***THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS***

So don’t read past this line if you don’t want to know what happens in Dune: Part Two, which debuted on Friday. If you have seen the movie, however, proceed past the advertisement.

Right, so in terms of the sandworm thing, there’s a scene where Paul Atreides summons one of these bad boys and then rides on top of it like he’s vintage Kelly Slater. It’s part of a “you need to prove yourself to become one of us” type of thing, a trial given to him by Javier Bardem, who was excellent, as always. At this point in the movie, I’m thinking, “ah that’s cool, a symbolic challenge to become one of the desert people.”

I thought that was the end of it, but no. Later in the movie not only does the sandworm riding return, but they load an entire group of people on top of one of these things, Paul’s pregnant mother included. She’s in the Arrakis version of a carriage and protected from the elements while this worm barrels across the planet surface and takes them to another hemisphere entirely. Next thing you know, they’re walking towards some sort of desert cliff face with a bunch of uber-religious folks waiting for them.

Question – how the hell did they get on the worm and how did they get off of it? The Paul scene is treacherous and he’s holding on for dear life while trying to mount the thing. Ultimately he prevails, but it looks like a real bitch to get it started. That’s why it’s funny to see an entire group of people riding another worm a few scenes later, like they’re on the SEPTA regional rail. For them, you’d think the sandworm just rolled up and allowed them to jump on, like a camel.

Second question – how do they know where the sandworm is going and how does the sandworm know where it’s going? Is there a network of sandworm mass transit spread across Arrakis? The London Tube, but arid. How do they know the sandworm isn’t going to just stop at some random location along the way? And then when they get off the sandworm, does it just turn around and go back the other way? Does it keep going? Why doesn’t it try to eat them?

Furthermore, how did they summon three at once to ride into the final battle?

These are important questions. We demand answers! I deduct 0.1 review points because of the sandworm silliness, therefore resulting in a 9.2 out of 10. It’s a really solid movie.

btw, not sure how many people realize this, but there’s a hardcore band that named themselves after the Dune sandworm: