DUNE Page #3

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The guard, with his sword drawn, comes to kill him. Halleck disarms him, attacks the other guards, putting them out of action, and frees Leto, Idaho and the rest of the prisoners.

Leto, Halleck and Idaho dress up as soldiers.

EXTERIOR:
THE STOREHOUSES - NIGHT

Leto, Idaho and Halleck are walking, dressed as Harkonnen soldiers, in the middle of the storehouses. There are large spheres with thick steel doors. In front of each, there is a single guard, a Sardaukar.

Without being seen, they attack a guard. They open the door and enter.

INTERIOR:
STOREHOUSE

The storehouse is full of thousands and thousands of cases filled with spice. Leto opens a case and pours out the contents on to the ground. It’s a blue, vibrating substance: Spice!

LETO:

The Harkonnen are accomplices. It’s the Emperor who’s guilty!

EXTERIOR:
IMPERIAL PALACE - KAITAIN

TITLE:
IMPERIAL PALACE. KAITAIN

Preceded by a battalion of Sardaukar, Leto, Halleck, Idaho and Hawatt enter the Imperial Palace with its extravagant architecture. On the walls, fruit, birds, women and animals are all featured, sculptured in gold.

INTERIOR:
RECEPTION HALL

A reception hall with pillars everywhere sculptured to resemble praying mantis insects. Under the crossed legs, Count FENRING and his Lady are standing surrounded by monkeys dressed as page-boys and female midgets just like in Velazquez’ paintings.

Leto and his companions enter. The Count receives them coldly: He gives a small bow and leads Leto up to a large sculpture of a four-legged clown. Duke Leto climbs a stairway leading to the open mouth of the clown, which he enters.

His companions stay behind to wait for him.

INTERIOR:
THRONE ROOM

Leto drops down a ramp into a luxurious room built upside down.

The floor seems to be ceiling and the ceiling seems to be the floor. Furniture and various objects are screwed to the ceiling. On the floor, a lamp appears to be falling upwards.

A group of courtesans is dressed in costumes the cloth of which seems to be hanging upwards. Their skirts are raised, and their plastered wigs look as if they are turning up towards the ceiling-floor.

The Emperor is sitting on a swing which sways on the floor/ceiling. His starched clothes are also raised and seem to be hanging. His wig is plastered down.

THE EMPEROR:

(to Leto)

Another madman who sees the world upside down!

A giraffe passes over the ceiling imitation floor, his head hanging towards the Duke.

THE EMPEROR:

That’s my favorite spider. If you say it’s a giraffe, who are they going to believe?

THE COURTESANS:

It’s a spider.

THE EMPEROR:

If you say I’m a spice smuggler and I say you’re a liar just out for power, who are they going to believe?

THE COURTESANS:

He’s a liar.

THE EMPEROR:

When I gave you the ducal ring, you swore fidelity to me.

LETO:

I never swore to be an accomplice of a theft.

THE EMPEROR:

In a world of thieves an honest man is just conceited.

The room begins to turn round. The Emperor and his courtesans stay in place like wax figures, but Leto has to walk on the floor, the roof, and the walls to stop himself falling.

THE EMPEROR:

What is Good? What is Evil? Where is Beauty and where is Ugliness? Which is the floor and which is the ceiling?

The room is going round at a dizzy rate. Leto is thrown from one wall to the other.

INTERIOR:
RECEPTION HALL

The large sculpture of the clown turns round and the lowered trousers reveal a wide hole between the buttocks. Ejected through the sculptures anus, the Duke drops down onto the floor.

Hawatt, Idaho, and Halleck hurry over to help him get back on his feet. They are furious, but Leto remains dignified and calms them down with a gesture.

FENRING:

Tomorrow, His Majesty the Emperor will give the Atreides satisfaction in front of the whole Senate.

The clown turns round again, and, while the Atreides are leaving, his jaws move letting out a mechanical laugh.

INTERIOR:
ASSEMBLY ROOM AT THE SENATE

Before the Senate, the Emperor, surrounded by Sardaukar and sitting in the transparent plastic stomach of a pregnant woman, is reading an official statement

THE EMPEROR:

To give cause for satisfaction to the minor Houses who mistrust one of the major Houses, we have decided to take the Dune concession away from the Major House of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and grant it to the minor Houses of Duke Leto Atreides, who shall leave his native planet, Caladan, and repair, together with his armies, to Dune in order to prevent smuggling, and look after the Imperium’s interests.

The whole Senate breaks out in applause. Leto and his friends alone do not participate in this otherwise unanimous enthusiasm.

EXTERIOR:
LANDSCAPE OF CALADAN

Title:
THE PLANET CALADAN, HOME PLANET OF THE ATREIDES.

A small ship belonging to the Guild flies over fields of flowers where livestock (six-horned bulls) are grazing. Plastic farms and Spanish-type mills can be seen. The ship lands in a field of luxuriant flowers near a pretty little brook. In the distance, the Atreides castle is in sight. The whole building, its architectural style futurist but restrained, is covered with branches, leaves and flowers.

The old Reverend Mother Bene Guesserit gets out of the ship.

From the doors of the castle, and from the area around it, flow a wave of people, mostly soldiers, some followed by women with children in their arms. Loaded carts, donkeys, horses, packages and baskets. An army of Guild officials, coming and going like ants, is organizing the activity. Everything is being done very methodically, and sadly as well. Some people, before boarding, kiss the earth and weep. At a suitable distance from the castle, a space-ship is standing, the biggest the human mind can possibly imagine, capable of holding 500,000 or a million people, with their possessions. This is the Guild’s ship, intended for the transport of all the Atreides in one trip. The Guild officials pass through the crowd, leading the old Reverend Mother to a little mechanical car.

INTERIOR:
HALL OF CALADAN CASTLE

In an enormous hall, Guild employees and Atreides soldiers are busy packing various books, objects, and furniture.

On Jessica’s orders, a group of Guild employees pass with a six-horned bull’s head: two of the horns are blood-stained. They are also carrying a portrait of Duke Leto’s father, dressed as a bullfighter, and the family coat of arms: a red falcon.

The Reverend Mother silently approaches Jessica. Jessica sees her coming and remembers...

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