The trailer for Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune shows quite a few differences from the 1984 version, and the 2020 Dune adaptation looks to be a more faithful take on Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel. Fans have already taken to Youtube with shot-by-shot comparison videos and analyses of potential changes. What are these changes, and how will they impact the film?
Multiple people have tried to adapt the 1965 novel Dune — and failed to do so in a satisfying manner. Alejandro Jodorowsky tried to make a Dune movie in the mid-seventies, but it never got off the ground. In 2000, Sci Fi Channel aired the miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune. However, most infamous is David Lynch’s Dune (1984) – a film that even Lynch admits was a failure. If Villeneuve wants to avoid Lynch’s fate, he’ll need to make quite a few changes in his version of Dune – and based on the trailer, it looks like he has.
While aesthetic changes are to be expected between a 1984 movie and a 2020 one, there are other differences that might indicate something larger. Certain characters might have smaller roles, and, as mentioned earlier, it seems that Villeneuve is sticking to the source material more closely than Lynch did.
Dune 2020 Features Caladan
There are several shots in the Dune 2020 trailer that feature stretches of beach and establishing shots of water. These are most-likely depictions of the ocean planet Caladan, where the Dune novel begins. In the novel, the House Atreides (the main character's family) are relocated from Caladan to the desert planet Arrakis, a.k.a. Dune. Lynch's 1984 adaptation largely skips over Caladan, instead taking place mostly on Dune.
Lady Jessica’s Role
Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is a major character in the Dune novel and in the 1984 film. She is the mother of the main character, Paul (Timothee Chalamet) and a part of an incredibly influential group of women called the Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit are an ancient order with the ultimate goal of creating the Kwisatz Haderach, a male Bene Gesserit with complete omniscience. Since Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach, Jessica’s role in Dune is crucial.
In the Dune 2020 trailer, however, she barely appears. Jessica is only in a handful of shots and doesn’t have any lines – she’s even absent from scenes like the Gom Jabbar test where the Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit appears. Based on her limited appearances, it’s possible that her role is slightly diminished from the 1984 film to this version of Dune. Of course, there’s also the possibility that her role is just as large, but that her scenes simply didn’t make it into the trailer.
The Sandworms Have a Different Appearance
Sandworms – giant underground creatures that terrorize the human inhabitants of planet Arrakis and produce the valuable drug melange, known as "spice" – look completely different in this version of Dune. The iconic monsters from Dune have a distinct appearance in the 2020 trailer than in the 1984 movie. Advancements in practical effects and CGI, as well as changes in audience tastes, partially accounts for the difference in appearance; however, this change seems to be more of a conceptual reinvention than a purely aesthetic one.
In the 1984 film (and in the miniseries), the sandworms have a head shaped like leaves, and their mouths are full of short, sharp teeth. The appearance of these teeth emphasizes the Fremen practice of collecting Sandworm teeth to use as knives – this is a rather impressive feat, since finding a dead sandworm is extremely rare. In this version of Dune, however, the sandworms look more like a vacuum and have massive teeth. They’re just as frightening (arguably more so!), but they seem far too large to be practical as knives and therefore the design don't hint to Fremen culture like the 1984 versions did.
Ornithopters Have Wings
In Dune, ornithopters are space ships used for small groups of people traveling short distances. Extremely common vehicles, they are a key feature of the Dune universe’s worldbuilding. In both the 2000 miniseries and the 1984 film, Dune characters ride and drive ornithopters frequently. The vehicle appears in the 2020 version of Dune, but it looks slightly different. While the earlier adaptations of Dune show ornithopters with stationary wings, Villeneuve’s version includes moving dragonfly-like wings – a choice that more accurately represents the source material (with an insectoid twist). While this is a relatively minor detail, it may be an indication that the movie as a whole will be truer to the book than Lynch’s film was. Since Lynch’s Dune was heavily criticized for straying too far from the book, this would be a good move for Villeneuve.
Personal Shields and Knife Combat
In Dune, almost everyone wears a protective shield nearly all the time. These shields are energy fields that envelop whoever wears them and offer protection from objects moving above a certain speed – slower movements are permitted to pass through the field, allowing the person wearing the shield to breathe. The only weapon that can penetrate the shield without an explosion is a handheld dagger that is moving at a slow enough speed for the shield to permit it. Due to this singular vulnerability, knife fighting is a common combat method in Dune.
The shields in Dune 1984 are not completely accurate to the book. While the book describes the shields as form-fitting, the 1984 film depicts shields as large squares that protrude from the character’s skin and obscure their face and body. As with the ornithopters, the depiction of shields is much more accurate in Dune 2020, as the shield only appears as a blue light that flashes upon impact. This not only looks better but also allows the audience to clearly see the characters. The 1984 shields shouldn’t be criticized too harshly, however; Lynch likely did the best he could with the technology available at the time.
Some Elements are Missing
Lynch made some additions to the Dune universe with his film. First is a “weirding module” – a weapon that turns sounds into attacks. Certain sounds prompt more potent attacks, with Paul’s Fremen name, Muad’Dib, being a fatal one. These weirding modules do not exist in the book, and Lynch added them in to replace the Bene Gesserit Weirding Way, which he did not think would work well on screen. The Dune 2020 trailer makes no mention of these weirding modules, so it’s likely that they won’t be included in this adaptation. Another somewhat strange addition that Lynch made is a pug. In Dune 1984, the Atreides family has a pet dog, and he has a decent amount of screen time. It’s unclear why Lynch chose to add a dog to the cast, and most fans agree that it was an unnecessary inclusion. Meanwhile, the trailer for Villeneuve’s version shows no signs of pugs.
There’s a trend to the differences between the 2020 and 1984 version of Dune: where Lynch seemed to wander off from the novel, Villeneuve stays loyal to it. However, a two-hour-long movie has a lot more time to stray away from the source material than a three-minute-long trailer does, and it’s possible that Dune 2020 makes some changes to the original novel that are not featured in the trailer. Hopefully, the Dune trailer accurately reflects the story and tone for the movie as a whole, and die-hard Dune fans will see a film adaptation that is true to the book.
