Plot

Paul Atreides unites with the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future.

Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.—Warner Bros. Pictures

Following the fall of House Atreides in Dune: Part One (2021), exiled Duke Paul Atreides continues his journey of enlightenment in the barren deserts of Arrakis. Soon, the noble son embraces the ways of the blue-eyed Fremen warriors, unaware that rumours about the prophesied Dune Messiah divide the tribe. After all, the suffocating grip of House Harkonnen tightens by the minute, ushering in a brutal era of war over the control of the planet and its vast spice-rich fields. But above all else, water is life. As shrewd machinators plot destruction and death, the volatile future demands the emergence of a new leader. Now caught between personal hopes and the aspirations of others, will Paul become the fighter he always wanted to be?—Nick Riganas

After the massacre of house atreides the son of the late duke Leto atreides Paul and his mother lady Jessica travel with the fremen and learn their ways. While Paul starts getting closer to the fremen girl Chani the rest of the fremen either despise him or worship him as the Lisan al Gaib. Paul is torn between his compassion for Chani and the desire to lead the fremen as their messiah. Meanwhile the Baron Harkonnen recovering from his wounds takes control over arrakis away from Rabban and gifts it to his psychotic nephew Feyd Rautha Harkonnen. Paul is left with the choice of staying at his current position with the fremen or rising up as the Lisan al gaib and challenging the emperor and house harkonnen.

Paul Atreides is accepted by part of the Fremen and Stilgar believes he is the promised one Lisan al Gaib from the prophecy of the people from North. Paul learns the customs of the Fremen and falls in love with Chani. However, Stilgar and his mother Jessica want Paul to go to the South to join forces and fight the House Harkonnen and the Emperor, but Paul is afraid of the outcome, since he had a vision of many casualties in the showdown of the Holy War.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Following the defeat of House Atreides by House Harkonnen in the year 10,091, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), daughter of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), journals about her father's betrayal of the Atreides. House Harkonnen had attacked overnight without warning, provocation or declaration of war. All Atreides were killed. Harkonnen had done the dirty work on behalf of the Emperor.

On the planet Arrakis, a Fremen tribe led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem) accompanies Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) the exiled Duke of House Atreides and his pregnant mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) to Sietch Tabr. Some Fremen suspect they are spies, while Stilgar and others see signs of the prophecy that a mother and son from the "Outer World" will bring prosperity to Arrakis.

A squad of Harkonnen soldiers hunt for the Fremen and are killed, as the Fremen are masters of hiding and fighting in the desert, which Harkonnen's advanced technology cannot match. The Fremen extract the water from the dead Harkonnen bodies as there is no other source of natural water out in the desert. The dead bodies are left in the desert and consumed by the worms summoned by Fremen.

Arrakeen is the capital of North Arrakis, where the Harkonnen have Bene Gesserit established a base and have secured the spice fields. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his nephew Rabban want the Fremen to be exterminated from the planet to have complete control.

The Fremen accept Paul after Stilgar says that he would have no hesitation to pledge his own life to him. The council wanted to give them back to desert, but Fremen prevails in his arguments. Meanwhile, Paul knows that if he can convince the Fremen to follow him, he can seriously disrupt the spice production and that is the only way he can reach the Emperor.

But Stilgar commands Jessica to succeed Sietch Tabr's dying Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) by drinking the Water of Life, a drug fatal for males and untrained women. Stilgar shows Jessica that the water drained from dead bodies and collected in a lake which amounts to 38 million Decaliters. This water is considered sacred and not drank by the Fremen. Stilgar says that when the Freemen have enough water, the messiah Lisan Al Gaib (The voice of the outer world) will rise and change the face of Arrakis. Stilgar considers Jessica as the mother of Lisan Al Gaib. The North Fremen tribes do not believe in the legend of Lisan Al Gaib and call it a Southern Fremen tradition.

Jessica uses her Bene Gesserit training to transmute the liquid and survive, inheriting the memories of past Reverend Mothers. The liquid prematurely awakens the mind of her unborn daughter, Alia (Anya Taylor-Joy), allowing Jessica to communicate with her.

They agree to focus on convincing the more skeptical northern Fremen of the prophecy, which Chani (Zendaya) and her friend Shishakli (Souheila Yacoub) correctly deduce to be a myth fabricated by the Bene Gesserit to manipulate the Fremen. Nonetheless, Chani begins to respect Paul after he declares that he only seeks to fight alongside the Fremen, not rule them. Paul declares that Jessica's survival was not a miracle, and that Bene Gesserit are trained to Transmutate poison, and this is the reason that she survived. Jessica tells Paul that the baby talks to her and tells her that to become the Kwisatz Haderach, Paul must drink the Water of Life as well. But Paul is not interested. Kwisatz Haderach is a male with access to both his male and female ancestral memories, enabling him to bridge space and time.

Paul and Chani fall in love as Paul immerses himself in Fremen culture: learning their language, becoming a Fedaykin fighter, riding a sand-worm, and raiding Harkonnen spice-harvesting operations. With every victory, Stilgar tells the Fremen about Paul's extraordinary fighting skills, that Paul claims he learned from his previous masters. The sand-worm that Paul rides is one of the biggest ever seen, thus cementing his reputation as the Lisan Al Gaib.

Paul adopts the Fremen names Usul ("the strength of a pillar") and Muad'Dib ("kangaroo mouse").

Due to the continuing spice raids by the Fremen, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) head of House Harkonnen and former steward of Arrakis, enemy to the Atreides, asks his nephew Rabban to bring Arrakis under total control and stop the Fremen raids on their spice trade. Vladimir is afraid that if the spice production fails, the Emperor will take it out of their hands. One of Fremen's raids on a spice depot in Arrakeen destroys 80% of their last crop, prompting Rabban to go into the desert on the attack. But the Fremen are very well defended in the desert and take the Harkonnen out one by one, forcing Rabban o retreat.

Irulan tells the Emperor to let the conflict on Arrakin to descend into war and then the Emperor can intervene as a savior and bring peace. Irulan secretly wonders if Paul Atreides is still alive. The Reverend Mother in the Royal palace, warns Irulan that if Paul is alive, he would the truth about the Emperors liquidation of the Atreides clan. If the other houses are made aware of it, the Emperor would face war and would lose his throne.

Due to Rabban's failures, Vladimir installs his cunning and sadistic nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) as Arrakis' ruler. Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux) of the Bene Gesserit is sent to evaluate Feyd-Rautha as a prospective Kwisatz Haderach and secure his genetic lineage. The Reverend Mother wanted to know if Feyd-Rautha can be controlled, even though Irulan believes that he is a psychopath.

Fenring reports that Feyd-Rautha is driven, cruel but sexually vulnerable and hence can be controlled. Fenring had sex with Feyd-Rautha and got pregnant, and hence his bloodline is now secure. Fenring reveals that Feyd-Rautha murdered his own mother.

Jessica believes that the North already believes in Paul as the Lisan Al Gaib. She travels south to unite with Fremen fundamentalists who believe most strongly in the prophecy. Jessica believes that her unborn son can be the Kwisatz Haderach and should be born in the South. Paul remains in the north, fearful that his visions of an apocalyptic holy war will come to pass if he goes south as a messiah.

In the South, Jessica observes that the Water of Life is created when a sand-worm is killed by drowning it in water and then extracting the blue liquid from its throat. Jessica orders that when a man enters the temple that he be allowed to take the Water of Life, despite knowing that any male who consumes the liquid is destined to die.

During a raid on a smuggler spice harvester, Paul reunites with the warrior Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) the former military leader of House Atreides, who leads Paul to House Atreides' hidden atomic warhead stockpile. Gurney believes that with the 200 Fedaykin from the North and thousands more from the South, Paul can rule the entire planet. But Paul reiterates that he has visions in which if he goes South, billions of people die across the Galaxy.

Feyd-Rautha unleashes a devastating attack on the northern Fremen, destroying Sietch Tabr, killing Shishakli, and forcing Paul and the survivors to journey south to attend the Fremen war council.

Upon arrival, Paul drinks the Water of Life and falls into a coma, angering Chani, but Jessica hypnotically compels her to save Paul. Chani gives Paul a mix of her tears with the Water of Life, which awakens him. Now possessing clairvoyance across space and time, Paul sees a narrow path to victory among all possible futures and an adult Alia on water-filled Arrakis. He also learns that Jessica is the Baron's daughter, assigned as concubine to Duke Leto by the Bene Gesserit to unite House Harkonnen and House Atreides in furtherance of their plan to produce the Kwisatz Haderach. Paul also learns that Arrakis was earlier known as Dune.

Paul meets with the southern Fremen war council, galvanizing the crowd by demonstrating his ability to discern their deepest thoughts. He declares himself the Lisan Al Gaib, a messianic figure, and challenges the Emperor, who arrives on Arrakis with Irulan and the Sardaukar military force. As the Emperor chastises the Harkonnens for their failures (The Harkonnens did not know that the South of Arrakin was inhabited and the identity of the Muad'Dib), the Fremen launch an offensive, using Atomics and sand-worms to overpower the Sardaukar. Paul kills the Baron and captures the Emperor.

Meanwhile, Gurney leads an assault on Arrakeen, intercepting and killing Feyd-Rautha's brother and subordinate Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista).

Paul challenges the Emperor for the throne and, to Chani's dismay, demands to marry Irulan. Having been summoned by the Baron, the other Great Houses arrive in orbit, ready to invade the planet, but Paul threatens to destroy the spice fields if they intervene. Feyd-Rautha volunteers as the Emperor's champion and is killed by Paul in their duel.

Irulan agrees to marry Paul on condition that he spare her father. The Emperor reluctantly surrenders, but the Great Houses reject Paul's ascendancy, so Paul orders the Fremen to attack the orbiting fleet. As Stilgar leads the Fremen onto the captured Sardaukar ships, Jessica and Alia reflect on the beginning of Paul's holy war. Chani refuses to bow to Paul and departs alone on a sand-worm.