MovieChat Forums > Dune: Part One (2021) Discussion > So many questions...

So many questions...

posted 3 years ago by Rorikon (18391)
6 replies | jump to latest

I thought House Atreides was suppose to be powerful or decently powerful. Why no orbiting ships to have an eye in the skies sort of speak? I know the Duke had a sense something was not right or that he somewhat knew his House was being played yet kept it within the family and slept soundly until it was too late. If he could notice something wrong later on, why couldn't the others? All the great leaders (Gurney Halleck, Duncan Idaho) were seemingly sound asleep. Wtf were the spies doing after the failed attempted assassination of Paul? Sleeping on the job too?

Seems all Houses use the same or have similar tech strength.

House Harkonnen only gave them a small base, gimped silos, and one junky harvester. Why bother with them? Because the Empire deemed it so? If the Harkonnen already control Arrakis, wouldn't they be strong enough to defeat the Empire alone let alone any other House? Or is there some agreement between the two?

Does the Bene Gesserit work for the Empire or play all sides? All Houses too afraid or greedy to gang up on the Empire?

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 3 years ago

Excellent questions. I especially wondered about how unprepared House Atreides was before the attack.

😎

[–] SgtPinback (18) 3 years ago

Good questions. Some of them were answered in the film but I thought easy to miss if you hadn't read the book.

1. They had no eyes in the sky because the Spacing Guild controls all space travel as a monopoly. Guild Heighliners are neutral and can pop into orbit instantly. They brought the Harkonnen/Sardaukar army because they were paid to do so.

2. It's important to not that Dune is interesting because its heroes make actual mistakes. The Atreides lost because they underestimated their foes. Thufir Hawat didn't think the Harkonnen could afford the extreme prices of Guild space travel to bring an entire army. Hawat also didn't expect them to have the support of as many, if any Sardaukar.

3. The Atreides were confident in the protection of their House shield. They didn't explain this as well in the film although they did mention it. While it was up it protected the city from direct landing. Any attack would have to come from outside the shield wall. Their strategy was to bunker behind the shield for protection. Yueh sabotaged the shield as was shown in the film.

4. The fact houses have equal tech is exactly why the Atreides lost. Shields made personal combat prowess more important than tech. This is why the Sardaukar were the X Factor. One Sardaukar is worth 10 House Soldiers in personal combat. The Atreides didn't expect the Emperor to act so brashly and send significant Sardaukar forces because it was against the "rules" and would endanger his position. The Emperor gambled harder than the Atreides expected.

Short answer, the Atreides underestimated the will, finances and power of their opponents and that they had a traitor in their midst.

[–] Rorikon (18391) 3 years ago

Thx for the answers. When you mentioned Yueh sabotaging the shield wall, you talking about an actual shield over the whole base and not the individual shields each ship and member have?

[–] SgtPinback (18) 3 years ago

The actual shield that extended over the palace.

The big complex Yueh sabotaged was the base shield that extended over the physical shield wall. It turned Arakeen into an impregnable fortress.

In the book it's explained that since the Harkonnen knew that the shield would be down they brought crushers (the things you see being dropped on the frigates) and artillery. That was a surprise to the Atredies as those weapons would be useless otherwise against the house shield.

[–] asom (6894) 3 years ago

Good answers.

But with 1 I have problems:

geostationary satellites would not be in space but in close orbit, few of those and the fleet would had been discovered way before the attack (although that would maybe rely on too much tech, that's forbidden - don't remember seeing anything about the butlerian jihad in the movie)

[–] SgtPinback (18) 3 years ago

This is something that would likely be covered in the second film.

The Fremen have bribed the Guild with spice to ban any and all satellites over Arrakis. They're doing this to hide their numbers and...other stuff I won't spoil if you haven't read the book.