Dune

We pan across an intricate mosaic in an ancient sanctuary. Graceful arabesque calligraphy flows across the surface.

A woman's voice speaks: aged and wise.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(V.O.)

Once, we let machines think for us -- and those machines enslaved us. Bringing an age of tyranny and war.

The mosaic's design acquires a MECHANISTIC character, looming darkly over stylized human figures.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(V.O.)

When at last we threw them down, a new law was made: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."

The towering mechanistic shapes dwindle to rubble, leaving a golden space in which human shapes re-emerge.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(V.O.)

Schools were founded to elevate human thought. The Mentats, masters of mathematics and logic. The Spacing Guild, whose Navigators see into the future to leap between the stars. And the Bene Gesserit, whose supreme knowledge of the body and mind guides human affairs.

We see the Mentats with haloes of pure mathematics. The Guild Navigators with great ships looming overhead. The Bene Gesserit in black-robed ranks of women led by matriarchs.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(V.O.)

All three rely on the spice: a narcotic that enhances psychic gifts in those who possess them. Without it, our civilization would collapse.

Rays of orange emerge in the mosaic, transforming the people they touch. Elevating Mentats, Navigators, Bene Gesserit.

We follow the rays back to a golden sphere: a desert planet.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(V.O.)

The spice has only one source: the desert planet we call Arrakis. Known to its inhabitants as Dune.

Arrakis looms against the stars: a desert world. At the equator, a vast rust-colored hurricane slowly churns.

A STEALTH SHIP rockets toward the surface of the planet: a sleek two-seater with a darkened hull and no markings.

A PILOT sits in the forward seat, face hidden by a black glass visor. In the rear sits a COMMANDO, in a high-tech cradle that is not quite a seat: a DROP CHUTE.

The ship plunges into the air: vapor screaming over the hull. Friction heats the shuddering fuselage to a red glow.

From afar we see the ship blazing down like a falling star.

Below, a sea of sand dunes meets a rocky ridge. The ship plunges toward the desert. Terrifyingly fast.

At the last moment the pilot pulls up, crushing the commando with G-forces. Skimming over the dunes a hundred meters up.

Ahead: the rocky ridge rushes to meet them.

The pilot flashes the commando a series of hand signals. The commando replies by thumping the canopy with his fist. Ready.

The pilot pulls up hard, aiming for the stratosphere -- and as the ship climbs away, the drop chute opens. The commando falls free. No parachute. A dark figure in free-fall.

ON THE COMMANDO

As he touches his belt, activating a SUSPENSOR HARNESS. A hum of power as the suspensors fight the force of gravity.

The commando falls into view, decelerating fast. Lands on his feet, taking the shock with his legs. Pulls off his helmet.

He is broad-shouldered and lean. Clean-shaven. Late thirties. He radiates quiet competence, even in this hellish place. He is DUNCAN IDAHO. He strips the pack off his back. Takes out a rapier and dagger in scabbards and hangs them on his belt.

He scans the ridge, squinting in the sun. Pulls a flask from his belt and takes a swallow of water. Climbs out of sight. Behind him, the dune sea rolls to the horizon.

TITLE: DUNE

In a wide room of zen simplicity, LADY JESSICA, 35, sits in meditation. She is regal, slender, robed in black. Her posture perfect. Her eyes closed.

She is emotional. Striving to calm her heart, to slow her breathing. Eyes darting beneath her eyelids.

Abstract shapes move in silence against the stars. A GUILD HEIGHLINER, a huge torpedo-shaped starship, maneuvers over CALADAN, a blue-green planet like Earth.

SUPER: CALADAN - HOMEWORLD OF HOUSE ATREIDES

A minuscule egg-shaped SHUTTLE emerges from the Heighliner like a seed and falls toward the planet.

Jessica finds stillness. Her heartbeat slows. Her breathing slows...and stops. For a moment it seems time itself stops, with a crackle like ice. As if she has turned to stone.

THUNDER RUMBLES overhead. Jessica's eyes open.

Rain falls on an ancient castle on a cliff. Stormclouds shroud the moon. Below, a river runs down to the sea.

The SHUTTLE settles on a landing pad on the castle's terrace.

From her high window, Jessica watches the shuttle descend.

JESSICA'S POV

A gangway lowers from the shuttle outside. Four women in Bene Gesserit robes descend the ramp and wait. An OLD WOMAN in the ceremonial cloak of a REVEREND MOTHER follows, her sure strong steps belying her great age.

PAUL ATREIDES, 16, lies sleeping. His angular face showing a clear resemblance to Jessica, his mother.

He stirs in his sleep. Eyes darting beneath closed lids.

INSERT - THE DREAM GIRL

Shallow focus. In golden lantern-light, a GIRL gazes into our eyes from kissing distance. Her eyes impossibly blue.

JESSICA

(PRE-LAP)

Paul. Wake up.

BEDROOM

Paul's eyelids flutter in the grip of the dream. He whispers:

PAUL

You are the desert spring.

JESSICA

(O.S.)

Paul.

His eyes open. Half-asleep. Confused. It takes him a moment to focus. He blinks in surprise to find Jessica in his room.

PAUL

Mother. I was dreaming.

She takes a uniform from his closet and lays it on his bed.

JESSICA

Get dressed and come with me.

Her voice tight with controlled emotion. She turns and exits.

Jessica leads Paul into the library -- wooden shelves heavy with ancient books. Suspensor lights hover in the gloom.

Paul is dressed in black with silver trim, a hint of military style. The green Atreides hawk emblazoned on his jacket. He is mystified about the purpose of this midnight awakening.

He finds the REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM, 75, waiting for them. She sits in a heavy wooden chair, her aged face ghostly against her black cloak. Her eyes glitter as she studies him.

JESSICA

The Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She was my teacher at the Bene Gesserit school. Now she is Truthsayer to the Emperor himself.

She curtsies and steps aside. Paul is astonished by this meekness in his mother. He studies the Reverend Mother.

She takes the measure of him in turn. His stance. His stare.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Defiance in the eyes. Like his father.

(to Jessica)

Leave us.

Jessica turns to go, reluctant but obedient. She pauses.

JESSICA

Paul. The test you're about to receive...

PAUL

Test?

JESSICA

You must do everything the Reverend Mother tells you. Remember you're a Duke's son.

She hurries out. Paul glares at the Reverend Mother.

PAUL

You dismiss my mother like a servant in her own house.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

The Bene Gesserit exist to serve.

SIT DOWN.

The command cracks like a whip, her voice suddenly more than human. Compelling obedience irresistibly. This is THE VOICE. Paul sits on the footstool, helpless to resist. Shaken.

PAUL

You used the Voice on me!

She lifts a green metal cube, six inches tall, from the folds of her robes. Sets it on the arm of her chair. One side opens into a black interior which no light can illuminate.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Put your right hand in the box.

Paul doesn't comply. Defiant.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Your mother bade you obey me.

The invocation of his mother moves him. Reluctantly Paul puts his hand in the box.

The old woman leans forward, placing her hand beside Paul's neck. A glint of metal. He starts to turn his head --

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

STOP.

He freezes. Breathing hard. We see a long gleaming NEEDLE, rock-steady in the old woman's hand. Almost touching him.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

I hold at your neck the gom jabbar. A poison needle. Instant death. This test is simple. Remove your hand from the box, and you die.

Paul stares at her incredulously. This is madness.

PAUL

If I call out, the guards will come.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Your mother stands outside that door.

Jessica stands with her back to the door like a sentry.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(V.O.)

No one will get past her.

Jessica's face is taut with terror. Her son's life hangs in the balance. She begins to whisper the Litany against Fear:

JESSICA

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration.

Paul stares at the Reverend Mother apprehensively.

PAUL

What's in the box?

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Pain.

And suddenly he feels it: a tingling sensation in his fingers that makes his breath catch. He hisses in pain.

Jessica's voice shakes as she whispers the Litany.

JESSICA

I will face my fear. Let it pass over me and through me.

Sweat beads on Paul's forehead as the pain grows into agony.

PAUL

Why are you doing this?

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

To determine whether you're human. An animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its own leg to escape. What will you do?

Paul moans through clenched teeth. His left hand balled into a white-knuckled fist, his arm trembling. Pain!

Jessica closes her eyes.

JESSICA

When it has passed I will turn my inner eye to see its path.

Paul trembles. The gom jabbar glints against his neck. The Reverend Mother's eyes burn into him. He is panting.

INSERT: Paul's hand inside the box. Like a hand in a bonfire. The skin blackening. Splitting.

Paul CRIES OUT involuntarily. The Reverend Mother hisses:

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Silence!

Jessica's voice rises --

JESSICA

And where the fear has gone there will be nothing!

Paul shudders in excruciating pain. Locking eyes with the old Reverend Mother. At the very edge of his endurance.

INSERT: Paul's hand. Crisp flesh falling from charred bones.

Paul shuts his eyes. His mouth opens in a silent scream.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Enough!

The pain cuts off at once. Paul's eyes snap open with a gasp.

Jessica opens her eyes.

JESSICA

Only I will remain.

The Reverend Mother stares at Paul as he gasps in relief: sweaty, breathing hard. She is shocked at herself.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

No woman-child ever withstood so much. I must've wanted you to fail. Take your hand from the box, boy, and look at it.

Reluctantly Paul complies -- sure he will see a ruined stump. But his hand is unmarked. He wiggles his fingers, amazed.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Pain by nerve induction. We can't go around maiming potential humans.

He stares at her, his curiosity overriding his anger.

PAUL

What is this test for?

The Reverend Mother smiles, concealing the box in her robes.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Like sifting sand through a screen. We sift people to find the humans. If you were unable to control your impulses, like an animal -- we could not let you live. You inherit too much power.

PAUL

Because I'm a Duke's son?

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Because you are Jessica's son. You have more than one birthright, boy. You've proven you can rule yourself. Now you must learn to rule others. It's something none of your ancestors learned.

PAUL

My father rules an entire planet.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

He's losing it.

PAUL

He's getting a richer planet.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

He'll lose that one too. Arrakis is a deathtrap, boy. The die is cast.

Paul stares at her, disconcerted. What does she mean?

Jessica stands rigid, serene. Waiting.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

(O.S.) (CONT'D)

Jessica!

Jessica goes in, fear on her face. At the sight of Paul her face floods with relief.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Your mother was tested with the gom jabbar when she was your age.

Paul looks at Jessica in astonishment. But the Reverend Mother changes the subject, pulling at his attention.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Tell me about these dreams.

Paul hesitates. This old woman knows all his secrets.

PAUL

I had one tonight.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

What did you see?

PAUL

A girl. In a cave on Arrakis.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Have you dreamt of her before?

PAUL

Many times. I will know her.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Do you often dream things that happen just as you dreamed them?

PAUL

Yes. Someone dies in that cave.

The Reverend Mother takes that in gravely. Looks at Jessica.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Your son has depths. But it takes more than a touch of the Sight. You've been training him in the Way.

JESSICA

Yes.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

I'd have done the same, and the Devil take the rules. Carry on. Ignore the regular order of training. His safety requires the Voice. And deadlier weapons.

She looks up at Paul with glinting eyes.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Goodbye, young human. I hope you live.

Jessica walks Reverend Mother back to her ship in the rain. The old woman carries a short staff in her hand: a SHIELD PROJECTOR that wards off the rain with an invisible dome.

Water runs in rivulets over the shield and patters down around the two women as they walk.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

So much potential, wasted on a male. You were told to bear only daughters!

JESSICA

It meant so much to Leto.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

You're his concubine, not his wife.

(mockingly)

Your Duke wanted a son. And you in your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach!

JESSICA

(defiantly)

I sensed the possibility.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

Vanity! An Atreides daughter could have been wed to a Harkonnen son and united both Houses. Instead we shall have chaos and war. We could lose both bloodlines now.

The defiance drains out of Jessica. She looks frightened.

REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM

The Missionaria Protectiva has prepared the way. There is hope for the boy. But for the father...

The words are a dagger in Jessica's heart.

MOMENTS LATER

Jessica stands in the rain in her hooded cloak, watching the shuttle lift off. Rain sheets off the ovoid spacecraft and dances in the floodlights. The ship rises into the clouds.

Jessica turns to walk back inside -- and finds Paul standing behind her in the rain. Staring at her. They face each other uncertainly, ten feet of empty space between them.

PAUL

You just walked me into that room.

The hurt and accusation in his voice breaks her heart.

JESSICA

It was the same for me, a long time ago.

He looks at her with new eyes. Questioning everything.

PAUL

She said I have more than one birthright. What does that mean?

Jessica throws back her hood. Letting the rain soak her the way it's soaking Paul. Humbling herself.

JESSICA

The Bene Gesserit provide concubines to the Noble-born. Leaving them free to marry for political advantage. We're companions. Bodyguards. Counselors. We bear extraordinary children. We say we exist to serve.

(she hesitates)

But that's not all we do.

Paul's hyper-acute mind is already tunneling into the problem. A flash of insight. He stares at her, shocked.

PAUL

You control the bloodlines of the Great Houses. You're breeding them.

His leap of intuition startles her. She nods, shaken.

JESSICA

And placing members of our Sisterhood beside them. To guide them, toward peace. Enlightenment.

Paul is stunned. His life suddenly thrown into a new light.

PAUL

All part of a plan. Do you... love my father?

JESSICA

Yes!

He hesitates to ask the next question, looking very young.

PAUL

Do you love me?

Jessica's face crumples.

JESSICA

Oh, Paul.

She strides across the space between them and throws her arms around him. They cling to each other in the downpour.

In the early light, Paul sits studying a tabletop hologram. It shows images of ARRAKIS, a harsh desert planet, and of the FREMEN -- the enigmatic cloaked people of the deep desert.

In the doorway behind Paul, a man appears: THUFIR HAWAT, 75. Gray-haired and slender, his eyes hawkishly keen. He is a MENTAT, a human supercomputer who sees intricate probabilities as clearly as most of us see the weather.

Paul doesn't turn as Hawat enters.

PAUL

I know, Thufir. I'm sitting with my back to the door. I knew it was you by your footsteps.

HAWAT

Someone might imitate my stride.

PAUL

I'd know the difference. Have you seen my father?

HAWAT

He's with the Planning Council. We leave for Arrakis in a few days. To say he is busy sells the matter short.

His eyes go to the hologram table, where an orange-red hurricane wheels over the southern hemisphere of Arrakis.

HAWAT

You've been studying the sandstorms on Arrakis. The winds reach seven hundred kilometers per hour! They'll cut through metal or bone.

PAUL

But there's people living in the open desert where those storms blow. The Fremen.

HAWAT

Humans are endlessly adaptable. They've lived there for thousands of years.

PAUL

And then Spice was discovered -- and their planet became a prize for the Imperium and the Great Houses to fight over.

HAWAT

And now that prize will be ours.

PAUL

If we can keep it. Did you meet the Reverend Mother?

HAWAT

The Imperial Truthsayer! Yes, why?

PAUL

Do you think she can see the future?

HAWAT

As a Mentat I trade in probabilities, not prophecies. What did the old witch say to you?

PAUL

She said Arrakis is a trap.

HAWAT

It is a trap.

Paul frowns, still troubled by the morning's events.

HAWAT

Our enemies mean for us to fail there. Lose everything. But when you see the trap laid for you, it can become an opportunity.

PAUL

Isn't success another trap?

HAWAT

What do you mean?

PAUL

Mining spice for profit...keeping the Fremen in their place...we're no better than Harkonnens. We become what we despise.

Hawat grins, pleased with Paul's moral compass.

HAWAT

You know your father better than that. A wise ruler can lift his people up as easily as keep them down. Your father sent Duncan Idaho to Arrakis weeks ago, on a mission I have high hopes for. And I have schemes of my own to manage. I leave for Arrakis today.

PAUL

Today!?

HAWAT

When next we meet, we will stand together on a new world. Until then, keep your shield fully charged -- and sit facing the door.

He drags Paul's suspensor chair -- with Paul in it -- around the table to face the door. Paul laughs. Thufir Hawat exits.

Paul stands in a fencing practice room. A few high-tech target dummies stand against the wall, old and battered.

He looks out the window. On the terrace below, servants lower a MOUNTED BULL's HEAD into a custom-made case. Others carry a huge portrait of the Old Duke into a cargo floater.

GURNEY

(O.S.)

What are you brooding about?

GURNEY HALLECK, 45, stands behind him: a swordmaster, lethal with any weapon. His eyes flash with swashbuckling mischief. A SCAR curls along his jaw, left long ago by an inkvine whip.

A BALISET, a stringed instrument, is slung across his back. His arms are full of swords and knives in scabbards.

PAUL

Gurney Halleck! Are you the new Weapons Master?

Gurney grins raffishly. He is the closest thing to a friend Paul has among his father's retainers.

GURNEY

The Weapons Master is busy packing. So I must make do as best I may.

He lays the weapons out on a table in matched pairs.

GURNEY

Choose your blade.

PAUL

I've had quite a morning, Gurney. Give us a song instead.

Gurney eyes Paul darkly. He picks up a rapier. With his other hand he reaches for the baliset where it lies on the table, and without picking it up, plucks a tune:

GURNEY

Oh, Galacian girls Will do it for pearls. On Westerhold They'll roll for gold. But on Arrakis A rich man's daughter Will drop her dress For a drop of water.

PAUL

Very nice. But if my mother hears you singing that, she'll nail your ears to the castle gates.

GURNEY

You're right. I can't leave any witnesses alive.

With his sword-blade he flips the other rapier to Paul.

GURNEY

On your guard!

Paul catches the sword deftly and activates his shield. A shimmering force-field appears around him.

Gurney activates his own shield and prowls forward. Their blades clash.

Paul STRIKES, rapidly -- his blade making splashes of light in the air where Gurney's shield blocks the blow --

Then he lunges more slowly -- and slips his rapier into Gurney's shield. Only the slow blade penetrates.

They fence -- a sparkle of energy where their shields intersect -- until Paul attempts another slow attack. Gurney grabs Paul's blade in his gloved hand, lunges through Paul's shield and SLAPS PAUL'S FACE with the flat of his blade. Paul jerks back, shocked. Rubbing his cheek. Gurney glowers.

GURNEY

Never let a man inside your guard! Even in sport! Not even me!

PAUL

I guess I'm not in the mood today.

Gurney appears to become genuinely angry.

GURNEY

Mood?! What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises, no matter your mood! Now fight!

He attacks fiercely, his sword snaking into Paul's shield. Paul falls back, hard-pressed. He draws a dagger from his wrist-sheath, giving him two blades to defend himself with.

The anger on Gurney's face unsettles him. Is this real?

Cornered, Paul activates his shield belt's SUSPENSOR FIELD -- and leaps over Gurney's head, swords clashing on the way, to land lightly behind him. Gurney spins, snarling.

GURNEY

What's the matter? Can't face me on the ground?

He switches on his own suspensors -- and leaps after Paul. His rapier is a flickering flame of death.

Paul's in trouble. He takes a deep breath.

A pavilion open to the elements -- greenery on all sides. Rain drums on the roof and patters from the eaves. Beautiful.

Jessica and Paul move across the pavilion, synchronized. Performing a kind of kata -- a stylized martial arts drill. It is slow and graceful like tai chi -- violence veiled.

We focus on their movement -- a foot sweep -- a turn --

Paul repeats the same movement, faster: a darting foot-sweep. A rotating sidestep. A lightning slash of the rapier blade. Gurney parries just in time, his eyes sparking. Impressed.

GURNEY

That's not Duncan Idaho. Who taught you that?

He redoubles his attack. Paul falls back. He leaps away, caroming off the wall. Gurney matches his leap -- and when they land Paul is cornered. Gasping for air.

GURNEY

Come on!

Jessica and Paul sit cross-legged, face to face, knees almost touching. They are sparring, their hands flashing through the space between them. Graceful. Serene. Lethal.

Paul's hands adopt the swift, circular motion of his memory. He deflects Gurney's blades, gets inside his guard -- and his blade stops, quivering, an inch from Gurney's throat.

PAUL

I have you.

GURNEY

Aye. But look down, m'lord.

Paul glances down without lowering his sword. Gurney has a dagger in his left hand, the blade an inch from Paul's groin.

GURNEY

You'd have joined me in death.

He grins and deactivates his shield, sheathing his blades. His menacing aspect melting away.

GURNEY

I see you found the mood.

Paul sighs and puts away his own weapons.

PAUL

Would you really have hurt me?

GURNEY

If you'd fought one whit below your best, I'd have given you a scar to remind you. You need to be sharp. Soon we go to Arrakis!

PAUL

Will it be that bad?

GURNEY

House Harkonnen controlled Arrakis for eighty years! They have grown fat on it. They won't give it up without a fight.

A charcoal-gray world orbits a cold blue sun.

SUPER: GIEDI PRIME - HOMEWORLD OF HOUSE HARKONNEN

A massive fortress of brutalist architecture. Guns on the battlements. Guards at every door in dark orange uniforms, with the black Harkonnen griffin emblem.

A SKIFF arrives at the palace gates. "BEAST" RABBAN HARKONNEN steps out: a bull of a man with a glowering look. He walks like a wrestler, his thick body heavy with muscle.

A room of ostentatious finery, its domed ceiling trimmed with gold, furniture laden with sumptuous cushions.

At the center of the room stands a lavish GLOBE OF ARRAKIS made like a Fabergé egg: all gemstones and precious metals.

Guards and slaves stand around the edges of the room. They do not matter. They are furniture. They are terrified.

Rabban stomps into the room. A HERALD announces him:

HERALD

Rabban Harkonnen, the Count of Lankiveil!

As Rabban approaches the globe, a MAN looms into view behind it like a greater planet: BARON VLADIMIR HARKONNEN. He is coifed and richly dressed, fingers heavy with rings.

He is a mountain: six hundred pounds of flesh piled on a sofa like a basking walrus. Despite his gross girth he regards himself as beautiful: his gestures and movements are sensual.

RABBAN

Uncle.

BARON HARKONNEN

I am Baron Harkonnen, head of this House. I will have your courtesy.

Rabban stiffens: he may be a killer himself, but the Baron is something still more dangerous.

RABBAN

Your Excellency my Uncle.

BARON HARKONNEN

Rabban! Why the long face?

PITER (O.S.)

The Emperor's taken away his toys.

Only now we see the man sitting by the Baron: PITER DE VRIES, a human stiletto. Here is a man who takes pleasure in others' pain. His eyes have the piercing blue of spice addiction.

PITER (CONT'D)

Last week he was overseer of an entire planet. "Beast" they called him! Beast Rabban! How can he go back to flogging wretches in the slave pits, once he's ruled Arrakis?

Rabban glares at Piter with pure hatred. To the Baron:

RABBAN

Who is this creature?

BARON HARKONNEN

Piter de Vries. My new Mentat. He and Thufir Hawat are preparing a game of chess on that desert planet.

Piter smiles gleefully.

PITER

A game I intend to win.

The Baron shoots Piter a look of annoyance.

BARON HARKONNEN

How you talk! Look at your eyes. How much spice are you eating?

PITER

Enough. The farther I must see, the stranger my eyes become.

RABBAN

You buzz like bees! What do we do? Don't pretend to be calm! I know what we've lost. I'm the one who counted the money. Without that income, all this falls down.

He waves at the opulent surroundings. The Baron points an angry finger at him. Rabban freezes and modulates his tone:

RABBAN (CONT'D)

Forgive me, Uncle. I only want Arrakis returned to us. To you.

PITER

Why do you think the Emperor gave Arrakis to Duke Leto?

The question surprises Rabban. He thinks a moment.

RABBAN

He's popular. Wins battles. Commands good men. Gives a pretty speech.

PITER

Exactly what the Emperor fears. The Great Houses squabble among themselves, which keeps the Emperor strong. But if Leto were to unite them against the Imperium -- it could shake the throne itself.

RABBAN

If the Emperor fears Leto -- why give him Arrakis?

BARON HARKONNEN

When is a gift not a gift?

The Baron rises: an extraordinary maneuver.

He leans forward ponderously, and lifts out of the cushions with a HUM of energy. A SUSPENSOR HARNESS supports his bulk, leaving no more than fifty pounds to be carried by his legs.

With the floating gait of a hippopotamus walking on a river bottom, he circles the globe of Arrakis.

BARON HARKONNEN (CONT'D)

To break a virtuous man, give him a burden too heavy to bear.

He brushes the globe with his hand. It rotates at his touch.

BARON HARKONNEN (CONT'D)

A lesser man would drop it. But the good man will carry it 'til it crushes him.

An ancient graveyard below the castle walls, overlooking the sea. Here the Atreides have been laid to rest for centuries. The monuments and mausoleums show the passage of time: Moss and lichens adorn the stones. Trees lean over the walls.

DUKE LETO, 50, stands looking out over the sea. Far off rain is falling, a gray curtain on the horizon. Leto has a soldier's build and a poet's eyes, seeing deeper meanings. He is a man who lives by two watchwords: honor and duty.

Paul appears at his side. His formal manner barely concealing his happiness to be in his father's company.

Leto lays his hands on the stone crypt of a fallen ancestor.

DUKE LETO

Twenty-six generations. These are our roots.

PAUL

Then why leave? We know Arrakis isn't safe.

DUKE LETO

We can't stay here. Every Great House rules at the pleasure of the Emperor. The fief of Caladan is no longer ours.

PAUL

It's not fair. The Emperor gave the order. He should protect us.

DUKE LETO

He'll appoint a Judge of the Change to oversee the transition. But the Emperor has his own interests here.

PAUL

What do you mean?

Leto turns and walks among the graves. Paul walks with him.

DUKE LETO

The Great Houses look to me for leadership. Their unofficial spokesman. This troubles the Emperor, who does not like rivals. House Harkonnen, on the other hand, has grown alarmingly rich. The Atreides and Harkonnens have been enemies for centuries: by taking Arrakis from them and giving it to us, the Emperor sets our Houses against each other. A war would erode my popularity, and drain the Harkonnen treasury. (he smiles) Clever piece of statecraft, honestly.

PAUL

Here we're strong. On Arrakis we'll be exposed.

LETO

(nodding)

It'll take time to dig in. During the transition we'll be vulnerable. If the Harkonnens mean to hit us, that's when they'll try. But if we hold? Tap the wealth of Arrakis? We'll be stronger than ever.

He looks at the tomb of his father: in a bas-relief carving, the Old Duke faces a bull in the arena. A matador.

LETO (CONT'D)

It's time you start sitting in on staff meetings. Learn what I do. You'll be the Duke someday.

He throws an arm around Paul's shoulders. Paul smiles, flushed and proud.

Paul climbs alone to a promontory above the sea. Waves crash and sigh on the rocks far below.

He stands watching the sun set, the wind in his hair. Takes a knee to curl his fingers into the flowering grasses on the clifftop. The soil. His last sunset in the land of his birth.

Leto and Jessica lie in bed. She gazes at the moonlit sea.

JESSICA

I already miss home.

LETO

You are my home.

He pulls her into his arms. They kiss. Her arms sliding around him passionately.

A Guild Heighliner hangs in the blue sky, a pale oblong. The sparks of smaller ships converge on it and enter its hold.

On an ancient stone landing pad beside the sea, the Atreides Flagship waits. Leto, Jessica, and Paul walk toward the ship. Paul's eyes are on the sky, where the entire Atreides fleet is standing out to orbit -- and the waiting Guild Heighliner.

Jessica looks back at Castle Caladan, tears in her eyes. Leto puts his arm around her and holds her close as they walk.

Wind plucks at their clothing as another ship rises off the ground. Paul grins in excitement. An adventure beginning.

A spectacular blood-red sun rises, spilling light across an endless sea of dunes. Silence. Not a living thing in sight.

SUPER: ARRAKIS

A MAN crosses the dune sea -- walking strangely, in broken, erratic strides. He wears a close-fitting STILLSUIT to protect him from this lethal landscape.

He mounts to the top of a rock formation and throws off the hood and mask of his stillsuit to take in the view.

The man revealed is a desert lion with a mane of black hair, a fierce dark beard. He stands like a king. This is STILGAR, 45, master of the desert and a leader among the Fremen.

On the horizon he sees the SHIELD WALL that shelters the city of Arrakeen. High above, he sees the Guild Heighliner -- pale in the dark blue sky, like another moon. Parked in orbit. As he watches, the ships of the Atreides fleet begin to emerge.

A sprawling spaceport: miles of concrete landing-pads and cavernous hangars. There are spaceships large and small, and ORNITHOPTERS: aircraft that beat their wings like insects. The Atreides flagship touches down. The largest ship in view.

On the perimeter of the field, Arrakeen natives have turned out to watch the Atreides arrive: thousands of people outside the barricades, huddling in the shade of the fences.

Flanked by bodyguards in Atreides combat armor and active shields, Leto, Jessica, Paul, and Gurney watch the ship's gangway lowering to the tarmac.

They squint in the sunlight. Gasp at the blast-furnace air. Heat ripples off the pavement. Dust eddies around their feet.

GURNEY

"My lungs taste the air of Time, Blown past falling sand..."

Paul stares into the blazing day. A new world before him.

Hawat's security detail encircles the ship. Weapons in hand, shields shimmering around them.

Nearby, the Atreides legions are marching out of troop carriers and forming up. An impressive force in combat gear: light armor, helmets, swords and daggers.

Thufir Hawat walks to meet the ducal family. He looks weary, almost haggard, but he smiles as he greets them. Clasps hands with Leto. Bows to Jessica. Hugs Paul.

HAWAT

Young master! How does it feel to walk on another world?

PAUL

Like my eyes are drying out.

HAWAT

Let's get you out of the heat. (to Leto, hopefully) Sire. There's room in the ornithopter...

LETO

No. You take Paul and Jessica. I'm going to walk in with the troops.

HAWAT

(tensely)

The security situation is not ideal.

LETO

The people need to see me. They need to know times have changed.

He looks across the tarmac, where Hawat's men are tearing down Harkonnen emblems and burning them with flamethrowers. Long, streaming Atreides banners are raised in their place.

Hawat leads Paul and Jessica to Duke Leto's personal ornithopter: a craft both luxurious and powerful.

A CHEER goes up from the throng outside the fences.

HAWAT

Don't be fooled by the welcome. They follow their old masters' rules. Mandatory attendance. That's Harkonnen love out there.

Some of the crowed point at Jessica and Paul -- shouting with religious fervor. Lisan al-Gaib! Lisan al-Gaib! Paul frowns.

Hawat takes a seat beside the PILOT. Paul and Jessica sit in back. As the engines spin up, Paul stares out at the crowd.

PAUL

They were pointing at us. What are they shouting?

JESSICA

Lisan al-Gaib. Voice from the Outer World.

She speaks quietly, for Paul's ears alone.

JESSICA (CONT'D)

It means the Missionaria Protectiva's been here. It's a Bene Gesserit mission. They plant legends and superstitions on primitive worlds. To protect us -- and let us manipulate religions, or even entire cultures.

PAUL

You take a lot on yourselves.

JESSICA

We do.

The ornithopter lifts off, beating its powerful wings.

As they exit the spaceport, they see a cliff wall with an INSCRIPTION in arabesque calligraphy. Jessica reads it:

JESSICA

"You who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your prayers."

Outside the spaceport, a road runs toward Arrakeen. Beside the road, a hundred black metal crosses, X-shaped, stand in ragged rows. It has the look of a Golgotha.

PAUL

What's that?

Paul frowns at the field of crosses, unsure what he's seeing.

Hawat points at a giant rocky rampart in the distance.

HAWAT

Shield Wall. Natural feature. Protects the city from the weather. And the worms.

Paul marvels at the sight. Turns to stare at a new wonder: ARRAKEEN: a low, sprawling metropolis of sloping concrete, with occasional spires of carved stone. A city that bows to the force of the desert by echoing its shapes.

As Paul watches, a distant BOOM echoes. A billow of dark smoke rises from the far side of the city.

PAUL

What's that?

Hawat touches his earpiece, listening. He smiles wearily.

HAWAT

Minor incident, Sire. My people have it under control.

Jessica looks back at the column of troops marching out of Arrakeen Landing. Where Leto is.

The Atreides legions walk from the spaceport toward the city. The visors of their battle armor closed against the heat -- their suits' environment systems humming. Long banners in Atreides black and green flying overhead.

Leto leads them, dressed in armor with decorations and insignia befitting his rank. The sword and dagger on his belt are ornate and well-worn. He is a warrior: bare-faced, his visor raised -- walking tall. A shield shimmers around him.

Gurney Halleck walks a few paces back -- his visor also open.

They pass the field of crosses -- the black metal pitted and scoured by a thousand sandstorms. Each X-shaped cross is fitted with shackles for human limbs. Tilted back to bare their unfortunate occupants to the sun.

Most of the crosses are empty, but the mummified remains of a few unfortunates still hang in the shackles. Bones litter the ground. The men curse and look away.

LETO

Who are they?

GURNEY

Hawat says Fremen. Resistance fighters killed by the Harkonnens.

The Duke scowls in moral indignation.

LETO

I want those crosses torn down. Reach out to the Fremen. Find a respectful way to return those remains to their people.

GURNEY

It will be done, Sire.

A gust of wind carries dust into their faces. They cough and rub at their eyes. Gurney pulls his visor closed.

GURNEY (CONT'D)

"Deliver me, O Lord, from the dry and thirsty land."

LETO

Leto laughs and pulls his visor down as well.

The column marches into Arrakeen -- the city gates like a narrow black chasm in the monumental city walls.

Onlookers crowd the Residency's gates. There are clear types: sophisticated city-dwellers, rustic townsfolk, merchants -- and a few FREMEN: people of the deep desert, in stillsuits and robes that blend with the sand.

Hawat's men are everywhere. Flyers blow in the street: LOVE THE GOOD DUKE! ATREIDES, HOUSE OF HONOR! AN END TO TYRANNY!

On the front gates a calligraphic NOTICE is posted: Our Sublime Padishah Emperor has charged me to take possession of this planet and end all dispute. -- Duke Leto Atreides

The ornithopter lands inside the compound. Paul, Jessica, and Hawat climb out. In front of the house, a row of date palms stands. People press against the fence, gazing at the trees.

JESSICA

Look at them. Staring at the trees.

HAWAT

You see trees. They see water. A lavish expenditure on this planet.

A knot of people outside the gates point at Paul and shout wildly: Mahdi! Mahdi! Mahdi!

PAUL

What's that one? Mahdi.

JESSICA

The leader who brings deliverance. If they planted that one here... this must be a hideous place.

Cyclopean in scale, built to last ten thousand years. A steady traffic of porters and cargo handlers flows through. Uniformed Atreides staff hurry to and fro.

Paul and Jessica enter, looking up at the cavernous walls.

A porter passes Paul, and he stares at the man's eyes: an unnatural blue-within-blue.

Paul walks down a corridor decorated with a long FRESCO of a SANDWORM among rolling dunes. He looks at it in amazement.

Paul stands in a beautifully designed room. The bed has a carved headboard: an Asian-styled relief of fish in swirling waters. A shaft of sunlight fills the room with gold.

Paul has already had a few cartons of his belongings dropped off. He unpacks, setting belongings on shelves. A few ancient books on the colonization of Arrakis and the Fremen tribes.

He gazes out the window at the alien skyline of Arrakeen.

HAWAT (O.S.)

I thought you'd like this room.

Paul turns to see Hawat in the doorway.

HAWAT (CONT'D)

And I wasn't the only one: we found three listening devices and a very nasty booby trap in here.

He nods to the headboard, where a wooden fish's eye is covered by one of Hawat's seals.

HAWAT (CONT'D)

Perfectly safe now.

PAUL

Thank you.

DOCTOR YUEH (O.S.)

Ah, there you are.

DOCTOR WELLINGTON YUEH, 40, appears at the door. A Doctor of the Imperial Suk School: a diamond tattooed on his forehead. A graceful man, his long hair bound by a silver ring.

HAWAT

Doctor Yueh.

He nods to Yueh on his way out. Doctor Yueh turns to Paul, who greets him with a smile. A lifelong Atreides retainer.

DOCTOR YUEH

Drink this please, master Paul. It will help your body adjust to a lower water content here.

He passes Paul a vial of blue liquid on a little silver tray. Paul obediently drinks it as Yueh checks his vital signs.

DOCTOR YUEH (CONT'D)

On most worlds, people are exposed to spice only when they purchase it at great cost. But on Arrakis, spice is in the air. The food. A low-level dose is unavoidable. There are health benefits, of course: but we'll want to keep your exposure lower than the natives do. At high doses, spice becomes addictive. The body cannot live without it. You'll see the eyes: blue on blue.

PAUL

The "eyes of the ibad."

DOCTOR YUEH

You've been studying the Fremen! Good. Learn all you can.

He takes something from his pocket.

DOCTOR YUEH (CONT'D)

I wanted you to have this.

He hands Paul a tiny black book -- a super-compact codex with thin onion-skin pages pressed tight between slim covers.

PAUL

The Orange Catholic Bible.

DOCTOR YUEH

A compact edition for space travelers. It belonged to my wife, Wanna. She treasured it.

He reaches out and clasps Paul's hands around the tiny book.

DOCTOR YUEH (CONT'D)

Keep it with you always. When you are lost, it may bring salvation.

A formal dining room with a table long enough to seat thirty. Sandstone walls, hovering antique chandeliers.

The large portrait of the OLD DUKE leans against one wall. The mounted BULL'S HEAD lies face up on the table.

Six Arrakeen women in white dresses stand in a row. Hawat leads Jessica in and gestures at the women.

HAWAT

Candidates for housekeeper, my Lady.

He bows and leaves her. Jessica walks up to the women. They drop to their knees and prostrate themselves, startling her.

JESSICA

Oh. Is this Arrakeen custom?

One woman looks up: a weathered old woman of unknowable age, with wise eyes and a blunt demeanor. Her lean body corded with muscle. She is the SHADOUT MAPES.

SHADOUT MAPES

We do not bow and scrape by choice, my Lady. The Harkonnens demanded it.

JESSICA

We're no Harkonnens. Please rise.

The women comply. Jessica walks down the row, studying each in turn. When she gets to the Shadout Mapes she lingers. Observing her with hyper-awareness. Her eyes. Lips. Hands.

JESSICA (CONT'D)

What is your name?

SHADOUT MAPES

The Shadout Mapes, my Lady.

Jessica doesn't take her eyes off Mapes.

JESSICA (CONT'D)

The rest of you may go.

The other women file out, leaving Jessica and Mapes alone. There's a tension between the two of them, like gunfighters.

JESSICA (CONT'D)

Shadout. That's an old Chakobsa word. Water-dipper. You're Fremen.

SHADOUT MAPES

(startled)

You know the ancient tongues.

Jessica registers that. The Missionaria Protectiva at work. Still she watches Mapes warily, as if she were a wild animal.

JESSICA

I know many things. I know you have borne children, that you have lost loves, that you have hidden in fear. You have done violence and will do more violence.

Mapes trembles in superstitious dread, lowering her eyes.

SHADOUT MAPES

I meant no offense, my Lady!

Jessica speaks sternly, her body preparing for action:

JESSICA

I know you have a weapon concealed in your bodice. If you mean to harm me, I'll warn you: whatever you're hiding won't be enough.

The Shadout Mapes's eyes rise to meet Jessica's, awed.

SHADOUT MAPES

The weapon is meant as a gift, if you are truly the One.

Slowly she reaches into her dress. Pulls out a knife and draws it from its sheath -- revealing a milk-white blade, slightly translucent. Wickedly sharp. It's beautiful.

SHADOUT MAPES (CONT'D)

Do you know this?

Jessica gazes at it in wonder. This is a mythical object.

JESSICA

It's a crysknife.

SHADOUT MAPES

Do you know its meaning?

Jessica feels her way forward carefully, sensing the significance of the moment.

JESSICA

It's a maker of...

Mapes WAILS in ecstasy. Jessica trails off, startled:

JESSICA (CONT'D)

...of death.

SHADOUT MAPES

A Maker of the Deep Desert! Sayyadina! When one has lived with prophecy for so long, the moment of revelation is a shock. Lisan al-Gaib. The Mother and the Son!

She sheaths the knife and presses it into Jessica's hands.

SHADOUT MAPES (CONT'D)

It is yours. Tooth of shai-hulud.

Jessica takes a gamble.

JESSICA

They say you must not sheath the blade unblooded.

Mapes gasps at her error. Kneeling, she pulls her dress off one shoulder to bare her breast.

SHADOUT MAPES

Take the water of my life!

Jessica puts the knife to Mapes's skin. Draws a delicate scratch. Blood wells up and dries at once. Mapes rises.

SHADOUT MAPES (CONT'D)

Keep it hidden, Lady. Who sees that blade must be cleansed or slain.

At the Residency's highest point, a compact command center overlooks Arrakeen: panoramic views through bunker-like slot windows. Leto and Gurney look out through binoculars. Heat ripples off the concrete of Arrakeen.

Leto lowers his binoculars, shaken by the inimical landscape.

LETO

What have I done?

GURNEY

What you must, my Lord. You'll master this place. (hesitating) Any word from Duncan Idaho?

A shadow crosses Leto's face. He's worried about Duncan.

LETO

None yet. But I have faith we haven't seen the last of him.

He points, changing the subject. Pulling himself together.

LETO (CONT'D)

There's the spaceport. That dust plume over there is the spice refinery. Our two most vulnerable points. I want you guarding them. If we can't refine spice and ship it offworld, we're dead here.

A single grain of SPICE, vividly orange, rotates under a microscope -- its edges looming as vast as mountain cliffs. Its crystalline structure as intricate as a cathedral.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

The spice melange is an awareness-spectrum narcotic.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

It enhances mental abilities, giving the Navigators of the Spacing Guild the prescient sight that makes interstellar travel possible.

As the narrator speaks, we dive into the grain's crystalline structure until we are looking at the complex molecule itself. Watching it interact with neurons in the human brain.

Paul sits on his bed in the near-dark, holding a FILMBOOK. It is active: its HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECTION fills half the room. He watches as the program traces the propagation of spice through the human body.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

Spice enhances health and extends the human lifespan. These qualities have made melange the most valuable substance in the universe. It cannot be synthesized. Its only source is the planet...

Paul knows all this. Impatiently he waves back to the menu.

He opens an encyclopedia of life on Arrakis. Selects a display of desert-adapted plants.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

In addition to native species, a number of terranic plants have adapted to Arrakis. Saguaro. Burro bush. Date palm. Sand verbena. Evening primrose. Barrel cactus.

They appear as the narrator speaks. As Paul watches, something MOVES in the projection. He rises and steps closer. Sees a DESERT MOUSE scurrying on the ground. As Paul gets near, it moves into the grasses as if to hide from him.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

Incense bush. Smoke tree. Creosote bush. Joshua tree.

A CLICK behind him makes Paul turn -- moving into the projection. Stepping into concealment just like the mouse.

A GLEAMING SLIVER OF METAL emerges from the fish's eye in the carved headboard of the bed. Tearing through Hawat's seal. NARRATOR (V.O.) These plants cling to life in a parched, nutrient-poor landscape...

The silver dart hovers in the air. A HUNTER-SEEKER: a weapon of assassination, guided by some unseen hand.

HUNTER-SEEKER POV: A fish-eye view of the dim room, distorted. Paul, motionless and hidden within the filmbook hologram, is difficult to see.

ON PAUL: Standing stock-still as the Hunter-Seeker quests through the room like a shark in the shallows. Darting hunting runs.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

...where every organism containing water is a target for predators.

Paul's eyes go to his shield belt, lying uselessly on his desk beside his dagger in its sheath. With exquisite slowness be begins to reach for the tranceiver behind his ear.

Instantly the Hunter-Seeker darts toward him. A foot from his eye. Hunting for him in the shifting light. Paul freezes.

THE DOOR OPENS behind him, spilling light into the room. The Hunter-Seeker turns and LEAPS toward the figure in the door. Paul spins, his hand whipping around behind him to SNATCH the Hunter-Seeker from the air inches from its victim's face.

He SMASHES the thing's nose against the wall until it shorts out with a blue flash.

NARRATOR (V.O.) (CONT'D)

The Shadout Mapes stands in the doorway, arms full of sheets. She stares at the thing in his hand. Gazes at Paul in awe.

SHADOUT MAPES

(in Chakobsa, subtitled)

He shall hold life and death in his hands.

PAUL

Who are you?

SHADOUT MAPES

The housekeeper. That thing almost killed me.

PAUL

You were moving. But it was meant for me. It's a hunter-seeker. The operator must be nearby.

Hawat's security force swarms over the house and grounds, searching every possible hiding-place. They scan the ground with sonic probes that display ghostly X-ray images of what lies beneath.

The cellar of the Residency. Hawat's troops have cut a HOLE in the basement wall, revealing a grim crypt in the masonry. A gaunt, pale man lies dead inside: a HUNTER-SEEKER CONSOLE beside him. The horrible paraphernalia of his entombment are visible: canisters of rations and of waste. Hawat's people wrinkle their noses: the smell is ungodly. Jessica stares into the crypt in a smoldering fury as Hawat briefs her -- professional but shamed by his own failure.

HAWAT

He killed himself as we were digging him out. Looks like he was cemented into that hole six weeks ago. Ran the hunter-seeker through a water pipe inside the walls.

Duke Leto stands with Hawat, looking out at the lights of Arrakeen. Two crescent moons in the sky.

LETO

Was he native-born?

HAWAT

No, m'Lord. Didn't have the eyes. Offworlder. A Harkonnen agent.

Leto nods, his face darkening at the sound of that name.

HAWAT

Sire. I failed you today. There is no excuse. You have my resignation.

Leto turns on him angrily.

DUKE LETO

You would deprive me of your talents at this time?

Hawat speaks as if lacerating his own back with a whip:

HAWAT

They placed a booby-trap in that room, knowing I would find it. By removing it, I created the opening for the true menace to enter. Plans within plans...

DUKE LETO

It was cunning. Learn from the day, and carry on.

HAWAT

Sire, my honor demands...

LETO

I don't give a damn about your honor! I care about my people. I care about my family. You want absolution? Go catch some spies.

Hawat nods curtly, swallowing his emotion.

HAWAT

Your Grace.

He exits. Alone, Leto stands at the window, looking out at the night. Fists driving into the concrete.

LETO

They tried to take the life of my son!

Hawat sits at his CRUCIBLE, a terminal that displays large data sets holographically. One of his hands rests on a sphere that allows him subtle neural control of the data-space. He looks like a chessmaster studying the board. Paul sits beside him, watching Hawat work. In the crucible: an intricate scatter-graph of thousands of dots connected by filaments of light. Pure data. Hawat's pupils flicker from point to point with unnatural rapidity.

HAWAT

The attack on you had more than one purpose. If it had succeeded, House Atreides would be without an heir. But even in failure -- it focuses our attention inside the walls, not out there. It clouds our thinking. Even a Mentat may be distracted by a threat to the ones he loves.

He lowers his eyes as he speaks. Paul looks at him fondly.

PAUL

You taught me about hunter-seekers. Your training kept me alive.

HAWAT

Then let us continue your training. What do you see?

Paul gazes into the Crucible. The shifting web of data.

PAUL

Assassinations.

HAWAT

I'll make a Mentat of you yet. Yes. We've lost a hundred and twenty-two people in two weeks. Poisonings. Bombings. Sabotaged machines. What's worse, the Harkonnens are targeting people we trade with.

PAUL

They're sending a message.

On Giedi Prime, the Mentat Piter de Vries sits at his own crucible. The Baron stands behind him, watching. [In the scene that follows, we will intercut between the two Mentats at work, in such a way that they will almost seem to be in the same room -- chessmasters playing a death-match.]

PITER

We are telling the people of Arrakis: to do business with House Atreides is to gamble your life. They cannot protect you.

Hawat transforms the data-space, mapping it cartographically to the globe of Arrakis:

HAWAT

We've had to garrison soldiers in every city, town, pan and sink in the northern hemisphere.

Piter and the Baron look at their own globe: a detailed map, on which clever eyes might see their invasion plans drawn.

BARON HARKONNEN

Their strength is spread thin.

PITER

Like a soap bubble about to burst.

Paul frowns.

PAUL

They're making us disperse our forces.

HAWAT

Yes. We've stopped them murdering the natives. But now the garrisons themselves are targets. Along with our Spice refineries. Factory crawlers. Spice freighters.

PITER

Above all, we hit the machinery. Without machines they gather no spice. Without spice, they make no money. Without money...

PAUL

They're starving us.

The ships of the Atreides fleet scatter over the planet's surface, just as the Atreides battalions did.

HAWAT

We've stationed the gunships of the fleet to defend critical points. The spaceport. The cities. Spice warehouses and water stores. The ice mines at the poles.

PAUL

Have there been attacks on our water infrastructure?

HAWAT

No. And I don't like the implications.

Piter gloats openly over the map...

PITER

We spare the water systems because when Arrakis is ours again...

BARON HARKONNEN

...we may have a thirst.

Hawat sits back in frustration.

HAWAT

But all of this, bloody as it is, is theater. Distraction. The matador's cape flapping in our eyes to conceal the sword poised to strike. They're going to hit us. But I don't yet see where.

An austere chamber without furniture. Jessica sits with Paul: cross-legged in the middle of the floor, facing each other. Between them an oil lamp burns with a tall, guttering flame.

JESSICA

Violence is the attempt to impose your will on the mind of another by applying force to their body. But there's a way to impose your will without violence.

PAUL

The Voice.

JESSICA

You must study every sign I've taught you. The eye. The breath. The mask. Posture. Gesture. Speech. Map your target's mind. The weaknesses of their psyche. When you have registered them completely, you can tune your voice to deliver a command that cannot be refused. A psychic imperative. (with power) DRINK THE FLAME.

Paul's eyes widen. Helplessly he reaches out, picks up the oil lamp and lifts it toward his lips, trembling.

JESSICA

STOP! You may put it down.

Shocked at the totality of her control, he sets it down.

PAUL

Is there no defense against this?

JESSICA

Some minds are more resistant. There are ways to guard your will. (gravely) Our enemies are all around us. Hawat can't keep you safe. You must keep your own watch. I will give you every weapon I can.

We follow Paul into a conference room dominated by a long table, where Leto's staff officers sit -- including Hawat and Gurney Halleck. Gurney rises as Paul enters, and grins.

GURNEY

Your first staff meeting! Paul Atreides, who catches hunter-seekers in his bare hands, like a hero of old!

Chuckles and applause around the table. Gurney claps Paul on the shoulder. Paul takes a seat beside his father's. Leto enters, the burden of leadership lying on his shoulders like a visible weight. He sits at the head of the table.

LETO

Let's get started. Gurney. What's the situation at the spaceport?

GURNEY

We've got a hard perimeter around Arrakeen Landing. The fleet's scattered all over the planet, but we're keeping a few gunships overhead around the clock. It's not easy: the Spacing Guild restricts the orbital space around Arrakis, to combat smuggling.

DUKE LETO

Very good. Thufir. Operations.

HAWAT

I secured a copy of the Harkonnens' account books.

That gets a reaction. A triumph of spycraft.

DUKE LETO

What do they tell us?

HAWAT

The Harkonnens took ten billion Solaris out of here every year.

The number hits the room like a bomb. A muted gasp of shock and awe. The officers sit up straighter in their chairs. In Leto's eyes there is a sudden flare of hope.

GURNEY

"For they shall suck of the abundance of the seas and the treasure hid in the sand."

Paul studies the officers' faces acutely. Reading the room.

HAWAT

We won't see profit like that for a while. Not with the equipment they left us.

LETO

How bad is it?

HAWAT

We have nine hundred and sixty spice harvesters: only about four hundred operational. And only enough carryalls to carry three hundred out to the spice sands. Everything's broken down. Neglect -- but also sabotage. Sand in gearboxes, wires cut, gauges broken. It'll be six months' work putting things right.

GURNEY

It's what we expected.

HAWAT

The repairs will cost us.

Hawat leads Leto, Paul, Gurney, and the other staff officers up to a SPICE FREIGHTER in a secured hangar.

HAWAT

If we want to avoid bankruptcy, we must harvest and sell.

The ship's cavernous cargo hold yawns open.

LETO

We have to fill this with spice? Up to the top?

HAWAT

Every twenty-five standard days.

A small stack of spice containers sits at the far end of the cargo hold, under armed guard.

LETO

And that's all we have so far?

HAWAT

Harkonnen sabotage has concentrated on our mining operations. Spice sands poisoned, workers murdered, machinery vandalized.

PAUL

How can that stand? Isn't there a Judge of the Change to oversee the transition? Enforce the Conventions?

GURNEY

Who did the Emperor appoint?

HAWAT

Dr. Liet Kynes. Imperial Ecologist. Been here twenty years. Eccentric, from what I'm told.

LETO

Get me a meeting.

The THUMPING OF ORNITHOPTER WINGS turns their heads. A wing of THREE ORNITHOPTERS swoops toward them at speed. Gurney looks tensely at Hawat. Hawat checks his transceiver.

HAWAT

Valid entry codes. They're friendlies.

The lead ornithopter comes in fast and low. Flares its wings dramatically and touches down lightly in a combat landing. Hawat's security personnel rush to check the aircraft. The pilot's door opens and Duncan Idaho climbs out. He is transformed: stubbled and sun-blasted. He wears a Fremen stillsuit and robes. A sword-belt around his hips. Three FREMEN disembark from his ornithopter and are escorted aside by Hawat's security team. The other two ornithopters land behind Idaho; squads of Fremen get out and fan out watchfully across the tarmac. They are lean desert warriors, male and female, proud and silent. Idaho walks toward Paul and the others with the smile of a conquering hero. Paul runs to meet him: they hug.

PAUL

Duncan!

DUNCAN IDAHO

I swear you're taller.

PAUL

Well, you're dirtier.

DUNCAN IDAHO

I have so much to tell you.

Duke Leto and his lieutenants gather around a worktable to hear Idaho's tale. The atmosphere is informal: Leto sits, but others stand or lean on crates. They talk rapidly, excited:

DUNCAN IDAHO

For four weeks I lived among the Fremen, in a community called a sietch. Hidden in the desert. Stilgar, the leader of that sietch, has come with me to meet you, Sire. Hawat's people are screening him.

LETO

This sietch. How was it hidden?

DUNCAN IDAHO

Underground. Arrakis is full of caverns. From the look of them, formed by water, ages ago. But there's no water now.

PAUL

How big was the place?

DUNCAN IDAHO

I'd estimate ten thousand people.

A murmur of astonishment around the table.

DUNCAN IDAHO

And there are hundreds of sietches.

LETO

Millions of Fremen. (to Hawat) You were right.

HAWAT

The Imperial estimate is fifty thousand on the whole planet!

LETO

They have no idea.

DUNCAN IDAHO

They watched me searching for them for days. I never saw them. Finally they sent a warrior out to kill me. I made myself hard to kill. Said I wanted to talk, in the Duke's name. I'll tell you, I've never been so close to dying. They fight like demons. There's a culture of honor among them: they settle any dispute by dueling to the death with knives. I saw two such combats in the time I was there. There are no finer fighters in the Imperium.

Leto's face is flush with excitement.

LETO

Well done.

SPECIALIST

Sire!

One of Hawat's SPECIALISTS brings in the Fremen leader: Stilgar, the man we saw in the desert before. He is proud and stern-faced. In his hands he holds a sheathed CRYSKNIFE.

SPECIALIST

He has a knife he won't surrender, Sire. He won't let us inspect it.

Idaho leans close to Leto and whispers:

DUNCAN IDAHO

A crysknife. Sacred to his people.

LETO

Let him pass!

Stilgar enters. He is followed by two Fremen warriors: a man and a woman. Both lean, dark, and poised as dancers. Paul is fascinated: here is a Fremen leader, a warrior. Silgar's eyes touch on Paul as well: son of the Bene Gesserit, who some call the Lisan al-Gaib.

LETO

Stilgar. Welcome. I will honor the traditions of the Fremen wherever my own laws and duties permit.

Stilgar bends over and spits on the table. A gasp of outrage. Gurney leaps up snarling, a hand on his sword.

DUNCAN IDAHO

HOLD! (to Stilgar, cordially) Thank you, Stilgar, for the gift of your body's moisture. We accept it in the spirit in which it is given.

And he spits on the table in his own turn. Duke Leto looks at Stilgar and Duncan, and spits on the table with a wry look.

DUKE LETO

Diplomacy!

The Atreides officers chuckle -- but not Stilgar.

DUKE LETO

I'm glad you've come. I think your people and mine have much to offer one another.

Stilgar looks back at him without warmth.

STILGAR

You are Outworlders, come for the spice. The gift of the Maker. You take it, giving nothing in return.

Paul stares at Stilgar, moved by his words.

PAUL

It's true.

Gurney bristles at Stilgar's arrogant air.

GURNEY

You will address the Duke as "Sire" or "My Lord..."

LETO

Gurney. (to Stilgar) I know you've suffered under the Harkonnens. Name what you want. If it is in my power to grant, I will give it and ask for nothing.

Stilgar considers this gravely.

STILGAR

I ask this: let us be. Do not seek our sietches or trespass in our lands. The desert was ours long before you came. Come and dig your spice. But when you have it, go back to this side of the Shield Wall. Leave the desert to the Fremen.

The Duke considers this earnestly. It's a grand demand.

LETO

The Emperor has given me Arrakis as my fief, to rule and protect. I cannot promise not to travel in the desert, if duty compels me: but your sietches will be yours forever -- and you will never be hunted while I govern here.

Stilgar weighs these words and finds them worthy. He nods.

STILGAR

That is all I have to say to you.

GURNEY

Sire.

Stilgar's eyes flick to Gurney. Unimpressed.

STILGAR

I must go.

PAUL

(impulsively) Won't you stay? We would honor you.

Stilgar's eyes find Paul. He gives a minimal nod of respect.

STILGAR

Honor requires that I be elsewhere. (in Chakobsa, subtitled) I recognize you.

Paul frowns, not understanding the words. Committing them to memory. Stilgar turns without further ceremony and strides back to his ornithopter, his Fremen bodyguard following him.

GURNEY

Well. He's a piece of work.

DUNCAN IDAHO

A force among his people. Feared and respected. His word is law.

Leto watches Stilgar go with a half-smile on his face.

LETO

If the other Fremen match him, we'll serve each other well.

Paul, Gurney, and Idaho sit on a balcony with a view of the date palms and the avenue in the golden light of sunset. Reunited friends with tales to tell. Drinking wine. Idaho pulls out a rugged instrument and passes it to Paul.

DUNCAN IDAHO

This is for you. A paracompass. The moons here have magnetic fields, so a simple compass needle won't point north. It takes a clever machine to sort it out.

Paul turns the paracompass in his hands, admiring it.

PAUL

The Fremen make these?

DUNCAN IDAHO

And stillsuits, and sand compactors ...all kinds of ingenious things.

GURNEY

What's a sand compactor?

Idaho pulls a stubby pistol-shaped device off his belt and hands over with a grin.

DUNCAN IDAHO

That's a sand compactor.

PAUL

You admire them.

DUNCAN IDAHO

I do. They're fierce, but loyal. Attuned to the desert. Part of it. It's part of them. Wait 'til you see. It's beautiful out there.

Duke Leto and Paul emerge from the Residency, followed by Gurney. All three wear stillsuits and desert gear. They approach a waiting ornithopter. There stands DR. KYNES. A tall, lean woman in her forties who exudes pride and intelligence. She has sandy hair, a sun-tanned face, and the shocking blue eyes of spice saturation. Atreides troops stand by with drawn swords and live shields. Kynes inclines her head as Duke Leto approaches.

KYNES

My Lord Duke.

LETO

You're the Imperial Ecologist.

KYNES

We prefer the old title here, my Lord. "Planetologist."

LETO

Paul, this is Dr. Liet Kynes, the Judge of the Change. Arbiter of dispute as we assume the rule of Arrakis. This is my son. Paul.

PAUL

Thank you for being our guide today. And thank you for the stillsuits.

KYNES

They are of Fremen make. The best. With your permission, Sire, I must check the integrity of your suits.

She moves toward Leto without waiting for an answer. The guards leap forward -- Gurney whipping his sword from its sheath by instinct -- but Leto holds up a hand.

LETO

It's all right.

He opens his desert robe, letting Kynes inside his guard. Close enough to kiss or kill. She checks his stillsuit swiftly and efficiently, making many small adjustments.

KYNES

A stillsuit is a high-efficiency filtration system. It cools the body, and recycles the water lost to sweat and other bodily fluids. Even salt is reclaimed. Your body's movements provide the power.

She shows Leto the filter and nose-plugs in his hood.

KYNES

In the open desert you wear this filter across your face, and these nose plugs. In good working order, your suit won't lose more than a thimbleful of water a day.

Leto nods his thanks. Intrigued by this strange woman.

KYNES

Let's have a look at you, lad.

She quickly inspects Paul's suit -- with growing perplexity. Everything is perfect, not a strap out of place.

KYNES

You've worn a stillsuit before?

PAUL

This is the first time.

KYNES

Your desert boots are fitted slip-fashion at the ankles. Who taught you to do that?

PAUL

It seemed the right way.

KYNES

It is the right way. (quietly in Chakobsa, subtitled) He shall know your ways as though born to them.

Paul studies Kynes curiously. Sensing something.

PAUL

Are you Fremen?

KYNES

I am accepted in both sietch and village. But I remain an out-worlder in the Emperor's service. Now. Come and see the spice sands on which your livelihood depends.

She turns to the ornithopter. Paul and Leto exchange glances -- sensing hidden depths in this Imperial Planetologist.

Kynes sits in the navigator's seat. Gurney and Paul climb in back. Kynes looks surprised as Duke Leto himself takes the pilot's seat. She hesitates diplomatically.

KYNES

Sire, Arrakis' winds are strong and unpredictable...are you sure...

GURNEY

The Duke's one of the best pilots in the Landsraad. Enjoy the ride.

Leto grins and feeds power to the wings. They beat like an eagle's wings as the ornithopter leaps off the ground.

POV: we watch their ornithopter lift off with its escorts. Doctor Yueh stands in Paul's window, watching them leave, a tragic look on his face. A MOVEMENT behind him as Jessica enters. He spins to face her, startled. Tears in his eyes.

JESSICA

Oh. Doctor Yueh. Are you all right?

DOCTOR YUEH

I'm sorry. My wife Wanna was killed by the Harkonnens. The last time I saw her face was in the window of an ornithopter as they took her away. Now partings make me melancholy.

Pity fills Jessica's face. She lays hand on his shoulder.

JESSICA

So many of us carry some hurt. There's no shame in showing it.

DOCTOR YUEH

Thank you, Jessica. (suddenly mortified) Forgive me, my Lady! I did not mean to be familiar.

But she smiles at him compassionately.

JESSICA

Wellington. You're family.

Doctor Yueh closes his eyes tightly. Tears trace his cheeks.

Leto's ornithopter crests the Shield Wall, revealing a hellish landscape of rock outcrops and hoodoos. Paul stares.

LETO

So, Dr. Kynes. When you report to the Emperor, will you say the rules were followed here?

KYNES

(shrugging) The Harkonnens left. You came.

Her insolent tone makes Gurney frown.

PAUL

You must see the troubles. The killings and sabotage.

KYNES

(reluctantly) The Atreides and Harkonnens live in a declared state of vendetta. Kanly, to use the ancient word. Violence is permitted, within limits. As Judge of the Change I must take that into account. I can't let every brawl in the streets take me from my work.

LETO

And what is your work?

KYNES

As Planetologist? Dry-land biology. Some geological study.

PAUL

Do you investigate the spice? Is there a relationship between the spice and the sandworms?

Kynes stiffens at the question. Looks from Leto to Paul.

LETO

You may speak freely without danger. We're not Harkonnens.

KYNES

Yes, I've seen your propaganda. "Love the good Duke!"

GURNEY

Here now!

LETO

Gurney!

The ornithopter flies into a rolling sea of endless dunes.

PAUL

What would you do if your ornithopter went down out here?

KYNES

I'd protect the integrity of my stillsuit. If I were outside the worm zone or in rock, I'd stay with the ship. If I went down in open sand, I'd get away from the ship as fast as I could. About a thousand meters would be far enough. Then I'd hide beneath my robe. A worm would get the ship but it might miss me.

PAUL

Then what?

KYNES

When the worm is gone, one may try to walk out. Imagine the sounds the dunes make, settling under the wind. Those are the sounds your feet must make. You must sound like nothing. Head for the nearest rock zone. You might make it.

GURNEY

Dust cloud. There!

LETO

I see it.

KYNES

That's one of your harvesters.

Leto flies toward a SPICE CRAWLER, a massive harvester on caterpillar tracks, sixty meters long. It's creeping across a SPICE BED -- a rust-red patch of melange in the desert. Its stack throws a plume of yellow sand high into the air. Three ornithopters -- SPOTTERS -- circle overhead.

KYNES

A rich spice bed, by the color. They'll stay as long as they can. You see the spotter aircraft, looking for wormsign.

LETO

Wormsign?

KYNES

A sand wave moving toward the crawler. They'll have seismic probes on the surface, too. Worms sometimes travel too deep for the wave to show.

GURNEY

A worm always comes?

KYNES

Always.

PAUL

Why don't we shield the crawlers?

KYNES

A shield's a death sentence in the desert. They attract the worms and drive them into a killing frenzy.

She breaks off as the Duke kicks on the jet brakes. The ship bucks as its wings elongate and cup the air. The craft becoming a full "thopter" as the Duke banks it, holding the wings to a gentle beat, pointing with his left hand off to the east beyond the factory dune crawler.

KYNES

Is that a worm?

DUKE LETO

Is that a worm?

Where the dunes recede in curves to the horizon, a straight track cuts through them: a wave-crest approaching, the way a fish disturbs the water when swimming beneath the surface.

KYNES

A big one. You have good eyes. She leans back and selects a frequency, looking at a grid chart on a roller over their heads. Speaks into a microphone: Calling crawler Delta Ajax niner. Wormsign warning! Acknowledge."

After a moment a reply crackles back, casual and laconic:

CRAWLER RADIOMAN

Who calls Delta Ajax niner? Over.

GURNEY

They seem pretty calm about it.

KYNES

(into microphone) Unlisted flight, Imperium business. Wormsign north and east of you three point seven kilometers.

SPOTTER ONE PILOT

Delta Ajax niner, this is Spotter One. Wormsign confirmed. Stand by for contact fix. (a crackle of static) Worm is on intercept course your position, contact in five minutes.

CRAWLER RADIOMAN

Copy, Spotter One.

GURNEY

What happens now?

KYNES

They'll call the carryall to lift the crawler. They'll harvest right up to the last minute.

Leto cranes his head around, frowning. He banks the 'thopter past the crawler's sand plume. Scanning the horizon.

LETO

I'm not seeing a carryall.

KYNES

It'll come.

Leto climbs, searching. Still no carryall.

CRAWLER RADIOMAN

Carryall Alpha Zero please respond. Spotters, gimme your eyes. Anybody got a visual on the carryall?

The Spotters respond: Negative. Negative. Negative. The wormsign keeps coming, on a direct course to the crawler.

PAUL

Is there any way to kill that thing?

KYNES

Short of atomics? No.

SPOTTER ONE PILOT

Contact in three minutes.

CRAWLER RADIOMAN

All call. All call. Any carryall in the sector please respond.

He doesn't sound so casual anymore. A new voice breaks in:

CARRYALL A-38

This is Carryall Alpha-Three-Eight. We are twenty minutes out. We can't get there. I'm sorry.

LETO

How many men on that crawler?

GURNEY

Crew of eighteen.

LETO

The spotters should be able to take two each. Our ships can take three.

PAUL

(doing mental math) That's still three short.

LETO

How could they lose sight of a carryall?!

KYNES

They keep their eyes on the sand.

Leto grabs the microphone.

LETO

This is Duke Leto Atreides. We are coming down to take off Delta Ajax niner's crew. All spotters are ordered to comply. Spotters land on the east side. We'll put down on the west.

He lands his 'thopter deftly despite the buffeting winds. His two escort craft land nearby. Paul looks out at the escorts.

PAUL

A shield generator weighs a hundred kilos.

Leto looks at him with fierce approval.

LETO

Yes! Gurney, have our escorts throw out their shield generators.

Gurney opens the door and climbs out into the wind, running to the escorts. Paul is shocked by the scent on the air.

PAUL

You can smell the spice.

LETO

If we took off under jet power, we could crowd in one more man.

KYNES

You'll snap your wings.

LETO

Not on this ship. Where are they? (shouting into the mic) Delta Ajax niner! Put two men each in the spotters. Four men each in my ships! Now!

CRAWLER RADIOMAN

We got a full load of spice! We can't just leave it!

LETO

Damn the spice! Evacuate now!

The crawler's crew tumbles out onto the sand. Kynes looks at Leto in startled admiration. Here is a leader of men.

KYNES

Contact in two minutes.

Paul jumps out onto the sand.

The spice bed is cinnamon-red underfoot. Paul's feet sink deeply into it: it sounds different from sand. The crawler is still creeping slowly forward on its caterpillar tracks. In the distance, the approaching wormsign is clearly visible. Paul shouts at the spice workers stumbling through the dust.

PAUL

THIS WAY! Four there! Four in here!

They run past him gratefully, in desperate haste. Then a GUST OF WIND slashes across the spice bed -- and COATS Paul's face and body with a fine dust of melange. His breath catches. His pupils dilate. His heart POUNDS.

PAUL'S SPICE VISION

An orange vapor seems to surround Paul, tinting his vision. All around him on the dunes, he sees a FREMEN ARMY: thousands of men and women, robes and stillsuits red with the blood of their enemies, raising crysknives to the sky in a battle-frenzy. Baring their teeth as they raise the shout:

FREMEN ARMY

Lisan al-Gaib! Lisan al-Gaib!

Paul turns away -- only to confront a MOUNTAIN OF BURNING CORPSES, hundreds upon hundreds -- and beyond it, another and another, dozens of bonfires extending to the horizon.

ON PAUL

Beside the crawler, the worm bearing down on him. He falls to his knees, eyes wide and staring, lost in his vision.

DUKE LETO'S ORNITHOPTER

Kynes wrestles the back seat out of the aircraft and throws it on the sand. Spice workers crawl in and sit on the deck. Gurney arrives beside her. Takes an instant head count.

GURNEY

Who's missing?

Leto stares past him, his voice suddenly ragged with dread:

LETO

Paul. Go!

Gurney spins. Paul, on his knees, is a tiny inert figure almost under the spice crawler's caterpillar treads. The worm is almost upon them. The other ornithopters are lifting off. The Spotters already in the air.

PAUL'S SPICE VISION

A fleeting glimpse of a FETUS in the womb, blood beating. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen stands in the wind before Paul, roaring in rage and clutching his neck. Before him stands a LITTLE GIRL in Fremen dress. Defiant, strong, her face full of a cold and terrible wrath.

LITTLE GIRL

I'm sorry, Grandfather.

ON PAUL

As Gurney drags him to his feet, shaking him from the vision.

GURNEY

We have to run, Paul! Now!

The hissing of the great worm through the sand fills the air. A tidal wave of sand about to break over them.

DUKE LETO'S ORNITHOPTER

Leto lifts off with the ramp down, jets screaming. Eyes locked on his son. Driving the aircraft to its limits. The sand wave subsides as the worm dives under the crawler. Leto slides the ornithopter sideways with consummate skill. Paul and Gurney run out of the dust and leap onto the ramp. Gurney grabs a rail with one hand and Paul with the other.

GURNEY (CONT'D)

Go go go!

Leto gives it everything. The overloaded ornithopter claws for altitude, jets burning, wings beating. Metal CREAKS dangerously. Turbines whine like banshees... The crawler falls away below them -- THE WORM ERUPTS. Swallowing the entire spice crawler in a gulp, its cavernous maw rising out of the desert like a nightmare toward the struggling ornithopter. Clinging to Gurney, Paul stares down into that mouth in a semi-trance. Smelling the spice on the worm's hot breath.

And then they're away, watching the Worm sink back into the sand, swallowing all their treasure. Paul sees Kynes muttering under her breath with religious fervor, her eyes on the worm below:

KYNES

Bless the Maker and His Water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world and keep the world for His people.

But the rescued spice workers have eyes only for Duke Leto. Bowing their heads to the house, fists to their brows, in a gesture of honor.

Duke Leto and Paul get out of Leto's ornithopter and walk toward the Residency. Leto leans close and speaks gently:

LETO

You cannot take such risks. You have responsibilities. You're the future of House Atreides.

PAUL

I'm sorry. It won't happen again.

Jessica runs out of the house. She's heard what happened. She throws her arms around both of them. Beside the ornithopter, Kynes stands watching the family embrace. Plainly moved. A tragic look in her eyes.

Duke Leto, still in desert gear, sits with his staff: Hawat, Gurney, Idaho, and others, including Idaho's second-in-command, LANVILLE -- a familiar face from staff meetings. Leto's face is taut with controlled anger.

LETO

All this Harkonnen sabotage keeps us off-balance. But their focus on harassing us here may mean they've lowered their guard at home. (he grins wolfishly) When the Harkonnens left Arrakis, they carried away a huge private stockpile of spice.

Gurney arches an eyebrow.

GURNEY

Hoarding spice is against Imperial law.

LETO

Which makes it hard to complain if your stockpile is destroyed.

HAWAT

It's on Giedi Prime, outside the capital.

Warrior grins on all the men's faces. They want to hit back.

IDAHO

They won't expect trouble at home.

LETO

Pick a small team of good men.

LANVILLE

Your Grace. With your permission -- I'd like to lead that team.

Leto nods at him gravely, knowing the risk he's accepting.

LETO

Keep it quiet. Get it done.

Paul sits on his desk chair as Doctor Yueh examines him. Jessica stands beside him, concerned.

DOCTOR YUEH

Spice is a psychoactive chemical. You seem to be sensitive to large doses. A liability on Arrakis. You'll be fine. Drink a lot of water. And in the future, try to limit your exposure.

He nods respectfully and exits. Paul looks at his mother.

PAUL

This wasn't an allergic reaction. I had a vision. With my eyes wide open.

JESSICA

What did you see?

PAUL

War and death. An army of blood. The Baron Harkonnen. I don't know what it means.

JESSICA

It means you have the Sight.

For a moment Paul sounds like a little boy. Shaken:

PAUL

I think we should leave this world.

Paul stands staring out at the cliffs of the Shield Wall. His face troubled. Behind him in the fresco on the wall, a vast sandworm undulates through the rolling dunes. The Shadout Mapes comes down the hall with some burden. In a glance she takes in his turbulent emotion. She stops at his side and speaks with quiet kindness.

SHADOUT MAPES

You are touched by Shai-Hulud.

She lays a hand on his shoulder, indifferent to protocol.

SHADOUT MAPES (CONT'D)

The vision is a gift. Don't be afraid to see.

She walks on. He looks after her in wonder.

A harsh planet, its stony ground raked by strong winds. This is a massive military base. Scores of gunships and troop carriers are grounded here. Ornithopters buzz overhead. Gigantic Imperial flags flutter in the wind, bearing the Emperor's crest: a golden lion.

SUPER: SALUSA SECUNDUS

Thousands of warriors in armored suits kneel on the tarmac. They are SARDAUKAR, the Emperor's elite soldiers. They are pale-skinned and bearded, their hair worn long. Where the Atreides troops have an air of gallantry about them, these are savages: eyes full of aggression and bloodlust, empty of compassion. They were bred for murder. A cadaverous PRIEST sings a litany in some foreign tongue -- the sounds menacing and strange. VICARS walk the rows of soldiers with BOWLS OF BLOOD. Dipping their thumbs, they daub each Sardaukar's forehead and tongue.

The blood flows from the sliced throats of prisoners crucified upside down at the edge of the field. A BASHAR of the Sardaukar, an officer, leads Piter de Vries on an inspection of the troops. Even Piter is daunted.

SARDAUKAR BASHAR

You outnumber the Atreides three to one. Still you come to us.

PITER

The Atreides legions are the finest in the Imperium. Trained by Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho.

The Bashar spins on him with a snarl, making Piter step back.

SARDAUKAR BASHAR

We are the Sardaukar. The Emperor's blades. All who stand against us fall.

PITER

Just so. Three battalions. As agreed.

SARDAUKAR BASHAR

When?

PITER

Now. The Atreides forces are scattered and exhausted. Their treasury spent. They are weak. Only the strong may rule Arrakis.

The Sardaukar finish their ritual. They rise in unison and thrust their swords into the air with a cry. Piter flinches.

SARDAUKAR BASHAR

The Emperor commands it. It is done.

Leto stands looking down at the street. Gurney beside him. Below, Arrakeen natives are tying bundles of sage to the Residency gates with strips of white cloth. They bow their heads to the house, fists to their brows, and depart.

GURNEY

Offerings. Your rescue in the desert stirred their hearts.

LETO

Anyone would have done the same.

Gurney shakes his head cynically.

GURNEY

You think too well of people. (nodding at the offerings) Maybe that's why they think so well of you.

Leto sits at his private desk, being examined by Doctor Yueh. Jessica stands watching, concern in her face.

DOCTOR YUEH

You haven't slept in six days.

LETO

I'll sleep. I promise. But not tonight. There's too much to do.

Yueh hesitates. Lays a white pill on a little silver tray beside Leto's water glass.

DOCTOR YUEH

Half your officer corps is on stimulants. It's not sustainable.

LETO

I know. I know. Thank you, Doctor.

Yueh nods and exits. Leto takes the pill and washes it down. Shudders as the energy jolt hits him. Rubs his face wearily.

LETO (CONT'D)

We found more spice workers. We might actually get that shipment out. We're so close.

Jessica goes to him. Pulls his head against her.

JESSICA

I can feel the weight on your shoulders.

Her touch melts him. He relaxes into her, finding refuge in her body and her voice. He sighs deeply, eyes closing. She whispers softly into his hair:

JESSICA (CONT'D)

You're not alone.

Leto allows himself one more moment of solace -- and then sits back. Returning to his duties.

LETO

In three days we open our doors to the leading citizens of Arrakeen.

JESSICA

We could cancel. You need rest.

LETO

No. We've been here two weeks and made no public appearances. We can't look weak. Hospitality is a show of strength.

She kisses his forehead.

JESSICA

All right. Throw your soirée. Let me mingle with the guests. I'll tell you who your enemies are.

Gurney Halleck watches as a container of spice is loaded into the freighter under guard. The freighter stands half full. A distant BOOM! turns his head. A billow of black smoke rises inside the Arrakeen city walls.

The tactical center is fully equipped now, but Leto and Paul are alone here. Leto looks haggard and hunted. Paul looks concerned: he's never seen his father this way.

LETO

Paul, there's something you need to know, if anything should happen...

PAUL

Nothing's going to happen to you.

LETO

There's more to Arrakis than the spice. On Caladan we ruled by air power and sea power. Here, we must cultivate desert power. The Fremen are ten million strong: an army to match the Emperor's Sardaukar, hidden in plain sight. Hawat saw. It's why we walked into this trap. The Fremen are the key. It's not enough to make peace with them. We need an alliance. (MORE) The legend they've attached to you. This Lisan al-Gaib business. As a last resort, you could capitalize on that. You can have all the ships and guns you want: if you cannot inspire people to follow you, you have no power at all.

Paul looks at Leto, troubled -- recognizing the death thoughts in his father's words.

Armored Atreides guards keep watch, scanning the desert with night-vision binoculars. All is quiet. All is still.

Discreetly decorated and moodily lit, the Great Hall looks beautiful. Guests mingle on the floor, sipping wine or water. Duke Leto, Jessica, and Paul survey the scene from a balcony. They are dressed in formal finery, to great effect: Leto in a military uniform glittering with decorations. A dress sword on his hip. Paul in a version of the same. Jessica, for her part, wears a ravishing gown. Her hair up and styled for the first time. Discreet jewelry sparkling.

JESSICA

That stout fellow is Lingar Bewt. The city's wealthiest water-shipper. And there's Esmar Tuek, king of the Smugglers.

LINGAR BEWT is a barrel-shaped bald man in a satin jacket. The girl on his arm a breathtaking beauty with bare shoulders and tumbling hair. Bewt pats her arm as he whispers to her. ESMAR TUEK is alone. He has a scar across one cheek, a bristling Van Dyke, and a piratical outfit seemingly pieced together from several expensive but unrelated suits.

PAUL

We invited a smuggler?

JESSICA

He has fast ships, and he can be bribed. If all else fails, the smugglers are a way off this world. That fellow manufactures stillsuits. And the tall woman represents the Guild Bank.

LETO (CONT'D)

The Guild Banker, SOO-SOO, is a distinguished woman of commanding height with cropped white hair. She, too, has a pretty girl on her arm: an ingenue of weaponized beauty.

LETO

And there's our good Planetologist, Doctor Kynes. Very practical notion of formalwear.

Kynes wears a simple linen dress, fitted to her slim frame. It is without ornament, but somehow strikingly beautiful.

PAUL

She may have arrived on Arrakis an outworlder, but she's Fremen now.

Leto cocks an eye at Kynes, struck by that idea.

JESSICA

Let's go down.

MAIN FLOOR

The Atreides descend the grand staircase like a fairy tale, to applause. All of Leto's lieutenants are here: Idaho greeting guests; Gurney plucking his baliset; Hawat scanning the crowd. Even Yueh is here, keeping to himself and neglecting his drink. Bewt, the water-seller, bows to Duke Leto.

BEWT

Your Grace. You've torn down the Harkonnen pillories. Will you also destroy the trees in front of this house? Or continue flaunting them before the people?

His insolence makes Leto's temper flare, but before he can growl a response, Jessica glides smoothly to his side.

JESSICA

We hold those date palms in trust for the people of Arrakis. It's our dream that someday the climate of Arrakis may be changed enough to grow such trees in open country.

KYNES

quietly, in Chakobsa, subtitled

And they shall share your most precious dream.

Leto sees Kynes staring at Jessica with a sort of rapture.

SOO-SOO

I hear another spice crawler was lost to a worm.

Her tone is pleasant but the remark is barbed. Leto turns.

LETO

Yes. A carryall disappeared. When the worm came, there was no way to recover the crawler. (with iron in his voice) We will see to it a price is paid.

Gurney strolls by, playing his baliset. Leto catches his eye and nods: Gurney stops playing. The silence turns heads.

LETO (CONT'D)

(to the room) As a Chevalier of the Imperium, I offer a toast!

He raises his goblet. His guests follow suit -- an upraised forest of crystal. An expectant hush.

LETO (CONT'D)

Here I am and here I remain!

He barks the words like a challenge. An uncertain silence follows. Glasses held high. Leto's eyes find Soo-Soo the Guild Banker, and Bewt the Water-Seller: they stand frozen.

LETO (CONT'D)

You honor me with your company.

He drinks, and they all drink with him. Conversation returns. Bewt, Soo-Soo, Kynes, and Tuek watch the Atreides family cross the room, greeting their guests.

BEWT

A spice harvester is a heavy loss.

SOO-SOO

As Judge of the Change, will you challenge this?

Kynes is reluctant to speak on the issue. She seems troubled.

KYNES

I'll judge when more is known.

TUEK

But the Duke saved the crew. Risking his life, and his son.

His approval is manifest. Tuek likes a man of action.

KYNES

Yes. The city is abuzz with it.

ACROSS THE ROOM

Several pretty girls converge on Paul. They're only a few years older than he: finely dressed and practicing flirtation as an art form.

GIRL #1

Does your homeworld really have oceans?

PAUL

Yes. There's more water than land.

The girls gasp and giggle at that fantastic notion.

GIRL #2

What if you fall in?!

PAUL

Everyone on Caladan can swim.

GIRL #3

What is "swimming?"

Idaho arrives and distributes drinks. Jessica glides past and catches Paul's eye. Throws him a subtle hand sign:

JESSICA

hand signal, subtitled

All the girls are spies.

Paul returns a hand sign behind the back of one of the girls:

PAUL

hand signal, subtitled

Obviously.

ON HAWAT

Hawat sees Tuek touch his ear as a communication comes in. Tuek cuts through the crowd to Gurney and murmurs in his ear.

TUEK

My people were just approached by a man with a carryall to sell.

Gurney stops playing. Throws a hand signal to Hawat. Jessica sees people look up as the music stops. Gurney and Hawat converge on Duke Leto and murmur to him. They all hurry toward the exit. At the door Leto turns to the crowd.

LETO

Forgive me. A matter has arisen that requires my attention. Paul, take over as host, if you please.

He exits with Gurney and Hawat. The whole room turns to look at Paul. He takes a few steps away from the girls and picks up the thread smoothly.

PAUL

Dr. Kynes. When Arrakis was first colonized, the Imperium established Ecological Research Stations across the planet. Some say those stations are still out there, equipment and all. Sealed up and waiting.

Kynes is surprised and impressed by Paul's knowledge.

KYNES

Long before my time, my Lord, but I doubt anything remains of them. The desert's not kind to the works of humanity. Sandstorms cut through metal. The static fries circuitry. And the dust swallows everything.

JESSICA

And yet the Fremen live there.

BEWT

It's said they travel anywhere they like. They've scouted out soaks and sip-wells across the deep desert.

PAUL

Soaks and sip-wells?

KYNES

Wild tales. A soak is a place where water seeps to the surface. A sip-well is a place were water can be drawn from the ground through a straw. These are known on other planets. Not on Arrakis.

Jessica glances at Paul.

JESSICA

hand signal, subtitled

She's lying.

PAUL

There are rumors ships in orbit have seen greenery in the deep desert.

KYNES

This is Dune, my Lord. There's a rumor for everything.

Laughter sweeps the room, and the party breaks once more into smaller conversations.

OMITTED

Paul wearily strips off his dress uniform. Lays out his sword and dagger, his medals and ribbons. He has just stepped into his father's shoes for a moment. Now he is lost in thought. Doctor Yueh appears in the doorway.

YUEH

Your body needs recovery time. Take this before you lie down. It will deepen your sleep.

He sets a pink tablet on a tray on the nightstand. Paul nods.

OMITTED

The guests have gone. Only Gurney and Idaho remain, sitting at a little table, a whiskey bottle between them. Servants tidy up discreetly at the margins. Gurney raises his glass.

GURNEY

We will tame this place.

IDAHO

Or it will break us.

They drink, their eyes meeting. Old friends, and veterans of many battles. They clasp wrists.

Leto and Jessica lie in bed. A tense frown on his brow.

LETO

We got the carryall back. But the crew was murdered. What did you see, tonight?

JESSICA

The woman from the Guild Bank is not our friend. I fear the Spacing Guild itself is against us. I counted three Harkonnen agents, including Bewt, the water-shipper.

Leto starts to rise, frowning, but Jessica pulls him back.

JESSICA (CONT'D)

You have to sleep.

She reaches for the silver tray on her bedside table: a sleeping pill from Doctor Yueh.

LETO

Not like that.

She smiles, knowing what he wants.

JESSICA

Close your eyes.

He obeys. She lays her fingers on his temples, her thumb on his third eye, and hums softly, a beautiful, hypnotic drone. Instantly Leto's breathing deepens. The lines in his face smooth away. He whispers...

LETO

Bene Gesserit...!

And he's asleep. Jessica lies back. Lays a hand on her belly with a listening expression, meditative. She smiles serenely. She takes her sleeping pill and closes her eyes.

One by one the lights in the windows go out. The house shields shimmer in the moonlight.

Paul stirs in his sleep. Eyes moving under closed lids.

INSERT: THE DREAM GIRL

She looks at him in the warm light of the lanterns, so close.

DREAM GIRL

Tell me about the waters of your homeworld, Usul.

Leto awakens with a little gasp of anxiety. He looks at Jessica: she sleeps deeply beside him. His eyes stray out the window. Far away, on the Shield Wall cliffs, a FLICKERING LIGHT draws his attention. He gets out of bed, staring at it. It's barely visible at the edge of the window.

Leto walks down a hallway to a wide window with a clearer view of the Shield Wall. The flashing light is unmistakable: Blink-squirt, flicker, flash. A signal! From a roof nearby he sees another light flash in answer. He frowns. What does it mean? A strange MEWLING NOISE turns his head. An odd animal sound. Inside the house. He switches on his shield. Draws his knife. Follows the sound, touching his transceiver as he goes:

DUKE LETO

Security. Security. Hawat.

No answer. A faint hiss of static. Something moves in the shadows: a figure, dragging itself along the floor. A knife jutting from its back. A trail of blood stretching away behind. It's the Shadout Mapes. Dying by inches. Leto kneels beside her. Turns her on her side. Her eyes find his in the dark.

SHADOUT MAPES

a hoarse whisper

Shield...generators...shields...

She dies. Leto looks down the passageway in alarm. He runs.

Swift and silent, Leto races to the door of the Shield Generator Room. The door, clearly labeled, stands ajar. Inside, the massive generators are still humming. Power on.

BEHIND LETO

A DART PISTOL comes to bear and FIRES. A dart shoots out. As it approaches Leto's shield it opens tiny wings and slows, swooping like a swallow through the shield at low speed -- -- then folds its wings and DIVES INTO HIS BACK. Leto stiffens as the drugged dart takes effect. He spins -- but his legs buckle. He staggers and slides down the wall to the floor. Knife clattering from nerveless fingers. Doctor Yueh walks into the Shield Generator Room. Shuts the shields down as the paralyzed Leto stares in horror.

The House shields shut off. HARKONNEN DROPSHIPS swoop out of the darkness and touch down in the streets. SOLDIERS in HARKONNEN UNIFORMS emerge and race toward the Residency, shields shimmering around them.

Long rows of steel bunks. Gurney Halley lies sleeping beside his regiment. A LIEUTENANT bursts in and shakes him awake.

LIEUTENANT

Sir. There's a Guild Heighliner overhead.

GURNEY

frowning

We don't have a contract for one.

Gurney and his men spill out into the night, pulling on jackets and belts. In orbit overhead they can see the running lights of a colossal Guild Heighliner -- and from that mighty ship a VAST HARKONNEN WAR FLEET is issuing: big frigates, fast gunships, troop carriers. Quartering the sky in their hundreds. Gurney stares at the sight and despair fills his face.

GURNEY

God in Heaven. Get everything with guns off the ground!

The spaceport control tower BLOWS UP in a brutal and spectacular explosion.

Harkonnen Frigates, blazoned with the griffin symbol, open fire with their big guns, shelling the surface. Below, the night side of Arrakis is a sea of darkness punctuated by islands of light: cities and towns. Explosions begin to flicker around the cities. IMPERIAL TROOPSHIPS open their bays. Thousands of SARDAUKAR in armored spacesuits step out into the airless dark. The Sardaukar jump: free-falling away from the troopships. A myriad tiny stars, accelerating towards the dark surface.

Gurney leads his men across the tarmac, swords drawn, shields on. Troopships are spilling Harkonnen soldiers ahead of them. A Sardaukar drops out of the sky and lands in front of Gurney. Gurney charges him. A swift exchange of blades -- and Gurney kills the Sardaukar, taking his sword as he falls. He looks around. His men vastly outnumbered. Sardaukar raining down all over the spaceport. He roars like a lion:

GURNEY

WITH ME! WITH ME!

He charges, a sword in each hand, a wolfish smile on his face. And his men follow him into the jaws of hell.

The Atreides house guards are holding against the Harkonnens, bodies piling up at their feet. Then Sardaukar begin dropping from the sky. They join the battle. Atreides guards fall. The invading force breaks through. Into the Residency.

Duke Leto sits slumped against the wall, shield deactivated. Yueh stoops over him. Leto tries to rise and cannot move.

DOCTOR YUEH

I'm sorry, my Lord. I am. But I've made a bargain with the Baron.

DUKE LETO

Why...?

DOCTOR YUEH

I had no choice. The Harkonnens have my wife. Wanna. She is Bene Gesserit -- with total control of her body and mind. Do you know how far you have to go to torture such a woman?

He is in agony at the thought, tears streaming down his face.

DOCTOR YUEH

(CONT'D)

They take her apart like a doll. They made me watch. Made me listen. I will buy her freedom. And you are the price. But you and I will make another bargain, between us.

He pulls the Ducal signet ring off Leto's hand. Holds it up.

DOCTOR YUEH

(CONT'D)

For Paul. I will do what I can.

The thought of his family drives Leto to desperation. But his paralysis is deepening and he cannot speak.

DOCTOR YUEH

(CONT'D)

And you will kill a man for me.

Leto stares at him, not understanding.

DOCTOR YUEH

(CONT'D)

The peg tooth I put in your mouth after your tumble at Narcal... I'm going to replace that tooth.

He holds up a new false tooth.

DOCTOR YUEH

(CONT'D)

If you bite down hard, this tooth will crush. Breathe out, and you will fill the air with poison. It will be your last breath. But if you choose your moment well ...it will also be the Baron's.

Leto tries to mouth a word: No. His lips barely move.

DOCTOR YUEH

(CONT'D)

The tooth. Remember the tooth!

He holds it up before Leto's eyes: the last thing Leto sees as consciousness slips away.

Duncan lies asleep atop his covers, wearing his trousers and undershirt, and one boot. His door stands open. Distant sounds trouble his sleep: the clash of blades. His eyes open. In the hallway, a HARKONNEN SOLDIER walks past his open door. Idaho's eyes go wide. A split-second later the Harkonnen soldier steps back into the doorway, peering into the room. Idaho's bed is empty. Then Idaho's hand slips around the edge of the doorway and PLANTS A DAGGER in the Harkonnen's throat. He falls dead.

Duncan Idaho steps out into the hallway in his boots, trousers and undershirt -- strapping his sword belt around his hips. Switches on his shield and runs down the hallway. Another soldier comes around the corner. Not a Harkonnen, but a Sardaukar in battle armor. They cross blades.

DUNCAN IDAHO

Sardaukar!

The Sardaukar's eyes widen in recognition.

DISGUISED SARDAUKAR

Duncan Idaho. The Emperor sends his regar --

Idaho slips through the Sardaukar's guard and kills him.

Idaho battles up a staircase, fighting two Sardaukar. He kills one. The other fires TWO DARTS from a SLOW-DART PISTOL: they slam into Idaho's shield and begin to tunnel inward... Idaho slashes one dart with his sword, destroying it. Parries a blow from the Sardaukar who fired it -- then slashes the other dart out of existence just before it punches through. Idaho quick-draws his own PISTOL and fires a dart into the Sardaukar's shield in turn. The Sardaukar slashes at the dart and misses -- and then Idaho's sword runs him through.

Idaho bursts out onto the roof and barricades the door behind him. He is momentarily alone. A gigantic HARKONNEN FRIGATE hovers over the Residency. Idaho runs along the edge of the roof, looking down. The date palms out front are on fire, casting a lurid light over the scene. There are hundreds of soldiers flooding into the house. Harkonnen ornithopters landing in the streets below. There is no battle to win. This is a massacre. In a courtyard Idaho sees Atreides soldiers lined up on their knees. The Sardaukar begin to BEHEAD THEM with methodical swiftness. Rabban takes part in the execution with bloodthirsty zeal. Idaho's hands tighten on his weapons. He is frantic with rage: he would fight them all. But there's nothing he can do. An ornithopter sweeps low over the Residency, searchlights sweeping the roof. Idaho hides behind a ventilation stack. CRASH! Sardaukar burst through the door he barricaded. Idaho sprints across the roof and LEAPS OFF. In mid-air he activates his shield-belt's suspensor field, slowing his fall. He glides down between two burning palms, coming out of the smoke like a ghost.

Idaho comes down on top of a Sardaukar and stabs him through the top of his head. He runs through the chaos. He drags a Harkonnen pilot out of a grounded ornithopter and kills him. Gets in and starts it up. Screams from the Sardaukar around him: he's been spotted! Projectiles ricochet off the ornithopter as Idaho lifts off, mechanical wings kicking up dust.

Idaho flies away at speed, staying low. Cornering like an eagle. LASER BEAMS rake at him scarring the building-fronts. ROCKET-PROPELLED GRENADES just missing. And then he's away, escaping into the dark, war-torn city.

Jessica lies on the floor in her nightgown. Ankles tied, wrists bound behind her back. Mouth gagged. Her eyes closed.

BARON HARKONNEN

(O.S.)

No use pretending. I know you're awake. Doctor Yueh controlled your dosage precisely.

Jessica's eyes snap open. Yueh! A pair of oddly feminine shoes walk into view -- topped by tree-trunk legs...and the lunar bulk of the Baron's body. He leans over Jessica, checking her bindings with his porcine hands. The great soft bulk of his belly pressing down on her. His jeweled fingers linger on the gag between her lips.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

A pity to stop up this mouth. We could have such an interesting conversation. But I know the power of your voice.

A trooper lays Jessica on a suspensor-buoyed litter. A second litter slides up beside her, carrying Paul. He appears unconscious, rolled away from her -- but then his bound hands begin to move subtly. Hand signals.

PAUL

(hand signal, subtitled)

The scarred one is deaf.

Jessica glances up as the litters begin to move. Sees the DEAF TROOPER pushing her down the corridor with a scowl.

Outside, the night is lit by fire and riven by the fading sounds of battle. The night is won. Harkonnens victorious. Paul stares in horror at the bodies in Atreides uniforms littering the pavement. The spreading pools of blood. Jessica and Paul are loaded roughly into an ornithopter by the Deaf Trooper and TWO OTHER TROOPERS.

FIRST TROOPER

We'll drop 'em in the desert. Someplace the worms'll get 'em.

SECOND TROOPER

Why not just cut their throats?

FIRST TROOPER

It's the Duke's family. We could face a Truthsayer for this. Gotta be able to say we didn't kill 'em.

The doors close. The ornithopter lifts off.

The Second Trooper pilots. The First Trooper and Deaf Trooper sit in the copilot and navigator positions, respectively. Paul and Jessica are strapped into the rear seats. Ankles bound. Hands tied behind them. Jessica still gagged. They look in horror at the devastation of Arrakeen. The impossible multitude of Harkonnen troops and warships. Their eyes meet. A calm descending on both of them. This is life or death. Their minds shift into higher levels of thought. Bene Gesserit awareness. Mentat calculation. They study their captors. The ornithopter. Jessica sees the BLACK DIAMOND OF THE SUK SCHOOL etched on the back of the seat in front of her. Something is stashed under the seat.

The ornithopter passes over the Shield Wall into the desert. In the distance we see Arrakeen Landing on fire. The Atreides fleet reduced to a row of gutted hulks.

The ornithopter holds its heading, leaving the Troopers little to do. They turn. Their eyes finding Jessica.

FIRST TROOPER

I never had a highborn. You?

SECOND TROOPER

Bene Gesserit ain't all highborn.

FIRST TROOPER

Highborn enough for me.

The Deaf Trooper reads lips; he's followed this exchange.

DEAF TROOPER

Let's feed the cub to the worms and give her a long goodbye.

Paul studies the First Trooper with Bene Gesserit intensity. His eyes. His lips. His hands. The pulse in his neck.

PAUL

Don't you dare touch my mother!

The Deaf Trooper gets up and kicks Paul in the stomach. Paul grunts in pain, gasping for air.

DEAF TROOPER

Don't talk.

The ornithopter enters the desert proper, low over the dunes. Paul slows his breathing. Masters his body. Gets his breath. Beside him, Jessica sees what he's about to do and stiffens. He's not ready. She tries to catch his eye in vain. Paul focuses on the First Trooper.

PAUL

(attempting the Voice)

REMOVE HER GAG.

No effect. The Deaf Trooper backhands Paul across the face. The First Trooper taps the Deaf Trooper on the shoulder.

FIRST TROOPER

We're far enough out. Let's toss the boy.

The Deaf One nods and hauls the side door open: wind buffets through the ornithopter as it skims the dune-tops. The First Trooper leans over Paul and unstraps him from the seat. As soon as his buckles are loose, Paul tries again.

PAUL

(using the Voice)

REMOVE HER GAG.

Perfect tone. His voice echoes with unnatural authority. As if it were his own idea, the First Trooper turns to Jessica, pulls his knife and cuts her gag free. Too late, the Deaf Trooper sees what he's doing. He pulls the First Trooper away. They stumble back, struggling.

JESSICA

(using the Voice)

KILL HIM. NOW.

Instantly the First Trooper plunges his knife into the Deaf Trooper's throat. The Deaf Trooper stands like a statue, the knife jutting from his throat. Paralyzed. The First Trooper stares at his hands, horrified by his own actions. A SOB bursts from him.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

(using the Voice)

SET US FREE.

The First Trooper unlatches Jessica's seat harness. He yanks his knife from the Deaf Trooper's throat. Blood gouts from the deaf man's neck. He sways but does not fall. The First Trooper kneels and cuts Paul's ankles free -- but then the Second Trooper abandons the controls, rushes back and shoves the First Trooper aside. Desperately he tries to gag Jessica again. His clumsy struggles keeping her from speaking. The ornithopter's AUTOPILOT kicks in: SAFE LANDING PROTOCOL. Paul leaps from his seat, hands still bound behind him. He kicks hard into the Second Trooper's solar plexus, his foot digging deep and doing damage. The Second Trooper doubles over -- and Paul kicks him out of the moving ornithopter. A KNIFE whistles toward Paul's neck: the First Trooper returning to the fight. Paul throws himself backward, dodging the blow, but falls to the deck. The First Trooper comes for him.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

STOP!

The First Trooper freezes.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

CUT ME LOOSE.

Swiftly and efficiently he cuts the bonds on her ankles, and then on her wrists.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

GIVE ME THE KNIFE.

The First Trooper begins to weep. He gives her the knife. Instantly Jessica rams the blade up under the Trooper's chin into his brain, and yanks it free again. He falls dead. The Deaf Trooper, bled out on his feet, collapses beside him. Jessica bends over Paul with the knife and frees his hands.

The ornithopter, unpiloted, settles to the desert floor. Its skids sink deep in a dust so fine it's almost a fluid.

Jessica and Paul pick themselves up. On the horizon, many miles off, they can see the Shield Wall that shelters Arrakeen. Explosions flash above the wall. She reaches under the diamond mark left by Yueh. Pulls out the bundle under the seat: a compact, well-made BACKPACK. Suddenly the deck tilts underfoot with a GROAN of metal. They rush to the door to see the ornithopter subsiding into the pool of dust. The landing gear and one wing already submerged. The aircraft's tilt increases.

PAUL

We're in a dust basin!

There's a rock outcrop nearby. Firmer ground. Jessica points.

JESSICA

That way!

They climb out the door, run down the wing, and leap as far as they can away from the sinking aircraft. They land in fine dust, sinking deeply on impact. Jessica loses the backpack: it falls into dust, half-buried, and begins to sink out of sight.

PAUL

The pack!

Jessica lunges for it, submerging her arm, shoulder, and face in the dust. With her other hand she reaches back for Paul. Paul grabs her hand and pulls -- half crawling, half swimming toward firmer sands. Jessica gasps for breath as he pulls her free -- and she comes up with the backpack. They scramble onto an ordinary sand dune. Looking back, they see the ornithopter sink out of sight. Paul opens the pack. A little light illuminates inside. Paul studies the contents and nods.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

It's a fremkit. Fremen survival gear. It'll give us a chance.

Jessica watches the dust eddy where the ornithopter vanished.

JESSICA

They'll track the transponder in that ornithopter. We need to get away from here.

Paul and Jessica struggle through the sand in the dark with a flashlight. They're barefoot. Paul lugs the fremkit.

JESSICA

We need shelter before dawn. The sun will kill us out here.

The wind picks up, spice-dust swirling around their feet. Paul stares at the eddies of sand.

PAUL

The wind. That's how we'll hide.

In the lee of a high dune he pulls a STILLTENT out of the fremkit and pops it open. They anchor it to the sand. The wind sweeps sand down the dune face, piling it up against the tent in fluid drifts. Rapidly concealing the stilltent.

Harkonnen warships hang triumphant over the war-torn city. Weapons fire and cries of agony ring out in the streets. Piter de Vries stands watching with a bound and battered Thufir Hawat, guarded by four Sardaukar. Piter is gloating.

PITER DE VRIES

You were playing the same old game, with your spies and strategies. Like this was Caladan.

(MORE)

But this is Arrakis! Fulcrum of the universe! You were too slow to see. How much we'd want this. How much we'd spend. How much we'd saved. You didn't...think....big enough.

he touches his temple

Checkmate, old friend.

Hawat, humiliated, doesn't answer.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen sits at the head of the table, under the mounted bull's head. He wears a Harkonnen uniform with military trim for his day of triumph. Before him is laid a lavish dinner for one: a steaming roast, cheese and wine. He eats the roast directly from the platter with fork and carving knife, breathing like a buffalo. Arrakis-born servants stand ready at either side, petrified. Guards stand with their backs to the walls.

BARON HARKONNEN

(with his mouth full)

You have a good kitchen, cousin.

He directs his words to the far end of the table -- where Duke Leto sits, naked, chained to a chair. He is slumped over, still woozy from Yueh's drug: the Baron just a blur to him at the head of the table. Outside the high windows, the night of Arrakeen is torn by violence everywhere the eye touches. Columns of smoke rise over the city, lit from below by lurid red flames. Piter enters with Doctor Yueh. They stop beside the Baron.

PITER

Milord Baron. Doctor Yueh.

BARON HARKONNEN

(with his mouth full)

The Traitor! What do you want?

DOCTOR YUEH

I jammed their comms and lowered the shields. I delivered the Duke and his family.

He glances uneasily at the far end of the table, where Leto stares at him glassily from beneath his tousled hair. The Baron squints at Doctor Yueh's face, haggard and tragic.

PITER DE VRIES

(CONT'D)

BARON HARKONNEN

The bargain to the letter! And what was I to do for you?

DOCTOR YUEH

Deliver my Wanna from her agony.

BARON HARKONNEN

Ah. Yes.

The Baron stabs his fork into the roast and rises, his feet briefly leaving the floor as his suspensors overcompensate.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

I said that I would set her free. That you could join her.

He reaches out and takes Doctor Yueh by the hair. His grip shockingly strong. Yueh gasps.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

So join her.

He lifts the carving knife and SAWS OFF YUEH'S HEAD. So brutally and swiftly that Yueh has no time to struggle. A spray of blood spatters the servants, who dare not move. The Baron shows Yueh's head to Piter and lets it fall.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

I thought that would be more satisfying.

He swings the knife slowly around, theatrically, to Leto.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

Ah. Of course.

The Baron walks slowly down the long table with floating strides, dragging the knife-point along the table.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

Dear Cousin. Our feud goes all the way back to the Great Revolt. One of your ancestors banished one of mine after the Battle of Corrin. For cowardice! Can you imagine?

Leto lifts his head to stare at the Baron. Eyes focusing now. There is death in his look. He is a chained lion. Instantly the Baron's hand goes to his belt and activates his shield. Piter giggles. Angry, the Baron prowls closer.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

For centuries we traded blood for blood. But no more. Your son is dead. Your concubine is dead. Tonight House Atreides falls. Your bloodline ends forever.

Leto lowers his head. Taking a moment for his grief and rage.

DUKE LETO

(under his breath)

Jessica. My love. Paul.

The Baron grabs Leto's hair and drags his head up. The carving knife at the ready. Leto takes a deep breath.

BARON HARKONNEN

What did you say?

Muscles clench in Leto's jaw. A tiny crunch. Leto opens his mouth -- and blows out a cloud of poisonous vapor. The vapor is slowed by the Baron's shield, revealing its curving boundary. Penetrating only partially. The Baron leaps backward, retching and screaming. He slaps his suspensor system into overdrive and shoots up to the ceiling, tumbling head over heels. Below him the vapor spreads across the room with shocking rapidity -- guards and servants falling dead in a wave from one end of the hall to the other. Piter among them -- his face twisting into a spectacular rictus. More guards rush inside -- and fall dead in their turn.

HARKONNEN GUARD

GAS!

The doors slam shut from the outside.

Dim light filters through the tent walls as the sky brightens outside. Sand hisses softly over the tent. Paul unpacks the fremkit, taking inventory. Laying out items.

PAUL

Sand compactor. Paracompass. Thumper. "Maker hooks," whatever they are. The Manual of the Desert. No stillsuits. The one thing we...

His breath catches. Beneath the manual there is a slip of paper. He pulls it out -- and with it, tied at the end of a ribbon, comes Leto's SIGNET RING. They both stop breathing. Paul takes the ring off the ribbon and hands it to Jessica. Heavy, ancient, obviously authentic. It means death. They both know it. Tears shine in Jessica's eyes as she struggles for control. Her chin trembles. Paul unfolds the paper. Inside he finds the compact edition of the Orange Catholic Bible that Yueh gave him. The paper itself is a handwritten note in elegant calligraphy.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

This is Doctor Yueh's handwriting. (reading) "Do not try to forgive me. What I have done I have done without hope of forgiveness or understanding. I give you the signet ring as proof of the truth. By the time you read this, Duke Leto will be dead."

Jessica gives a short, sharp wail and covers her mouth.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

"Take consolation from this: he did not die alone. The one we hate above all others died with him."

Paul turns the note over. There's nothing more. Jessica curls up and sobs. The love of her life gone forever. Paul watches the sand hissing over the tent, darkening the interior as it covers the translucent fabric.

The windblown sand covers the last of the tent's exposed surface, concealing it completely. The sand keeps coming.

Dark now. Paul illuminates a glowglobe that fills the tent with a dim green radiance. An eerie and unsettling light. Jessica sits up. Struggling to comprehend what has happened. Still wracked with grief. But Paul is remote. Analytical.

JESSICA

How could Yueh betray us? A Suk doctor! He hated the Harkonnens.

PAUL

They used someone he loved. You can hear it in the words he chooses.

He closes his eyes. Seeing patterns. His awareness expanding. Flashes of orange SPICE VISION pulse through his awareness in the scene that follows. Glimpses of possible futures.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

This is an extermination. The Harkonnens will leave no one alive.

JESSICA

They can't massacre a Great House and get away with it.

PAUL

Can't they?

JESSICA

Some of our people are bound to escape.

PAUL

Are they?

JESSICA

So it's over? The Harkonnens take Arrakis back? Just like that?

Paul's face hardens. For a moment he looks like Leto.

PAUL

No. Father said Arrakis is ruled by desert power. The Harkonnens can't control Arrakis without it. And I will never let them have it.

He shakes his head in bewilderment.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

My father is dead. Why can't I cry?

He closes his eyes as spice visions shake him, like a drug altering his awareness.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

You did this to me. (he opens his eyes) You made me a freak.

He glares at her with cold intensity. Jessica is shocked by this turn in him. His coldness.

JESSICA

Paul...

PAUL

There's something awakening in my mind. A terrible purpose. I felt it in the test of the gom jabbar. When I first tasted spice on the wind.

He sounds half-mad. Jessica recoils, afraid of the visionary light in his eyes. Afraid of what he sees.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

The world is made of smoke. I see right through it. The things that can happen here...I can't begin to tell you. So many possible paths. I can't control the vision. One moment the future is plain as a road. Then it's lost in shadow. In my waking dream. (he focuses on her) I know you're with child. My sister.

Jessica stares at Paul in dread, hand going to her belly. Her voice a whisper of disbelief:

JESSICA

You can't know that. I barely know that. It's only been a few weeks...

She looks at him closely. He's trembling. His eyes far away.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

You're afraid. What do you see that you fear?

PAUL

(in a rising frenzy)

Holy war. Spreading across the universe like unquenchable fire. A warrior religion that waves the Atreides banner. Fanatical legions worshipping at the shrine of my father's skull. A crusade. A jihad. In my name. My name. That's the future. It's coming.

JESSICA

Paul.

She grabs him by the shoulders. Anchoring him.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

Your name is Paul. Paul Atreides.

She fumbles for the signet ring. Presses it into his hand.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

You are the Duke Paul Atreides. Your father's son. My son. You know who you are.

Paul looks down at the ring. He puts it on his ring finger, but it's too big for him. He slides it onto his thumb. When he looks up his eyes are shining with tears.

PAUL

My father is dead.

He bursts into sobs, finally. Jessica pulls him into her shoulder, holding him as he cries. She cries with him.

Duke Leto Atreides lies back in the chair, eyes open, looking at eternity. A white dust covering him and his surroundings. Around him, an apocalyptic sight: dozens of bodies scattered across the floor, frozen in contorted positions like the dead of Pompeii. Amongst them, Piter de Vries. Harkonnen guards enter the hall in sealed spacesuits -- wheeling a filtration device to purge the air of poison. A sinister sound -- like ice breaking up on a lake in winter. The soldiers look up. The Baron's massive body is glued to the high ceiling, curled up like a gigantic dead spider. Suddenly it begins to move, crawling monstrously down the wall. The soldiers step back in superstitious dread. The Baron, his face hidden under his cloak, crawls out of the room. The soldiers exchange terrified looks.

A high-tech DECONTAMINATION CELL stands in the middle of the courtyard. Something is TRAPPED INSIDE, thrashing and bellowing like a monster. The Baron. Rabban stands watching, wide-eyed. A TECHNICIAN beside him. Both terrified by what is happening inside that cell.

RABBAN

How did he survive?

TECHNICIAN

His shield slowed the gas. Limited his exposure. And his body mass is, um...majestic. So.

RABBAN

Will he live?

TECHNICIAN

Do you want him to?

Rabban leans close.

RABBAN

If he dies, everyone you love dies.

A house high up on the edge of the city, with commanding views. Accessible on one side from the street and on the other side from the desert. The home of Liet Kynes. Kynes stands at the window, looking out at the Harkonnen war fleet in the skies of Arrakis. Her face is grim. Her eyes widen as a Harkonnen ornithopter swoops directly toward her -- flares its wings in a daredevil maneuver -- and lands lightly on the ledge in front of her house. Duncan Idaho gets out, haggard, and ROARS at the house:

DUNCAN IDAHO

Kynes!

Kynes walks out of the house, sliding a crysknife out of her robes behind her back.

KYNES

It's not safe for you here.

Idaho draws his sword. Trembling with rage. Spits the words:

DUNCAN IDAHO

You're the Judge of the Change! Sent to make sure the forms are observed. The transition peaceful. He spreads his arms. Behind him, Arrakeen is a war zone: smoke rising, weapons fire still echoing.

DUNCAN IDAHO

(CONT'D)

And now? Will you tell the Imperium and the Great Houses of the Landsraad how we were betrayed?

KYNES

I am commanded to say nothing. To see nothing.

Idaho stares at her bleakly as the import of that sinks in.

DUNCAN IDAHO

The Emperor sent us here to die.

Kynes lowers her head. Speaks almost to herself:

KYNES

God created Arrakis to test the faithful.

The dark tent is dimly lit by a pale glowtab. Scant beads of condensate form on the tent wall and drip into a catchpocket. Jessica lies sleeping, hand on her belly. She wakes to see Paul sitting up, staring at his father's ring. Both look haggard: their skin dry, their lips cracked.

JESSICA

Is it night?

PAUL

Not yet. Sun's still setting. The tent's buried in sand.

He picks up a SAND COMPACTOR and turns to the tent door. Opens the sphincter door. A trickle of sand pours in -- but Paul activates the sand compactor: its electrostatic field repels the sand and causes it to pack more tightly. He tunnels toward the surface.

Sand dunes glow in the light of an orange sunset. The twin moons rising in the sky. Silence and stillness. A sudden movement: a minuscule animal, a DESERT MOUSE with impressive huge ears, climbs a dune. The mouse reaches the top of the dune where a faint evening mist is blowing. It stands up in the wind, opening its ears wide like sails: capturing moisture. Tiny beads of water catch in the fine hairs and form droplets. The mouse drinks. A MOVEMENT IN THE SAND nearby sends the mouse scurrying off.

Paul burrows up out of the sand with the compactor. Looks around. Ten feet away, the desert mouse stands frozen. For a moment they look at each other. The mouse hops away. Paul climbs out. Reaches down into the hole again and pulls out the Fremkit pack. Reaches down one more time and drags Jessica out. She comes out drawing a trailing strap behind her. They heave together, collapsing the tent and dragging it out of the hole. On the horizon, smoke rises from Arrakeen -- lit from beneath by smoldering fires as night falls. Harkonnen ships are quartering the desert, searchlights roving. Purple laser beams rake down, burning the sand.

PAUL

They're looking for us.

JESSICA

Oh, no.

Paul turns to see what Jessica sees: five ornithopters approaching, fast and low. Nowhere to run. The lead ornithopter flares its wings aerobatically and touches down light as a feather. Paul bursts into a smile.

PAUL

That's Duncan!

Idaho swings out of the pilot's seat, shouting at them:

IDAHO

Come on! We have to move!

They run to him, clasping his forearms in gratitude.

JESSICA

How did you find us?

IDAHO

I got a message from Doctor Yueh. Coordinates and a tracking beacon.

PAUL

A beacon...?

He pulls the tiny Orange Catholic Bible out of his pocket. Examines it quickly. Peels back the leather of the back cover to reveal a fine tracery of microcircuitry. A tracker.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

Salvation for the lost.

Paul and Jessica clamber into the rear seats -- and see Dr. Kynes in the co-pilot's seat. Idaho lifts off.

JESSICA

Dr. Kynes.

DUNCAN IDAHO

She's found us a place to hide. And friends to watch over us.

Paul looks out the windows at the ornithopters flanking them.

PAUL

Fremen?

KYNES

People I trust.

PAUL

Is there anyone else left?

Idaho shakes his head grimly.

DUNCAN IDAHO

I listened on the combat channels. Gurney put up a hell of a fight at Arrakeen Landing, but lost the day. The Harkonnens hit every population center on the planet at once. They must have landed ten legions. Hundreds of ships.

JESSICA

The Guild charges a premium for warships. The cost of transporting that fleet is almost unimaginable.

DUNCAN IDAHO

It wasn't just Harkonnens. There were Sardaukar with them. At least two battalions.

JESSICA

You're sure?

DUNCAN IDAHO

You cross swords with a Sardaukar, you know it.

JESSICA

So. The Emperor's taken a side. What says the Judge of the Change?

Kynes looks back at her sadly.

KYNES

My title is hollow. The Emperor forbids me to say anything at all.

PAUL

Yet you risk your life to help us.

KYNES

When your Emperor gives an order your heart refuses...you must decide which is the higher power.

The five ornithopters land on a gravel scree near a long pier of stone that juts into the open sand. They all get out. Swiftly the Fremen cover the ornithopters with camouflaged tarpaulins and anchor them to the ground.

KYNES

We have to get inside. There's a storm coming.

Paul looks: far off he can see the storm as a column of darkness blotting out the stars. At its edge the stars shine blood-red through a haze of sand and dust. The Fremen find a subtle marking on the rock. Using sand compactors they dig down until a DOOR is revealed. The Fremen work a hidden latch. The stone slab swings inward, revealing a corridor. Kynes leads them inside.

A huge circular chamber with a central pillar of stone. Passages lead away to laboratories and other facilities. Rough-hewn vents open in the rocky ceiling: warm, indirect sunlight shines through some fissure high above. The floor is drifted with sand. Kynes nods at her Fremen escort.

KYNES

Keep watch here.

Kynes leads Paul, Jessica, and Idaho through a door. They are accompanied by two Fremen: TANAT and SHAMIR. They enter a wide hall: lights flicker on. They see science facilities on each side: botanical labs, chemistry labs, storerooms.

KYNES

Tanat, will you find stillsuits to fit our visitors? Shamir, coffee service, please.

SHAMIR

Yes, Liet.

The Fremen hurry off with unquestioning obedience. Paul watches this curiously. Who is Kynes to the Fremen? Idaho, ever cautious, prowls across the station, peering into laboratories. Hands on his weapons. Kynes looks at Paul.

KYNES

Do you know what this place is?

PAUL

One of the old Ecological Testing Stations. Are there more like this?

KYNES

All over Arrakis. They were meant to tame the planet. Free the water locked beneath the sands. This is a world out of balance: a single life cycle has co-opted the ecosystem. The sandworm. Shai-Hulud. But we could restore that equilibrium. There's a way. Arrakis could be a paradise. The work had begun. But then we discovered the spice! And then no one wanted the desert to go away. No matter the cost in human suffering.

Duncan Idaho wanders into a lab where DESERT-ADAPTED PLANTS grow under glass domes -- not in soil but in sand. He walks the rows in quiet wonder, hand on his sword-hilt.

A square chamber carved from bedrock, lit by glowglobes. A row of metal file cabinets stands against one wall. In the middle of the room, a desk with a milk-glass top shot full of yellow bubbles is ringed by four suspensor chairs. Kynes sits at the desk with Paul and Jessica. Tanat returns and lays two bundled stillsuits and their fremkit on a shelf for them.

KYNES

Thank you, Tanat.

Tanat exits. We glimpse Idaho taking up a guard position outside the office as the door closes.

PAUL

Do you know what the Great Houses fear most? Just what's happening here. The Sardaukar picking them off one by one. Only together can they stand against the Imperium. Would you bear witness? Testify that the Emperor moved against us here?

KYNES

If they believed me...there would be general warfare between the Great Houses and the Emperor.

JESSICA

Chaos. Across the Imperium.

PAUL

But suppose I presented the Emperor with an alternative to chaos.

JESSICA

What? Blackmail?

PAUL

The Emperor has no sons. Only daughters.

The audacity of his words takes their breath away.

JESSICA

You'd make a play for the throne?

KYNES

You're a lost boy, hiding in a hole in the ground.

Paul's voice cracks like a whip:

PAUL

You will call me my Lord or Sire. (more gently) Fremen speak of the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World who will lead them to Paradise.

(more gently)

Kynes looks away, shaken. Her heart wants to believe.

KYNES

Superstition.

PAUL

I know you live your life behind a veil of secrets. I know you walk in two worlds and are known by many names. I know your dream.

Kynes stares at Paul, suddenly vulnerable.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

As Emperor I could make a Paradise of Arrakis with a wave of my hand. This is the coin I offer for your support.

KYNES

My loyalty's not for sale.

PAUL

Well said. Let me say this. For your loyalty, I offer my loyalty to you. Totally.

KYNES

You're a child.

PAUL

I am the Duke. No Atreides has ever broken such a bond. I would stand with you and die at your side.

KYNES

(moved)

Sire!

Kynes's Fremen companions -- six warriors, men and women -- sit drinking coffee from little silver cups. A quiet SCRAPE makes them all freeze like deer. A spill of sand from the vents overhead draws their eyes. We tilt up to see SARDAUKAR dropping through the vents, falling in slow motion on suspensors. We track them as they fall -- fifty Imperial soldiers -- landing lightly on the chamber floor. They look around. The Fremen have vanished. One of the Sardaukar stoops to pick up a silver coffee cup -- a trickle of coffee in the bottom. He frowns thoughtfully -- -- and the Fremen ERUPT FROM THE SAND all around the Sardaukar, KNIVES DRAWN! They leap into battle like dervishes, six against fifty. Fighting with superhuman skill.

Duncan Idaho looks up as one of the Fremen comes in from the Nexus -- and falls on her face, a knife in her back. Sardaukar pour through the door behind her. Twenty of them. Idaho looks at them and sees his death. A strange wild joy starts up in him. So this is how it ends. He SLAPS the door behind him twice. Draws his sword and his long dagger and charges to meet the enemy.

Hearing the clash of steel, Paul leaps up and opens the door. Halfway down the hall, Duncan Idaho stands against a wall of Sardaukar -- a blade in each hand, shield sparkling. There are five Sardaukar dead at Idaho's feet already, but there's still fifteen more trying to kill him. Blades snaking into his shield. Idaho fights like a god of war. But as Paul watches, Idaho receives three terrible wounds. Piercing his ribs. His gut. His neck. Idaho falls dead. Paul pulls his knife and leaps forward with a cry.

JESSICA

Paul, no!

She drags him back into the office. Kynes slams the door and locks it. Paul throws himself against the door with a howl.

JESSICA

(CONT'D)

Duncan's gone!

Kynes swings a steel file cabinet away from the wall, revealing a dark narrow passage. She grabs their stillsuits and fremkit from the shelf. Hands them over.

KYNES

Come!

Kynes leads them swiftly down a narrow rock tunnel. Glowtabs light up at their approach and go dark behind them.

JESSICA

You were well prepared.

KYNES

We lived eighty years under the Harkonnens.

They come to a fork in the tunnel. Kynes points one way.

KYNES

(CONT'D)

Follow the arrows. You'll find a desert-rigged thopter ready to fly. That storm out there's your best shot. Above five thousand meters, they're mostly dust. Climb into it. Stay on top. You might just live.

JESSICA

Come with us.

KYNES

It only seats two. (she grins) I'm Fremen. The desert's my home.

She disappears down the other passage. Paul and Jessica turn and press into the dark -- following the dim arrows that light up before them and fade behind.

They come into a cavern where a small ORNITHOPTER -- an older model -- sits in a pool of light from an opening in the roof. It's a fast, delicate craft compared to the military airships we've seen previously: its cockpit a bubble of glass. They stow their equipment in the 'thopter and climb in.

In the pilot's seat, Paul pre-flights the ornithopter, fast and efficient. Tests the flight controls. He pulls back on the collective and the ornithopter leaps up with a blast of jets, its wings snapping back and down. Hurling the ornithopter out of its nest.

The sun still low in the sky. The cloud-wall of the storm looms apocalyptically near, wild with lightning. A door opens in a rocky spire, and Kynes emerges, rigged for the desert in stillsuit and robes. A fremkit on her back. She looks out across the desert: in two places WORMSIGN is closing in, drawn by the active shields nearby. She moves away from the rocks along the ridge of a sand dune. As she walks she takes two MAKER HOOKS from her belt and telescopes them to full length. Surveying the desert. She watches the light ornithopter flown by Paul and Jessica mount into the sky and race for the storm. A moment later, THREE MILITARY ORNITHOPTERS lift off in pursuit. She frowns. Suddenly THE BLADE OF A DAGGER ERUPTS FROM KYNES'S CHEST. She screams and tumbles down the dune, losing her maker hooks. A SARDAUKAR ASSASSIN walks down the dune after her with a bloody blade. At the bottom Kynes lies gasping for breath, reaching for her crysknife which has fallen out of reach.

SARDAUKAR ASSASSIN

Kynes. You betrayed the Emperor.

Kynes hears a sound the Sardaukar fails to notice: a HISS of sand beneath them, growing louder. She snarls at her killer.

KYNES

I serve only one master. His name is Shai-Hulud!

The desert opens up beneath them as a SANDWORM surfaces, its great maw open wide. It devours them both in a flood-tide of sand and sinks back down into darkness.

Paul pushes the power bar forward and pulls back on the yoke. The little ornithopter's engines whine as it dashes for the storm, sinking them into their seats as it climbs.

JESSICA

Jet-flares behind us.

Paul looks back. Sees three Harkonnen 'thopters in pursuit.

PAUL

Let them come.

He slams the power arm forward. The 'thopter leaping like a frightened animal across the sky. Ahead of them, the rust-colored cloud wall of the sandstorm. Big as a hurricane. Each of the pursuing ornithopters fires a MISSILE. The three missiles track them and close fast. COLLISION WARNINGS whine inside Paul and Jessica's cockpit.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

Missiles!

JESSICA

The storm could give us cover.

Paul banks closer to the cloud wall, watching the altimeter. 3000 meters and climbing...

PAUL

We're not high enough. It'll tear us apart.

He weaves desperately: but the missiles track the ornithopter easily. Closing fast. They're not going to make it.

JESSICA

Paul...!

Paul twists the yoke -- and BANKS THEM INTO THE STORM-WALL. The storm tumbles the ornithopter like a leaf in a gale. The wings buckle dangerously. Paul closes the aircraft's wings. The missiles follow into the hurricane -- and they, too, are snatched from their courses and hurled chaotically away. They explode, painting ribbons of fire through the storm. The Harkonnen ornithopters break off: the sandstorm is death. Paul and Jessica are crushed into their seats by their ornithopter's spin. Sand sings against the fuselage. Paul fires jets in bursts. Slowing their rotation. Visibility drops to zero. Only the wash of dust over the windscreen and the green light of the instrument panel. Paul eases the wings open to short stubs, struggling for control -- and the engines die. (Instruments retain power.)

PAUL

We've lost power. Dust in the engines.

The only sounds are the wind, and creaking metal, and sand scouring the hull. The altimeter still spins: tumbling chaotically, they are rising. Climbing past 4000 meters.

PAUL

(CONT'D)

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration.

Jessica hears him and joins him, in an attitude of prayer:

PAUL & JESSICA

I will face my fear. Let it pass over me and through me. When it has passed I will turn my inner eye to see its path. And where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

The Harkonnen Dreadnought still hovers over the great house. Harkonnen guards stationed at every door. In total control.

The Baron reclines in a high-tech tub filled with a viscous black fluid, like crude oil. He is coated to the collarbones. One of his cheeks is spiderwebbed with white threads, like cracks in an old painting. The after-effects of the poison. Two teenage SLAVES tend to him: a boy and a girl, both very pretty, in revealing tunics. Both terrified. The boy feeds the Baron fruit from a platter while the girl dabs tentatively at his craquelured cheek with a medical swab. Rabban enters and approaches the tub. Averting his eyes.

BARON HARKONNEN

So?

The female slave touches the Baron with a swab and he jerks away in pain, slapping the swab from her hand. She cringes.

RABBAN

We chased them into a Coriolis storm. Winds at eight hundred kilometers an hour. Nothing survives such a storm. They are dead. It is a certainty.

The Baron takes a deep breath.

BARON HARKONNEN

So it's done. At last.

He beckons to the slave girl to resume her ministrations.

BARON HARKONNEN

(CONT'D)

Send word to Giedi Prime to begin selling our spice reserves. Slowly! We don't want the price to fall.

The blood drains out of Rabban's face. He whispers hoarsely:

RABBAN

Uncle. I cannot.

The gray world of Giedi Prime looms against its blue sun.

SUPER: GIEDI PRIME

Above the atmosphere, five ATREIDES COMMANDOS in battle armor cling to a gantry on the underside of a stealth warship. We see their leader's face: Lanville, Idaho's second-in-command. Lanville throws hand-signals. They all let go and fall.

The Atreides commandos fall faster than sound in the thin upper air, steering like skydivers. Their heads-up displays guiding them toward their target far below.

A huge flat-topped fortress of concrete, invulnerable to anything short of a nuclear missile. Its perimeter dotted with sensors, guard towers, and gun emplacements. The Atreides commandos fall into view like meteors. At the last moment they activate suspensors and make soft landings. SIRENS sound. Floodlights sweep the roof. With desperate haste Lanville and his men assemble ENERGY DRILLS from components in their backpacks. The compact machines begin boring into the concrete roof. Projectiles whine and skip around them. The men protect the drills with their shielded bodies. HARKONNEN GUARDS sprint toward them across the wide roof. The men draw swords. Blades clash as the guards arrive -- the Atreides commandos defending the drills. More guards race toward them.

An endless storehouse of melange -- cinnamon-colored grains heaped in climate-controlled glass tanks. The energy drills break through the ceiling, leaving neat round boreholes. GAS CYLINDERS drop down the shafts, bouncing on the floor and belching WHITE GAS. The gas is drawn into the climate-control systems. Instantly the orange spice in nearby tanks disintegrates into sickly gray dust. The effect spreads rapidly across the warehouse.

Lanville is surrounded by Harkonnen guards with drawn swords. His men have fallen in combat. A TIMER blinks on his wrist display: the deed is done. He raises his hands, surrendering. The guards seize him roughly. Lanville begins to laugh.

[NOTE: Lanville will re-appear in Part Two as the Atreides slave who fights Feyd-Rautha in the Harkonnen arena.]

Rabban, splattered with black fluid, backs out of the Leto's bedroom into the passageway. From the Baron's quarters comes a hellish cacophony. Crashes, roars, and bellows of rage:

BARON HARKONNEN

(O.S.)

Damn that Duke! Even from the GRAVE!

A THUD. A high-pitched SCREAM. Glass SHATTERING. Silence.

BARON HARKONNEN

(O.S.) (CONT'D)

Rabban!

Rabban walks cautiously back in. The stateroom is festooned with Jackson Pollack streaks of black. Furniture toppled and broken. The two slaves lie dead on the floor, twisted unnaturally like broken dolls. The Baron floats in the air: naked but for his suspensor harness. Entirely covered in glistening black fluid, even his head and face. He is breathing like a bellows, chest heaving.

RABBAN

Uncle.

BARON HARKONNEN

When last you ruled this place, I held you in check. Now I have only one requirement. Income. (off Rabban's frown) You cannot imagine what it cost me to bring such force to bear here. You could squeeze Arrakis fifty years and barely pay it back! And now our reserves are destroyed. So squeeze, Rabban. Squeeze hard.

(off Rabban's frown)

RABBAN

By any means I choose?

BARON HARKONNEN

Any at all. Just make me rich.

RABBAN

Yes, Uncle. And the Fremen?

BARON HARKONNEN

The Fremen? Kill them all.

Paul fights to controls the tumbling ornithopter, flying dead-stick. The engines are out. The altimeter reads 8000 meters. Dust has penetrated the cockpit. It swirls across the deck and hangs in the air, laden with spice -- orange motes drifting before his eyes. Jessica coughs in the dust. Suddenly a SPICE VISION overtakes Paul. The opaque dust storm becomes transparent to him -- LINES OF PROBABILITY flickering through the vast vortex of winds. He sees a phantom of his own hand open the aircraft's wings. A shifting path to freedom illuminating in the winds ahead. Paul opens the wings. It takes all his strength. They creak and whine -- but they unfurl.

The little ornithopter breaks out of the vast storm, miles up. Banking away from the hurricane into blue skies. The aircraft's glass bubble has been scoured to a milky translucence by dust. The wings are bent and trembling. The engines choked by dust compacted hard as concrete. The ornithopter is a glider now.

Descending silently and swiftly, Paul sees warning lights multiply across his instrument panels as systems fail.

PAUL

As soon as we're down, run for the rocks.

Jessica nods, bracing herself against the fuselage.

The ornithopter skips across the sand, struts breaking, wings crumpling, and comes to a stop tilted onto one side. Paul and Jessica climb out, grab their gear, and run -- struggling through the deep soft sand toward the rocks. Halfway to the ridge they hear the deep HISS of sand...the rending of metal behind them as a worm takes the wreck. Only when they reach the rocks do they look back -- in time to see a huge worm disappearing into the sand. The sun beats down. Heat shimmers off the rocks and dunes. Jessica peels off her nightgown. Paul turns his back and undresses. They slither into stillsuits.

Paul and Jessica work their way along the rocky ridge, staying close to cover -- until the ridge peters out. They gaze across a four-kilometer stretch of open sand to a rock formation on the far side. Paul studies the paracompass.

PAUL

The sietch Idaho lived in is off that way somewhere.

Jessica stares across the sand through binoculars.

JESSICA

There's greenery over there.

She passes the binoculars to Paul. He peers through them, seeing cactus and sage growing high in the rocks.

PAUL

That has to mean people.

JESSICA

Or an old research station.

PAUL

We'll cross after dark. Like the Fremen do.

Guards usher Thufir Hawat in. The room has been set right again. The Baron, his face still craquelured but his hair and clothing styled, turns to face the old Mentat.

HAWAT

Why haven't you killed me?

BARON HARKONNEN

A Mentat of your value? You insult me. Do you know how we beat you?

HAWAT

You had someone inside our organization.

BARON HARKONNEN

I did. Do you know who? You don't. The Lady Jessica herself.

Hawat stares, shocked to his bones.

HAWAT

Impossible.

BARON HARKONNEN

Unthinkable. But possible. The Bene Gesserit serve their own schemes above all else. One need only know what they want.

(MORE)

If you're good, someday I'll tell you. How would you like to work for me?

HAWAT

You can't be serious.

BARON HARKONNEN

I am. To begin with, the alternative is death. But I have more to offer. Your Duke was a good man of limited means. He couldn't afford the data a Mentat of your caliber requires. I can. That's how Piter was able to outperform you, despite his lesser gifts. I could buy you total knowledge. Help me master Arrakis.

Hawat studies the Baron, caught off-guard by this offer.

HAWAT

You're doomed already. You put that sadist Rabban back in power. He guarantees perpetual violence.

BARON HARKONNEN

Oh, I have no intention of leaving him onstage. I have a far better player waiting in the wings.

Hawat considers that, wheels turning. Nods.

HAWAT

Your pretty nephew, Feyd-Rautha.

BARON HARKONNEN

Just so.

HAWAT

Release the Beast to oppress the people, so friendly Feyd can set them free. That could work.

The Baron claps his hands.

BARON HARKONNEN

You see! Look how beautifully we work together.

Gurney Halleck leads a column of seventy soldiers in Atreides uniforms and armor along the ridgetop of the Shield Wall. Many miles from Arrakeen. They are battered and weary. Half the men are wounded. They reach the rim of a box canyon. Looking down, they see a SETTLEMENT below -- buildings and ornithopters cunningly hidden by draped cloth. A few men moving about.

Gurney's SERGEANT comes to stand beside him. Looking down.

GURNEY

There we go to ground.

SERGEANT

Who are they? Fremen?

Gurney laughs.

GURNEY

Smugglers. Outlaws like us.

He waves the column forward, descending into the canyon.

The sun has set. Jessica plants a THUMPER at the edge of the open sand they must cross, and twists the timer.

JESSICA

Thirty minutes on the thumper.

PAUL

Remember. Walk without rhythm. Like the Fremen do. Erratic movement.

He demonstrates. Step-step...step-drag...wait... She follows. Together they cross the sand under the moonlight, side by side. The extraordinary skill of their bodies pressed into service in a strange new motion. They leave strange tracks. They're halfway across the open stretch of sand when the thumper begins to pound behind them. lump-lump-lump...

PAUL

Slow and steady.

They continue sandwalking, without rhythm. It's exhausting. A low HISSING. Jessica points. Far off, wormsign: a wave of sand cresting nearer. They stave off panic and keep walking. Fatigue makes Paul stumble onto a plane of hardened sand. BOOM BOOM! His steps echo like explosions across the plain.

PAUL

Drum sand!

The worm, which had been headed for the thumper, immediately changes course and drives straight for them.

JESSICA

Run!

They run, heedless of the drum sand, raising an unholy thunder. The worm gaining on them. They run into sand, then into pea gravel that rolls underfoot. The worm still gaining. They pass a series of thin poles set in the ground, barely having time to register them as markers of some kind. Finally reaching the rocks on the far side, they squeeze into a crevice in the cliff just as the worm surfaces. The sandworm batters at the cliff, its crysknife teeth gleaming in the moonlight. Cracking rocks and raising dust. At last the giant eyeless beast gives up and withdraws. They watch it questing away across the sand as they emerge.

JESSICA

The marker poles lead up the slope.

She's right: there are more poles, marking a trail up through the rocks. They follow the markers, climbing upward.

At the top they find a natural amphitheater with rough rock walls and a floor of sandy earth. PLANTS are growing here: sage and saguaro and mesquite among the jagged stones.

PAUL

Let's pitch the tent. Tomorrow we'll find the Fremen.

Quiet STIRRINGS all around them. Dozens of silhouettes move against the stars. They are surrounded by an entire tribe! Paul and Jessica spin, seeking escape -- but there's no way out. They are surrounded. They stand back-to-back.

STILGAR

(O.S.)

Do not run. You will only waste your bodies' water.

JESSICA

Wait.

A crueler voice speaks: a man we will come to know as JAMIS.

JAMIS

(O.S.)

Let's take their water and go! The sun will rise soon.

PAUL

Stilgar!

A startled silence. After a moment Stilgar walks out into the moonlight to face Paul. Paul meets his eyes.

PAUL

I was there when you came to my father's council. With Duncan Idaho. You know me.

Stilgar studies his face in the moonlight, and nods.

STILGAR

This is the Duke's son. The one Liet told us to seek!

JAMIS

(O.S.)

They are outworlders. Soft. Weak.

STILGAR

That was a brave crossing they made in the path of Shai Hulud. The boy has lived on much water, away from the father sun: but he does not speak or act like a weakling. Nor did his father.

Now Jamis, too, steps out of the shadows: a raw-boned wolf of a man who looks at Paul and Jessica with thirst.

JAMIS

(O.S.)

You know the law. A trespasser's water is forfeit.

Stilgar clenches his jaw. He does know the law: but he does not want to enforce it now. He turns to Jessica and Paul.

STILGAR

Are you trained in the ways of the desert?

JESSICA

No. But I have other...

FEMALE FREMEN

(O.S.)

The sands will devour them!

Stilgar waves them silent: his gesture instantly obeyed.

STILGAR

We cannot linger in the open. The night goes swiftly. I will judge.

He considers Jessica and Paul, and passes sentence.

STILGAR

The boy is young. He can learn. Liet favors him. He may have sanctuary. But the woman is untrained and too old to learn our ways. Her water will pay for the boy's passage.

PAUL

What are you talking about?

Stilgar looks at Jessica with grave courtesy.

STILGAR

Your son will have my countenance. He will be safe. But for you: your ignorance could bring destruction on us all. It is Istislah, the good of the tribe. We live by the law.

He draws a crysknife from his robes. Jessica flashes into motion: deflecting his knife, pummeling his body. She disarms him and spins him around. In a moment she's backed up against the cliff, Stilgar pinned before her in a chokehold, the knife at his throat. Paul darts for the shadows. Jamis leaps to intercept him. Paul kicks him in the solar plexus, chops his neck with perfect precision, and catches his pistol as it falls. Paul swarms up the rock face until he finds a ledge that will hold him. He crouches in the shadows, controlling his breathing. The pistol aimed at Stilgar. The Fremen swiftly close in on Jessica, weapons ready -- but she tightens her grip until Stilgar shouts:

STILGAR

Back, you dogs! She'll break my neck!

(to Jessica)

Why didn't you say you were a weirding woman and a fighter?

JESSICA

The conversation ran short.

She bears down on his neck until he cries out again.

STILGAR

Peace, woman! If you can do this to the strongest of us, you're worth ten times your weight in water!

JESSICA

Tell them to stop hunting my son.

STILGAR

Be still! Let the boy be!

JESSICA

I am of the Outer World. My training is Bene Gesserit.

The words send a superstitious shiver through the tribe.

STILGAR

I judged hastily. Perhaps you are the ones the legends foretold. Sayyadina. Let me go and you will not be harmed. You have my word.

Cautiously Jessica releases Stilgar. She keeps his crysknife. He steps free and calls out to the tribe.

STILGAR

(in Chakobsa, subtitled)

We can tarry no more. We must reach the Cave of Ridges by dawn. The fates of these strangers will be decided there. Until then they have my countenance! My word is on them.

(to Jessica)

Tell your boy to come down. He made more noise than shai-hulud climbing that cliff.

JESSICA

You should check on your tribesman. My noisy son was a bit rough.

Stilgar looks around, astonished.

STILGAR

Jamis is missing.

Fremen rush into the shadows and help Jamis to his feet.

JESSICA

Paul. Come down.

ON THE LEDGE Paul stands, lowering the pistol -- and A SLIM YOUNG WOMAN rises from the shadows beside him, masked by her stillsuit. Her crysknife shining in the moonlight. This is CHANI.

CHANI

I would not have let you hurt my friends.

She opens her stillsuit mask to look at him curiously.

CHANI

They say you are the Mahdi. But you look like any boy.

Paul just stares at her: at a face he knows almost as well as his own. The girl of his recurring dreams. Chani smiles.

CHANI

You chose the hardest way up. I'll show you an easier way down.

Paul follows, his heart pounding.

The tribe moves quietly in single file. Some whisper among themselves, casting uneasy glances at Jessica and Paul. At the tail of the column, Jamis can be heard growling.

JAMIS

He surprised me. Luck, that's all.

Chani goes just before Paul. Passing a creosote bush beside the trail, she turns back to whisper to him:

CHANI

Do not brush against the bush, lest you leave a thread to show our passage.

Paul nods and follows -- unable to tear his eyes from her.

As the sun rises, the tribe files into a narrow canyon that tightens as they go, until they must turn sideways to pass. They come to a steel hatch leading into a sealed environment:

A domed cave of banded orange and white stone, in a natural ridged pattern. Windowless and warmly lit by glowglobes. Inside, the tribe relaxes, throwing back their hoods and taking off veils and nose-plugs. Jessica and Paul sit isolated, watching the room. Across the cavern, Jamis is fomenting ill will in a knot of Fremen who gesture angrily and whisper at each other in fierce hisses.

Stilgar walks into a small, ornate room. Here in an ornate wooden chair sits REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO, 90. A holy woman ancient and frail, half blind. Stilgar approaches her timeworn throne and falls to his knees in reverence. She smiles.

Jessica notices faces among the Fremen watching her. No one approaches her, but she feels their eyes on her: some in suspicion. Some in desire. Some in worship. And then Stilgar appears beside here and murmurs to her:

STILGAR

Sayyadina. Come with me. There is something I would show you.

Stilgar leads Jessica into a dark cavern. He closes a sealed vault door behind them, and turns on a light. Jessica gasps. Before them is a water tank: a man-made lake. Millions of gallons, resting in darkness in this secret place.

STILGAR

This is holy. One of our tribe, dying of thirst, would not touch this water.

JESSICA

This is where my water will go, if you kill me.

STILGAR

Yes. We have a thousand such places.

(MORE)

Sealed off from the little Makers. And when we have enough, we will change the face of Arrakis.

JESSICA

The dream of Liet Kynes.

STILGAR

The dream of all Fremen.

He turns to her earnestly.

STILGAR

I am trying to find some place for you. You bested me before the tribe. Until I learn your way of battle, I cannot challenge you. But neither will they follow you: an outsider, ignorant of our ways.

Jessica nods sadly, seeing the shape of it.

JESSICA

I'm a problem.

STILGAR

I may have a solution. Our Reverend Mother is old. She will not survive the umrah. Would you attempt the ritual? Then you would hold a place of honor none could challenge.

JESSICA

Your Reverend Mother?

Chani gives Paul a morsel of food wrapped in paper. He takes it and eats it: it is redolent of spice. His eyes widen. Stilgar leads Jessica out to the rest of the tribe. He raises his voice to get the tribe's attention.

STILGAR

The Sayyadina has agreed to attempt the ritual. To pass within. What say you?

The eyes of the tribe fall on Jessica in puzzled curiosity. She is strange to them: they don't know how to think of her. Jessica looks at Stilgar grimly. The tide runs against her.

STILGAR

(quietly)

They wait for a sign.

Jessica hesitates. Realizing what is demanded of her. She closes her eyes. Searching her memory. She raises one hand high, fingers spread wide in testimony.

JESSICA

I see a Fremen with the book of examples.

A collective intake of breath around her. A rustle of robes. All eyes are lifted to her. Beside Paul, Chani is also caught up in the moment. Paul looks around, mystified.

JESSICA

He reads to al-Lat, the Sun, and this is what he reads: "My enemies are like blades of grass beaten down by the tempest. Their schemes are like pellets of poison that every mouth rejects."

Back to her comes a whispered response of many voices:

FREMEN

(ALL TOGETHER)

Their works have been overthrown.

JESSICA

The fire of God mount over thy heart.

FREMEN

(ALL TOGETHER)

The fire of God set alight.

JESSICA

Thine enemies shall fall.

FREMEN

(ALL TOGETHER)

Bi-la kaifa.

Stilgar drops to one knee before her, bowing low.

STILGAR

Sayyadina. If Shai-hulud grant, you may yet pass within to become a Reverend Mother.

Paul frowns. What does this mean? He starts to speak.

JAMIS

(roaring)

I will not have her!

STILGAR

Jamis! Be still!

JAMIS

I will not! You talk like a leader. But the strongest leads! And you are not the strongest anymore. She bested you. I challenge her! I invoke the amtal rule!

STILGAR

You may not challenge a Sayyadina. The law forbids it.

JAMIS

Then who will fight in her name? Where is her champion?

All eyes turn to Paul. He finds himself stepping forward.

PAUL

Here I am.

Jamis snarls in satisfaction. This is what he wanted. He begins to strip off his stillsuit.

JAMIS

I accept her champion!

JESSICA

No. Let him fight me!

STILGAR

It must be. It is the amtal rule.

The Fremen clear the floor. Draw a circle in the sand. Jamis leaps into the circle, wearing a loincloth, a crysknife in his hand. Eager to fight. His body hard with muscle. Chani helps Paul out of his stillsuit. A strange intimacy. His eyes are troubled -- staring at Jamis in the fighting ring. He turns to her suddenly. Speaks in an urgent whisper:

PAUL

Chani. I know you don't know me. But I've been dreaming you, since I was nine years old. I've seen a thousand futures between us. In a few of them you kill me, and in a few we lose each other. But in most of those possible futures... we fall in love.

She stops breathing. Her eyes wide. His words jolting through her like high-voltage current.

PAUL

But now I'm afraid.

CHANI

What does the Lisan al-Gaib fear?

PAUL

Those futures may never come. I've dreamed about this cave many times. But I've never seen myself leave it. There's a shadow on this moment I can't see into. I'm afraid I die here. In that circle.

JAMIS

(O.S.)

Where is the outworlder?!

Chani walks Paul to the circle, her head spinning. Trying to process this exchange. She stares at Paul. At the last minute she stops at the circle's edge and whispers in his ear:

CHANI

Jamis fights with the knife in either hand. He will leap to hide the switch. Watch his eyes.

She places her own crysknife in his hands. Paul steps into the circle, weighing the strange knife in his hands. He tosses and catches it a few times to get the feel.

JAMIS

May thy knife chip and shatter!

Paul salutes with his knife in the chivalric manner. They begin to circle one another. Jamis is utterly confident: taller, stronger, contemptuous of this soft outworld boy. He attacks immediately and repeatedly: swift brutal blows, each one a killing stroke. But in Paul, Jamis has met a level of training the Fremen have never seen. Paul evades and deflects every attack without breaking a sweat, calm and steady. Each time his counter-attack is exquisitely graceful, on-target... ...and slow. Timed as if Jamis wore a shield. Each time Jamis jerks away in time to survive. Swiftly it becomes plain that Jamis is badly overmatched. He is tiring, covered with sweat, while Paul is unruffled.

JAMIS

I'll sheath my knife in your blood!

He lunges -- and Paul meets his arm with the point of his blade, dealing a nasty wound. Jamis leaps back with a snarl.

PAUL

Do you yield?

A murmur of protest among the Fremen. Stilgar speaks up.

STILGAR

The boy doesn't know our rule. There can be no yielding under the amtal rule. Death is the test of it. Kill or be killed.

Paul swallows hard and comes on guard. The fighters clash again and again. Every time Paul proves untouchable, but fails to strike a killing blow.

STILGAR

(quietly, to Jessica)

Is he toying with him?

JESSICA

No. Paul has never killed a man.

Stilgar's eyes widen as he understands what he's seeing. Jamis makes a savage, desperate run at Paul. He leaps, spinning in the air -- and as he spins his knife switches hands, striking from a new angle -- But Paul has seen the switch. He too switches knife hands -- blocking Jamis's knife arm with his empty hand. With the other he drives his knife under Jamis's ribs into his heart. Paul steps away like a matador as Jamis crashes to the floor. Fremen rush into the circle, wrapping Jamis in a plasticine sheet, and carry the body away to be rendered for its water. MINUTES LATER Paul is back in his stillsuit. The Fremen flock around him, congratulating him, touching him. Marveling at his skill. A glow of pride creeping across Paul's face. Jessica moves to his side. Pitches her voice for his ears.

JESSICA

How does it feel to be a killer?

The words are a kick in the gut. He look at her, stricken. Tears starting up in his eyes. The Fremen react with religious awe. See! His eyes! He gives water to the dead!

The press around him, reaching out to touch his tears.

I touched his cheek! I felt the gift!

FREMEN #5

Lad needs a naming, Stil!

Stilgar grins and nods, giving Paul a measuring look.

STILGAR

I see strength in you. You shall be known as Usul, the base of the pillar. This is your sietch name, that we alone may use. Usul.

Murmurs. Usul!...A good choice...strong...bring us luck...

STILGAR

But what name of manhood do you choose to use openly? How will you be known to the world?

Paul considers it.

PAUL

How do you call the little desert mouse, the mouse that jumps?

He illustrates the desert mouse's hop-hop-hop with his hand. A chuckle runs through the troop.

STILGAR

We call that one Muad'Dib.

PAUL

Let me be known as Muad'Dib.

Chani appears before him.

CHANI

Jamis's body yielded thirty-three liters and seven and three-eighths drachms of water. Yours by right.

Paul blinks at her, shocked.

PAUL

I...I don't want Jamis's water. Let his water be given to the tribe.

Stilgar nods in approval. Reverent murmurs from the crowd. He pays the water price! His gift shall be a blessing!

STILGAR

You are one of us now. You have faced death and lived.

He turns to Jessica.

STILGAR

Now you must face your fate. Come and see Sietch Tabr.

Between the Cave of Ridges and Sietch Tabr is a sandstone ridge. The Fremen walk this natural bridge in the last light. Paul falls into step beside Jessica, worried. Speaks quietly:

PAUL

What does it mean, to become a Reverend Mother?

Jessica bows her head. Preoccupied by the same question.

JESSICA

It's more than a title. To become a Reverend Mother, one of our Sisterhood must drink a poison. The Truthsayer drug. It kills most women who try. But those who survive the Agony awaken into a higher awareness. Not just the ability to tell truth from falsehood. Reverend Mothers tap into the genetic memory of the species. They hear the voices of generations of women in their minds. They share their memories.

Paul stares at her in awe. This is a great mystery.

PAUL

The Fremen have Reverend Mothers?

JESSICA

The Truthsayer drug we use...this is where it comes from. This is where it began.

Jessica suddenly clutches Paul's shoulder. Looking past him.

JESSICA

Paul. Look.

She points. On the horizon, a MIRAGE shimmers, giving them a rippling view of a scene beyond the horizon: In that magical window, a SANDWORM is passing. And on the sandworm's back are SANDRIDERS -- Fremen in fluttering robes, hooked into the worm's armor by telescoping maker hooks.

Paul and Jessica watch the mirage fade in dumbfounded awe.

PAUL

Maker hooks! That's what they're for.

Stilgar appears beside them.

STILGAR

Sandriders. Now you have seen what no outsider may see and live.

The Fremen lead Paul and Jessica into the Sietch proper. It is a vast cavern, balconies rising in tiers to the rocky roof. Glowglobes illuminating the cave like constellations. Paul stares in awe at the sight. He does not notice as Chani takes Jessica by the hand and leads her away out of sight. In a great changing room the Fremen strip off their stillsuits -- men and women all together without modesty. They change into soft sietch robes.

Chani leads Jessica in. Both women now dressed in robes. Jessica is mystified, not knowing what she will find. Reverend Mother Ramallo nods solemnly at her from her wooden throne -- her face joyful even at rest. Jessica approaches, knowing at once that this is a true Reverend Mother.

REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO

(in Chakobsa, subtitled)

I am the Reverend Mother Ramallo.

Jessica goes to her knees before the old woman, like a little girl. Looking up at this ancient presence.

JESSICA

My name is Jessica.

The old woman takes Jessica's hands in her own.

REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO

(in Chakobsa, subtitled)

I know. I've been waiting for you.

Stilgar throws an arm around Paul in the crowded sietch. They wear clean robes now, the Fremen around them jubilant with homecoming...and anticipation.

STILGAR

You named yourself well, my friend. Let me tell you why. The mouse muad'dib is wise in the ways of the desert. He makes his own water. Hides from the sun and moves by night. The constellation that points to the North Star we call Muad'Dib. The One Who Points the Way.

A hoarse whisper from the back of the crowd: the Mahdi! A commotion rises across the cavern. A low chant in Chakobsa, solemn and profound. Paul turns to see a procession approaching through the crowd. Chani walks in front, carrying a smoking censer. Behind her comes a platform, borne on the shoulders of Fremen. Atop the platform rides the Reverend Mother Ramallo in her throne. Jessica sits cross-legged between her knees, like a child. A murmur of religious excitement passes through the crowd.

The Reverend Mother Ramallo smiles at her tribe as the Fremen who carry her lower the platform to rest. Her voice is thin:

REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO

My flame will soon burn out. Sayyadina Jessica of the Atreides has consented to enter the rite, that the tribe may have a Reverend Mother when I am gone. It is fitting that she taste the Waters, and pass within.

FREMEN

(ALL TOGETHER)

It is fitting.

The old woman sits wearily back in her throne as if this speech has consumed the last energy of her body. Two WATERMASTERS -- female Fremen -- approach Chani bearing a water sack heavy with liquid, with a narrow pouring spout. Chani lifts the water sack from their hands. She takes a knee beside Jessica where she sits between Ramallo's knees.

CHANI

Here is the Water of Life, that frees the soul. If you be a Reverend Mother, it will open your eyes. If you be not, it will close them forever. Shai-hulud be the judge.

She lifts the spout to Jessica's lips. Jessica opens her mouth: Chani puts the spout in her mouth and squeezes. The Water of Life gushes forth, running down Jessica's chin. She swallows, eyes wide in surprise. Jessica stops breathing. Her pupils dilate violently. JESSICA'S INTERNAL AWARENESS Jessica's inner eye sees the poison enter her body. Viscous clouds swirling in her bloodstream. Cells constrict. Synapses fire like chain lightning. ON JESSICA As the chemical siege transforms her body: every muscle locked in a death rigor. Skin paper-white, veins tracking charcoal gray. Eyes rolled back in her head. Not breathing. The crowd watches in utter silence. Waiting. Paul stares in horror. Watching Jessica die. Stilgar grips his shoulder.

STILGAR

This is the Agony. She must pass through it.

JESSICA'S INTERNAL AWARENESS We see the TOXIC REACTION at the molecular level: complex chemical bonds forming and spreading. Killing her. And then a NEW MOLECULE forms. A CATALYST, transforming the Water of Life into something different. Something miraculous. The GOLDEN CATALYST arrests the chain reaction -- and reverses it -- sweeping it back. A divine transformation. ON JESSICA As her color returns, the dark veins fading. She takes a deep breath -- and the silent crowd sighs in rapture. Jessica opens her eyes. We dive into her pupil -- and in that darkness we find the Reverend Mother Ramallo, opening her eyes. We dive into her eye in turn to find another wise woman, and another, and another...tunneling back through time faster and faster -- Until we burst through to a ZEN TABLEAU: The Reverend Mother Ramallo sits in her chair, HER THIRD EYE SHINING. Between her feet sits Jessica, in lotus, HER THIRD EYE SHINING ALSO... and as we watch ANOTHER LIGHT IS BORN -- in Jessica's womb. ON CHANI As she approaches Jessica, who is breathing deeply. Her eyes are open, focused on infinity. Chani uses the spout of the sack to take a drop of moisture from Jessica's mouth. INSERT: The golden catalyst sweeps through the Water of Life, transmuting the poison into a sacrament.

JESSICA

(a dreaming whisper)

It has been blessed.

Chani turns and raises the water sack.

CHANI

The Sayyadina has passed within! Her eyes are open. She has changed the water. Share in the blessing.

She steps off the platform. The crowd parts for her. She walks straight to Paul and holds out the water sack.

CHANI

Water of Life. Drink.

Murmurs in the press of Fremen. Lisan al-Gaib! Muad'Dib! Paul allows the spout into his mouth. Chani squeezes the sack. The potent drug gushes in. Paul's world dissolves into a prescient vision.

Fanatical Fremen commandos charge into battle. Fire and fury. Sardaukar rain down from the sky by the thousands. Fremen wail at the shrine of Duke Leto's skull: it is crowned with gold and surrounded by the bones of slain Harkonnens. A host of sandriders go to war on the back of a sandworm -- and behind them another sandworm, and another. A vast army.

Paul emerges fleetingly from his vision. Chani is leading him across the great cavern. Around them the Watermasters are giving the changed Water of Life to all the Fremen. The mood is ecstatic, communal. Some Fremen sway in a trance. Others lie staring at the ceiling. Some cling to each other, erotically, shedding their robes. On the wooden platform, Reverend Mother Ramallo collapses, her life-force spent. A dozen hands ease her from her chair. Jessica sits serene and joyful, eyes closed, arms wrapped lovingly around her stomach.

Gurney Halleck roars in rage. Chani howls in grief. Stilgar draws his crysknife, snarling. A young girl looks up at Paul with otherworldly eyes. The Baron Harkonnen laughs. Thufir Hawat closes his eyes in anguish. A fleeting glimpse: an older Paul, bearded and blind, a bandage over his eyes. Hands outstretched to the sky.

Paul rises again from his vision, like a drowning man. He is alone with Chani in a lantern-lit nook, lying on embroidered cushions. She cradles his head, their faces close. Paul is buffeted by his visions, feeling out of control. The closeness of Chani is an anchor. He kisses her fiercely.

PAUL

You are Sihaya! The desert spring.

CHANI

Yes.

PAUL

The future is full of fire.

CHANI

I'm not afraid. When we share the Water of Life...when we are close like this...I see what you see.

PAUL

What do you see?

Paul spins with Chani in his arms, laughing. They watch a fiery sunset from a high cliff. Wind plucking at their robes. Chani clenches her teeth in the pangs of childbirth. Holds a baby in her arms. Paul washes Chani's hair.

Paul rises from his visions again -- to find they are making love. Chani is naked, on top of him, moving in slow rhythm. He clings to her. The moment intimate and achingly beautiful. She kisses him and murmurs to him from inches away:

CHANI

I see us giving each other love, in the quiet between storms. It's what we're meant to do.

PAUL

Sihaya. You are the strong one. Stay with me.

CHANI

Always.

She leans close -- and this is the girl from his dreams, the first image we saw of her. She nuzzles him. The love in her eyes commingled with spiritual devotion. Kissing his names one by one:

CHANI

Paul. Usul. Muad'Dib. Lisan al-Gaib. The one who points the way.

FADE TO BLACK.

THE END.