FAQ

Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto of House Atriedes, relocates with his family from the watery planet Caladan to the desert planet Arrakis. Paul and his family go to Arrakis to take charge of the Imperial mining operation on Arrakis as the planet is being mined for the drug Melange aka "The Spice". However, the planet is a deathtrap as the corrupt Padisah Emperor Shaddam IV whom sent House Atreides to Arrakis has plotted with the evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen of House Harkonnen to rid the Galactic Empire of House Atriedes as the Emperor fears Duke Leto will sit on the throne and rule the universe. After Baron Harkonnen and his forces invade Arrakis and Duke Leto is betrayed and assassinated, Paul and his mother Jessica are forced to flee into the desert. In the desert, the planet's native humanoid inhabitants the Fremen led by Stilgar takes in Paul and Jessica and Paul soon takes leadership of the Fremen as he instructs Fremen warriors in the use of sound guns called Weirding Modules and he leads the Fremen into rebellion against the Emperor and Baron Harkonnen by sabotaging the mining operation on Arrakis. As Emperor Shaddam IV is forced to travel to Arrakis to deal with the Fremen revolt, Paul affected by The Spice becomes a powerful revolutionary and believing he is the chosen one in a Fremen prophecy whom will free Arrakis and the Fremen from the Empire, Paul leads the Fremen in an epic battle as he fights to rid the planet of Emperor Shaddam IV and Baron Harkonnen and avenge his father.

Weirding Modules are sound guns which are weapons used by House Atriedes and the Fremen. The Weirding Modules weren't in the novel and were created for the movie. In the novel, Paul Atriedes instructs the Fremen in the Weirding Way which is a Bene Gesserit martial art. However, David Lynch decided not to include the Weirding Way in the movie as he felt it was unworkable and that he didn't want to do "Kung-Fu on sand dunes". So, the Weirding Modules were created.

Emperor Shaddam IV was threatened by Duke Leto's popularity in an organization called the Landsraad, a collective of all the great houses of the universe (House Corrino, Hourse Harkonnen, House Atreides, etc). As such, Emperor Shaddam IV feared that Duke Leto would eventually gain enough power to overthrow him and sit on the Golden Lion Throne and rule the universe as Emperor.

Nowhere. It just does not exist. The closest we have to David Lynch's original vision is the theatrical release. Some people sometimes refer to the extended TV cut as the "director's cut" (and some even dare to offer copies of it in various auction sites under that label), but that couldn't be further removed from reality, as that version was rejected by Lynch to the point of deleting his name from the credits. A legal DVD of Dune: The Director's Cut exists, but that's for the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, not this film.

However, the cast and crew of Lynch's Dune have confirmed that Lynch showed them an 'assembly cut' of the film shortly after principal photography wrapped. Although the film had yet to go through post-production, the reaction was very positive. This cut has not been seen since (as is the case with most assembly cuts).

It's "Backyard" by Emmett Chapman, included on his album "Parallel Galaxy". Chapman was also the creator of the instrument (known as the Chapman Stick) that Gurney Halleck plays, repainted and with an added lower part to represent the Baliset described by Frank Herbert in the original novel.

Herbert was very complimentary towards the film, impressed that Lynch had managed to include so much from his novel in such a short time. However, he did take a small issue with the portrayal of Paul Atreides as having become a literal god-figure at the end.

Both versions contain footage that's missing in the other one, but the theatrical version lacks much more footage. Furthermore, several scenes have been removed and reinserted afterwards in the television version, some of them are edited differently. But these differences are not mentioned in this comparison because it would break the mold. David Lynch's version is the theatrical version. He was not involved in the television version and ordered that his name in the opening credits was going to be replaced by "Alan Smithee", a name used by directors when they wanted to divorce themselves from a newer edition of their film that they didn't approve of. The main difference in the two versions is the fact that the television version has been separated to smaller episodes. As a result, the movie does not look like a motion picture anymore but like a massive television production.