| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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As Paul and Jessica live with the Fremen, over the next 2-3 years, Paul is challenged to duels by Fremen who distrust outsiders. Paul easily defeats them all, except for one that Chani killed because she did not want his sleep interrupted. Far fewer challenges to Paul were made as the men knew they might be killed by his woman instead. |
Some of the Fremen think Paul and Jessica are spies when brought into Taber. Some want to cast Paul into the desert, but others are already accepting Paul as the prophet. |
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During the 2-3 years while living with the Fremen, Chani and Paul becomes lovers and she bears him a son; named Leto. |
The events of the film take place in about seven months as Jessica is still pregnant with Alia at the end of the film. Paul and Chani are lovers, but do not have a son.
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Jessica is not threatened, but she told of the extreme need for a Reverend Mother to the Fremen. |
Jessica is told by Stilgar that she must become their new Reverend Mother as the old one is dying; or she can die. |
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When Pau reaches Seitch Tabr, he is introduced to Harah, Jamis’ widow and two sons. Paul must be responsible for her as a wife or servant for the next year. He says he will keep her as a servant. Harah is outraged that a “boy” killed her Jamis. She protests as she is still young, but serves Paul very faithfully. |
This does not happen in the film. Harah and her sons are not in the film.
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Chani is Jessica’s friend and assists her whenever needed. |
Chani and her young friends do not believe in the coming prophet and think the water ceremony is stupid. They refuse to accept a non-Fremen Reverend Mother, while Stilgar and the older Fremen believe in Paul. |
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The Fremen greatly restrict spice production through their attacks on the Harkonnen. Thufir Hawat advises the Baron to order Rabben to make due with what men and equipment he has. This way after he is replaced with Feyd, the Dune population will welcome him as their savior. |
Fremen attacks on spice production are severe. The Baron threatens Rabban for his failure to produce enough spice. Thufir Hawat is not in the film.
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The Spacing Guild and their navigators are an important group in the books. No interplanetary space travel is possible without them. No one can land a spacecraft on a planet without the Guild’s permission. But the Guild is totally dependent upon the spice to work and live. This gives the Fremen and whoever controls Dune much leverage over them. |
The Spacing Guild is not in the film. |
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Jessica gives birth to Alia shortly after the Reverend Mother ceremony. Alia is born with the knowledge of a Reverend Mother and acts like an adult soon after birth. Jessica has conversations with her unborn child. |
Alia is not born during the events of the film.
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Princess Irulan, Helen Mohiam and the Emperor have no idea that any Atreides are alive and free on Dune. The idea of any savior for Dune is only a plot by Thufir Hawat and the Baron. |
Princess Irulan, the Emperor’s daughter, recommends that the Dune conflict turn into a war, then the Emperor should bring peace. She suspects Paul is still alive. She is told by the Reverend Mother Helen Mohiam to stop suggesting to her father that Paul is still alive. |
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Feyd fights a single Atreides soldier in the arena to celebrate his 17th birthday. Feyd’s victims in the arena are normally drugged for easy and amusing kills that so Feyd can try out new poisons on his knives. Feyd and Hawat are plotting to betray the Baron’s slavemaster. The Atreides soldier knows he has a chance to kill Feyd and fights very well. But he has had a word drummed into his brain (scum) that will make him relax his muscles if Feyd needs an edge. The Atreides soldier nearly kills Feyd until he says the word and manages to scratch the soldier with his poisoned blade. The soldier staggers away and falls on his own blade. Feyd honors the dead soldier by ordering his men to bury him with his blade in his hands. |
To celebrate Feyd’s birthday, there is gladiator combat in an arena. Feyd is fighting the last three Atreides men alive on Dune. Two are drugged so he can kill them easy. The last soldier is not drugged. Feyd discards his personal shield. After a short fight, the soldier is easily defeated.
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Feyd is extremely corrupt and has tried to assassinate his uncle, the Baron, several times. After the Baron avoids a poison dart imbedded in a boy he was about to rape/kill, the Baron summons Feyd and tells him the assassination attempts have to stop because he is to be his heir. Feyd agrees. The Baron punishes Feyd by making him to go the slave quarters and kill every female in the pleasure wing with his own hands. |
The Baron tells Feyd that the soldier Feyd killed in the arena was not drugged so that Feyd would look better to the crowd. The Baron says he is giving Dune to Feyd and this will allow him to eventually sit on the throne. |
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During the duel in the arena, the Baron is talking to Count Fenring. The conversation drifts to the Emperor’s prison planet and how the Baron is thinking of turning Dune into a prison planet of his own. This is a very dangerous conversation for the Baron to have as the Emperor has his own prison planet upon which he selects men for his elite soldiers called the Sardaukar. The Count suspects that the Baron might be trying to raise an army of Fremen to defeat the Emperor. |
No conversation between the Baron and the Count in the film.
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The Lady Fenring is present along with the Count to seduce Feyd and bear a daughter for the Bene Gesserit Kwisatz Haderach breeding program. Feyd disgusts Lady Fenring, she wants to seduce Feyd then leave the planet. She eventually gets pregnant with his child. |
Feyd finds Lady Margo Fenring wandering around the arena. Lady Fenring tests Feyd with the pain box and Gom Jabber. She also seduces him and becomes pregnant with his child. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
The Baron installs Feyd as the ruler of Dune.
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Paul and the Fremen ambush Gurney Hallack’s group of smugglers. After they are captured, Gurney warns Paul that there are some men in his group that cannot be trusted. As soon as he says this, fighting break out between some of the smugglers and the Fremen. The fighters are Sardaukar and are looking for Muad’Dib. The Sardukar manage to kill some of the Fremen, but are quickly overwhelmed. Two of the Sardukar are kept alive and later released to send a message to the Emperor. |
Gurney Hallack journey’s into the southern desert with smugglers in search of spice. This group is ambushed by Fremen. Paul takes Gurney down without injuring him. He orders the Fremen to stop attacking the smugglers. |
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Gurny thinks that Jessica was the one that betrayed Houe Atreides to the Harkonnens instead of Dr. Yeuh. He has vowed to murder her. He tries to do so after Paul brings him back to the Sietch. Paul convinces Gurny that Dr. Yeuh was the traitor. |
This does not happen in the film.
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Paul has his families atomic weapons hidden on Dune. Most of the Great Houses have nuclear weapons, but there is a moratorium on their use. Use of nuclear weapons against people would turn everyone against the House that uses them. |
There is no prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons. Paul considers destroying the main spice fields with nuclear weapons. Gurney leads Paul to the 92 atomic weapons hidden in the desert. |
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Jessica learns where the Water of Life comes from during the ceremony when she becomes a Reverand Mother. |
Jessica watches a Fremen woman kill a baby worm by drowning it to obtain the water of life. Jessica orders the woman to allow a man to try the water of life.
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After Paul learns to ride a sand worm, some of the younger man in Seitch Tabr demand that Paul call out Stilgar, defeat him in personal combat, and become their leader. He refuses, because he needs Stilgar as one of his men to help lead. The Fremen accept this. |
The Harkonnens attack Sietch Taber and cause many deaths. There is a call for all leaders to meet in the south. Stilgar says it is time for Paul to call him out and take his place as leader. Paul refuses. |
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The book shows Paul in a coma, that he drank the Water of Life is not revealed until weeks later while he was in a coma. |
Paul drinks from a flask containing the water of life given to him by a woman. He hallucinates. He then sees his yet to be born sister Alia.
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Jessica finds Paul in a coma. He seems to be near death for three weeks. Chani is summoned; she dips her finger into the ewer of the Water of Life that was next to Paul and holds it in front of his nose. This revives Paul. He tells them of the places his mind has been, but he is very weak as he was in a coma without food for three weeks. Paul is devoted to his mother and Chani and is treated well by both of them. |
Paul is in a coma after drinking the water of life. Chani is summoned to see Paul who blames Jessica. Jessica takes a single drop of the water a puts it on his lips, Paul revives and says he is fine. Chani slaps his face and walks away. It is only now that Paul knows the Baron is his grandfather. |
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Chani is Paul’s concubine and the mother of his son. |
Chani is the leader of the Fedaykin, the Fremen death commandos.
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After the Emperor arrives on Dune, he has his Sardukar raid a Seitch for prisoners. They encounter only women, children and old men, but barely escape with their lives. Paul’s son Leto is killed, and Alia is taken prisoner along with others. |
This does not happen in the film. |
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The Fremen attack the city wall with nuclear weapons, then defeat the Harkonnen and Imperial soldiers and take the Emperor captive. Alia kills the Baron with her Gom Jabber. |
The Fremen attack the city wall with nuclear weapons. Sandworms are then lead into the city. After the Fremen defeats the Sardukar, Paul enters the Emperor’s throne room, calls the Baron “grandfather”, then kills him with a knife to the neck. Paul orders that the Baron be fed to the desert.
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Paul threatens to destroy all of the Spice on Dune unless The Emperor steps down. |
Paul threatens to destroy all of the spice with nuclear weapons. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
While the Fremen are fighting the Sardukar, Gurney kills Rabban.
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Feyd demands the right to Kanly, a vendetta fight between Houses. Paul agrees after telling Gurney that this Harkonnen is his to kill for revenge, not Gurney’s. Feyd and Paul fight, Feyd tries to poison Paul with a small needle in his girdle, but Paul is able to avoid it and quickly kills Feyd with a knife through his neck and into his brain. |
Paul demands that the Emperor fight him or choose a champion. Feyd steps forward to fight Paul. The fight goes poorly for Paul when he is stabbed, but eventually he kills Feyd. |
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No one else had landed on the planet as the Guild had refused permission |
Paul has a message sent to the ships of the Great Houses that if they land on the planet, he will destroy the spice with nuclear weapons.
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Jessica and Chani will negotiate for the princess’ dowry; it will be the Emperor's entire Chaom Company holdings and he will live on his own prison planet which Paul promises to make a pleasant place to live. |
No details on a dowry. Princess Irulan begs Paul to spare her father’s life and she will be her willing bride. The Emperor kneels and kisses Paul’s hand. Everyone kneels before Paul, but Chani walks away. |
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Paul tells Chani that while the princess will be his wife, he will only love Chani. He also says that history will know his mother and Chani as wives (Jessica was Leto’s concubine) and the princess will only have her literary pretensions.
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This does not happen. Chani leaves the city in disgust and summons a sand worm so she can leave.
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The Fremen Jihad does not start until after the events of the book Dune. |
The Great Houses refuse Paul’s order to not interfere. Paul orders the Fremen to “lead them to paradise”. The Fremen depart in spaceships to start the war. |