It’s almost too obvious. A movie starts with a big, action-packed war scene where a lot of people die. Of course, you think of Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan. It’s so on point. So easy to figure out. And so, there’s no way director Denis Villeneuve didn’t consider that when he crafted the opening of Dune: Part Three, which was revealed this week at CinemaCon.
Villeneuve screened the first seven minutes of his new movie at the event, and here’s how it played out. If you don’t want to wait until December, of course.
Over the opening logos for Warner Bros., Legendary, and more, there are drums. They beat louder. Faster. A siren sounds, and a bunch of rectangular-shaped ships are shot into space. They make their way through the atmosphere of an unknown planet, and it’s brutal. Lightning strikes all around as they enter the atmosphere and plunge towards the surface. A few actually get destroyed by the weather as they continue to drop and approach the planet’s surface.
The ones that make it through level out and fly along the surface. It’s very Star Wars as the rectangular-shaped vehicles coast along the ground, mentioning how they’ve never seen water fall from the sky. We cut inside and see dozens of soldiers on board. They await with all kinds of nervous energy. One mentions the water falling from the sky. Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is among the soldiers deploying, and watches as another of the leaders tries to pump up the troops by starting some chants.
Motivated, the Fremen soldiers emerge on this rainy planet from their ships. They’re a bit confused and confounded by the weather but push forward nonetheless. They emerge from the ships onto the quiet planet and wait. And listen. They hear the rain fall, and as beautiful as it sounds, they are interrupted by a torrent of laser blasts. The blasts tear through several ships as they explode, and people burn. A glimpse through binoculars reveals it’s only one gun doing this.
The ground rises up miles away. A huge structure emerges from the ground, almost like an atomic bomb. And, at several levels of this structure, more laser fire emerges. It rains fire on the Fremen as they take cover. People die; ships explode. Finally, they think they’ve got it figured out, just as a massive blast comes from the sky, attempting to battle back and destroy the weapons.
It doesn’t matter. Lasers still fire, turning ships and people into Swiss cheese. The Fremen move a shield-piercer weapon to the front and take aim. But all the blasts deflect back and kill more people. We watch as one of the Freman runs away in fear, defeated, only for him to be cut down anyway. The large enemy ship moves forward. The laser fire continues. None of this looks good.
From there, we cut to a trailer that has similar footage to the first teaser, but some new stuff too. Paul asks the clone of Duncan Idaho, Hayt, “What do you know about me?” “You conquered the galaxy,” he says. “You destroyed thousands of worlds.” Thoughts on that? Paul asks. “You’re way beyond redemption,” Duncan says.
From there, things are cut faster. We watch as Paul’s sister is covered in blood. A group of people almost dressed as sci-fi samurai line up to fight; Chani (Zendaya) challenges Paul. Paul is fighting with Duncan. Finally, Paul admits he needs Duncan. And, back on Arakkis, a giant sandworm emerges.
Call us crazy, but we think Dune: Part Three is gonna be great. It opens December 18.
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