(ANALYSIS) “Dune: Part Two” is a massive hit at the box office, making back the entirety of the first movie’s entire ticket take on its opening weekend and narrowly beating the opening of last year’s “Oppenheimer.” And with a Rotten Tomatoes critical and audience score over 90%, many are already calling it one of the best sequels of all time.

Based on the second half of Frank Herberts celebrated sci-fi novel, “Dune,” the movie picks up where the first film left off, with Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica living among the Freman and seeking to defeat the oppressive Harkonen who killed Paul’s father. But Paul and his mother begin to find themselves at cross purposes, as Jessica wishes to encourage the belief that Paul is the Freman’s Messiah, while Paul wishes to discourage it, having seen in a vision that if that happens, he will be a genocidal dictator.

The film makes explicit in this story which only truly became apparent in the later Herbert novels like “Dune: Messiah,” yet fans of the books have already pointed out, that “Dune” is not like other adventure stories like “Star Wars” (which borrowed much from the “Dune” series) and “Lord of The Rings” (whose author did not like the “Dune” series). In “Dune”, the hero who people count on to save them becomes a monster even worse than the people who he saved the world from, becoming a cautionary tale about our desire to raise up a hero to save us. 

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“Dune: Part Two” rightly points out the dangers of religious fanaticism, but wrongly implies that being secular makes you less susceptible to it. “Dune” is explicitly religious – something both movies lean into. The Freman believe in “The Maker” and in the prophecy of the coming Messiah.

Even their enemies recognize the power of their faith and all that comes from it. When the emperor claims he can destroy the Freman and their prophet with his vast resources, his daughter counters “you underestimate the power of faith.” When speaking about the Freman who live down in the brutal southern regions, one says “nothing can survive down there without faith,” where the fundamentalist Freman are, in fact, living.

The film does a good job of showing what motivates religious fervor, and its consequences when it is embraced as a motivation for Holy War. The Freman have been an oppressed people for generations with seemingly no hope. The prophecy that there would come a messiah who would lead them is a source of hope to them. The story gives criteria for evidence, such as the things the messiah will say, do, and achieve, and the story gains power as Paul begins to exhibit those signs. In fact, some have even called the film a parable about what’s currently happening in Gaza.  

A lot of this matches very well on the demographics of religion and religious extremism in our world. Countries with poorer and more politically unstable societies are more likely to be religious. People who are oppressed or perceived oppression are more likely to side with potentially bad men or regimes to defeat their enemies and lead them out of their oppression, whether that’s Hamas in the Middle east or anti-feminist fans of Andrew Tate in America.

Religions with prophecies about a coming Messiah — such as Judaism and Christianity — typically have signs to look for that help adherents try to discern who is the true Messiah and who is a false prophet, leading to much debate. The Gospels, for example, spend a lot of time trying to make the case that Jesus fulfills all of those prophecies about the Messiah. Likewise, the science around bias shows that despite our best efforts, when we want to believe something (such as a Messianic prophecy), we are more likely to distort evidence to reinforce it.

Where “Dune: Part Two” goes wrong is where it reinforcing the stereotype that secular freethinkers and their common culture are less likely to get swept up in fanaticism that leads to tyranny than their religious counterparts and their common culture. Chani and her secular friends can see through the prophecy and its manipulations, and Chani is the only one who can see through the evils of the religious tyranny to the end.

The movie even draws a hard-line regional distinction between those who believe and those who don’t, with the religious fanatics all living in the south and the wise skeptics living up north, repeatedly calling out “The Fundamentalists” who live “Down South” as the people to fear also reinforces that “us vs them” “blue state vs red state” parallel. Chani’s status as the moral center of the film becomes even more uncomfortable given how often she places her central identity as a racial one–specifying her Freman identity as most important, even emphasizing the importance of “Freman by blood”.

Likewise, the movie reinforces the conspiracy model to explain to religious fundamentalists that the source of their beliefs comes from cynical manipulators who prey on their fear, rather than sincere religious conviction. The prophecy of “Dune II” is one planted by the Benne Geseret to manipulate the people of Arrakis and the rest of the galaxy so they can control them. Chani dismisses Messianic claims in general by saying “you want to control people, you give them a Messiah.”

Both of these are popular views in the secular coastal world today since it flatters their sensibilities as the wise enlightened heroes and paints those who oppose them as duped fanatics. It was the narrative put forward in movies like “God and Country” to explain the rise of “Christian Nationalism”. 

This view is more about flattering the sensibilities of those who already agree with it rather than reality. Research has shown that bias is pretty evenly distributed across the political-cultural aisle. The past century has shown atheist people and cultures are just as likely – if not more so – to get swept up in dictatorial fanaticism than religious peoples. Whether it's the communist regimes of the Soviet Union, North Korea or China, embracing eugenics and debunked hysterias regarding overpopulation and a climate apocalypse (debunked by progressive outlets). While there are others I could bring up, the point is that we should be very careful whenever casting religious people as more susceptible to manipulation than their secular counterparts.  

Last year’s “Knock at the Cabin” (which I put in my list of top ten faith-based films for 2023), this latest film by M. Night Shyamalan gives a far more challenging treatment of religious fanaticism. It centers on a family who are attacked and imprisoned by a group of people who claim God sent them to force an unspeakable choice on the family.

Initially, the family is skeptical, but as more and more prophecies start to come true, they begin to ask the question as to what the line is for them for when they should believe or not. “Dune: Part II” and “Knock at the Cabin” are two movies trying to do different things, it’s worth noting that one challenges the audience with how the question of extremism is one we all have to wrestle with, the other makes it comfortable – making sure that you’re safer as long as you you keep secular.

“Dune: Part Two” does deserve credit for highlighting the themes of the celebrated novel series on how uncritical hero worship can lead to becoming what we hate. But intelligent viewers should look beyond the movie’s biases that it’s “those religious people” we need to be afraid of to examine everyone’s ability to lose themselves in the hero worship of a savior.

Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.