While Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has been largely praised by critics and earned enough at the box office to warrant a sequel, it’s not without a handful of negative reviews. Some reviews claim that the movie lacks the fun and escapism of classic sci-fi cinema. One of the main points of contention is that Dune is short on action.
But Dune has plenty of action. It just feels a lot less action-heavy than Marvel movies or The Fast Saga because it has a somber tone and cerebral pacing closer to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Villeneuve’s movie has some thrilling set-pieces to offer.
7 Paul And Lady Jessica Fly Through A Sandstorm
Out of all the set-pieces in Dune, Paul and Lady Jessica flying an ornithopter through a sandstorm feels the most like a generic action sequence from a traditional adventure movie.
It’s a lot of fun, but not as unconventional or offbeat or thought-provoking as the rest of the movie’s action. The ornithopter design is wholly unique, with flapping wings like a dragonfly, but this sequence is short on symbolism and character development.
6 Gurney Halleck Trains Paul To Fight
Josh Brolin gives one of the most likable supporting performances in Dune as Gurney Halleck, the weapons master of House Atreides and, more importantly, a mentor to Paul. Audiences become endeared to Halleck as he protects Paul, provides him with wisdom, and ends up saving his life in the desert. When Halleck is first introduced, he continues Paul’s fight training.
Villeneuve visualizes the Holtzman shields from Frank Herbert’s book beautifully, but this scene is ultimately low-stakes and therefore unexciting because it’s just a training exercise. But it does establish the shields as part of the story’s mythology ahead of their more prominent appearances later.
5 Paul’s Vision Of A Holy War
This sequence was teased by the trailers as the climactic action of the movie, but as it turns out, it’s just a premonition and lasts as long in the actual movie as it does in the trailer. Like the dinosaurs showing up in mainland America in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this trailer clip more or less only appears in the movie itself as an in-movie trailer for the next movie.
Paul sees visions of a “holy war” being carried out across the universe in his name. On an Arrakis battlefield, Paul fights on the Fremen side against the Emperor’s forces with glowing blue Fremen eyes. It looks like it has the makings of a thrilling battle sequence, but it’s over in seconds. Fans will have to wait until the sequel is released to see the rest of it.
4 Leto Saves The Crew Of A Spice Harvester From A Sandworm
When Leto takes his son and some of his associates for a flight over the desert, they spot an active spice harvester whose crew is stranded with a giant sandworm on the way to eat them. Leto lands his craft to allow the stranded crew members to come aboard. While Paul is in the desert trying to help them, he’s exposed to spice-filled air and disappears into a series of premonitions, all with the sandworm still on the way.
On top of the usual symbolism of Paul’s dreamlike visions, this sequence has a palpable sense of tension as Paul vanishes into a drug trip with a hungry underground monster fast approaching.
3 Duncan Idaho Goes Down Swinging
Jason Momoa was the perfect casting for Duncan Idaho, a seasoned badass warrior who always has a quippy one-liner in the chamber and refuses to give up a fight. He would gladly give his life to protect House Atreides, and he proves that in his heartbreaking death scene when he makes the ultimate sacrifice.
When the bad guys arrive at their abandoned research station hideout, Duncan stays behind to buy Paul and Lady Jessica some time to escape. Duncan takes on all the bad guys singlehandedly with some visceral fight choreography. It’s like a Marvel-style hallway fight, but even more brutal.
2 Paul Fights Jamis To The Death
When Paul and Lady Jessica encounter the Fremen tribe, they’re invited to join them. However, Fremen warrior Jamis doesn’t believe they should be let in, leading to a ritual duel between Jamis and Paul. The ritual is a fight to the death, but Paul doesn’t realize this.
Paul enters the fight planning to spare Jamis’ life and only finds out in the middle of the fight that this isn’t an option – it’s kill or be killed. In the end, Paul prevails, but he broke his oath not to kill anybody. This cliffhanger ending sets up a morally dubious Dune: Part Two.
1 Harkonnen And Sardaukar Troops Attack Arrakeen
In the opening scenes of Dune, it’s unclear why the Emperor is kicking House Harkonnen out of Arrakis’ spice production racket and replacing them with House Atreides. However, when Harkonnen’s troops team up with the Emperor’s Sardaukar troops to attack the Arrakeen fortress in the middle of the night, it becomes clear that the plan all along was to sabotage the troublesome House Atreides with a violent coup.
Suk doctor Wellington Yueh is blackmailed into shutting down Arrakeen’s shields to let Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops in, paving the way for an epic-scale battle sequence. The fiery wreckage of the gigantic machinery getting blown up provides a powerful backdrop for the brutal hand-to-hand combat between House Atreides’ soldiers and the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops that drastically outnumber them.
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