History Film / Dune1984

* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: Paul's explanation to the Fremen for how the weirding module works -- "Some thoughts have a certain sound, that being the equivalent to a form."

* SuperScream: The wierding modules channel the user's voice into a destructive sound pulse which can cause a variety of ailments based on how the user speaks, though mostly it just causes explosions. This leads to the memetic "My name is a killing word" scene, wherein a Fremen using one says "Muad'Dib" and blows up part of the ceiling.

* ShutUpHannibal: Paul gets in a good one against Reverend Mother Mohiam when she tries to manipulate him through the Voice.

** Zig-zagged with Duncan Idaho. In the book, he went down fighting and took a dozen Sardaukar with him, but here a Sardaukar slow-fires a hunter-killer through his shield and he promptly goes down. However, before he was shot, Duncan easily defeated a single Sardaukar ([[WorfEffect who seconds before was killing regular Atreides soldiers left and right]]) in a duel, and a few moments later, he took on ''entire squad'' of them at once, putting them all down.

** The Fremen never learn to use the Weirding Way here. Instead, they receive sonic weapons called "Weirding Modules"[[note]]The change was made because director David Lynch felt that following the book would have resulted in a silly-looking "kung fu in the desert" look[[/note]].

** Feyd-Rautha is made a better hand-to-hand fighter. In the film, he beats Paul up a bit for most of their duel, landing several kicks and strikes before Paul uses a hip throw to pin and stab him. In the novel, their duel was very tentative and uneventful until the end.

* AdaptationalDumbass: Rabban. While in the book he's a cruel, brutal man regarded by the Baron as a "muscle-minded tank-brain" and known to the Fremen as "Demon Ruler", he's also erudite and well-educated, and alone of all the Harkonnens, has the insight to realize that the Fremen might actually represent a genuine threat, which he tries to warn his uncle about (the Baron completely disregards this until Thufir Hawat tells him the same thing and presents him with evidence). In the film, he's portrayed as a near-mindless thug.
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance:
** Edric the Guild Navigator appears in the first scene of the film, with the implication that he's TheManBehindTheMan for the Emperor; his literary counterpart didn't appear until the second novel, ''Literature/DuneMessiah''.
** Glossu Rabban is shown with the Baron much earlier than he appears in the novel.

* AdaptationalJerkass: In the book, Reverend Mother Mohiam has some brief moments of humanity, as she admits she understands Jessica's decisions and would have made them herself, and even leaves their reunion shedding tears for her apprentice's fate. Nothing of this happens in the film, where she's an unsympathetic harpy from beginning to end.

** In the books, the Kwisatz Haderach's unique gifts are mostly mental in nature, the main ones being non-limited prescience and access to both male and female genetic memory. This version of Paul, in stark contrast, also demonstrates the power to affect the world, being able not only of [[MindOverMatter telekinetically]] breaking the floor when very angry, but also of altering Arrakis' climate to ''make it rain''. Frank Herbert himself, who otherwise liked the film, would comment on this oddity.

** The Baron is considerably more grotesque and disgusting than he ever was in the book, complete with facial pustules and a filthy, disheveled appearance, whereas in the book he was simply fat. In a subversion, however, the novel version of the Baron was described to be so fat that he could barely walk without anti-gravity suspensors, while his film version is more rotund that truly obese and only uses the suspensors to float around.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** Gurney Halleck, repeatedly described in the book as "an ugly lump of man", is here played by the stylish, good-looking Creator/PatrickStewart.
** The book describes Feyd-Rautha as having a round face and sullen eyes, quite different from the handsome Music/{{Sting}}.
** The blue-within-blue eyes caused by the Melange are portrayed in a way that makes them less creepy than in the book, as the color takes now the form of a glow, with the sclera being lighter blue than the iris, rather than an opaque coloration in both iris and sclera as it was described in the novel (which in poor light or extreme cases of spice usage looked almost black).

'''Mohiam:''' You mustn't speak!\\
'''Paul:''' '''Silence!'''

* TruerToTheText: One of the ''few'' things the films does more faithfully to the novel than the [[Film/DunePartTwo Denis Villeneuve version]] is Alia being born and her mind maturing very rapidly while she's still a child, and her offing the Baron Harkonnen with a Gom Jabbar (though the Baron isn't swallowed by a Shai Hulud in the novel). In the Villeneuve version, Alia isn't born and Paul/Muad'Dib himself kills the Baron.

* TruerToTheText: One of the ''few'' things the films does more faithfully to the novel than the [[Film/DunePartTwo Denis Villeneuve version]] is Alia being born and her mind maturing very rapidly, and her offing the Baron Harkonnen with a Gom Jabbar (though the Baron isn't swallowed by a Shai Hulud in the novel). In the Villeneuve version, Alia isn't born and Paul/Muad'Dib himself kills the Baron.

* PragmaticVillainy: Baron Harkonnen tries to open up negotiations with Duke Leto but Leto rejects that offer and so House Harkonnen goes on the attack. The Baron had no real interest in peace or discussion he simply went through the expected channels for House politics to try and quell any legality around his offensive.

* HateSink: The Baron, more so than in the book as he's physically repulsive, devoid of the original character's suave manners and even gives a SpitefulSpit when he has Lady Jessica at his mercy. Funnily enough, the Fremen consider that a compliment.

For the other live-action adaptations of ''Dune'', see ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune'' and ''Film/Dune2021''-''Film/DunePartTwo''.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: The population of Giedi Prime all wear 'heart plugs' that are prominently displayed and quite easy to yank out. Hawat is fitted with one once he's captured; Kenneth [=McMillian=]'s line, "[[HandWave Everyone gets one here]]," is so delightfully deadpan. It's never actually used by their enemies, however, other than one scene where the Baron Harkonnen murders a boy slave for the hell of it. [[spoiler: And the scene where Alia kills the Baron by stabbing him with a Gom Jabbar, then pulling his heart plugs and shoving him out into the sandstorm -- [[NoKillLikeOverkill where he gets swallowed by a worm]].]]

** Played with. In the novel, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is poisoned to death by his granddaughter Alia Atreides. Here he gets eaten by a giant sandworm, but [[RasputinianDeath not before Alia poisons him her Gom Jabbar and rips his heart-plugs out]]. NoKillLikeOverkill indeed.

-->'''De Vries''': Now, as instructed, I have enlightened your nephews concerning my plan—
-->'''Baron Harkonnen''': MY plan!
-->'''De Vries''': ...''the'' plan to crush the Atreides.

* HandInTheHole: Following the example of the book, Paul is subjected to the Gom Jabbar test, where he sticks his hand into a blacked out box and made to suffer excruciating pain (complete with an ImagineSpot of his hand burning away) to show that he has the willpower and self-control to not pull his hand out of the box before being given permission. Failure of the test means immediate death by poison needle instead, but Paul passes with flying colors.

** In the novel and miniseries, [[spoiler:Baron Harkonnen]] dies simply as a result of being stabbed with a Gom Jabbar by [[spoiler:Alia]]. In the film, she stabs him and rips out his heart plugs, before he goes flying out of a hole that had been blasted in the palace wall, leading to him being SwallowedWhole by a sandworm.

* ToThePain: A variation occurs when Reverend Mother Mohiam has the Gom Jabarr at Paul's neck and his hand inside a box that causes excruciating pain. If he pulls his hand out of the box, the Gom Jabarr will kill him. Reverend Mother Mohiam recites the effects of the box on Paul's hand—for Exposition, surely, but also to make the torture a little worse (as Paul has a difficult time maintaining his internal "anti-fear" mantra, and Mohiam knows it):
-->You will feel....an itching. There. Now, the itching becomes....burning. Heat....upon heat....upon heat....You feel flesh....crisping. Flesh....dropping off....

The film adaptation of ''Dune'' was originally given to the experimental filmmaker Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky, who planned to very loosely adapt the book while basing most of the film on a dream he'd had. He recruited a rogue's gallery of names for his project, including comic artist Creator/{{Moebius}}, Creator/HRGiger, Music/PinkFloyd, Creator/SalvadorDali and Creator/OrsonWelles[[note]]One of the most notable fallouts from this assemblage is that writer Dan O'Bannon and HR Giger met on this production, and O'Bannon brought some of Giger's work to show the director of [[Film/{{Alien}} the next project he was involved in]][[/note]]. Unfortunately, Jodorowsky burned through his budget before filming a single scene, and the project was ultimately taken away from him. A feature-length documentary titled ''Film/JodorowskysDune'' chronicles this project of epic proportions that went nowhere. Jodorowsky later recycled many of his ideas in his epic graphic novel series ''[[ComicBook/TheMetabarons The Saga of the Metabarons]]''.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis handed the film to another experimental director, Creator/DavidLynch, who was a hot prospect at the time due to his cult classic debut film ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' and the critically lauded ''Film/TheElephantMan''. Lynch scrapped most of Jodorowsky's plans and made a film much closer to the book, although still guided by his own unique vision. Lynch's completed work is memorable (and notorious) for its Freudian imagery, elaborate costumes and [[SceneryPorn set designs]] (containing several holdovers from the Jodorowsky version, including some of Giger's designs), and AllStarCast, which in addition to [=MacLachlan=] features Creator/PatrickStewart, Creator/JoseFerrer, Creator/BradDourif, Creator/DeanStockwell, Creator/SeanYoung, Creator/JurgenProchnow, Creator/VirginiaMadsen, Music/{{Sting}}, Creator/SianPhillips, Creator/LindaHunt, and Creator/MaxVonSydow, among others.

* MakeMeWannaShout: The wierding modules channel the user's voice into a destructive sound pulse which can cause a variety of ailments based on how the user speaks, though mostly it just causes explosions. This leads to the memetic "My name is a killing word" scene, wherein a Fremen using one says "Muad'Dib" and blows up part of the ceiling.

* BlasphemousBoast: "Usul, we have wormsign the likes of which even God has never seen". {{Justified}}, as they are deliberately attracting as many worms as they possibly can in defiance of all normal logic. Is it blasphemous if it's literally true?

For the other live-action adaptations of ''Dune'', see ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune'' and ''Film/Dune2021''.

** Emperor Shaddam IV himself is turned into a fighter in this film, as he personally mans one of his selamlik's turrets (it doesn't have any weapons in the novel) and participates in the final battle through it, while in the novel he has to be protected and carried away by his guards. This also makes a move on AuthorityEqualsAsskicking, implying that, even if the Emperor loses the battle, he's still a trained military man and not just a lazy despot.

* SpaceClothes: The movie managed to come up with one set of strange clothes, thanks to the really weird mind of David Lynch, along with particular distinctive physical quirks (Mentats have ''giant'' eyebrows, the Spacing Guild are all bald and have weird voices, Harkonnens are red-haired and have terrible acne).

** The Navigators' mutations are taken UpToEleven in this film, to the point they stop being human at all and become floating, fish-like monstrosities.