Dune is now available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland, perfect timing for anybody who wants to rewatch before Dune: Part Two arrives in cinemas on March 1.
The movie landed in cinemas back in October 2021 and told one half of Frank Herbert's seminal novel. If you're a newcomer to this world though, you might have got a bit lost along the way.
Dune centres on Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a young man struggling with his ultimate destiny as the Kwisatz Haderach, a superbeing able to see through time.
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Paul is plagued by visions of the future that mostly feature a Fremen girl called Chani (Zendaya), as well as images of Paul leading the Fremen in a revolt against the Empire. It's a future that comes closer when his family is given charge of Arrakis (where the Fremen live), an assignment that Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) knows is a trap.
If you want to know more about the world of Dune and what all the various terms mean, we've got you covered right here. In this piece though, we're going to delve into the big events of Dune: Part One and how they set up the sequel.
Dune ending explained
In truth, a large part of the movie is concerned with setting up the rich world of Dune with the second half containing the big moments that'll impact on the future, even though we don't get a definitive conclusion here.
Paul's life is changed forever in the course of one night when his father's belief that the assignment to Arrakis was a trap turns out to be true. The Emperor has secretly worked with House Harkonnen, led by the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård), and given them the aid of his elite army to wipe out House Atreides.
They attack and quickly prove way too much for the Atreides army to cope with, and the night goes from bad to worse when Dr Yeuh (Chang Chen) betrays Leto by poisoning him. He's done it because the Baron holds his wife hostage and by giving him Leto, Dr Yeuh believes his wife will be safe.
Unsurprisingly, the Baron kills Dr Yeuh anyway, but the Doc had a secret plan too. He gave Leto a false tooth that will release poison gas when he bites down on it. It'll kill Leto and the Baron too if done right, but despite Leto's best efforts, the Baron survives.
It hasn't all gone to plan for House Harkonnen though, as Paul escaped with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). They have a bit of a run-in with Harkonnen soldiers, but the duo use "the Voice" – a Bene Gesserit skill that bends people to their will – to overpower and kill the soldiers.
They're stranded in the desert outside the city and are found by Paul's mentor Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), who followed a beacon that Dr Yueh had planted on the ornithopter they were travelling on. Duncan is one of the few Atreides survivors of the massacre, but it's unclear if weapons master Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) survived too.
House Harkonnen doesn't stop hunting them down and eventually find them again at a testing station they were taking shelter in. Duncan puts up a valiant fight and gives Lady Jessica and Paul time to escape, but is eventually overpowered and killed.
As they flee from the Harkonnen forces in an ornithopter, Paul flies it directly into a sandstorm which leads the Baron's nephew, Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista), to believe they couldn't possibly have survived. They absolutely did though and eventually find themselves among a Fremen community, led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem).
Even though Paul met Stilgar earlier when Leto tried to broker a peace with the Fremen, they're not exactly welcomed with open arms. It's a situation that sours further when Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun) tries to persuade Stilgar to kill them, leading Lady Jessica to overpower Stilgar in order to protect Paul.
She doesn't kill Stilgar, but it's enough for Jamis to challenge's Stilgar's leadership and issue a fight to the death, known as the Tahaddi Challenge. He can't fight Lady Jessica as it's against Fremen rules, so Paul steps up to be his mother's champion. If he wins, they get to go with the Fremen and if not, well, he'll be dead and so will Lady Jessica.
Before his duel with Jamis, Paul meets Chani for the first time and she tells him that she doesn't believe he's the Lisan al'Gaib, an off-world prophet (not the same as the Kwisatz Haderach – Paul's got a lot of destinies). She gifts him a crysknife as she believes he'll die and deserves to do so with honour.
The problem for Paul is that he's seen various futures in his visions which have included this crysknife. In some he's killed and in others, Jamis appears to be more like a mentor, so he's not entirely sure how this fight will go.
In the end, Paul manages to defeat Jamis and eventually kills him after trying to get him to yield, something that doesn't happen in the Tahaddi Challenge. Paul and Lady Jessica are accepted into the Fremen community, and they all head off into the desert to Stilgar's home.
As they're walking, Paul sees a Fremen riding a sandworm and understands what Leto meant by "desert power", while Chani turns to him and says that "this is only the beginning" as Dune: Part One ends.
Even if you haven't read the book, the open ending of this movie appears to set up a Paul and the Fremen vs the evil Empire narrative for the second movie to follow. Will Paul get revenge for his family's betrayal and also fulfil his ultimate destiny?
The events of the movie cover roughly over half of the original novel, leaving plenty for fans to savour in Dune: Part Two. We won't spoil it for any non-book readers here, but expect a time jump, some major reveals and the big battle that Paul has foreseen in his visions.
That's assuming Denis Villeneuve remains faithful to the book, although we'd imagine he will. The first movie omits certain elements of the book to focus on Paul's journey more, but generally follows the same path and we can't imagine he'll divert from it. He's even been talking about adapting Dune Messiah as the third movie.
Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet though.
Dune is available to watch now on Netflix in the UK and Ireland and on Max in the US.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
