Dune: Part Two Ending Explained: Be Careful Of Messiahs
This article contains spoilers for "Dune: Part Two."
Frank Herbert's "Dune" is one of the most influential and praised science-fiction books of all time. Herbert's novel is a fun space adventure that also contains complex themes, a poignant message about the dangers of messiahs, meticulous worldbuilding that few writers have ever replicated, and nuanced characters, all while being weird as heck.
Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part One" (aka simply "Dune") did a great job of making Herbert's story feel like a true cinematic event — one with an eye for giant spectacle and stunning cinematography. The filmmaker's "Dune: Part Two" only doubles down on the themes from the first part, resulting in what Chris Evangelista described in his review for /Film as "one of the bleakest blockbusters ever made."
But as fantastic and full of action as the movie is, "Dune: Part Two" also has a very dense narrative that feels more like a companion to the original book than an adaptation, dropping plenty of elements, characters, and whole storylines. This is where we come in. If the incredible sight of massive sandworms riding into battle distracted you and made you miss something, or if you want to double-check your take on the movie (or if you simply want to relive the spectacle of it all), this is how the ending of "Dune: Part Two" goes down.
Dreams are messages from the deep
"Dune: Part Two" picks up right where the first one left off. After witnessing the total obliteration of his life, and his house, Paul Atraides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) have taken refuge with the Fremen, the native people of the desert planet of Arrakis. Most of the movie deals with Paul learning to be one with the Fremen, becoming accustomed to their ways, and integrating into their culture, all while trying to resist the urge to embrace the prophecy of the Lisan al Gaib (fearing the disaster it will bring about).
Throughout the movie, Paul struggles with visions of an impending great war and billions dead in his name (should he become a leader of the Fremen). Though many start believing the signs, Paul's paramour Chani (Zendaya) is more skeptical of an outsider becoming a Fremen messiah. At the same time, Paul's mother Jessica begins to spread his gospel and prepare the Fremen to accept her son as a messiah.
Then there's House Harkonnen, the Great House that caused the destruction of Paul's ancestral house of Atreides. Back in control of Arrakis, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) now sets his sights on the throne of the known universe, plotting against Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), the Padishah Emperor of House Corrino, to replace him with the Baron's nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) as emperor.
Muad'Dib, the one who points the way
Though Paul is initially content with being part of the Fremen and just using guerilla tactics to stop the Harkonnens from extracting and shipping spice from Arrakis, everything changes when an all-out attack by the Harkonnens destroys the Fremen hideout Sietch Tabr. In response, Paul embraces the signs and declares himself the Lisan al Gaib, even drinking some sandworm bile to gain more prescient powers.
With the help of an entire planet's worth of Fremen warriors, the invaluable desert power, and also some useful atomic weapons they get their hands on thanks to Paul's mentor Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides mounts an all-out war against the Harkonnen fortress — which is getting a visit by the Emperor himself.
Upon defeating the Harkonnens and winning a thrilling knife fight with Feyd-Rautha, Paul forces the Emperor to abdicate the throne to him. Except, the other Great Houses don't accept Paul's ascendancy, so Paul declares war on the rest of the universe. Just as he predicted, the fanatics won, the prophecy has been fulfilled, and a jihad has now begun in Paul's name — bringing death and destruction to the universe at large.
Messianic myths and violent wars
Herbert's original "Dune" novel was many things. It was a meticulous exploration of how ecology impacts everything from flora and fauna to even culture. It was also a traditional hero's journey of a young boy defeating an empire. But more than anything, "Dune" is a story about the dangers of messianic figures.
Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation sadly ignores or rushes through many aspects of the "Dune" books — Mentats who? — but that also means "Dune: Part Two" has enough time to fully explore the horrors of Paul's messianic turn and make them explicit. At no point does the movie try to make Muad'Dib a hero or even someone we should root for.
This is why Chani's altered role is so effective in "Dune: Part Two." Rather than a companion partner in battle, she's Paul's biggest critic throughout the movie. At every turn, she calls Paul out on the dangers of an outsider leading the Fremen and using them to wage war on people they don't care about. By the end of the film, she is utterly horrified (as she should be).
As an anime fan, watching "Dune: Part Two" makes it hard not to think of "Attack on Titan" and Eren's story (which also involves a protagonist trapped by his desire for revenge becoming a messianic figure, and then a monster). But where the anime played Eren's morals ambiguously for a long while, allowing audiences to debate whether he was right or wrong until the end, "Dune: Part Two" avoids this by staying locked in Paul's perspective and showing us his premonitions. We understand his struggle and his resistance to the path he's taking because of his visions, so it hurts when he realizes what he's set in motion. He may have won the battle, but at what cost?
Children of Dune Messiah
We've known for a while that Denis Villeneuve wants to adapt the second book in Herbert's series, "Dune Messiah," bringing an end to his trilogy. Now that "Dune: Part Two" is out, it's easy to see why.
Without diving too deeply into spoilers, "Dune Messiah" finishes Paul's story by focusing on the aftermath of his holy war and the destruction he brings to the universe and his loved ones. More than anything, that book makes it abundantly clear that Paul is no hero, as Herbert wrote the novel in response to audiences misunderstanding the message of his original novel. As Villeneuve once said, "My adaptation [of 'Dune'] is closer to his idea that it's actually a warning [against messiahs and heroes]." To fully bring the idea home, we need to see the destruction Paul causes not just in liberating Arrakis but in invading other worlds. We need to see the consequences of him starting a cult, a religion in his name.
Beyond that, who knows? Villeneuve doesn't seem to want to adapt the other books in the series, even if it sadly means depriving the audience of a human-worm hybrid in "God Emperor of Dune."