One of the most jaw-dropping finales among 2024 movie releases was the ending of Dune: Part Two. While it saw Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides becoming the “chosen one” in the eyes of many, he completely betrayed Zendaya’s Chani in the process. While one might have expected the final shot of the massive sequel to conclude on Paul, director Denis Villeneuve decided to leave audiences with Chani’s anger in its final shot. The filmmaker recently shared why, and it has me emotional over the movie’s events all over again.
When the Canadian director spoke to our sister site GamesRadar+, he shared some more insights into why he chose to make Chani central to the final moment of Dune: Part Two. Apparently, it had to do with something that Frank Herbert felt in the aftermath of his original 1965 novel's release. In his words:
It's one of my favorite shots. I did that shot and knew I had a movie. … The idea was there right at the start when we started to write this adaptation. It all came from the knowledge that Frank Herbert was disappointed by the way some people perceived the first book, thinking that it was a celebration of Paul Atreides. Herbert himself wanted to correct this perception, because he wanted it to be a warning about messianic figures, charismatic figures, people who use religion as a form of power. So, he wrote a second book called Dune Messiah.
As fans of Frank Herbert's book may have noticed, there are some liberties taken with the ending of the Dune sequel. Yet those alterations help strengthen the character of Chani and better communicate the messages of the book that many readers initially misinterpreted when the text was released decades ago. Villeneuve also said this:
Knowing that, we tried to respect his early ideas of doing a cautionary tale, making sure that this will be perceived by the audience. We had this idea of transforming Chani. In the book she’s in the shadow of Paul, but we wanted to give Chani her own agenda here, her own beliefs, her own tale. She has a different view of the world from Paul. So, the movie was structured around their relationship, then at the start of the third act we embrace Chani's perspective more. And from her perspective, we can see where Paul deviates from his path, becoming something he was afraid to become. She becomes our moral compass. It was therefore very important to finish the movie on Chani as that’s our angle, our take.
Dune: Part Two ends on the very shot at the top of this article. It allows the audience to feel the flood of emotions Chani feels after Paul defeats Feyd-Rautha and assumes his title as the Lisan al Gaib, who begins the apocalyptic holy war he initially feared from his visions. While everyone bows to Paul in the moment that King Shaddam surrenders, Chani is the only one left standing and refusing to do so. After that, the young Fremen warrior goes her own way, getting ready to depart on a sandworm alone as a mixture of sadness, fear and anger run over her face. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Florence Pugh and Zendaya about the ending earlier this year, they shared that they were totally “Team Chani." Denis Villeneuve’s expansion of Chani’s storyline was the perfect way to end of the second movie and underline Frank Herbert’s messages from the first book. The film's conclusion is truly devastating, and the filmmaker's comments are making me feel those emotions again. Nevertheless, I love that he put so much thought into the conclusion.
As for the rest of the story, Denis Villeneuve is currently writing the third Dune movie based on Messiah, which will be set 12 years after the events of its predecessor, which is in line with the books. The director has spoken about how Chani is inspiring the third movie. He didn’t get into specifics but he apparently knows “exactly what to do” and is “very excited” about what’s next for the character. Until then, we're left with that lasting image of the character's anger and disgust.
You can check out Dune: Part Two right now with a Max subscription and see where it lands amongst CinemaBlend’s best movies of 2024.
