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Plot summary
Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV rules the known universe, and the spice melange is its most valuable substance, extending life, expanding consciousness and letting the Spacing Guild fold space for travel between star systems. The spice exists only on Arrakis, a desert planet of giant sandworms, and Shaddam transfers control of it from House Harkonnen to their archenemies, House Atreides. Lady Jessica, concubine to Duke Leto Atreides and an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, bore him a son, Paul, though the order's breeding program had ordered her to bear a daughter. Paul is possibly the Kwisatz Haderach, the messianic figure the sisterhood expects. The Atreides leave Caladan for Arrakis, where the native Fremen hold a prophecy of a messiah who will lead them to freedom.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dune (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade 1970s version of Dune had lined up a startling cast: Salvador Dalí as the Emperor, Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen, Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha, David Carradine as Leto Atreides, and Jodorowsky's own son Brontis as Paul Atreides.
- Although Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune never reached production, the storyboard book his team made to pitch it circulated through Hollywood and visibly influenced Star Wars, The Terminator, Flash Gordon and Alien, which reused much of the same visual-design team. One of roughly 20 original copies of that pitch book sold for over $2 million in 2021.
- Before Kyle MacLachlan was cast as Paul Atreides, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Michael Biehn, Kenneth Branagh and Val Kilmer all screen-tested, with Kilmer the top choice until MacLachlan tested. Aldo Ray was replaced as Gurney Halleck over his alcoholism, Glenn Close lost Lady Jessica to Francesca Annis, and Helena Bonham Carter left Princess Irulan over a scheduling conflict.
- Dune was filmed entirely in Mexico partly for a favorable currency exchange rate, and the production built 80 separate sets across 16 sound stages, employing a total crew of 1,700 people plus more than 20,000 extras.
- David Lynch's own preferred cut of Dune ran nearly three hours, and an unfinished rough assembly ran over four hours, but Universal wanted a standard two-hour film. Producers Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis and Lynch cut numerous scenes, filmed simplifying new footage, and added voice-over narration plus a new opening monologue delivered by Virginia Madsen to make the story followable.
- David Lynch was so unhappy with the heavily altered 1988 television cut of Dune that he had his director credit replaced with the pseudonym Alan Smithee, a name directors use to disown a film, and had his writing credit changed to the fake name Judas Booth.
