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We’re now a little under two full months away from Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited Dune reboot from arriving, which means it’s time for the promotional campaign to kick up a notch. This includes releasing quick excerpts from the movie, with today’s featuring Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck locked in futuristic combat. Because while knives are the weapons of choice, it’s harder for a person to land a decent blow against their opponent thanks to special technology.
Like in the original novel penned by Frank Herbert, the new Dune movie includes protective energy shields, which block objects that are moving past a certain velocity. As such, it’s not just a matter of being experienced enough to use a blade like someone would here on good ol’ Earth; they also need to be able to attack their opponent just slowly enough that the blade can penetrate the shield, yet still fast enough that the opponent can’t block the attack. Take a look at Paul and Gurney’s sparring below:
As you’ll see if you watch the full Dune clip on Vanity Fair, Paul Atreides initially isn’t the mood to practice fighting, but Gurney Halleck tells him that mood doesn’t matter, “you fight when the necessity arises,” a line ripped straight from the book. While Paul does get the upper hand on Gurney in their sparring session, his mentor tells him that his method of doing so would have led to Paul “joining” Gurney in death. Oh well, at least Paul finally got in the mood.
Like Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho, Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck has been tasked by Paul’s family to train him as a warrior. Despite only being 16 years old, Paul has been raised to be far wiser and experienced than someone his age, so naturally that’s resulted in him not having a normal upbringing. As Denis Villenueve put it:
There’s a little bit of a Three Musketeers thing about Dune where we have teachers around him that are very alpha male. They are Paul’s only friends. Paul was raised as a kid surrounded by adults who are teaching him.
This combat training will definitely come in handy when for Paul Atreides, because the story sees his family being betrayed by Stellan Skarsgård’s Baron Vladimir Harkonnen after his father, Oscar Isaac’s Duke Leto Atreides, takes custody of the planet Arrakis, the only known source in the universe of melange, a.k.a. spice. Paul and his mother, Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica are then forced to flee Arrakis’ surface, where they come into contact with the native Fremen and Paul learns new skills that will help him take back his family’s rightful inheritance. Dune’s other cast members include Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Charlotte Rampling.
Rather than follow in the footsteps of David Lynch’s Dune movie, Denis Villenueve’s movie will only adapt the first half of the original novel, and while Dune 2 hasn’t been officially greenlit yet, the filmmaker is optimistic that he’ll get to cover the latter half of the story in a sequel. For now, Dune will premiere in theaters and on HBO Max October 22. If you’re interested in watching the movie with the latter option, use this link to sign up for the streaming service if you’re not already subscribed.
