In the year 10191, the human race is capable of advanced space travel and visits all kinds of
places in the universe. Each planet is a different nation with houses ruled by dukes, but they’re all
part of the same empire. One of these planets is Arrakis, which has a surface made of a very harsh
desert and contains the only source of "spice", a rare and valuable substance that extends human
vitality and is needed for interstellar travel. Because of this Arrakis is considered the most
valuable planet regardless of the desert and all the noble houses wish to rule it. Spice
harvesters that the locals call “outsiders” come to Arrakis to ravage the land during the night
to avoid the heat of the day. These outsiders have treated the local people cruelly as they’ve
colonized the planet for its supply of spice. The Harkonnen family came to the planet many years ago
and currently controls the spice production, which has made them richer than the Emperor. The locals,
known as the Fremen, always try to attack the spice harvesters in an effort to drive them away,
but these warriors are never strong enough to win. However one day the Emperor sends a decree
that kicks the Harkonnen’s and their people out of the planet, but nobody knows why. Meanwhile in
Caladan, Lady Jessica and her son Paul of House Atreides are having breakfast. Jessica wants her
son to practice a power known as Bene Gesserit and tells him to use “the Voice”, which should
allow him to mind-control people. Paul tries to use it on her and fails, but Jessica reminds him
it takes years to learn. She also asks if he’s had any dreams, and Paul thinks about the visions
of a girl called Chani but he lies and says no. After his meal, Paul learns more about Arrakis,
which is plagued by powerful sandstorms and giant sandworms. Long exposure to spice has
given the Fremen their characteristic blue eyes and they consider spice to be sacred. However the
empere uses spice to help navigators travel the stars. Sometime later, Paul and his father Duke
Leto welcome the Herald of the Change, who has come with orders from the Emperor: House Atreides
will take control of Arrakis and serve as its steward. Duke Leto accepts and seals the deal with
his ring. Afterward Paul meets with Duncan, the swordmaster of House Atreides. Paul asks Duncan
to take him to Arrakis with him and his team, but Duncan declines, saying he’d be court-martialed.
Paul tells Duncan about the premonitory dreams he’s had of Arrakis, explaining he's seen Duncan
with the Fremen and dying in battle. However Duncan still says no because he doesn't believe
in the dreams. Refusing to give up, Paul goes to see Leto to ask for permission to go with Duncan,
but Leto also refuses because Paul must be at his side when the family arrives in Arrakis. He fears
a war is coming, that's why he sent Duncan ahead with a team to try to forge an alliance with the
Fremen. Later, Paul trains at sword-fighting with Gurney, the warmaster of House Atreides
who is angry because Paul doesn't take training seriously and forces him into combat. While using
a forcefield shield to prevent the blades from penetrating, they fight for a few minutes and
end in a tie, which would've been a mutual death without the shields. Gurney warns him
how vicious the Harkonnens are so Paul should be ready for war. Meanwhile in Geidi Prime,
the homeworld of House Harkonnen, Rabban visits his uncle Baron Harkonnen to tell him that all of
their ships have left Arrakis. Furious, he yells as he wonders why the Emperor did this to them,
but the Baron and his right hand Piter mysteriously say that a gift isn't always
a gift. Back in Caladan, Jessica wakes Paul in the middle of the night because Reverend Mother Gaius
of the Bene Gesserit school is here and wants to meet Paul, apparently Jessica told her about his
dreams. First Doctor Yueh checks Paul’s vitals and he uses the chance to whisper to Paul that
while the Bene Gesserit claim to serve the greater good, they also serve their own agenda. Then Yueh
that Paul’s heart is strong, and Jessica uses sign language to ask him to keep the secret. On
their way to see the Reverend Mother, Jessica uses sign language again to tell Paul to remember his
training. When they enter the room, Reverend Mother Gaius orders Jessica to wait outside,
and Jessica tells Paul to do everything the Gaius says before leaving. Paul is angry that Gaius gave
an order to his mother, but she uses the Voice to draw him closer and force him to his knees. Then
Gaius instructs Paul to place his hand in a box as she holds a poison needle to his neck; if he
takes his hand out of the box before she tells him to, she will kill him with the needle. Paul begins
feeling unbearable pain, but as Jessica recites the Litany Against Fear, he starts seeing his
visions of the desert and keeps his head up. Paul passes the test and is allowed to take out his
hand, which is uninjured. Gaius tells him that if he had been unable to resist his impulses,
like an animal, she would have had to kill him because he has inherited too much power from
his mother. Then she asks him about his dreams so Paul tells her about the girl in the desert.
Afterward Gaius leaves, but on her way out, Gaius reminds Jessica that to train a man for the Bene
Gesserit was against the rules, that's why Paul had to be tested. It turns out Jessica had been
instructed to bear only daughters, but her pride made her believe that she could give birth to the
chosen messiah. After Gaius leaves, Jessica turns to discover that Paul overheard their
conversation. He accuses the Bene Gesserit of steering the Imperium’s politics from the shadows,
but his mother tells him there’s more to it than that. The Bene Gesserit has worked for generations
to bring forth “the one”, a mind powerful enough to bridge space and time, the past and the future.
They believe Paul might be that person, but Paul is sad that he’s just “part of a plan”.
Soon the family packs everything up and arrives in Arrakis. They are greeted by cheers from the
Fremen and Paul wonders what they're saying, so Jessica explains they're calling him “messiah”
in their language. After a long flight over the desert, they make it to the city of Arrakeen,
which is protected by a wall from the weather and the sandworms. In his room, Paul learns more about
the planet. To avoid attracting sandworms, the Fremen cross the desert using the “sand walk”,
a special walk that mimics the natural sounds of the desert. Suddenly Paul notices a tiny
floating machine used by assassins entering through a small hole in the wall. The device
flies toward Paul only to stop as they stare at each other. When a servant enters the room,
Paul snaps out of it and grabs the device in his hand, crushing it. Afterward the guards are
alerted and they find the assassin dead inside a wall. He’d been cemented into a crevice six
weeks before and had been waiting for the right time to strike. Meanwhile a Bene Gesserit sister
meets with Baron Harkonnen and Piter to bring a message from the Emperor, who has promised to
strengthen Harkonnen’s forces with his own elite military force the Sardaukar, but nobody can know
about it. The sister also tells them that they may kill Leto, but that Jessica and Paul must
be kept alive. Harkonnen gives his word that he will not harm them, but after she leaves, the
Baron tells Piter to kill the whole family anyway. Sometime later, Leto and his council decide they
will have to inspect the spice silos because it seems they were sabotaged by the Harkonnens,
so they'll have to wait for the Judge of Change to oversee the process. At that moment Duncan arrives
and tells them about his mission. He lived with the Fremen for four weeks and learned that there
are millions of them on Arrakis, some located in tunnels belowground that Harkonnen didn't know of.
Duncan has also brought Stilgar, the leader of a Fremen tribe, to meet the Duke. After Leto greets
him, Stilgar spits on the ground, but this is a sign of respect in his culture and Leto returns
the gesture. Stilgar tells them that they are outworlders who take spice and give nothing in
return, so Leto responds that he knows the Fremen have suffered and promises his people will leave
them alone. Stilgar accepts this as honorable and turns to leave, but Paul asks him to stay.
Sadly Stilgar can't stay but he tells Paul in his language that he recognizes him. Afterward Duncan
shows them some of the technology he’s borrowed from the Fremen, including a paracompass, which
can tell direction despite magnetic interference. Sometime later, Leto and his people meet the Judge
of Changer Kynes, and her attitude almost gets her killed by the guards. She proceeds to inspect the
stillsuits they're wearing to make sure they're in good condition otherwise they won't survive
in the desert. Suddenly Kynes notices the way Paul is wearing his boots in a non-standard fashion and
asks who taught him to do it, but he says it just felt like the right way. v A harvesting crawler is
harvesting spice from the surface while a spotter is on the lookout for sand waves that indicate
worm activity. The worms travel deep but they're attracted by noise and vibration. They can't use
shields because those attract worms too. At that moment Leto spots a sand wave and Kynes
calls for a caryall to retrieve the crawler. The carryall arrives and lands on the crawler,
but a malfunction causes the carryall to fail at picking up the crawler. This means the crawler's
crew is in danger, so Leto decides that they will use the three aircraft to save them. As soon as
the aircraft land near the crawler, Leto orders his men to throw out the shield generators to make
room, then he calls out over the radio for the men to leave the crawler and come aboard. The carryall
flies away as the worm comes closer, and the crew is guided by Paul toward the aircraft. However he
suddenly freezes when he falls into a trance. Leto is about to take off when they realize Paul isn’t
on board, and the worm is almost there. Now Paul falls to his knees and hears weird words in his
mind before he starts whispering to himself. Luckily he's pulled from his daze by Gurney,
and together they begin running only to be knocked down as the worm starts to break the surface,
causing the sand to sink in. The duo quickly regains their feet and makes it to the aircraft,
which flies away as they watch how the sandworm swallows the crawler whole. Back at the base,
Leto tells Kynes that she must realize that the Harkonnons left them faulty equipment to ensure
that they fail, but she says the carryall was merely old. Afterward Paul is examined by Yueh,
who says that Paul seems to be sensitive to spice but he’ll be fine. After Yueh leaves, Paul tells
Jessica that he didn't have an allergic reaction, he actually had a vision. He describes what he
saw about the desert, the war, and even kissing Chani, saying that it was confusing because he
saw what he thought was his death but wasn’t. He also says that he knows that Jessica is pregnant,
which shocks her because she just learned about it. Meanwhile on the planet Salusa Secundus,
the Sardaukar army is getting ready to depart under Piter's observant eye. In the evening,
Yueh visits Paul and leaves him something to drink, which secretly has a sedative. Moments
later, some guards hear a noise and a mysterious person suddenly shoots them all before entering a
room and lowering the base’s shields. Leto wakes up and realizes something is wrong,
so he leaves his room to investigate. When he finds a body, he tries calling security but gets
no response. After activating his shield, he turns the body around and finds a servant with a dagger
in her chest. At that moment a poison dart comes out of the darkness, penetrating Leto’s shield
and knocking him unconscious. The mysterious figure person comes out then and reveals it's
Yueh. Soon Gurney is also awakened and learns that the shields are down. He rushes outside to
find a large enemy ship hovering in the sky, and he orders his forces to get their own ships off
the ground. Explosions begin going off all over the place as the enemy forces bomb the base while
anti-aircraft weapons return fire. Enemy transport ships land and disembark soldiers, so Gurney and
his men rush to fight them hand-to-hand. At the main steps, a group of Atreides men is keeping the
invaders at bay, but suddenly they're surrounded and annihilated by Sardaukar. Back to Leto,
he wakes up but can't move. Yueh explains that he’s made a deal with the Baron to turn Leto
over because the Harkonnens have his wife hostage. After getting Leto’s ring for Paul, Yueh implants
a false tooth in Leto’s mouth. If Leto bites down on it, it'll fill the air with poison gas that
will kill him, so Leto must choose the right time to kill Baron Harkonnen too. While Rabban gathers
all the Atreides prisoners to kill them, Duncan sneaks around and kills a bunch of enemies before
checking the noble family's rooms, only to find them empty. He immediately runs outside and kills
any enemy on his way until he manages to escape in an aircraft. Meanwhile it's revealed Paul and
Jessica have been kidnapped and are being taken away in an aircraft. The Harkonnen men discuss
getting naughty with Jessica, and when Paul warns them not to touch his mother, they just smack him.
Ignoring his mother's signed warnings, Paul tries using the Voice on the men, but it doesn’t work.
The soldiers decide they’re far enough into the desert so they'll throw Paul out, and a desperate
Jessica signs to Paul to use the right pitch. Concentrating, Paul uses the Voice again and this
time it works. The soldier removes Jessica's gag, allowing her to use the Voice to make him kill all
the other soldiers and release her, then she kills him too and frees her son. Soon the aircraft lands
in the desert, but the enemy manages to cripple it remotely, so Paul and Jessica can only watch
how the city burns in the distance. Then they find a survival kit with a note from Yueh saying this
kit has an Atreides beacon, Paul also finds his father's ring and a tent. Sometime later, Leto
wakes up in the presence of Baron Harkonnen. Yueh also arrives and asks for his wife to be freed,
but the Baron floats over and kills Yueh instead. Then Harkonnen tells Leto that his family is dead
and that his House has fallen, causing Leto to start whispering. The Baron activates his shield
and leans in to hear him better, and Leto bites down on the false tooth to release the poison
gas. Several guards die while a few run out and shut the door. Afterward, men in protective suits
enter the room and discover the Baron is alive on the ceiling. Back to Duncan, he lands his aircraft
and finds Kynes and yells at her for not warning them, but Kynes says she's a judge and must stay
neutral. However Duncan points out that House Atreides was sent to Arrakis to die, so there's
no neutrality here. Out in the desert, Paul and Jessica hide in the tent while the Atreides beacon
sounds regularly. Paul accidentally absorbs some spice and has another vision of Chani, who shows
him a great battle in which Paul is fighting in a full suit and has blue eyes. Suddenly he
becomes agitated as he tells Jessica that he sees a holy war spreading across the universe,
fought under the Atreides banner. When Jessica tries to calm him down, he reacts angrily,
telling her that the Bene Gesserit made him a freak. She tries again and manages to hug him
as he says he knows his father is dead. Suddenly the beacon alerts them of something upcoming,
so the duo leaves the tent, which has been covered in sand. At first they think a mouse caused the
alarm, but at that moment an aircraft lands with Duncan and Kynes, and Duncan kneels for Paul as
he calls him Duke. Eventually they arrive at an old ecological testing station where they can
hide from the incoming storm. Paul tells Kynes that the Great Houses fear precisely what just
happened to the Atreideses, and only together they stand a chance against the empire. When he
mentions that the Fremen believe in the messiah, Kynes says this is just superstition, but Paul
begins mentioning things about her he shouldn’t know and says that he’s seen her dream. He also
says that as Emperor he could make Arrakis into a paradise. At that moment the enemy finds the
station and a battle starts between them and the Fremen guards. Duncan hears the noise and opens
the door to find the battle in the hall, so he salutes Paul before going out to join the battle,
locking the door behind him. Duncan fights with amazing skill and brings down a few men,
but sadly he's outnumbered and eventually falls. Meanwhile Kynes makes Paul and Jessica follow her
through a back door. The enemy soldiers fire through the locked door, so the trio has to
dodge the attack as they run. Suddenly Duncan reveals he's alive and attacks the soldiers,
giving his friends a chance to escape before he dies for good. Once outside, Kynes tells Paul and
Jessica to escape in the aircraft, giving Paul advice on how to fly through the storm and find
the Fremen. Sadly there's no room for her to come too. As the duo flies away, Kynes plants a thumper
that sends vibrations to attract a sandworm that she intends to ride. Unfortunately she's found and
killed by Sardaukar soldiers, but before she dies, she bangs on the ground. The sandworm soon arrives
and swallows them. Meanwhile the enemy chases after Paul and Jessica and shoots missiles at
them, but Paul flies into the sandstorm and the missiles can't track them anymore. However the
storm starts damaging the aircraft, so Jessica recites the Litany Against Fear and Paul has a
vision telling him to let go. Paul releases the controls and lets the storm guide the aircraft,
but when they make it out, the wings fall off and they make a crash landing. Thankfully they
survive, and after putting on the stillsuits, they begin wandering to find the Fremen. When they stop
to rest, Paul has another vision of Chani, who tells him to face his fears. He also sees
another Fremen in the vision who tells him that he has much to learn. Using Duncan's paracompass,
Paul and Jessica keep on going, and Paul teaches Jessica the sand walk to avoid attracting worms.
Moments later, they accidentally step on drum sand which makes a noise and gets
the attention of a worm. The duo runs away as the creature chases after them, but suddenly,
someone activates a thumper that attracts the sandworm’s attention away from them.
They climb on some nearby rocks for safety and discover they're surrounded by Fremen,
who set up the thumper. Stilgar is among them and tells his people not to touch Paul, however Jamis
says the boy looks like a weakling and can't be the messiah if he needs rescuing. Stilgar explains
that Paul is young and could learn their ways, but Jessica is too old and can't come with them. The
Fremen immediately attack, but Jessica is a great warrior and captures Stilgar, putting a knife to
his throat. The Fremen back off and Jessica lets go of Stilgar, who accepts they both can come.
Suddenly Paul hears a voice and discovers that Chani is there, telling him she doesn't believe
he's the messiah. They should get moving but Jamis objects to taking the strangers with them and
challenges Jessica to a fight. Stilgar says Jamis can't challenge a priestess so Jamis asks who will
fight in her name and Paul volunteers. As they prepare for combat, Paul has another vision of him
losing while a voice says that Paul must die for the messiah to rise. Chani comes over and tells
Paul that she wants him to die with honor, so she lends him a blade made out of worm teeth. Then
Paul and Jamis begin to fight. Paul quickly gains advantage and puts his blade to Jamis’s throat,
asking him to yield because he's never killed anyone before. Stilgar says there's no yielding
and that one of them must die. Jamis fights ferociously, but again and again Paul overpowers
him without killing him. When a vision suddenly takes over Paul's mind, Jamis knocks him down.
However Paul is finally accepting his destiny and gets up to deal a killing blow. Afterward
Stilgar says that Paul is one of them now while Jessica insists that Paul needs to get off the
planet. However Paul disagrees, saying that his father came to Arrakis not for spice or riches,
but for the strength of the Fremen. He says that his own road leads into the desert and that if the
Fremen will have them, they will come. As the group heads into the desert, Paul and Jessica
watch a Fremen ride a sandworm using hooks. Then Chani tells Paul that this is only the beginning.