Dune: Part Two blew me away. It’s a marvel of science-fiction cinema and Denis Villeneuve absolutely nailed the strange and epic tone of the novel. As a huge fan of the book series though, I couldn’t help but notice the changes Villeneuve made in adapting the source material. I think every change he made enhanced and concentrated the story, but here are the three best ones, in my opinion:
Mild spoilers for elements of the first Dune novel that aren’t revealed in the films, and major spoilers for the end of Dune: Part Two
1. Pauls’s Sister Remains Unborn.
In the novel there is a time skip of two years right around the middle, during which Jessica gives birth. As you saw in the movie, this child is a little… strange. Affected by the Water of Life, Paul’s sister (her name in the novel is Alia) displays a level of cognition and awareness totally unnatural for an unborn child. She’s able to communicate directly with her mother telepathically and is aware of the greater political landscape in unnerving ways.
Trust me, though, when I say this is the more effective way of conveying Alia’s influence for the screen specifically. If they’d gone with the two-year time skip, they would’ve needed to cast a toddler-age actor to convey all of the sister’s dialogue. This is what David Lynch’s 1984 movie tried—and failed—to do. There’s just no way a toddler can convey just how creepy Alia is supposed to be in the novel. Of course, I don’t know how they’re going to handle this in the next movie, but if I had to guess, they’ll go with another time-skip to age Alia up, so a slightly older actress can handle her lines.
2. Removing Pauls’ Obligation to Jamis’ Family
Jamis is the Fremen that Paul kills in a duel at the end of Part One. Part Two largely ignores the social consequences of this, but this event is a big deal in the novel. After killing Jamis and returning to Sietch Tabr, Paul discovers that Fremen culture dictates he become owner of all of Jamis’ possessions… including his wife and children. He’s given the option to marry Harah, Jamis’ wife, or accept her as his servant. Despite his discomfort, he chooses the latter, and Harah becomes a relevant tertiary character for the rest of Dune and even Dune: Messiah. The subplot highlights the importance of Paul’s actions having unforeseen consequences and gives him a measure of responsibility early on in his life as a Fremen.
Choosing to excise this subplot from the movie was the right choice, though. Harah and her children have little impact on the plot. Instead, they’re a way for Paul to learn about the rites and rituals of everyday Fremen culture, of which there are many. The movie obviously can’t go into the detail Herbert does in his novel, and Villeneuve wisely chooses to focus on the more action-oriented aspect of Paul immersion with the Fremen people by focusing on his military accomplishments with the Fedaykin.
3. The Ending Isn’t Tied Up
The first novel can be read as a complete story in and of itself (although if you get that far I would encourage you to at least read Dune: Messiah as well, as it really brings the themes explored in the first novel to their logical endpoint). However, as we know, Villeneuve plans on adapting Dune: Messiah as well, turning the first two novels into a trilogy. Personally, I think this is a brilliant choice—ever since the movie was announced I had hoped for this specific thing to happen! But if the story is to continue into a Part Three, there needs to be a loosening of the narrative ties that wrap up neatly at the end of the first novel.
Part Two highlights Chani’s dissatisfaction with Paul’s choices towards the end of the film. Naturally, she isn’t keen on her boyfriend becoming the maybe-evil emperor of the known universe and marrying a princess instead of her. The movie ends with Chani running away from Arakeen, extremely unhappy with how the situation panned out. Some of these elements are present in the book, but to a much lesser extent. The novel also ends with Paul’s explicit promise to Chani that he would never touch Princess Irulan and that she would only be his wife on paper. Chani accepts this, and the moment is actually kind of nice, as it mirrors how Duke Leto wasn’t able to marry Jessica either but loved her all the same.
Making Chani a ‘loose end’ really made me excited to see where the story goes next, as did the choice to set up Paul going to war with the Great Houses to enforce his ascendancy. This isn’t something that we ever see in the books, but the way it’s so explicitly mentioned at the end of Part Two makes me feel like we might get some of that action in Part Three, which I think might be necessary in order to inject some action into the plot, as Dune Messiah is a lot less action and a lot more politics.
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