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.