I binge-watched the two films in two days.
I don't really understand all the hype. When Paul Atreides rode the worm, that looked cool.
I preferred the bald psychopath though, shame he died.
Anyway, I was wondering how on earth did Paul's mother, her entourage, and later groups of soldiers jump onto the worms.
Yeah, the impression was they couldn't control the worms like horses, they just jumped on it, at least that is what happened to Paul.
How did they get the worm to stop? Clearly that had to happen to put a carriage on it.
Also in the ending they clearly can control the worms to go where the fremen wanted to them to go.
Then why even bother to attack those giant spice collecting machines, why not just call the worms to attack those machines?
@ to fc31
Sometimes when I binge-watch I miss details but not in this case seeing you too are wondering how the carriage was transported onto the worm's back..also I don't see Paul's pregnant mother making the jump either.
Q. Then why even bother to attack those giant spice collecting machines, why not just call the worms to attack those machines
@.Maybe they wanted to insert that device that attracts the worms as close as possible to the target/the harvesting vehicle. To accomplish that, they had to attack and close in.
But I think they destroyed those machines with some kind of laser beams, the worms did not show up in those attack scenes.
shareby fc31:
But I think they destroyed those machines with some kind of laser beams, the worms did not show up in those attack scenes.
@.I confess the battle scenes right now are somewhat of a muddle in my head..I would need to watch the films a second time.
I do remember after an exchange of fire in part two , a thumper ( found the correct word) was placed right next to a pile of dead soldiers. A worm emerged with its mouth open and swallowed them up.
So I do believe a worm would attack any target the Fremen want as long as said target is pinpointed by a thumper.
You don't show your Ace until the end ...
share"Yeah, the impression was they couldn't control the worms like horses, they just jumped on it, at least that is what happened to Paul."
The movie clearly showed the hooks latching onto "flaps" on the sand worm when Paul was riding it. Pull on a hook, the flap opens bigger, and the worm turns. This is how the sand worms are steered and is all shown in the film.
What's not clearly explained is that the sand worms are sensitive to sand and their "scales" provide protection. They close these flaps when traveling in the sand, so by opening them, you force the sand worm to lift that area out of the sand, effectively steering it.
"How did they get the worm to stop? Clearly that had to happen to put a carriage on it."
The sand worms don't stop. The carriage was a pop-up tent, as seen in other scenes. They set the tents up while riding the worms. Dismounting a worm is difficult, but easier than mounting it. I imagine they just ride it around in circles while everybody else hops on.
"Then why even bother to attack those giant spice collecting machines, why not just call the worms to attack those machines?"
The spice harvesters attract sand worms at baseline. They make a lot of rhythmic noise which is why they are airlifted to and from spice deposits. Calling a worm would take the same amount of time as just letting the worm be alerted naturally by spice harvesting. That's why they lie in wait at spice deposits to ambush the harvesters. Even if they were able to predict exactly when and where a harvester would be dropped down, they'd still need to already be on a worm and riding toward that location, at which point it would just seem like a worm was attracted by the harvesting, so they would airlift the thing out of there.
The movie wasn't going to spend a half hour explaining worm riding minutiae. I would say that was a wise film-making choice.
shareWell, in a season of shitty films, this one kinda stood out, disappointing as it was.
In the case of Paul riding Shaihulud, that was a big deal to the Fremen. I mean, you've got an offworlder who should have known nothing about the ways of the Fremen, and yet he took to them like a worm to sand, hinting that he was part of the prophecy that they had been hearing and waiting to see come to fruition for centuries. Many doubted him, (even in versions of Dune that didn't have postmodernism shoved into the story).
Riding a sandworm is no mean feat, even for native Fremen. People still die when trying to ride one for the first time, or they screw up in mid-transit. It's one of many ways they test their people to weed out the weak and the stupid. For a guy who grew up off-planet, who learned so quickly (obviously he was being trained for months before this event), and was not only able to call up just any sandworm, but the Grandfather of All Sandworms and successfully ride him without dying, it was a very big deal to the Fremen.
It's possible that the first Fremen (the pilot, I'm assuming) to call up the worm and bring it in for mass travel, was able to slow the worm down enough to guide it near a cliff, and the passengers carefully jumped on and strapped down, even setting up tents for protection. I mean, worms don't always travel at hyper-speed on that planet. Whether they are hunting for food or just traveling, they usually do what they please and speed varies all the time. The Fremen are clever enough to have figured out exactly how to manipulate sandworms when riding, such as forcing them to turn on their sides, to raise their heads so they won't dive under the sand, make them turn left or right, speed up or slow down, etc. That's one of many ways the Fremen are a badass people. They have learned to use the power of the desert to their advantage, including worms the size of skyscrapers.
I actually thought it was kinda cool, seeing them using the worms to travel tens of thousands of miles across the planet. No other Dune interpretation has shown that before.
Well it seems that you really suspended disbelief here. Good for you.
I kinda liked the two movies but I felt these things were not really explained in detail. I wish they were.
It's a very weak point in Villeneuve's films. Lynch did it better with voiceovers of the characters' thoughts. The miniseries did it better with explanations peppered throughout the episodes. Your best bet at understanding the Dune universe the best is reading the books, the Dune Encyclopedia (at least just the parts that interest you), and reading up on online literature people have written on the subject.
Frank Herbert's galaxy in this franchise is very complex, and not easy to absorb compared to say, Star Wars or Game of Thrones.
I had already read up on a lot of the lore from the books, so a lot of the stuff in the films made sense to me, but some of it also didn't make sense, or didn't seem well-communicated at all, or was added in unnecessarily. Villeneuve's worst aspects of these two films is shoving post-modernism into a story where the galaxy has taken on more traditional values regarding things like the roles of men, women, and religion.
Good for you that you consider Lynch's voiceovers as the right choice for this. My partner couldn't stand them and I personally think that they're goofy and a bit unintentionally funny. But I insist, to each their own.
shareThe voice-overs help the viewer to understand the scenes in Dune better, because in the book, a lot of things were going on in the minds of the characters, and there actually wasn't much going on in certain scenes. You get an idea of what kind of people you're seeing onscreen who hide much of their feelings from others. You also get a sense of the Bene Gesserits' abilities that you won't hear much about, such as their ability to observe every detail in the room, telepathically spy on people, know if someone's telling the truth or not, and even communicating telepathically to each other. You also hear what Paul is thinking about with his visions and seeing the future, which plays an important role in his character development, as well as hinting towards his role later on in the story.
The route Villeneuve took doesn't help the audience hardly at all, and leaves them extremely confused part of the time.