History Film / Dune

** ''Film/Dune1984'', directed by Creator/DavidLynch.
** ''Film/Dune2021'' and ''Film/DunePartTwo'', directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve.

* ''Film/TheDune'', a 2014 French-Israeli film unrelated to the above.

* Adaptations of Creator/FrankHerbert's [[Literature/{{Dune}} literary universe]]:

** The DirectToVideo Dune miniseries produced by the Sci-Fi Channel (now Creator/SyFy).

* Film adaptations of Creator/FrankHerbert's [[Literature/{{Dune}} literary universe]]:

* The DirectToVideo Dune miniseries produced by the Sci-Fi Channel (now Creator/SyFy).
** ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune'' (2000), a three-part adaptation of the original ''Literature/{{Dune}}''.
** ''Series/FrankHerbertsChildrenOfDune'' (2003), a three-part adaptation of ''Literature/DuneMessiah'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfDune''.

** ''Film/Dune2021'', directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve.

* ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune'', a 2000 DirectToVideo miniseries produced by the Sci-Fi Channel (now Creator/SyFy).

* ''Film/TheDune'', a 2014 French-israeli film unrelated to the above.

** ''Film/{{Dune|1984}}'' (1984), directed by Creator/DavidLynch.
** ''Film/{{Dune|2021}}'' (2021), directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve.

'''Dune''' may refer to:

* ''Film/TheDune'', a 2013 French-israeli film unrelated to the above.

* ''Film/{{Dune|1984}}'', a 1984 adaptation of [[Literature/{{Dune}} the novel]], directed by Creator/DavidLynch.
* ''Film/{{Dune|2021}}'', a 2021 adaptation of the novel, directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve.

* ''Film/{{Dune|2020}}'', a 2020 adaptation of the novel, directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve.

[[redirect:Film/Dune1984]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dune.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"The Sleeper must awaken."'']]

->''"A secret report within the Guild. Four planets have come to our attention ... regarding a plot which could jeopardize spice production. Planet Arrakis, source of the spice. Planet Caladan, home of House Atreides. Planet Giedi Prime, home of House Harkonnen. Planet Kaitain, home of the Emperor of the Known Universe. Send a third stage Guild Navigator to Kaitain to demand details from the Emperor. '''The spice must flow...''' "''
-->-- '''The Spacing Guild'''

''[[DescribeTopicHere FATHER, THE DESCRIPTION OF DUNE HERE HAS AWAKENED!]]''

''Dune'' is the 1984 [[TheFilmOfTheBook feature film adaptation]] of Creator/FrankHerbert's novel ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', directed by Creator/DavidLynch. The film is famous for its unique visual style, obtuse plot and very TroubledProduction.

Set in the distant future, the film chronicles the conflict between rival noble families as they battle for control of the extremely harsh desert planet Arrakis, also known as "Dune". The planet is the only source of a drug known as "the spice", which allows prescience and is vital to space travel, making it the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe. Paul Atreides (Creator/KyleMacLachlan in his film debut) is the scion and heir of a powerful noble family, whose inheritance of control over Arrakis brings them into conflict with its former overlords, House Harkonnen.

The film adaptation of ''Dune'' was originally given to the experimental filmmaker Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky, who planned to very loosely adapt the book while basing most of the film on a dream he'd had. He recruited a rogue's gallery of names for his project, including comic artist Moebius, Creator/HRGiger, Music/PinkFloyd, Creator/SalvadorDali and Creator/OrsonWelles. Jodorowsky burned through his budget before filming a single scene, and the project was ultimately taken away from him. A feature length documentary titled ''Film/JodorowskysDune'' chronicles this project of epic proportions that went nowhere. Jodorowsky later recycled many of his ideas in his epic graphic novel ''[[ComicBook/TheMetabarons The Saga of the Metabarons]]''.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis handed the film to another experimental director, Creator/DavidLynch, who was a hot prospect at the time due to his cult classic debut film ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' and the critically lauded ''Film/TheElephantMan''. Lynch scrapped most of Jodorowsky's plans and made the film with his own unique vision. Lynch's completed work is memorable (and notorious) for its Freudian imagery, [[SceneryPorn elaborate set design]] (containing several holdovers from the Jodorowsky version, including some Giger's designs), and an AllStarCast, which besides [=MacLachlan=], features Creator/PatrickStewart, [[Creator/JoseFerrer José Ferrer]], Creator/BradDourif, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/VirginiaMadsen, Music/{{Sting}}, Creator/LindaHunt, and Creator/MaxVonSydow, among others.

Due to Lynch's alien style and the sheer scale of the book, the already-complex narrative became nearly incomprehensible to some viewers; many theaters handed out [[AllThereInTheManual printed plot summaries]] to patrons. An altered cut with more exposition to explain the plot was made for television, which ran at almost ''four hours'' with commercials. Incensed at the ExecutiveMeddling, Lynch had his director credit changed to AlanSmithee and his screenwriting credit changed to [[BitingTheHandHumor Judas Booth]] (as in John Wilkes). Subsequent recut and extended versions have inspired [[BrokenBase varying]] degrees of critical reappraisal. It was a complete flop at the box office but has become a genuine CultClassic since.

A [[Film/Dune2020 new film adaptation]] of the novel by Creator/DenisVilleneuve is due to release in December 2020.
----
!! The ''Dune'' film contains examples of:

* ActorAllusion: Siân Phillips has some experience playing [[Series/IClaudius a scheming matriarch]].
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Gurney Halleck, repeatedly described in the book as "an ugly lump of man", is here played by Creator/PatrickStewart.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** The Bene Gesserit of the film are given mild telepathic abilities that they could use to eavesdrop on the conversation between Edric and the Emperor. In the books, the Bene Gesserit don't have practical telepathy, only a mental contact they can use to pass their ego/memories among them by touching foreheads (Alia does have something like literal telepathy, but she is a special case due to her cultivated bloodline). The film presents the Bene Gesserit's abilities as overt PsychicPowers, which in the novels they are not; things like the Voice and the Weirding Way were simply [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower supposed]] to come out of a very advanced understanding of logic, psychology, spatial perception, body language, mnemonics, and linguistics, and not actual superhuman abilities, with the mentioned exception and that of the Kwisatz Haderach.
** In the books, the Kwisatz Haderach's gifts are mostly psychic in nature, prescience being the most unique of them. This version of Paul, in stark contrast, also demonstrates the power to ''make it rain''.
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Edric the Guild Navigtor appears in the first scene of the film (with the implication that he's TheManBehindTheMan for the Emperor); his literary counterpart didn't appear until the second novel, ''Literature/DuneMessiah.''
* AdaptationalHeroism: For the Atreides and the Fremen, and especially Paul, because the film plays the messiah-hero theme completely straight without any of the subversions and deconstructions of the book.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: While in the book the Baron is a high-functioning sociopath, here he's a complete psychotic and a downright eccentric. No less evil, though.
* AdaptationalUgliness:
** The Bene Gesserit in this film are bald, with long fingernails and weird clothing for extra creepiness, instead of the regular old women they were in the books.
** The Baron is considerably more grotesque and disgusting than he ever was in the book, complete with facial pustules and a filthy, disheveled appearance, whereas in the book he was a WickedCultured. In a subversion, however, the novel version of the Baron was described to be so fat that he could barely walk without anti-gravity suspensors, while Kenneth [=McMillan=] in the film is more rotund that truly obese and only uses his suspensors to float around.
* AdaptationalWimp: Zig-zagged with Duncan Idaho. In the book, he went down fighting and took a dozen Saudaukar with him, but here a Sardaukar slow-fires a hunter-killer through his shield and he promptly goes down. However, before he was shot, Duncan easily defeated a single Sardaukar ([[WorfEffect who seconds before was killing regular Atreides soldiers left and right]]) in a duel, and a few moments later, he took on ''entire squad'' of them at once, putting them all down.
* AdaptationExpansion: This film introduced many elements that weren't in the original novel. The quickest example to come to mind is the Mentat Mantra, "It is by will alone that I set my mind in motion," which sounds similar enough to the Litany Against Fear that it feels like a line from the book, despite it is actually original. Also, the Atreides research into sound-based weaponry is absent from the novel, while heart-plugs, only briefly mentioned in the book as some sort of filtration device, are turned into something entirely more sinister by the Harkonnen. Finally, the Baron Harkonnen's skin conditions never were mentioned in the books either. Those and other choices went to influence later works in the ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' universe, to the point many people ignore they in fact originated in this film.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: "Weirding" is a Fremen word meaning "foreign." In the book, the "weirding way of fighting" is how Stilgar called Jessica's Bene Gesserit martial arts technique. In the film, where said martial arts are replaced by sonic weapons, those are oddly called "weirding modules" since before reaching Arrakis, despite they were developed by the House Atreides still based on Caladan without any relation to the Fremen.
* AdaptedOut:
** The film leaves out Leto II (Paul's first son, murdered as an infant), the Fenrings and Jamis (who shows up in the Alan Smithee version).
** Barring her exposition in the prologue, poor Princess Irulan is reduced to one, brief on-screen line in the extended edition.
** No version includes Jessica [[spoiler:[[LukeIAmYourFather secretly being the Baron's daughter]]]], which [[spoiler:she only finds out due to Paul's prescience]]. So later, [[spoiler:Alia doesn't address the Baron as her grandfather when they meet]].
* AdvertisedExtra: Sting as Feyd-Rautha, who only has a small part in the film, was a major selling point.
* AllForNothing:
** Yueh betrays House Atreides in an attempt to get back a wife he knows is likely dead, with his only comfort that maybe he can kill the Baron on the way out. Instead Yueh gets shanked by Piter and his poison gas trap on the Duke is wasted on Piter when the drugged Duke hallucinates him as the Baron. He ultimately accomplished nothing.
** Although he did stash stillsuits and Weirding module blueprints onto the Harkonnen ship that was standing by to drop Paul and Jessica in the desert to die, ultimately saving their lives, permitting the rest of the plot to unfold, and [[VillainsDyingGrace kind of redeeming himself]]. Then again, how could he have known that was the Harkonnen plan if Piter only told Nefud to do it minutes beforehand? Or which ship would be used? Or that they wouldn't already be dead when loaded up? [[GambitRoulette Or...]]
* AttackItsWeakPoint: The population of Giedi Prime all wear 'heart plugs' that are prominently displayed and quite easy to yank out. Hawat is fitted with one once he's captured; Kenneth [=McMillian=]'s line, "[[HandWave Everyone gets one here]]," is so delightfully deadpan. It's never actually used by their enemies, however, other than one scene where the Baron Harkonnen murders a boy slave for the hell of it. [[spoiler: And the scene where Alia kills the Baron by stabbing him with a Gom Jabbar, then pulling his heart plugs and shoving him out into the sandstorm -- [[NoKillLikeOverkill where he gets swallowed by a worm]].]]
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Multiple scenes on Giedi Prime show animals being treated horribly by the Harkonnens or their servants, from a cow hanging upside-down to a rodent being crushed in a juicer. Only in one case (Thufir's antidote-cat) is there a plot-relevant reason for the animal to be there, and even then there's a ''rat'' slung next to the cat for no evident purpose but to terrify the former and frustrate the latter.
* BigOlEyebrows: Thufir Hawat and Piter deVries have big bushy eyebrows, possibly to denote them as Mentats.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: [[LighterAndSofter In contrast with the books]], the movie tends to depict the Atreides and the Fremen as the unambiguously good guys, and the Harkonnen and the Corrino as the bad guys.
* BlasphemousBoast:
-->'''Stilgar:''' "Usul, we have wormsign the likes of which even God has never seen."
* {{Camp}}: Susan Sontag describes the idea of campiness as an emergent phenomenon that comes from a piece of art or media that takes itself seriously but fails on some level to sell that seriousness, which is ''what makes it good.'' For all the problems this movie has, it has amassed a cult following for a reason. It's over-the-top aesthetic might not be successful, but it's sure as hell entertaining, all because of how much it ''commits'' to what it's trying to do.
* ColdHam: Jose Ferrer never fails to be hammy while remaining even keeled.
-->'''Emperor Shaddam IV:''' ''(TranquilFury)'' Bring in that floating ''fat'' man.
* CompellingVoice: The Voice is clearly heard as the VoiceOfTheLegion. It can be heard playing over and over in the target's mind, forcing him to comply.
* CompositeCharacter: In the novel, although both the Baron and Piter were cunning, evil masterminds, the Baron was the calm, cerebral, long-suffering one and Piter was the [[GigglingVillain giggling maniac]]. The film gives the Baron Piter's [[AxeCrazy craziness]] and turns Piter into something of a quiet ServileSnarker.
* CrazyCulturalComparison: In the extended cut of the film, Liet is the one who spits and Leto himself recognizes its value.
* CreatorCameo: Lynch, as the radio operator on the spice harvester rescued by Duke Leto.
* CreepyUncle: The movie plays up the HoYay between Baron Harkonnen and Feyd-Rautha even more than the books.
* CultSoundtrack: Toto and Brian Eno. This is the main reason why so many games and other adaptations of ''Dune'' (excepting the Sci-Fi channel miniseries) have such similar music. Music inspired by ''Dune'' is almost invariably space music instead of more conventional thematic music.
* DepravedHomosexual: How the Baron Harkonnen is portrayed, flirting with his doctor, ogling his nephew, having quite a [[SoftSpokenSadist fey, high-pitched voice]] along with painted nails, complete with some rather tasteless [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything AIDS-like lesions]] on his face.
* DidYouActuallyBelieve: A heroic example, in which the Atreides mentat Thufir Hawat betrays the Emperor and Harkonnens by refusing to kill Paul.
--> '''Thufir Hawat''': [He turns to Feyd and the Emperor]... Did you actually believe, even for a moment, that I would fail my Duke ''twice''? [He commits suicide]
* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Played with. In the novel, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is poisoned to death by his granddaughter Alia Atreides. Here he gets eaten by a giant sandworm, but [[RasputinianDeath not before Alia poisons him her Gom Jabbar and rips his heart-plugs out]]. NoKillLikeOverkill indeed.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** Lady Jessica's hairstyle is a Freudian wonder.
** The Guild Navigator (portrayed in true Lynchian fashion as a giant floating Film/{{Eraserhead}}) breathes through what can only be described as a mouth-vagina.
** Har har. Okay, fine, so the worms [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore look like giant penises]], alright? David Lynch apparently wanted to lampshade the joke before we do; the rhythmic pounding of Shai Halud against the vertical slot of a cave is hard to misinterpret.
** As noted above, Baron Harkonnen is coded as a depraved, monstrous homosexual, and is the only character to have massive lesions and boils on his face. Because of this, film scholar Robin Wood called Dune "the most obscenely homophobic film I have ever seen," and goes on to say that this portrayal succeeds in "managing to associate with homosexuality in a single scene physical grossness, moral depravity, violence and disease."
* DreamSequence: Even before Paul starts tripping out on melange, he's getting glimpses of his future while asleep.
* DuelToTheDeath: The film climaxes in a knife fight between Paul and Feyd-Rautha.
* EliteMooks: Sardaukar elite troopers.
* ErmineCapeEffect: In the prologue, José Ferrer flamboyantly shrugs off his cape before meeting with the Navigator. He wears standard military attire in all other scenes.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment
** For Duke Leto, it's when he puts the lives of his men before spice extraction, despite spice being the most valuable substance in the universe, something that both confuses and impresses Doctor Kynes at the same time.
* EvilIsHammy: Baron Harkonnen.
* EvilRedhead: All of the Harkonnens have various shades of orange hair.
* ExactWords: The Baron offers to let Yueh "join" his wife. He holds out a small hope that the Baron might actually have spared her, up until he's knifed in the back.
* ExoticEntree: There's an inexplicable throwaway scene of Rabban crushing a live mouse-like creature in a small device and then drinking the resulting mess with a straw.
* FacialHorror: The Baron is absolutely covered in blisters, warts, and zits.
* FedToTheBeast: Baron Harkonnen is [[spoiler:[[DestinationDefenestration shot out a window]] via Alia's mind control. He is then eaten by a worm.]]
* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Princess Irulan, oft heard, rarely seen.
* FisherKing: After Paul Atreides takes up his place as the Kwisatz Haderach, Arrakis, a planet defined by its absurd dearth of water, is consumed by a torrential downpour of rain. In the book, it took years of {{Terraform}}ing. Perhaps the filmmakers subconsciously realised there weren't going to be any sequels and they had better get it over with?
* GoryDiscretionShot: We only see blood splattered on the wall when the "heart plug" scene climaxes.
* HappyRain: When Muad'Dib makes the rain fall at last, the Fremen rejoice at the end of the film. It probably [[InferredHolocaust kills all of the worms]] since the Fremen had summoned them all to that spot, but oh well. (The worms did wind up going extinct in the books as a result of terraforming, but eventually came back.)
* HeartInTheWrongPlace: The unlucky Harkonnen slave's heart plug is too far left. To make matters worse, it spurts out ''dark'' blood when pulled, not the bright crimson oxygenated blood which the left side would actually contain.
* HollywoodDarkness: When the seeker probe enters the room, Paul is confident it is too dark for the operator to spot him by any means other than movement. Charitably, the room looks as if it's sunset outside, and Paul hasn't even gotten ready for bed yet. This is made worse by a POVCam of the probe, in which Paul is clearly visible.
* IHaveYourWife: How Yueh is convinced to betray House Atreides. Curiously, he's already guessed that the Baron has likely killed his wife, but he still goes along because he figures he can use the Duke to take a shot at the Baron.
* InnocentFlowerGirl: The Duke kills an innocent flower boy by pulling his [[https://youtu.be/AKd2YldRvB8?t=41 heart plug]].
* IWasNeverHere: The Guild Navigator from Lynch's movie, after telling the Emperor to kill Paul Atreides.
-->"I did not say this, I am not here."
* InnerMonologue: Taken to almost ridiculous levels in the movie. A great deal of the exposition and background information is given to the audience through this.
* KickTheDog: When Baron Vladimir Harkonnen pulls the heart plug from one of his slaves and then does something [[{{squick}} too gruesome to describe here]].
* HateSink: The Baron, more so than in the book as he's physically repulsive, devoid of the original character's suave manners and even gives a SpitefulSpit when he has Lady Jessica at his mercy. Funnily enough, the Fremen consider that a compliment.
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corino IV whose plans fail at every turn and who spends every scene on camera being bossed around by the Spacing Guild. You find yourself wondering why he doesn't tell them to watch their [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] mouths.
* LargeHam:
** Baron Harkonnen, with an emphasis on [[LargeAndInCharge large]].
--->"I'm alive, eh?! ''I'M ALIVE!!!'' I'M...'''''ALIVE!!!''''' I'M ALIVE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
** Creator/PatrickStewart manages to [[ChewingTheScenery chew the scenery]] every time he's on screen, even in {{Deleted Scene}}s. [[invoked]]
* MakeMeWannaShout: The wierding modules channel the user's voice into a destructive sound pulse which can cause a variety of ailments based on how the user speaks, though mostly it just causes explosions. This leads to the memetic "My name is a killing word" scene, wherein a Fremen using one says "Muad'Dib" and blows up part of the ceiling.
* MonochromaticEyes: A result of high-level Spice addiction, when enough ingestion saturates the blood stream and stains the eyes. Turned into GlowingEyesOfDoom here.
* MrFanservice: Feyd's utterly gratuitous speedo scene. Sting's running five miles a day really paid off.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The final scene of the film shows Paul using his incredible psychic powers as the Kwisatz Haderach to make it rain on Arrakis for the first time in eons. However, in one scene, a worm is killed using water, and Paul very deliberately notes it. It seems his making it rain is more of a ''deliberate'' ApocalypseHow, to make spice that much rarer and valuable.
* NonActorVehicle: Sting had already acted by the time he appeared in this role, though he was primarily known as a musician.
* NotableOriginalMusic: Brian Eno and Toto's score.
* OpeningMonologue:
-->"A beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year ten-thousand, one-ninety-one..."
** Narration was used to insane levels, although being ''Dune'', it needed it.
* PeopleOfHairColor: In the movie, nearly all of the Harkonnens have orange hair, while the Atreides (and almost all Fremen) have black hair.
* PimpedOutDress: There are dresses based on renaissance gowns.
* PlotTumor: In the novel series, the Voice -- the ability to control the minds of the weak-willed -- is only one of a number of talents that the Bene Gesserit cultivate through training. Lynch's adaptation takes this idea and expands it into devices that allow anyone to use their voice as a weapon, and Paul eventually becoming so powerful that he can use his voice to destroy without these devices.
* PoisonAndCureGambit: Thufir Hawat is required to milk a cat daily for the antidote to the poison he has been administered by the Harkonnens.
* PreciousPuppy: In the book, there is no mention of a specific dog, but the film showed several pugs (owned by the Atreides) and bulldogs (by the Corrinos).
* PrettyBoy:
** Paul Atreides is portrayed by the strikingly pretty Creator/KyleMacLachlan. Because Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach and can access the genetic memories of his female and male ancestors, his androgynous looks reflect his unique skill.
** Meanwhile, every Harkonnen is ugly save [[spoiler:Francesca Annis as Jessica and]] Sting as Feyd. Heck, one scene has him slathered in ''oil'' (wearing a winged speedo), with his ''uncle'' lusting after him. One unfortunate Harkonnen slave boy is pretty enough to capture the Baron's attention.[[note]]The Baron murders him and uses his blood to soak the lilies.[[/note]]
* ProlongedPrologue: The movie begins with four {{infodump}}s in a row: Irulan's introduction before the title sequence, "A Secret Report Within the Guild" after the title sequence, the conversation between the Guild Navigator and the Emperor, and Paul's filmbook.
* ProperLady: Lady Jessica behaves like one even though she's technically not part of the nobility.
* PsychicNosebleed: There's a scene in which several Bene Gesserit cry blood when Paul drinks the Water of Life. Although the movie doesn't make it clear, those who read the books will know that [[spoiler:all of them are his relatives]], and the identity of two of them makes guessing the significance of the third reasonably easy.
* PuttingOnTheReich: Subverted with House Atreides. They may wear stern uniforms, but are unabashedly just and fair people.
* RealIsBrown: One aspect of the film that has regularly been criticized is its rather ugly art direction. Virtually every world other than Arrakis looks gloomy and overcast, which arguably makes sense in the case of [[PollutedWasteland Giedi Prime]] but not so much for the other planets. As for Arrakis itself, the landscape tends to be dominated by dust and smoke, which doesn't exactly convey the kind of grandeur that the filmmakers were aiming for. This was one of Creator/RogerEbert's biggest complaints about the film.
* RealityWarper: Unlike in the books, the Guild Navigators can fold spacetime with their minds.
* ReCut:
** In addition to the Theatrical Cut, a few years later, a made-for-TV version, containing a prologue sequence and many deleted and extended scenes was created. Originally meant to air in two parts, it was disowned by Lynch, who goes by pseudonyms in its directing and writing credits. It was eventually released on DVD (as a nearly three-hour film with the recap linking the two parts removed) as an 'Extended Edition.'
** Fandom insists there is a cut closer to Lynch's first cut of the film that runs at around four to five hours. Frank Herbert's son Brian said in an interview in 2003 his father had seen a 'five-hour' version (likely the very 1st assembly cut), but no longer version than the TV cut has been officially verified.
** Author Frank Herbert actually provides the narration of the prologue sequence in the TV cut, rather than actress Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan.
** The extended cut has yet to appear in HD in the States, but it has been released on Blu-Ray in both Germany and in Japan.
* RuleOfSexy: Sting in a rubber g-string. If you've made it this far into the film, you've probably learned to let this kind of stuff go. Both Sting and Lynch would have preferred to shoot the scene with MaleFrontalNudity, but they couldn't because the movie had to be rated PG.
* SceneryPorn: The deserts of Arrakis and the sets in general are very striking, though the former is kind of spoiled by the RealIsBrown aspect.
* ShutUpHannibal: Paul gets in a good one.
-->'''Paul:''' Don't try your powers on me. Try looking into that place where you dare not look. You'll find me there, staring back at you.
* ShirtlessScene: Paul has one when he's in bed with Chani.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: The three scenes Feyd is in, you won't forget.
* SpaceClothes: Averted -- the film portrays the various peoples wearing European Renaissance-style court regalia and military uniforms with an early nineteenth-century feel. This comes off remarkably well.
* SteamPunk: Some of the [[ExcessiveSteamSyndrome mechanism]] behind the high technology even looks primitive by 1984 standards.
* AStormIsComing:
-->"A storm is coming... our storm."
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: In the novel and miniseries, [[spoiler:Baron Harkonnen]] dies simply as a result of being stabbed with a Gom Jabbar by [[spoiler:Alia]]. In the film, she stabs him and rips out his heart plugs, before he goes flying out of a hole that had been blasted in the palace wall, leading to him being SwallowedWhole by a sandworm.
* TrainingMontage: A short one is used to show Paul Muad'dib training the Fremen to fight against the Harkonnens.
* VideoCredits: The end credits show images of all major characters together with their actor names.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Guild doesn't have any morality. It just wants the spice to flow, no matter who is producing it.
* WhamLine:
-->'''Guild Navigator:''' We ourselves... foresee a slight within House Atreides. Paul... Paul Atreides.\\
'''Emperor:''' ''(confused)'' You mean, of course, Duke Leto Atreides, his father.\\
'''Guild Navigator:''' I mean ''Paul'' Atreides. We want him killed.
* WhamShot: [[spoiler: It begins to rain on Arrakis.]]
* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent:
-->'''Silvana Mangano (as Reverend Mother Ramallo):''' And now - the prophecy. One will come. The voice from the outer world, bringing the holy war. The Jihad! Which will cleanse the universe and bring us out of darkness.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones: The film turns the Weirding Way from the novel into a martial art and gives "my name is a killing word" a more literal meaning. Paul, in fact, is nearly flattened by rocks when a hapless Fremen utters the word "Muad'Dib."
* WorldOfHam: The Baron Harkonnen is only the biggest pig in this ham-fest, followed by Creator/PatrickStewart, Sting, and Siân Phillips.
----
-->''"And how can this be? For he '''is''' the Kwisatz Haderach!"''

** No version includes Jessica [[spoiler:LukeIAmYourFather secretly being the Baron's daughter]], which [[spoiler:she only finds out due to Paul's prescience]]. So later, [[spoiler:Alia doesn't address the Baron as her grandfather when they meet]].

** No version includes Jessica [[spoiler:LukeIAmYourFather secretly being the Baron's daughter]], which [[spoiler:she only finds out due to Paul's prescience. As such, [[spoiler:Alia doesn't address the Baron as her grandfather when they meet later]].

** No version includes Jessica [[LukeIAmYourFather secretly being the Baron's daughter,]] which [[spoiler:she only finds out due to Paul's prescience. As such, Alia doesn't address the Baron as her grandfather when they meet later]].

** No version includes Jessica being [[LukeIAmYourFather the Baron's daughter]].

* AdaptationalHeroism: For the Atreides, the Fremen and especially Paul, because the film plays the messiah-hero theme completely straight without going into any of the subversions and deconstructions of the book.

* AdaptationalBadass: The Bene Gesserit of the film are given mild telepathic abilities that they could use to eavesdrop on the conversation between Edric and the Emperor. In the books, the Bene Gesserit don't have practical telepathy, only a mental contact they can use to pass their ego/memories among them by touching foreheads (Alia does have something like literal telepathy, but she is a special case due to her cultivated bloodline). The film presents the Bene Gesserit's abilities as overt PsychicPowers, which in the novels they are not; things like the Voice and the Weirding Way were simply [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower supposed]] to come out of a very advanced understanding of logic, psychology, spatial perception, body language, mnemonics, and linguistics, and not actual superhuman abilities, with the mentioned exception and that of the Kwisatz Haderach.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis handed the film to another experimental director, Creator/DavidLynch, who was a hot prospect at the time due to his cult classic debut film ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' and the critically lauded ''Film/TheElephantMan''. Lynch scrapped most of Jodorowsky's plans and made the film with his own unique vision. Lynch's completed work is memorable (and notorious) for its Freudian imagery, [[SceneryPorn elaborate set design]] (containing several holdovers from the Jodorowsky version, including some Giger's designs), and an AllStarCast, which besides [=MacLachlan=], features Creator/PatrickStewart, Creator/BradDourif, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/VirginiaMadsen, Music/{{Sting}}, Creator/LindaHunt, and Creator/MaxVonSydow, among others.

* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Played with. In the novel, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is poisoned to death by his granddaughter Alia Atreides. Here he gets eaten by a giant sandworm, but not before Alia poisons him.

* HateSink: The Baron, more so than in the book as he's devoid of the original character's suave mannerisms and even gives a SpitefulSpit when he has Lady Jessica at his mercy.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: In the novel and miniseries, [[spoiler:Baron Harkonnen]] dies simply as a result of being stabbed with a Gom Jabbar by [[spoiler:Alia]]. In the film, she stabs him and rips out his heart plugs, before he goes flying out of a hole that had been blasted in the palace wall, leading to him being devoured by a worm.

* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Played with. In the novel, he is poisoned to death by his granddaughter Alia Atreides. Vladimir Harkonnen is eaten by a giant worm, but not before Alia poisons him.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis handed the film to another experimental director, Creator/DavidLynch, who was a hot prospect at the time due to his cult classic debut film ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' and the critically lauded ''Film/TheElephantMan''. Lynch scrapped most of Jodorowsky's plans and made the film with his own unique vision. Lynch's completed work is memorable (and notorious) for its Freudian imagery, [[SceneryPorn elaborate set design]] (containing several holdovers from the Jodorowsky version, including some Giger's designs), and AllStarCast.

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[[caption-width-right:350:''"The Sleeper must awaken."'']]