Dune (2021)
Far in humanity’s distant future, where noble houses rule star systems like feudal kingdoms and interstellar politics are more dangerous than open war, House Atreides is handed both an honor and a death sentence. Duke Leto Atreides, respected across the Imperium for his integrity, leadership, and the fierce loyalty he inspires, is commanded by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to take control of Arrakis — the most valuable planet in existence. The desert world, known to outsiders as Dune, is the only source of mélange, or “spice,” a rare geriatric drug that extends life, sharpens awareness, and, most importantly, grants the Spacing Guild Navigators limited prescience. Without spice, safe faster-than-light travel would be impossible, and civilization itself would fracture.
Arrakis had long been ruled with brutal efficiency by House Harkonnen under the grotesque and cunning Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Their sudden removal and the Emperor’s gift of the fief to Leto appears generous, but the Duke immediately recognizes the trap. Control of spice means influence rivaling the Emperor himself, and Leto’s growing popularity among the Great Houses has made him a threat. Still, refusing the assignment would show weakness. Leto resolves to accept, hoping to outmaneuver the danger by forging an alliance with Arrakis’ mysterious and resilient native people: the Fremen.
At his side is his concubine, Lady Jessica, a member of the secretive Bene Gesserit sisterhood. Their order has spent centuries manipulating bloodlines in pursuit of a prophesied superbeing, the Kwisatz Haderach — a male Bene Gesserit with access to both male and female ancestral memory and unparalleled foresight. Jessica was ordered to bear Leto a daughter, whose son would fulfill that destiny. Out of love for the Duke, she defied them and gave birth to a son: Paul Atreides.
Paul grows up under intense and varied training. Swordmaster Duncan Idaho teaches him combat. Gurney Halleck tempers discipline with music and loyalty. Thufir Hawat, the human computer known as a Mentat, schools him in logic and strategy. Even Dr. Wellington Yueh, the Suk physician conditioned to be incapable of betrayal, tends to his education. From Jessica, Paul learns Bene Gesserit techniques — voice control, heightened perception, and mental discipline. Yet Paul is troubled by increasingly vivid visions of possible futures, many filled with violence carried out in his name.
Before the Atreides depart for Arrakis, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, both Bene Gesserit and Imperial Truthsayer, tests Paul with the gom jabbar — a needle tipped with deadly poison. His hand is placed in a box that induces excruciating nerve pain. If he withdraws it, she will kill him. The test separates human self-control from animal instinct. Paul endures, proving he may be more than anyone suspected.
House Atreides arrives in Arrakeen, the planet’s capital, inheriting a sabotaged infrastructure and hidden dangers. Duncan Idaho has already made contact with the Fremen and reports that they are far more numerous and capable than the Imperium believes. The Fremen show strange reverence toward Jessica and Paul. Jessica realizes the Bene Gesserit’s Missionaria Protectiva planted religious myths here generations ago — prophecies meant to protect any sister who might need refuge. Paul is beginning to fit those legends.
Life on Arrakis revolves around spice harvesting, an operation constantly threatened by colossal sandworms that sense vibrations and can swallow machines whole. Personal shields are avoided in the desert; they drive worms into a frenzy. During a flight over the dunes, Leto and Paul rescue a stranded crew just before a worm devours their harvester. The experience, combined with airborne spice, overwhelms Paul with intense prescient visions — branching futures, holy war, and oceans of blood spreading across the stars.
The trap soon snaps shut. On the Harkonnen homeworld, the Baron conspires with the Emperor. Sardaukar — the Emperor’s terrifying elite soldiers — will secretly join the Harkonnen assault, disguised to hide imperial involvement. One condition, pressed by the Bene Gesserit, is that Jessica and Paul be spared. The Baron agrees, with no intention of honoring it.
Betrayal comes from the unthinkable source: Dr. Yueh. His Suk conditioning was broken through torture of his wife. Desperate to free her, he disables Arrakeen’s shields, allowing enemy forces to storm the city. He incapacitates Leto but leaves him a final weapon — a false tooth filled with poison gas, meant to kill the Baron at close range.
Captured and presented before his enemy, Leto bites down, releasing the gas. He dies, along with the Baron’s twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries. The Baron survives, shielded at the last second. Yueh, double-crossed and killed, has nonetheless given Jessica and Paul a chance: they are abandoned in the deep desert with a fremkit — survival gear.
Taken prisoner by Harkonnen troops, Jessica uses the Bene Gesserit Voice to force them to free her. She and Paul escape into the dunes. That night, surrounded by spice-saturated sands, Paul’s visions intensify. He sees a galaxy-wide jihad fought by warriors bearing his banner, and he is horrified.
Baron Harkonnen installs his brutal nephew Glossu Rabban as governor, ordering him to squeeze Arrakis dry. Meanwhile, Duncan Idaho and the planetologist Liet Kynes find Paul and Jessica. Paul speaks of political gambits, even marriage to an imperial princess, to prevent total civil war. Sardaukar ambush them; Duncan holds them off in a heroic last stand. Kynes, captured and mortally wounded, summons a sandworm that consumes her and her captors.
Alone in the open desert, Paul and Jessica are found by Stilgar’s Fremen tribe. Among them is Chani, the girl from Paul’s visions. Stilgar is inclined to accept them, but a warrior named Jamis challenges that decision, invoking ritual combat. Paul reluctantly fights and kills Jamis, crossing a threshold he can never retreat from.
Despite Jessica’s fear of what Paul is becoming, he chooses to stay. Among the Fremen, he sees the path to power, survival, and perhaps control over the terrible future he has foreseen. The heir of House Atreides disappears into the desert — and a legend begins to rise.
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