It’s been a long time coming, but Denis Villeneuve's Dune is finally here to spice up your life. A stunning adaptation of Frank Herbert’s weighty sci-fi tome, the film does a stand-up job of making Herbert’s impenetrable universe accessible to nerds and noobs alike. It does this, in large part, by keeping strictly to the essentials and resisting the urge to dunk viewers headfirst into the bottomless well of arcane lore that has so-far fuelled 21 novels and counting.
But where’s the fun in having an impossibly dense, galaxy-spanning tale of psychic navigators and ornery space worms if you can’t get properly stuck in to the minutiae? We asked Empire's resident Dune nerd, James Dyer, to provide a little background information that will help fill in the gaps. So, whether you’re gearing up to experience the film for the first time (there are no plot spoilers here), or have already seen it but want to know more, we present, for your delight, a thorough Dunesplaining that will let you comfortably tell your Mentats from your Gom Jabbars.
Warning: may cause loss of will to live.
What is Dune?
'Dune' is the colloquial name for Arrakis, a planet in the Canopus system, on the very edge of the Imperium (a galactic empire). A brutal, arid wasteland, Arrakis is wildly inhospitable, essentially being a big, hot ball of sand (Anakin Skywalker would not get on there). It's also the most important planet in the universe because it’s the only known source of spice.
The stuff the Daily Mail said was turning people into zombies?
No, that was hand-wringing about synthetic drugs. This spice, called Melange, is the most valuable substance in the universe. Described by Lady Jessica (a Bene Gesserit - more on them later) as tasting faintly like cinnamon, it’s a naturally occurring substance on Arrakis that conveys a number of benefits such as extended life, bright blue eye colouring (the 'Eyes of Ibad'), and the handy side-effect of awakening untapped corners of the mind.
So it is a drug!
Well, yes. But not like that — you don’t get Freman snorting the stuff in spaceport toilets. Besides, its main use is purely practical as it facilitates all space travel.
Tell me more.
The Spacing Guild relies on the spice to grant its navigators their prescient powers — vital to faster than light travel. Essentially, without spice, the whole universe would grind to a standstill.
Spice-powered space. Gotcha. Anything else I need to know?
Melange is extremely addictive when imbibed in quantities above two grammes a day per 70 kilos of body weight, and its price on the Imperial market has reached as high as 620,000 Solaris per decigram.
Too much, nerd!
Sorry. Suffice it to say, the spice is everything in Dune’s universe and whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. The Harkonnen have been custodians of Arrakis for years but, as the film opens, the emperor has revoked their right to govern there and instead asked House Atreides to step in.
You’ve lost me again. Who?
The Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV is ruler of the known universe. He’s also the head of House Corrino, which has been in charge for over 10,000 years. The emperor oversees the High Council and wrangles the great houses of the Landsraad (a bit like the House of Lords, if it was populated by the feuding families from Game Of Thrones). The Harkonnen (Lannisters) are a bunch of ne’er-do-wells from the industrialised planet Giedi Prime. You can tell they’re evil as they all wear black and have pasty complexions. They’re led by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) who has a thing for levitating. The Atreides (Starks) are a noble house from the oceanic world of Caladan. They're led by Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), his concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and their son Paul (Timothée Chalamet). Much like the actual Starks, the Atreides answer their monarch’s call and reluctantly leave their home for the sake of duty. It doesn’t quite end with someone getting decapitated by a Sardaukar outside the Great Sept of Baelor but it doesn't go well.
Erm, what’s a Sardaukar?
Ah yes, those are the emperor’s elite troops. The fist beneath the imperium’s velvet glove, if you will. The Sardaukar are used to keep the great houses in line and enforce the emperor’s will. Fanatically loyal, they are trained to fight with a complete disregard for their own safety. They're schooled in brutality and the use of terror as a weapon — one Sardaukar is said to be worth the same as ten regular soldiers.
Well, that was unnecessarily tedious. Question: why do the little spaceships need navigators who are ripped to the tits on spice? Can’t they just use computers?
Ah, no they can’t. You see computers haven’t existed since the Butlerian Jihad.
I'm certain I’ll regret this but... what’s the Butlerian Jihad?
I’m so glad you asked. The Butlerian Jihad was an uprising by humans against ‘thinking machines’ that happened about 10 millennia ago. Named after Jehanne Butler, who started it, the war saw flesh and blood fight back against the danger posed by synthetic life (think of it as a reverse Judgement Day where Skynet gets stomped). But as well as the robots, people burned their Apple stores, trashed their laptops and did away with computers altogether, which were subsequently banned. There's a whole trilogy of books dedicated just to this event, in fact. So strongly did people feel about their new luddite ways that the A.I. ban became part of religious doctrine: “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” says the Zenchristian Scriptures. After all that, owning any such device was publishable by death. Much like having a mobile phone in primary school.
So hang on. Dune is a sci-fi with no actual 'sci'?
Oh they have technology, like spaceships and ornithopters (planes that look like dragonflies), knowledge databases (shrewdly used by Villeneuve whenever he needs an exposition dump), and rather nifty personal shields that stop fast-moving bullets but allow slower moving objects to pass through. They just don't use any tech that thinks for itself. Not even a smartphone. But they do have Mentats.
Stop dropping nonsense words like 'Mentat' at the end of every explanation and then smugly waiting for me to ask. It's maddening.
I'm sure. Mentats are essentially human computers. Developed to replace the machines of old, mentats are trained for supreme accomplishments of logic, developing capacious memories and with the ability to analyse vast quantities of data.
Like Carol Vorderman?
Exactly. They act as walking Wikipedias and serve as (largely humourless) political advisors to the great houses. They enhance their mental powers by drinking the Juice of Sapho, which gives their lips a reddish stain. House Harkonnen’s Mentat is Piter De Vries (David Dastmalchian), while House Atreides’ is Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley).
Thufir Hawat! Isn’t that the guy who had to milk a cat?
Err, yes. But only in the 1984 film and for reasons known only to David Lynch. Cat-milk antidotes, shouty guns, ‘heart plugs’ and Sting's metal codpiece were all pure Lynch and are best left forgotten.
I'm sorry, Sting's metal codpiece?!
It was a look. Sting played Feyd-Rautha for Lynch, one of Baron Harkonnen’s nephews. His character's not actually in Dune: Part One, most likely as he's being saved for the sequel. The Baron’s other nephew, Glossu ‘Beast’ Rabban (Dave Bautista) is more than enough to contend with this time around.
Tell me about the Fremen.
The blue-eyed Fremen (a side-effect of spice exposure, remember?) are the native inhabitants of Arrakis. They generally live in tribes known as sietches, which set up shop in the caves of Arrakis’ many rock formations (remember the three little pigs? Never build a house on sand). Sietch leaders are known as Naibs and Stilgar (Javier Bardem), who we meet in the film, is the Naib of Sietch Tabr. Oppressed and brutalised by the Harkonnen for years, they have been forged into efficient, ruthless fighters and wage an ongoing guerilla war against their oppressors. A desert people, they treasure water above all things, wearing Stillsuits to preserve every drop. The suits absorb sweat, exhaled moisture and other bodily fluids, collecting the liquid in pouches and allow the wearer to re-imbibe it, wasting no more than a thimbleful each day.
So they drink pee water?
Yes. That’s desert life for you. The Fremen also have a deep relationship with the sandworms, who they harness as a form of transport, and whose teeth they use as weapons called crysknives.
Now we’re talking. Tell me about SANDWORMS!
Unique to Arrakis, the sandworms are monstrous beasts that burrow beneath the endless desert. Growing up to 400 metres in length, they’re whopping great things that can swallow a spice harvester whole. Drawn to vibrations on the surface, they can be lured away by mechanical thumpers (which pound the sand to cause a distraction) but can also be avoided through use of the desert walk — a shuffling gait devoid of rhythm that mimics the natural sounds of shifting sand. In the Fremen tongue, the sandworm is Shai-Hulud, the ‘old man of the desert’, also called ‘The Maker’. They form an important part of Fremen religion, as does the Mahdi.
You're doing that thing again. I’m not going to ask.
The Mahdi or ‘the one who will lead us to paradise’ is the Fremen messiah. The Bene Gesserit messiah, on the other hand, is the Kwisatz Haderach.
You still haven't explained what a Bene Gesserit is!
Like Mentats, these came out of the Butlerian Jihad. An all-woman order of warrior nun/spies, the Bene Gesserit have inveigled their way into halls of power across the Imperium. Practitioners of a deadly martial art known as the weirding way (which involves teleportation!), they also train in use of ‘the voice’: a modulation of vocal sound that allows them to make listeners obey their commands. Shrouded in mystery, their generation-spanning agenda involves political influence and eugenics, mainly via a breeding programme that matches suitable genetic stock in hopes of leading to the Kwisatz Haderach.
This messiah person?
Yes. Essentially a hypothetical figure who can access genetic memory. Best not to get too hung up on this one.
Fine. Are they also the ones with the pain box?
Yes, that's the Test Of Humanity, to gauge whether a person's awareness can override their instincts. It involves simulated pain and the Gom Jabbar — a meta-cyanide needle that leads to a very painful death.
I'm scared.
You must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
Eh?
That's the beginning of the Bene Gesserit litany against fear. It's an incantation used to centre the mind during great stress, like being Gom Jabbared by the Reverend Mother or attempting to construct a gingerbread house during biscuit week on Bake-Off.
Are we done yet? I think I’ve lost the will to live.
Almost. First I need to tell you about CHOAM, the Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles.
No. Absolutely not.
Okay, well at least let me fill you in on the importance of the pre-spice mass, the difference between chaumurky and chaumas poison, and the magnetic language of chakobsa.
I hate you.
Okay, so the interesting thing about crysknives is that they require proximity to the human body's magnetic field and disintegrate entirely when left unattended. Unless, that is, they are fixed, whereby they knife is specially treated to... Hello? Are you still there?
Dune is released in UK cinemas on 21 October.
For a less granular explanation of what Dune is about, the book’s other adaptations and the proposed spinoff series, read our Dune Primer__.