Dune (2021) Best Movie Quotes – ‘Fear is the mind-killer.’

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster

OUR RATING: ★★★½

Story:

Epic sci-fi adventure directed by Denis Villeneuve. Dune (2021) follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Our Favorite Quotes:

'A great man doesn't seek to lead. He's called to it. And he answers.' - Duke Leto Atreides (Dune) Share on X

Best Quotes

Alien: [subtitled] Dreams are messages from the deep.

Chani: My planet, Arrakis, is so beautiful when the sun is low. Rolling over the sands, you can see spice in the air. At nightfall, the spice harvesters land. The outsiders race against time to avoid the heat of the day. They ravage our lands in front of our eyes. Their cruelty to my people is all I’ve known.

Chani: Our warriors couldn’t free Arrakis from the Harkonnens, but one day, by imperial decree, they were gone. Why did the Emperor choose this path? And who will our next oppressors be?

Film Book Voice: Fremen attacks make spice harvesting extremely hazardous. For the Fremen, spice is the sacred hallucinogen which preserves life and brings enormous health benefits. For the Imperium, spice is used by the navigators of the Spacing Guild to find safe paths between the stars. Without spice interstellar travel is impossible, making it by far the most valuable substance in the universe.

Duke Leto Atreides: Smile, Gurney.
Gurney Halleck: I am smiling.

Herald of the Change: The Emperor has spoken. “House Atreides shall immediately take control of Arrakis and serve as its steward.” Do you accept?
Duke Leto Atreides: We are House Atreides. There is no call we do not answer. There is no faith that we betray. The Emperor asks us to bring peace to Arrakis. House Atreides accepts!

Paul Atreides: So you’re going to Arrakis tomorrow, with the advance team?
Duncan Idaho: Yes, I’m going to Arrakis tomorrow with the advance team.
Paul Atreides: I’d like you to take me with you.
Duncan Idaho: You would? That’s too bad, because no.
Paul Atreides: Duncan.
Duncan Idaho: Are you trying to get me court-martialed?

Paul Atreides: Can I trust you with something?
Duncan Idaho: Always. You know that.
Paul Atreides: I’ve been having dreams. About Arrakis and the Fremen.
Duncan Idaho: Okay. So?
Paul Atreides: I saw you. With the Fremen.
Duncan Idaho: So I do find them? There you go. That’s a good omen right there, right?

'Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration. I will face my fear, and I will permit it to pass over me and through me.' - Lady Jessica Atreides (Dune) Share on X

Paul Atreides: [describing his dream] I saw you lying dead. Fallen in battle. I felt like if I had been there, you’d be alive.
Duncan Idaho: First off, I’m not going to die.
Paul Atreides: You’re not taking me seriously.
Duncan Idaho: That’s why you want to come with me? Listen, dreams make good stories. But everything important happens when we’re awake, because that’s where we make things happen.

Duncan Idaho: Look at you. Put on some muscle?
Paul Atreides: I did?
Duncan Idaho: No.

Duke Leto Atreides: You’re the future of House Atreides.
Paul Atreides: And grandfather fought bulls for sport!
Duke Leto Atreides: Yes. Look where that got him. I need you by my side. When we get to Arrakis, we’ll face enormous danger.
Paul Atreides: What danger? The Fremen? The desert?
Duke Leto Atreides: Political danger.

Paul Atreides: What if I’m not, dad?
Duke Leto Atreides: Not what?
Paul Atreides: The future of the House Atreides.

Duke Leto Atreides: [to Paul] Your grandfather said, “A great man doesn’t seek to lead. He’s called to it. And he answers.” And if your answer is no, you’ll still be the only thing I ever needed you to be, my son. I found my own way to it. Maybe you’ll find yours.

'Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.' - Lady Jessica Atreides (Dune) Share on X

Gurney Halleck: [as he’s teaching Paul how to fight] The slow blade penetrates the shield.
Paul Atreides: I guess I’m not in the mood today.
Gurney Halleck: Mood? What’s mood got to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises, no matter the mood. Now, fight!

Paul Atreides: I have you.
Gurney Halleck: Aye. But look down, My Lord. You’d have joined me in death. I see you found the mood.

Gurney Halleck: [to Paul] You don’t get it, do you? You don’t really understand the grave nature of what’s happening to us. For eighty years Arrakis belonged to House Harkonnen. Eighty years of owning the spice fields. Can you imagine the wealth? In your eyes. I need to see it in your eyes. You never met Harkonners before. I have. They’re not human. They’re brutal! You have to be ready.

Beast Rabban Harkonnen: Uncle, how did we let this happen? How can the Emperor take everything we’ve built and give it to that Duke?! How?
Piter de Vries: Don’t be too sure it’s an act of love.
Beast Rabban Harkonnen: What does he mean?

'Dreams make good stories. But everything important happens when we're awake, because that's where we make things happen.' - Duncan Idaho (Dune) Share on X

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: When is a gift not a gift? The Atreides Voice is rising, and the Emperor is a jealous man. A dangerous, jealous man.

Reverend Mother Mohiam: [referring to Paul] Defiance in the eyes, like his father.

Reverend Mother Mohiam: I hold at your neck the Gom Jabbar, a poison needle, instant death. The test is simple. Remove your hand from the box, and you die.
Paul Atreides: What’s in the box?
Reverend Mother Mohiam: Pain.

Paul Atreides: Why are you doing this?
Reverend Mother Mohiam: An animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its own leg to escape. What will you do?

Lady Jessica Atreides: I must not fear. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration. I will face my fear, and I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

'You fight when the necessity arises, no matter the mood.' - Gurney Halleck (Dune) Share on X

Reverend Mother Mohiam: Like sifting sand through a screen, we sift people. If you had been unable to control your impulses like an animal, we could not let you live. You inherit too much power.
Paul Atreides: Because I’m a Duke’s son?
Reverend Mother Mohiam: Because you are Jessica’s son. You have more than one birthright, boy.

Reverend Mother Mohiam: What did you see?
Paul Atreides: A girl, on Arrakis.
Reverend Mother Mohiam: Have you dreamt of her before?
Paul Atreides: Many times.
Reverend Mother Mohiam: Do you often dream things that happen just as you dreamt them?
Paul Atreides: Not exactly.

Lady Jessica Atreides: Did you have to go that far?
Reverend Mother Mohiam: You chose to train him in the Way in defiance of our rule. He wields our power. He had to be tested, to the limits. So much potential wasted in a male. You were told to bear only daughters, but you and your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach.
Lady Jessica Atreides: Was I wrong?

Reverend Mother Mohiam: [referring to Paul] You’re lucky he didn’t die in that room. If he is The One, he has a long way to go. His sight is barely awakened, and now he goes into the fire. But our plans are measured in centuries. We have other prospects if he fails his promise.
Lady Jessica Atreides: Do you see so little hope?
Reverend Mother Mohiam: On Arrakis, we have done all we can for you. The path has been laid. Let’s hope he doesn’t squander it.

'The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve. But a reality to experience.' - Jamis (Dune) Share on X

Lady Jessica Atreides: For thousands of years, we’ve been carefully crossing bloodlines to bring forth…
Paul Atreides: The One?
Lady Jessica Atreides: A mind, powerful enough to breach space and time, past and future, who can help us into a better future. We think he is very close now. Some believe he is here.
Paul Atreides: All part of the plan.

Paul Atreides: What were they shouting?
Lady Jessica Atreides: Lisan al-Gaib. “The Voice from the Outer World.” It’s their name for “messiah”. It means that Bene Gesserit have been at work here.
Paul Atreides: Planting superstitions?
Lady Jessica Atreides: Preparing the way, Paul. These people have waited for centuries for the Lisan al-Gaib. They see you, they see the signs.
Paul Atreides: They see what they’ve been told to see.

See more Dune Quotes

Duke Leto Atreides: If we can’t refine spice, and ship it off world, we’re dead here.

Duke Leto Atreides: What do they say about this hell hole again?
Gurney Halleck: “It’s a shower, you scrub your a** with sand,” My Lord. That’s what they say.

Shadout Mapes: When you have lived with a prophecy for so long, the moment of revelation is a shock.

Film Book Voice: The largest, and the most dangerous organism on Arrakis, is the sandworm. Capable of reaching four hundred meters in length.

Piter de Vries: If the Duke’s son lives…
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: No Atreides will live.
Piter de Vries: My Lord, you gave your word to the witch. And she sees too much.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: I said I would not harm them. And I shall not. But Arrakis is Arrakis, and the desert takes the weak. My desert. My Arrakis. My Dune.

Gurney Halleck: Paul Atreides, who catches hunter-seekers in his bare hands, like a hero of all.
Paul Atreides: Thanks for the humiliation, old man.
Gurney Halleck: I keep an eye on you.

Duncan Idaho: Finally, they sent a warrior out to kill me, and I have to tell you, I’ve never come so close to dying. There’s no finer fighter in the Imperium. They fight like demons.
Duke Leto Atreides: Desert power.

Duke Leto Atreides: I’m glad you’ve come. I believe your people and mine have much to offer one another.
Stilgar: You are outworlders, you come here for the spice. You take it, giving nothing in return.

Duke Leto Atreides: I know you’ve suffered at the hands of the Harkonnen. Name what you want. If it’s in my power to grant, I’ll give it and ask for nothing.
Stilgar: I ask for this, do not seek our sietches. Do not trespass in our lands. The desert was ours long before you came. So, come and dig your spice. But when you have it, go back to this side of the shield wall, and leave the desert to the Fremen.

Paul Atreides: [referring to the Fremen] You admire them.
Duncan Idaho: I do. They’re fierce, but loyal. They’re tuned into the desert, part of it, it’s part of them. You wait till you see it. It’s beautiful out there.

Duke Leto Atreides: Is that a worm?
Dr. Liet Kynes: Big one. You have good eyes.

Duke Leto Atreides: Dr. Kynes. You saw it with your own eyes. It’s plain to see. Everything they’ve left us is in shambles. We’ve been set up to fail.
Dr. Liet Kynes: That carryall was just old. The desert isn’t kind to equipment.

Dr. Liet Kynes: [to Leto] Take good care of your family. The desert’s not kind to humans either.

Paul Atreides: It wasn’t an allergic reaction. I had a vision. My eyes were wide open.
Lady Jessica Atreides: What did you see?

Paul Atreides: [describing his vision] It’s confusing. I thought I saw my death, only it wasn’t. I know a knife is important, somehow. Someone will hand me a blade. But I don’t know who, or when, or where. Some things though are crystal clear. I can feel it. I know you’re pregnant.
Lady Jessica Atreides: You can’t know that. I barely know that, and it’s only been a few weeks.

Duke Leto Atreides: Jessica, you gave me a son. And from the moment he was born, I never questioned you. I trusted you completely, even when you walked in shadows. Now I’m asking you this one thing. If anything happens, will you protect our son?
Lady Jessica Atreides: With my life.
Duke Leto Atreides: I’m not asking his mother, I’m asking the Bene Gesserit. Will you protect Paul?
Lady Jessica Atreides: Why are you having these thoughts? Leto, this is not you.
Duke Leto Atreides: I thought we’d have more time.

Duke Leto Atreides: [to Jessica] I should have married you.

Dr. Wellington Yueh: [as Leto is mortally wounded] I had no choice. The Harkonners have my wife, Wanna. They take her apart like a doll. I will buy her freedom, and you are the price. For Paul. I will do what I can. And you will kill a man for me.

Dr. Wellington Yueh: [to Leto] I’m going to replace your peg tooth. If you bite them hard, this tooth will crush. Breathe out, and you will fill the air with poison. It will be your last breath. But if you choose your moment well, it will also be the Baron’s.

Dr. Wellington Yueh: I gave you the Duke and his family.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: The bargain to the letter. And what was I to do for you?
Dr. Wellington Yueh: Deliver my wife from her agony.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: Yes. I said I’d set her free, that you could join her. So join her.
[he cuts Yueh’s throat]

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: For hundreds of years we’ve traded blood for blood. But no more. Your son is dead. Your concubine is dead. Tonight the house Atreides falls, and your bloodline ends forever. What did you say?
Duke Leto Atreides: Here I am. Here I remain!
[Leto crushes the peg tooth and releases the poison]

Dr. Liet Kynes: It’s not safe for you here!
Duncan Idaho: Will you tell the Great House of the Landsraad how we were betrayed? How the best of them were murdered?
Dr. Liet Kynes: I am commanded to say nothing, to see nothing.
Duncan Idaho: The Emperor sent us here to die.

Paul Atreides: It’s coming. I see The Holy war spreading across the universe like unquenchable fire. A warrior religion that waves the Atreides banner in my father’s name. Fanatical legions worshipping at the shine of my father’s skull! A war in my name! Everyone shouting my name!

Lady Jessica Atreides: Paul Atreides. You are your father’s son. You are my son. You are the Duke Paul Atreides. You know who you are.

Paul Atreides: [to Jessica] You did this to me! Your Bene Gesserit made me a freak!

Paul Atreides: My father is dead.

Lady Jessica Atreides: So the Emperor’s taken a side. What says the Judge of the Change?
Dr. Liet Kynes: The Emperor forbids me from saying anything at all.
Paul Atreides: And yet you risk your life to help us.

Paul Atreides: Do you know what the great houses fear most, Dr. Kynes? Exactly what has happened to us here. The Sardaukar coming and picking them off one by one. Only together can they stand a chance against the Imperium. Would you bear witness? Testify that the Emperor has moved against us here.
Dr. Liet Kynes: If they believe me, there would be general warfare between the great houses and the Emperor.
Lady Jessica Atreides: Chaos across the Imperium.

Paul Atreides: Let’s suppose I present to the Emperor with an alternative to chaos. And the Emperor has no sons, and his daughters are yet to marry.
Dr. Liet Kynes: You’d make a play for the throne? The Emperor feared the Atreides. He brought you here to kill you. What don’t you understand? You’re a lost boy hiding in a hole in the ground.

Paul Atreides: I know you loved a Fremen warrior and lost him in battle. I know you walk in two worlds and are known by many names. I’ve seen your dream. As Emperor, Dr. Kynes, I could make a paradise for Arrakis with the wave of my hand.

Jamis: [Paul’s vision] The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve. But a reality to experience. A process that cannot be understood by stopping it. We must move with the flow of the process. We must join it. We must float with it.

Beast Rabban Harkonnen: Nothing survives such a storm. They’re dead. It’s a certainty.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: So it’s done finally. Send word to Giedi Prime to begin selling our spice reserves. But slowly. We don’t want the price to fall. You have no idea how much it cost me to bring such a force to barrier. Now I only have one requirement. Income. So, squeeze, Rabban. Squeeze hard.
Beast Rabban Harkonnen: Yes, uncle. And the Fremen?
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: Kill them all.

Chani, Bene Gesserit Ancestors: [Paul’s vision] Paul. Don’t be frightened. Even a little desert mouse can survive. You’ll need to face your fears. A friend will help you. Follow the friend.
Jamis: You have much to learn. And I will show you the ways of the desert.

Stilgar: [referring to Paul] He does not speak, or act like a weakling. Nor did his father.
Jamis: My thumper saved his life. Go back to reason, Stilgar. He’s not The One.

Stilgar: [referring to Paul and Jessica] The boy is young. He can learn our ways. He may have sanctuary. But the woman isn’t trained, and too old to learn.

Stilgar: [as Jessica has her knife at his throat] Why didn’t you say you were a weirding woman and a fighter?
Lady Jessica Atreides: The conversation ran short.
Stilgar: Peace, woman. Peace. I judged hastily.

Chani: [as Paul finally meets Chani] They say you are the Mahdi. But you look like a little boy.

Bene Gesserit Ancestors: Paul Atreides must die for Kwisatz Haderach to rise.

Bene Gesserit Ancestors: Don’t be frightened. Don’t resist. When you take a life, you take your own.

Chani: I don’t believe you are the Lisan al-Gaib. But I want you to die with honor.
[she gives him the crysknife Paul saw in his visions]

Paul Atreides: [as he’s fighting with Jamis] Do you yield?!
Stilgar: The boy does not know our rule. There is no yielding under the Amtal rule, only death is the test of that. Is he toying with him?
Lady Jessica Atreides: No. Paul has never killed a man.

Stilgar: [after Paul kills Jamis] You’re one of us now. A life for a life.

Paul Atreides: The Emperor sent us to this place. And my father came. Not for spice, not for the riches, but for the strength of your people. My road leads into the desert. I can see it. If you’ll have us, we will come.

Paul Atreides: Desert power.
Chani: This is only the beginning.

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