The first assassination attempt made on Paul Atreides in Dune takes the form of a tiny hunter-seeker drone, which he manages to avoid and destroy through methods not fully explained in the film. In the Dune novel, Paul is revealed to have been trained from birth to recognize and react to all possible means of assassination, since his station as a duke’s son makes him particularly vulnerable. That training includes some interesting details about hunter-seekers -- namely, how they actually work, as well as how to avoid being killed by one.
Though peace ostensibly reigns in the Dune movie's timeline when House Atreides arrives on Arrakis, things are clearly less stable than they seem at first glance. Tensions between the Great Houses and the Emperor lead to shadowy deals and backroom political maneuvers meant to swindle and steal power out from those who hold it, often by means of violence. That’s the world Paul Atreides is born into, and it’s the one he’s forced to learn to survive.
When Paul and his family arrive on Arrakis, they expect trouble from the start. However, that trouble kicks off a little closer to home than anticipated. While studying in his new bedroom, Paul sees a tiny, secret compartment in the wall open to reveal a tiny drone, one that he immediately recognizes as a deadly hunter-seeker. Clearly, the weapon was sent as part of House Harkonnen’s villainous plot to destroy the Atreides, but the hunter-seeker doesn’t notice Paul for some time. Standing stock-still, Paul watches as the drone peruses the room, before he pounces and catches it when it's distracted by the door opening.
As explained in the Dune books, the hunter-seeker doesn’t kill Paul because the drone’s vision is based on movement. Paul knows this fact from his childhood training, so as soon as he sees the hunter-seeker, he completely freezes, channeling his knowledge of the Bene Gesserit ways to calm his mind and body completely. When the door opens and distracts the hunter-seeker’s sensors, Paul knows it's his best opportunity to strike, and he manages to catch the drone with incredible precision.
Although the Dune movie doesn’t fully explain Paul’s encounter with the hunter-seeker, it still stays perfectly loyal to the scene in the novel. Anyone who has read the Dune books prior to seeing the film would immediately recognize Paul’s frozen posture as a reference to Frank Herbert’s original explanation of how hunter-seekers work, which is a great detail for longtime fans. With Dune 2 on the way, Timothée Chalamet’s Paul will have plenty more deadly traps and challenges to overcome. However, if he handles them with the same poise and composure, as he does with the hunter-seeker, House Atreides may indeed rise once again.