Every Dune: Part Two Sandworm Question You Could Possibly Have, Answered by a Big Dune Guy

Gabriella Paiella
·9 min read

Photograph: Warner Brothers; Collage: Gabe Conte

During the two hours and 46 minutes I spent experiencing Dune: Part Two, I found myself reflecting on questions both practical and philosophical: How does Paul Atreides maintain his perfect beachy waves in a dry desert climate? Would the Emperor of the Known Universe 20,000 years into the future really be talking like Christopher Walken? Does the presence of Léa Seydoux imply that Space France exists? Also: Where do sandworms come from? Why are the Fremen riding the sandworms across the planet like they’re the Amtrak of Arrakis? Would a sandworm-based transportation system help solve America’s national railway crisis? What does the blue liquid extracted from sandworms that either kills people or allows them to see all of their ancestral memories taste like?

Eventually, I—someone whose only encounters with Frank Herbert’s Dune universe come from watching Denis Villeneuve’s adaptations—had to concede that I was in way over my head with this sandworm business. So I called up my old GQ colleague and Dune superfan since his teen years, Colin Groundwater, to learn more. He’s the biggest Dune-head I know (catch his highly informative 2021 piece on why there are no computers in Dune), and he graciously agreed to talk all things worm with me.

GQ: Colin, let me tell you about the point in Dune: Part Two when I realized I had no idea what was going on with the sandworms. In the first one, the sandworms are terrifying creatures to be avoided at all costs. This time around, the Fremen are riding them all over the planet as their primary form of transportation.

Colin Groundwater: Yes, correct. The Fremen will often measure distances in terms of sandworms.

In terms of how long it will take the sandworm to get there?

Actually in length of sandworms.

So how big are we talking?

Male sandworms tend to be larger. I want to say it's something like ten times the size of a blue whale. Half a kilometer.

Here’s something else that blew my mind—the spice comes from the worms?

This is huge. In other ways, the sandworms are like whales, in that they're this animal that is producing a material that is vital to the global economy. And that material is both oil and acid. [Ed. note: the hallucinogen.] The Spacing Guild needs spice to be able to navigate—it's a psychoactive drug that allows them to do the really advanced calculation and sensory navigation required. It’s a complicated space travel thing, kind of like bending space, but not quite. They technically don't make the spice. They exude something that is like a fungusoid substance that is called a pre-spice mass. When that comes in contact with water, it explodes and that results in spice. The sort of common assumption is that spice is worm poop.

But it’s not worm poop.

It's technically not. But if you just want to see a couple movies and have a good time, it's probably adequate to think of it as worm poop.

Does spice extraction hurt the sandworms at all?

No, no. So, important note: sandworms don't care about spice. It's a byproduct of their natural lives. They're fiercely territorial. Frank Herbert based sandworms off of dragons to a certain extent—the idea that you have a dragon who's protecting his mountain full of gold, but indifferent to it. You are going into their territory, which is upsetting to them. But you don't have to kill a worm to make spice.

You made a whale comparison, and whales are very social creatures. Dragons, on the other hand, are fictional and also solitary. Where do sandworms fall on this spectrum?

Not social. They’re not hanging around. They've been known to fight. And when two sandworms do fight, it rarely results in death. When two sandworms beef, one is pushing one to the point of maximum annoyance and it runs away.

The Fremen call them “Shai-Hulud.” What do they think of the worms?

They're fully the God of the universe. Shai-Hulud roughly translates to “the eternal thing.” “Grandfather of the desert” is one other translation.

So the big sandworm moment in this movie is when Paul Atreides rides the sandworm. What’s the significance of this?

So this is his moment when he's demonstrating to the sietch [the Fremen community] that he's officially becoming a Fremen by participating in a rich and important part of Fremen culture. You have to ride the sandworms, it's what Fremen do. He’s proving that he's one of them because he's showing that he can do what they do.

There’s some skepticism as to like, "But wait, who is this guy?" And so he really has to prove himself. He's like, "All right, if I'm actually going to take over this army, I have to make a grand gesture and do this traditional Fremen thing."

Is there a one-to-one Fremen-sandworm relationship? Like, “this is my horse?”

No, no, no, no.

You’re just hitching a random ride every time?

Yeah, you hitch a ride.

So how fun is it to ride a sandworm? Are they out there doing it recreationally?

No, it’s terrifying. It's something of profound respect. You gotta respect the worm.

I don’t know. It seems like Javier Bardem is having a lot of fun riding the worm in this installment.

I mean, maybe he is. I guess it’s like any action sport. I am not one for double black diamonds. It would scare the heck out of me. But I suppose there's no reason it couldn't be fun, but it is a serious thing.

What does it feel like to get eaten by a sandworm? Are you getting crunched up or just sucked into the big mouth hole?

We don't know too much about sandworm anatomy, just because they're so large and difficult to study. My initial assumption is that you'd probably be incinerated first.

I don't think it's going to be too sharp. If you think about when the sandworm eats the harvester in the first movie, it's not like it's crunching down on you. The mouth is so big. I'd imagine that you're actually probably going to be crushed just because there's so much going in there and being compressed. But you'd have to consult one of the imperial ecologists.

Just thinking of the Dune popcorn bucket depiction, what are the teeth like? Sharp, or wavy like a sea anemone?

Sharp. I mean, that's what the knives are. A crysknife is a tooth of Shai-Hulud. So you get a good impression right there.

How do they actually mate?

I don't know. I'm not going to hazard a guess.

I ask because we see a young sandworm in Dune: Part Two, which they then extract a freaky blue liquid from.

Water of Life.

Yeah. So what happens when you drink it?

So, spice is a psychoactive. The Water of Life is an intensely concentrated version of spice. What you're drinking is a really, really intense hallucinogen. Traditionally, the Bene Gesserit drink this to be in touch with their ancestral memories, so they can basically access all of the intelligence and memories of all of their entire matrilineal line. The Kwisatz Haderach, which as we learn is Paul, is able to access both his matrilineal and patrilineal ancestral memories. That's what the Water of Life does.

Does it taste like Blue Gatorade?

I mean, I would assume it tastes like spice.

So the Fremen consume spice, the people who have to travel intergalactically are using the spice to do so. Are civilians on other planets just recreationally using spice?

Yeah. Imagine if you seasoned your food with gasoline. It's also just like a casual thing that people use every day. It does have flavor, it's kind of cinnamon-y. Everyone in the universe is coming in contact with spice in some way, shape, or form. Which is why when Paul threatens to destroy spice at the end of the book, it matters so much because everyone in the galactic economy is dependent on it.

What did the sandworms get, if anything, from their relationship with the Fremen?

I would say little to nothing, other than, I suppose, good tenants. Shai-Hulud is the apex predator. He is unconcerned with these trivial things happening around him. He's housing spice harvesters for breakfast. Sandworms are not horses. The Fremen are not out here domesticating sandworms. It's much more like they're catching a ride on this massive natural force that's running through the planet. Yeah, sometimes maybe they can catch a sandtrout and milk some Water of Life out of it, but they're fully doing their own thing. The Fremen have little to offer the sandworms. The sandworms are fully on their own. The sandworms are just doing them.

Finally, I understand that Paul Atredeis is going to have a son who will eventually turn into a man-sandworm hybrid. Please explain.

First off, Syfy ran a limited series around the turn of the century in which James McAvoy stars as Leto II. It’s an early McAvoy role and he begins the transformation into a sandworm. So that's something fun you can look up on YouTube. He does this because, like his father, he is able to access both sets of his genetic memories and basically do all the fancy Bene Gesserit stuff. So what he does is he basically takes these sandtrout [a young sandworm] and covers himself with them, which then attach to his body. Then he forcibly mutates himself to become a sandworm, basically giving himself 24/7 access to the Water of Life and total awareness. He's enlightened and able to be cognizant of everything that's happening in the universe and all of his ancestral memories at once in pursuit of what is known as the Golden Path. And the Golden Path is basically the path to humanity's salvation.

The worm transformation also causes him to live for a very long time, right?

For thousands of years, as a tyrant.

Frank Herbert was smoking that shit. Any final Worm Thoughts?

The important thing to get across is that spice is the foundation of the galactic political and economic system. Sandworms make spice. Paul controls the desert. Paul controls the sandworms. He who can destroy the thing, controls the thing. That's all you have to know. Don't ask too many questions and have a good time.

Originally Appeared on GQ

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