‘Dune: Part Two’ Ending Explained: Look to Chani

Dune: Part Two has hit HBO Max, while it still stands as the year’s biggest blockbuster, a position that seems likely to hold for at least another month. Denis Villeneuve’s IMAX-scale adaptation of the second half of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel occupies an unusual spot in the contemporary mega-franchise landscape; Part Two is unambiguously the second half of a story that wasn’t particularly finished at the end of Dune (or as it’s retroactively known, Part One), yet there are plenty of other Dune novels that could be made into movies, and Villeneuve has expressed interest in returning to adapt Dune Messiah into a feature. So what actually happens at the end of Dune: Part Two, and how does it help set up future movies without leaving audiences hanging with a cheap sequel tease?

DUNE: PART TWO — PLOT SUMMARY

Much of Dune: Part Two follows the aftermath of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) ducking out of his royal family and joining up with the Fremen, the natives to the desert planet of Arrakis who are attempting to fight back against their various oppressors. Paul resists the (planted) prophecy implying that he may yet become the messiah of the Fremen, and endears himself to Chani (Zendaya) by learning to live among the natives (cue the worm-riding, the sand-walking, things of this nature). But in the process of battling the forces sent by Emperor Shaddam (Christopher Walken), Paul drinks the Water of Life, gets a bunch of crazy powers, and takes it upon himself to lead the Fremen to victory, declaring himself the messiah after all. All of this interplanetary maneuvering and strategizing builds to a climactic… marriage proposal and knife fight? Wait, what?

Yes, Paul challenges Shaddam for the throne, and Shaddam allows Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to serve as his proxy. He and Paul duel, Paul wins, and demands the hand of Irulan (Florence Pugh), Shaddam’s daughter. Shaddam agrees, and Paul takes his place as Emperor, leading the Fremen in a holy war against the other Great Houses, who will not accept his ascendance. Chani, meanwhile, who has looked increasingly stricken by these climactic moments, does not bow to Paul, and instead leaves to summon a sandworm, wearing a look of deep disappointment and determination. The last few minutes of the movie belong to Zendaya; Villeneuve’s camera stays on her face as she stills a quiver in her lip, her eyes slightly tearing up as she stares, brow furrowed, into the distance, waiting for her worm-bus.

That’s what you saw when you watched the movie – but what does it actually mean?

DUNE: PART 2 – ENDING EXPLAINED

First, it means that Villeneuve and Warner Bros. are comfortable leaving the door open for Dune: Part Three, which continues to follow Paul in his messianic holy war. Chani isn’t out of the picture, either, nor is Irulan, and if you caught a glimpse of Furiosa’s Anya Taylor-Joy playing a grown-up version of Paul’s little sister Alia, who remains unborn in Part Two but communicates with her mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), who wants Paul to follow the prophecy and become the messiah. But the specifics of part three would be a series of spoilers – and speculative ones, given that we don’t know how closely Villeneuve and his screenwriters will adapt the next book.

Here’s one potential difference: In the books, Paul and Chani don’t have a break-up as clear and clean as the one that ends Part Two, and it’s Chani’s reaction in the movie that helps key the audience into how to feel about Paul’s ascendance. Yes, we might infer that Paul is turning his supposed loyalty to the Fremen into a power-grab that will serve primarily to launch a war against his enemies – rather than assure the Fremen’s freedom – but it’s easy enough to get swept up in the spectacle when so many charismatic stars (Chalamet, Ferguson, Pugh, Josh Brolin) remain on the holy-war side of things.

That’s where Zendaya comes in. In fewer than ten movies, she’s established a persona that’s not exactly cuddly; even in the patently adorable Spider-Man movies, she’s a voice of intelligent cynicism, happy to tease Peter Parker even as she’s falling for him. But she also projects strength and intelligence, especially in Dune: Part Two, where she serves as Paul’s skeptical but ultimately open guide to the Fremen, even if the movie is more interested in their moony relationship than the culture at hand. (Speaking of which: Roxana Hadadi at Vulture has written a thoughtful analysis of the movie’s ending that deals with the movies’ lack of curiosity about the culture of the people of Arrakis.) Though the audience is put in Paul’s shoes for much of the movie, the final section has us turning to Chani for her reaction, and understanding that her broken heart goes beyond Paul’s politically motivated marriage strategy. That’s why it key that the movie follows her back into the desert, rather than staying in the room with Paul when she leaves. It places the emphasis back where Chani wants it: On her home and her people, not the palace machinations of the boy who just betrayed their ideals.

The recent Challengers does something similar – orienting its ending around an emotional release from Zendaya’s usual reserve. There, Zendaya’s reaction ends the movie on a giddy high, even if plenty of ambiguities remain in the narrative. In Dune: Part Two, it does the opposite. Viewers more versed in this particular story than its cultural context might find the ending ambiguous in terms of what it means for Paul and the future of the Fremen. (And technically, it is ambiguous; who’s to say what will happen with the movie version of the next installment.) But Zendaya makes it look a lot more cut and dry: If the relatively stoic and clearminded Chani is struggling to keep it together, we know something is wrong.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.

Stream Dune: Part Two on Max