"Dune" is a movie full of loose ends.
Onscreen the film is titled "Dune: Part One," and it covers a little less than half of the
story of the book that it's based on.
What's left hanging when the credits roll?
These are the biggest unanswered questions in Dune.
Around the film's extravagant midway point, when the Harkonnens have laid slaughter to
House Atreides with a dual pronged attack and help from the Emperor's warrior force
the Sardaukar, the final fate of several characters remains left open.
Duncan Idaho, Paul's trainer and friend, survives the battle and makes it out alive to help
Paul and Lady Jessica make it to safety.
But what about the rest of House Atreides' high-ranking men?
There are two prominent figures we never see in the aftermath of all that carnage: Gurney
Halleck, the weapons master, and Thufir Hawat, the Mentat, or advisor, to Duke Leto Atreides.
Those familiar with the source material know both men survive, but with differing paths
from this particular catastrophe.
Gurney survives the battle and becomes a smuggler, disillusioned by what has transpired and mistakenly
thinking Lady Jessica was in some way responsible for Duke Leto's death.
But Thufir is kept on by the Harkonnens to replace the recently deceased Piter De Vries
as their new Mentat, a position he uses to undermine their regime from within.
But that's assuming that the filmmakers behind the new "Dune" movie plan to keep things as
close to the novel as possible in a potential sequel.
"There's a crusade coming."
In "Dune: Part One," Dr. Liet-Kynes is portrayed by actress Sharon Duncan-Brewster in one of
the film's more affecting performances.
Though the character is canonically male in the source material, this iteration is not
drastically different in practice.
Introduced as an objective observer of the regime change between the Harkonnens and House
Atreides, it becomes clear that while Dr. Kynes is loyal to neither opposing force,
she is also not exactly loyal to the Emperor, instead considering herself a Fremen first
and foremost.
"Dune" 2021 portrays Dr. Kynes as an impartial emissary of the emperor whose heart belongs
with the native people of Arrakis, who worships Shai-Hulud, and who has a murky, unexplored
past with a Fremen lover who died.
But one key element missing from this film is that Dr. Kynes has a child, Chani, a Fremen
played by Zendaya.
Chani doesn't appear onscreen until the film's final act, only showing up throughout in Paul's
visions of the future.
Dr. Kynes seemingly meets her fate by being swallowed up by the great sandworm before
the film's last act, so we never see any interaction between the two characters.
It remains to be seen if a "Part Two" will follow up with this information, or perhaps
even delve into Dr. Kynes' origins as a half-Fremen as outlined in Brian Herbert and Kevin J.
Anderson's "Prelude to Dune."
In this movie, maybe they're related, and maybe they're not.
"How can the emperor take everything we've built and give it to that filth?"
One side effect of cutting the book's plot in half: One of the key figures in the "Dune"
mythology, the character who sets everything into motion, is completely absent from "Dune:
Part One."
The Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, previously played onscreen by Jose Ferrer in David Lynch's
1984 version, is nowhere to be found, only alluded to as the catalyst for replacing the
Harkonnens on Arrakis with House Atreides.
Likewise, his daughter, Princess Irulan, also a key figure in the plot, has yet to be seen
either.
It makes sense to not bother casting actors for parts that won't have much dialogue until
a potential sequel.
But in sidelining the Emperor, the motivations for his plot against Duke Leto are left harder
to parse than they would otherwise be.
Moviegoers will just have to wait for part two to find out exactly what the Emperor is
thinking with all of this.
In one of the film's most touching sequences, not long before House Atreides suffers such
heavy casualties, Duke Leto can feel the walls closing around him and he makes a heartbreaking
confession to Lady Jessica.
While she consoles him over the growing fears this move to Arrakis has been little more
than a trap, he tells her how much he regrets not marrying her.
Lady Jessica was a concubine, and a sister of the Bene Gesserit, so her siring a son
with Leto was unconventional.
But he allowed her to raise their son and teach him the Weirding Way.
Knowing that in all likelihood, he's not long for this world, he asks her and the Bene Gesserit
to protect his son.
While it isn't as essential to the plot as some of the other unanswered questions, Leto
and Jessica leave the viewer wanting more of their history together, to know what kept
Duke Leto from making an honest woman out of Lady Jessica.
It's going to be pretty disappointing if this adaptation doesn't continue with a big-screen
"Dune: Part Two."
When this first movie was greenlit, that was far from a guarantee, but the people behind
the movie seem confident in the likelihood of a sequel that finishes the story.
And that's just regarding the first book.
Frank Herbert's original source material takes this saga even further into the future with
several sequels, including the books "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune."
Director Denis Villeneuve is on record as saying his plan isn't just an adaptation of
the original book split in two, but rather a trilogy of films that would culminate in
a third chapter with "Dune Messiah" serving as its own standalone film to conclude Paul
Atreides' story.
We also still have "Dune: The Sisterhood," a prequel series about the origins of the
Bene Gesserit, being developed and waiting in the wings.
A lot is riding on this film's financial success.
Above all else, the spice must flow.
"This is only the beginning."
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