(Warning: Spoilers for Dune: Part Two and for Frank Herbert’s 2nd Dune unique, Dune: Messiah ahead
In the opening minutes of Dune: Part Twoa brand-new character is presented to Denis Villeneuve’s sandy legend. No, I am not describing an intense Fremen warrior, nor am I mentioning a stony-faced Bene Gesserit. This character is much, much more youthful– and a lot more disconcerting. I am, obviously, speaking about Dune‘s talking fetus.
Filmmakers can’t appear to get enough of coming fetuses nowadays. All of us keep in mind the terrible abomination that appeared in Andrew Dominik’s Blonde 2 years back. Like Dominik, Villeneuve frames his movie’s fetus as a real character: Rather than just revealing a mother-to-be speaking with her stomach, both directors reveal the fetuses themselves drifting around in their dark, spooky wombs as weird, childish voices echo out.
Although the talking fetus of Dune Feels like something of a jumpscare (specifically after the scaries of Marilyn Monroe’s chatty fetus), Villeneuve’s take on this strange filmic trope is, it turns out, both warranted and remarkably efficient from a storytelling point of view. Eventually, the really genuine existence of a talking fetus in the movie foreshadows the power and the narrative value of Alia Atreides. It likewise assists to discuss why Anya Taylor-Joy flashes all of a sudden onto the screen three-quarters of the method through the movie.
To comprehend why this fetus is talking and why Anya appears out of the blue, we need to go back a little. In the very first movie, we find out that Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) belongs to the Bene Gesserit, a sci-fi sisterhood of supernaturally talented females who develop their capabilities to anticipate and sway the tides of power throughout the galaxy. Far back, the Bene Gesserit forecasted the increase of a “Kwisatz Haderach.” The Kwisatz Haderach would be the male boy of a Bene Gesserit, who, after 10,000 years of mindful breeding, would have the ability to gain access to generations of Bene Gesserit memories. Throughout the 2 Dune movies, Paul (Timothée Chalamet), Jessica’s kid with the assassinated Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), starts to look increasingly more like the Kwisatz Haderach that was guaranteed. Not just does Paul have special Bene Gesserit capabilities, however his mom likewise ends up being the child of Baron Harkonnen (a blob-ified Bill Stellan Skarsgård). To put it simply, Paul has origins from House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Bene Gesseri– an extremely effective mix undoubtedly, particularly thinking about the truth that, by the end of the very first movie, Paul is the only survivor from House Atreides.
At the end of Villeneuve’s very first Dune installation, we find that Jessica is pregnant with a child. This suggests that there will be another kid who shares Paul’s effective origins. This kid appears in Frank Herbert’s later books as Alia Atreides, and she is simply as engaging and effective as her origins would recommend.
