MovieChat Forums > Dune: Part Two (2024) Discussion > The idea of a worm being able to move th...

The idea of a worm being able to move through the sand ... ridiculous


The idea of a worm being able to move through the sand is ridiculous. And the idea of someone riding the worms when every time you see a worm it is first seen moving underground is even more so. I love Dune when I read it as a kid, but it's about as realistic as Lord Of The Rings.

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You want realism in a sci fi movie?

It takes place in another universe, the laws of nature etc would not be the same as on earth.

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The laws of sand are the same throughout the universe, as are the laws of physics, that is what physics is.

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That's a massively flawed assumption.

And I will say again that this is sci fi, its make believe, normal rules of nature and physics do not and indeed should not apply.

To expect writers and filmakers to adhere to conventionally, physics etc would make for extremely boring and pedestrian movies and books.

You need to use your imagination and go with tge flow. It's just a movie...

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Not sci-fi! Magic navigator instead of computers.

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This is exactly wrong. You can bend the rules a little (almost every scifi franchise has FTL travel for example), but basic physics does not and should not change. For sand -- granular mineral particles -- to be something people can stand on without sinking into it, has to have certain mass and density, and that makes it too dense for a huge creature the size of an ocean going vessel, dwarfing something the size of a blue whale, to swim through as if it were water. It is a physics problem, and if you just throw out physics, literally nothing else in the universe works the way we understand matter and energy to work. Also, assuming the worm could somehow do this, the energy requirement to power something that size through solid material would be enormous. Where is it getting that energy? What does it eat? Sand isn't nourishing, and we see nothing else for it to eat, so where's the energy come from?

Get too far from what people know to be reality, and they will not be able to stretch their suspension of disbelief far enough to buy it. It's too far out, they say "this is silly" and they're done.

The very best speculative fiction, even that incorporating science and technology beyond what we know, or think is possible, still has to establish internally consistent rules that the characters and events absolutely must obey. This is what allows you to create tense, dramatic situations and problems for your protagonists to solve. It's how you back them into a tight corner and make the audience wonder "how the hell are they going to get out of this?" If you throw out physics, and anything goes, then you leave the characters able to essentially magic their way out of any situation with the appropriate technobabble incantation (Berman & Braga Star Trek was terrible about this). It's a kind of deus ex machina, and it's bad writing.

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^^This says it best - thanks for sharing this!

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Agree.

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Superman can fly!

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if you want realism, then you all need to watch Interstellar.

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Are you implying that Tremors is trash?

How dare you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUb4MovqcBY

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Beat me to it!

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'it's about as realistic as Lord Of The Rings'

That's the point! Pure escapism.

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I thought so too, until I saw this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5-iu7j9z5Vo

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Hahaha, that guy is trying hard, but nothing he says really pertains. It might could work if like he said there was air being forced up from below, or water to liquify it, but there is not - and further something that might work at the small scale - as for instance how an ant can life 10 times its weight, does not work as the mass of the ant and volume expands. You could just simplify it and look at calculations involving the mass of sand and the work necessary to move it out of the way of the sandworm and see that there is just no way aside from magic that it could possible generate that much force. Also ... look at the friction that would be generated and the heat, it would abrade and tear apart the sandworm traveling at such speed. It's ridiculous. Fun movie, but absurd.

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Months later, but they offer the idea of liquefaction of sand as a result of sonics in this video. It's plausible for sand, but beneath that sand there's rock. Arrakis cannot possibly be an ocean of sand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocNxd2xDr38&ab_channel=CorridorCrew

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Even sand at that scale of many feet or 10s of yards is not subject to liquefaction. Just because liquefaction exists does not mean it can be used to explain anything. Almost all of America's movies and TV fills people heads with garbage.

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Not at all. The sand on Dune is actually "sand", a fictional material that enables large worms to swim through. Frank just believed that would be implied enough by writing about those worms doing just that
FTFY

Maybe Transformers is more your thing?

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YOU TAKE THAT BACK! The laws of Transformer metal apply to all universe as is the law of physics, duh.

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Did you even watch the movie?! They actually SHOW it. Embarrassing post.

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Those worms fly right over his head!

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But isn't that what worms do?

They cruise around in dirt.

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science………..F I C T I O N

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SCIENCE………..fiction

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SCIEN……….tology
As I smh.

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