Dune Page #4

FADE TO:

35. BACK TO SCENE

Paul enters the room and Jessica closes the door

behind them.

JESSICA:

Paul, this is the Reverend Mother Gaius

Helen Mohiam. She is going to... observe

you...

(to Reverend Mother)

Please...

--

REVEREND MOTHER:

Jessica, you know it must be done. I

enjoin you to stand guard at the door and

practice the meditation of peace.

JESSICA:

Your Reverence.

PAUL:

(inner voice)

What does she fear?

(out loud)

What about my Father?

JESSICA:

Paul... please, Paul... listen to the

Reverend Mother and do what she tells you.

Jessica leaves the room. The Reverend Mother speaks

to Paul using The Voice, a Bene Gesserit training

which permits an adept to control others merely by

selected tone shadings of the voice. It sounds as if

two people are talking -- one normal and the other

gutteral and slightly electronic. The effect is

strange, yet subtle.

REVEREND MOTHER:

(using The Voice)

Now you come here.

Paul finds he cannot help but obey her, yet he

fights her controlling him.

PAUL:

(inner voice)

She's using The Voice.

(out loud)

No.

She sees him struggling.

REVEREND MOTHER:

(inner voice)

Some strength there. Surprising!

(out loud)

Come here.

The Reverend Mother holds up a green metal cube.

REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D)

See this... Put your right hand in the

box.

Paul stares at the hole in the box.

--

PAUL:

What's in the box?

REVEREND MOTHER:

Pain.

Just then, she raises one hand to his neck. Paul

sees a glint of metal. He tries to back away.

REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D)

(The Voice)

STOP! Put your hand in the box.

Paul's hand goes in. Fear passes over his face.

PAUL:

(inner voice)

The Voice again.

REVEREND MOTHER:

I hold at your neck the gom jabbar. Don't

pull away or you'll feel that poison. A

Duke's son must know about many poisons --

this one kills only animals.

PAUL:

Are you suggesting a Duke's son is an

animal?

REVEREND MOTHER:

Let us say I suggest you may be human.

Your awareness may be powerful enough to

control your instincts. Your instincts

will be to remove your hand from the box.

If you do so you will die. You will feel

an itching -- there... see? Now the

itching becomes burning... heat, upon

heat, upon heat.

PAUL:

(whispering)

It burns.

REVEREND MOTHER:

SILENCE... SILENCE.

PAUL:

(inner voice)(struggling to compose

himself)

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little death that brings total

obliteration. I will face my fear... I

will permit it to pass over me and through

me.

--

The Reverend Mother moves her face up to his. Her

ancient face with its metal teeth gleaming inches

away breathes hotly. She is smiling.

REVEREND MOTHER:

You feel the flesh crisping?

36. THE HAND - PAUL'S MENTAL IMAGE

Paul's inner mind sees his hand on fire with all

sorts of sores. The skin is bubbling.

37. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT

REVEREND MOTHER:

Flesh dropping off.

38. THE HAND - PAUL'S MENTAL IMAGE

He pictures this. The destruction of his hand is

complete -- now only blood spurts out and burns.

39. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT

Paul's face registers extreme pain.

PAUL:

(cannot help the explosion)

THE PAIN!

REVEREND MOTHER:

NO!! ENOUGH!! Kull wahad! No woman child

ever withstood that much. I must have

wanted you to fail. Take your hand out of

the box and look at it, young human.... Do

it!

Paul pulls his hand out of the box. No sign of

anything wrong. He turns his hand, flexes his

fingers. He looks to the Reverend Mother.

REVEREND MOTHER (CONT'D)

(explaining)

Pain by nerve induction... A human can

resist any pain. Our test is crisis and

observation.

PAUL:

I see the truth of it.

--

REVEREND MOTHER:

(inner voice)

Could he be the one?... Maybe... but will

he be ours to control?

(out loud)

You know when people speak the truth?

PAUL:

I know it.

Suddenly the Reverend Mother holds her hand against

Paul's head. She closes her eyes.

40. INT. RESERVOIR - SIETCH TABR - NIGHT - REVEREND

MOTHER'S MENTAL IMAGE

She sees a blurred image of Paul's earlier dream.

She sees the beautiful girl turn. She hears a

muffled voice say "Tell me of your homeworld, Usul".

41. INT. JESSICA'S CHAMBER - CASTLE CALADAN - NIGHT

REVEREND MOTHER:

Your mother wants you to tell me about

your dreams. I only want to know one

thing.... Do they come true?

PAUL:

Not all of them... I know which ones will.

REVEREND MOTHER:

Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach.

PAUL:

What is it?

REVEREND MOTHER:

(profoundly)

The person who can be many places at

once... the one who bridges space and

time.... He will look where we cannot.

PAUL:

Where?

REVEREND MOTHER:

Do you know of the Water of Life?... the

Truthsayer drug?

PAUL:

I have heard of it.

--

REVEREND MOTHER:

It is very dangerous... very painful. The

Bene Gesserit sisterhood drink it to see

within.... There is a place terrifying to

us... to women. It is said a man will

come... the Kwisatz Haderach... he will go

where we cannot... Many men have tried...

PAUL:

Did they try and fail?

REVEREND MOTHER:

They tried and died....

(she calls out loudly)

Jessica!

Jessica enters immediately and sees with great

relief that Paul is still active.

REVEREND MOTHER:

I sense your teachings in him. Ignore the

regular order of training. His safety

requires The Voice.

PAUL:

I've heard enough of my safety... What

about my father?... I heard you talking.

You speak as if he was dead. Well, he

isn't!

JESSICA:

Paul!

She tries to hold him.

PAUL:

Well he isn't... and he won't die... Tell

me he won't die!

REVEREND MOTHER:

What can be done has been done.

PAUL:

MOTHER! Tell me!

The Reverend Mother covers herself and moves quickly

to the door.

--

42A. Through 45. (Deleted)

46. EXT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY

HOME PLANET OF HOUSE HARKONNEN - As seen from space,

the black planet as we saw it in Paul's filmbook.

47. EXT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY

The surface of the planet is a vast sea of black

oil. A small cable car traverses high above the sea

toward a gigantic black city in the shape of a

rectangular box over 100 stories high. Before the

city there are rows of huge black towering steel

heads atop massive furnaces. SMOKE billows out of

their mouths.

48. INT. CABLE CAR - GIEDI PRIME - DAY

Inside the cable car stands PITER. In one hand he

holds the cylinder with DUKE Leto's ring imprint.

PITER:

It is by will alone I set my mind in

motion.

It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts

acquire speed -

The lips acquire stains -

The stains become a warning -

It is by will alone I set my mind in

motion.

48A. INT. GREEN PORCELAIN ROOM - GEIDI PRIME

Somewhere in the interior of Geidi Prime, we are in

a green porcelain room. Two large Harkonnen

soldiers, using large hoses, are washing down the

walls and floors of the room. WE MOVE DOWN into the

water rushing along the floor towards troughs.

Closer, WE SEE bits of flesh, hair, and blood.

49. EXT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY

The car zooms past gigantic faces, and the furnaces

far below ROAR with tremendous power. The city now

looms gigantic and overpowering -- millions of

electrical cables stretch off the top into dark

energy taps above the city.

--

50. INT. GEIDI PRIME - DAY

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