Just One Scene: The Pre-Knife Fight Confrontation in Dune: Part Two
For when you don’t want to talk about the whole movie, but you can’t stop thinking about a specific moment, character, or sequence, there’s Just One Scene.
[Reverend Mother Mohiam gasps]
[shudders]
[whispering] Abomination…
There are a lot of contenders for the best scene in Dune: Part Two (aka 2ne or Twone (they’re both pronounced, “toon”)). For instance:
When the Harkonnen soldiers float to the top of the plateau in the opening scene.
When Chani and Paul battle their way around and under a spice harvester with a bazooka in tow.
Just the entire gladiator sequence on Geidi Prime.
And, of course, Paul riding the biggest worm anyone’s ever seen outside of Neitherworld.
Oh, and while not actually a scene from the film, the internet’s entire discourse surrounding this photo.
“Someone said it looks like the toes that didn’t get stubbed.”
But after watching Twone at home recently, I can safely say that the most memorable and fun scene in the movie is the meetup in the Emperor’s mobile castle between a revealed Muad’Dib post-grand patricide and the Emperor (Christopher Walken), Princess Irulan, who I keep wanting to call “Princess Erehwon” (Florence Pugh), Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista), Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Chani (Zendaya), Stilgar (Javier Bardem), Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), and the Reverend Mother, who is apparently named Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling). Quick aside, but I still find it very funny that in a world where people are called Stilgar, Gurney, Chani, Feyd Rautha, Rabban, and Leto we also get Paul, Jessica, and Helen. Helen? HELEN.
Anyway.
While we get several sequences of extremely famous people interacting with each other throughout Dune: Part Two, very rarely do we get all of them on the same planet, let alone in one cavernous room, at the same time. In fact, Baron Harkanen (Stellan Skarsård) is technically present as well, albeit without a pulse and while bleeding out of his neck just to the side of the action. Although not every actor gets a line in this specific exchange, we do get five of the best, along with an incredible bit of reaction from Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica:
“You dumb dummy, don’t you know who I am?”
“No, you’re the dumb dummy. Don’t you know who I am?”
“I seriously saw this from a light year away.”
“I am so turned on right now.”
“It’s fine, I’ll just shush the small boy.”
“What happened to that horned-up dude’s eyebrows?”
“Mistaaaaaaaaaake.”
*record scratch* *freeze frame* “Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.”
It is simply… stupendous. And it has in turn gone full Muad’meme, which I also like. What’s so impactful about this scene is that it almost feels like a set piece, but on a much more intimate scale. And especially after watching hoards of Fremen ride in on sandworms while another legion of Arakis’ greatest fighters charge straight through the entire Imperial army just before this, you can feel this clash in the throne room as if you’re standing in the back — a much less famous person witnessing the glory of this absolutely bonkers round-robin exchange.
There are other images that will stick with me from Dune: Part Two, of course (the door-like mines that are used to take down Gurney’s spice harvester or the Fremen woman extracting the water of life from the juvenile sandworm come to mind). And specific sounds, absolutely. But the incredible reactionary editing as this group of freakishly talented people throws their attention around the room is exactly why this movie’s staying power will only continue to grow. So while there are plenty of contenders for the best scene in Twone, much like Muad’Dib himself, the penultimate verbal duel in the Emperor’s mobile throne room really is the one that leads the way.
