry about your footsteps, since the sandworms can’t get you there. Sometimes the humans neglect to do the dance out in the sand because they’re in a hurry, but that means they need to move extra fast, because the sandworms will show up lickety-split.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures