Last Saturday, we talked about how Paul was portrayed in this version as a reluctant hero rather than a man driven to avenge his father. This revision works in some ways but doesn’t in others. Either way, it’s just one more example of how the numerous changes in the film pushed the story further and further away from the source material.

After Paul proves himself by riding one of the dreaded sandworms, viewers are introduced to the home planet of the Harkonnens, where they meet Feyd-Rautha. One of my greatest complaints, both with the book and the previous films, has been the way they’ve treated this character. He’s the man Paul will finally duel with at the end of the story — and yet they never meet each other until the conclusion.

To Part Two’s credit, this problem is corrected. The writers show Feyd fighting some of the last of the soldiers from House Atreides. They show how the baron prevented one of the soldiers from being drugged and how Feyd-Rautha relished the challenge, even though he considered it a betrayal. The man may be one of the main antagonists, but he clearly has a sense of honor, even if it is warped.

The sequel also makes the story picture clearer by showing Feyd taking control of Arrakis and correcting the mistakes made by Glossu Rabban. Rabban had taken over the planet after the surprise attack against House Atreides.

Feyd turns the tide of the war by attacking Paul’s home, Sietch Tabr, forcing Paul to go south, which was something he’d been trying to avoid. This sequence works because it shows Feyd actually contributing to the plot. That turns him into a legitimate rival for Paul, although the two don’t actually meet until the end.

The risks of going south

However, at this point in the story, Chani’s attitude toward the Bene Gesserit religion really begins to derail the film. After the attack on Seitch Tabr, everyone debates whether or not to go south. Paul doesn’t want to because his mother is there and has been busy persuading everyone that he is the Kwisatz Haderach.

He believes that if he goes south, he will be compelled to start the war, whether he wants to or not. It doesn’t help that Atreides warmaster Gurney Halleck has joined up with the Fremen and knows where House Atreides’ nuclear warheads are located. Paul has the means to destroy the spice and overpower the emperor, but if he doesn’t handle things just the right way, a holy war is inevitable.

Chani insists that they should go south anyway, and Paul agrees, but he’s clearly upset. What’s bizarre is that Chani seems confused about why Paul is so distraught. Here is where the story falls apart. Paul has told Chani about the Bene Gesserit religion, so she should know why he’s afraid. The moment he goes south and meets his mother, he will be expected to drink from the Water of Life.

If he doesn’t drink it, Paul will no longer be considered the Fremens’ savior, and who knows what they’ll do to him and Jessica after that? By going south, Paul is being forced to play out the prophecy, whether it’s true or not. Chani should know this. However, when Paul reaches the south and drinks from the Water of Life, her reaction doesn’t make any sense.

Paul drinks the water of life

Like his mother, Paul is left unconscious after drinking the water, so it’s understandable that Chani would be upset when she sees him. But then she realizes that all she has to do to wake him up is mix her tears with the Water of Life and rub it on his lips. And this works… for some reason.

Two questions. Number one: how did she know enough to do this? Number two: even if she knew enough about the water to guess this solution, why would she bother? She’s been the neighborhood skeptic throughout the entire film. Why would she think that something about her tears would magically wake Paul up?

In the book, Chani believes in the Bene Gesserit religion, so she and Jessica work together to wake Paul from his coma. But in the sequel, there’s no reason to think Chani would be able to come up with a solution at all, especially if she didn’t believe in the religion to start with. From her perspective, the Water of Life is just a poison.

To make matters even more confusing, when Paul wakes up and expresses his thanks, she slaps him, then storms off in a huff. She remains angry with him for the rest of the film. First of all, one would think she’d just be grateful that her boyfriend isn’t dead. While she might scold him for being an idiot, she wouldn’t give him the silent treatment for most of the remaining movie.

For another thing, she was the one who convinced him to go south. The man himself was devastated by the thought of it! What did she think was bothering him? Could it be the idea of drinking poison? Perhaps it was because he knew he would be compelled to take on the role of a prophet.

Why would Chani act surprised when he did exactly what his mother expected him to do? How could she not see this coming? The writers seem to want her to seem strong in this scene, as if she was taking a strong moral stance, but she just struck me as an idiot. Again, what did Chani think was going to happen?

After this scene, Paul meets with the Fremen and convinces them that he is indeed the savior they’ve been looking for. Chani protests this, but thankfully, everyone ignores her. And again, I find her motives incomprehensible. What does she think is going to happen if they reject the prophecy? Are the Harkonnens going to magically disappear? Is she really scared that Paul is going to enslave the Fremen? If she thought so little of him, why was she dating the man to begin with?

To be blunt, her attitude seems to be, “We can’t follow this prophecy because it’s a religion, and this religion is going to be used to enslave us somehow.” Never mind the fact that she has the ear of the man leading this religion, and she would get a lot further by talking to Paul directly rather than by appealing to a mob. Paul clearly loves her and longs for her approval. If she is so worried that he is going to enslave her people, she could just ask him not to. Instead, she chooses to give him the cold shoulder because that’s noble or something.

So, while Chani chooses to act like a petulant teenager instead of using her brain, Paul and the Fremen rush off to their final confrontation with the Harkonnens and the emperor. We’ll cover what happens then in the next review.

Here are all the parts of my extended review of Dune: Part Two (2024):

Dune: Part Two succeeds brilliantly — but dooms plans for Part III. The difficulty is that the changes made for the film have warped the core story so much that it’s going to be nearly impossible to follow the source material from here on out. For example, if the Bene Gesserits are the true power behind the throne, why do they need a Kwisatz Haderach to cement their power?

Dune, Part Two: Paul becomes a hero — very reluctantly Some departures from the book work better than others. The “reluctant hero” trope simplifies a complex political situation but comes at a cost. Overall, Paul’s reluctance, in this version, to be the Fremen’s leader enables him to earn their respect over time while doing more ordinary tasks.

Dune, Part Two: At last, Feyd-Rautha becomes relevant. The treatment of Feyd in this version is more satisfactory than in any previous one. We are prepared for Paul’s confrontation with him. The portrayal of Chani in Part Two is, however, much harder to understand. If she doesn’t believe in the Bene Gesserit religion, why is she there on Arrakis?

Dune, Part Two: At last, Feyd-Rautha becomes relevant. The treatment of Feyd in this version is more satisfactory than in any previous one. We are prepared for Paul’s confrontation with him. The portrayal of Chani in Part Two is, however, much harder to understand. If she doesn’t believe in the Bene Gesserit religion, why is she there on Arrakis?

Note: Here’s my series looking at Dune (1984), linked together, starting with “Where did Dune 1984 succeed? Where did it fail?”