Novel → Film · Direct adaptation

Dune (2021)

Part One keeps 19 of the novel's 27 mapped units and stops at the Jamis duel, a chapter break roughly halfway through Book Two. It omits the Arrakeen banquet, Thufir Hawat's captivity arc, and Feyd-Rautha, recasts Liet-Kynes as a woman, and leaves the rest of the novel to Part Two.

Source

Dune · Novel · 1965 · 3 books (Dune, Muad'Dib, The Prophet)

Frank Herbert (author)

Chilton Books

Adaptation

Dune · Film · 2021 · 1 film, titled on screen as Dune: Part One

Denis Villeneuve (director / co-screenwriter), Jon Spaihts (screenwriter), Eric Roth (screenwriter)

Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures

TrueToPage 67 · Dune (2021 Theatrical) · v0.3censuscatalog score

Part of Dune (Villeneuve films).

This edge covers Dune: Part One (2021) only. Source material from roughly the second half of the novel is marked omitted here and is covered by dune-novel-to-2024-part-two.

The novel's chapters are separated by Princess Irulan's epigraphs and are not numbered in the novel itself. The chapter-cluster references in this record follow the continuous numbering used by widely available study guides, GradeSaver and Shmoop, not a scheme printed in any edition.

Frank Herbert died in 1986 and never commented on this adaptation. No creator stance row is attributed to him.

Fidelity

Higher = more of the source is still true. Fidelity is not quality.

Plot structure64Across 27 mapping rows, weighted 1 to 3 by rough source length, kept, condensed, and reordered beats earn 32.4 of a possible 51 points, or 64 percent. The rows that survive run in the novel's order with one exception: the Gom Jabbar test opens the novel and arrives later in the film. Eight rows carry no credit: the Arrakeen banquet, Thufir Hawat's suspicion of Jessica, Feyd-Rautha's introduction, the Fremen mourning rites for Jamis, the rest of Book Two, and the three Book Three units. Six of those eight are covered in Dune: Part Two; the banquet and Hawat's suspicion are dropped outright.strong evidenceN = 27 beats, source weight 51

Character71Prominence-weighted across twelve tracked people, the axis lands at 71. The three leads score Leto 88, Jessica 75, and Paul 67; Duncan Idaho and Stilgar keep every tracked trait and score 100. The lowest rows are Thufir Hawat at 40, with his suspicion of Jessica and his Harkonnen captivity both unshown, Liet-Kynes at 50, with the character's gender, Chani's parentage, and the manner of death all changed, and Feyd-Rautha at 0, since Part One never introduces him. Baron Harkonnen scores 57 on three dropped facts: his predation, the disease the novel gives as the cause of his obesity, and his paternity of Jessica. His on-screen cruelty and plot function are preserved.strong evidenceN = 12 people, weight 26

Dialogue & voice38Of 8 inventoried voice markers, 3 are preserved: Fremen and Imperium terminology such as sietch, stillsuit, and Lisan al-Gaib, the Bene Gesserit Voice as a distinct technique, and Reverend Mother Mohiam's ritualized Litany Against Fear. Three are omitted: Princess Irulan's chapter epigraphs, the novel's sustained interior monologue, and Gurney Halleck's sung baliset ballads. Two are altered: the Baron's long philosophical speeches become terse, and the novel's word 'jihad' becomes 'holy war' on screen. The three preserved markers are vocabulary and technique; both of the novel's narration devices are among the omissions.partial evidenceN = 8 voice markers

Theme & tone71Of 7 counted theme claims, 5 are preserved: spice as the resource every faction will kill for, the feudal treachery of the Great Houses, Arrakis and the Fremen as a colonized world worked by off-worlders, Paul's fear that he cannot control his own destiny, and the Litany Against Fear as discipline over instinct. Two are altered: Paul's dread of the coming jihad keeps the plot thread but loses the novel's term and much of its interior account, and the Bene Gesserit breeding program is referenced without the weight the novel gives it. No theme claim is omitted outright.partial evidenceN = 7 thematic claims

Coverage70Of the 27 chapter-cluster mapping rows spanning all three of the novel's books, 19 appear on screen in some form and 8 do not, which is 70 percent. The absent units are the Arrakeen banquet, Thufir Hawat's suspicion of Jessica, Feyd-Rautha's introduction, the Fremen mourning rites for Jamis, the rest of Book Two including the Water of Life and Jessica's transformation into a Reverend Mother, and all three Book Three units: Paul's raids after the two-year jump, the Emperor's arrival, and the duel with Feyd-Rautha and the throne. Six of the eight are covered in Dune: Part Two.strong evidenceN = 19 of 27 source units present

Additions restraint90Of 21 counted beats, 19 non-omitted mapping rows and 2 invented beats, only the two inventions have no source counterpart: Chani's opening voice-over about Arrakis and Harkonnen rule, which stands where the novel uses Irulan's epigraphs, and a bedroom scene in which Leto tells Jessica he should have married her. That is 19 of 21, or 90 percent. Expansions of attested material, including Paul's visions shown more often and Kynes's death restaged as a set piece, are alterations of kept rows and are counted in the other axes.strong evidenceN = 19 source beats, 2 invented

Ending

Side by side, in our words.

On the page · Dune

This record does not cover the novel's ending. The adapted material stops at Paul's duel with Jamis and his naming as Muad'Dib, a chapter break roughly halfway through Book Two. The novel runs on through the rest of Book Two and all of Book Three, ending with Jessica's transformation into a Reverend Mother, the Fremen jihad, Paul's duel with Feyd-Rautha, and his taking of the Imperial throne. Dune: Part Two (2024) covers that material and is recorded separately.

On the screen · Dune

The film ends just after Paul kills Jamis and is accepted into Sietch Tabr as Paul-Muad'Dib. Its closing line, given to Chani, is written for the film and states that this is only the beginning.

The stopping point is a chapter break in the novel, not a resolution. The duel and the naming are kept close to the text. The closing line has no counterpart in the novel, which runs continuously past this point.

Mapping

27 rows. Every source unit, including the ones that never appear.

Source unit	What happens there	On screen	Notes	Tag	Evidence
Book One: Reverend Mother Mohiam's Gom Jabbar test of Paul	On Caladan, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother tests Paul's self-control by forcing him to hold his hand in a pain-inducing box under threat of death.	Film, roughly the first half hour	reordered; the novel opens with this scene, the film builds to it after establishing Arrakis and the Harkonnens first	primary	strong
Book One: Leto's council accepts the Arrakis fief	Duke Leto weighs Hawat's warnings that the Emperor's gift of Arrakis is a probable trap, and decides House Atreides must accept it regardless.	Film, opening act	condensed into fewer scenes with less interior explanation of the trap		strong
Book One: Duncan Idaho's advance mission to the Fremen	Duncan is sent ahead of the household to live among the Fremen and assess them as potential allies.	Film, mentioned/shown briefly	condensed to a brief reference rather than a developed subplot		partial
Book One: the Atreides arrive at Arrakeen	House Atreides takes possession of the former Harkonnen palace at Arrakeen and begins to settle in.	Film, opening act	kept	primary	strong
Book One: the hunter-seeker attack and Shadout Mapes	An assassination device nearly kills Paul; the housekeeper Shadout Mapes, a Fremen, reveals a hidden crysknife and her belief in Paul's prophesied role.	Film, early Arrakeen sequence	kept		strong
Book One: the Arrakeen banquet	Leto hosts a tense formal dinner with off-world bankers, water-sellers, and smugglers that lays out the planet's political and economic pressures.	omitted	omitted entirely; both this film and the 1984 version cut it, though Frank Herbert reportedly wished it had been kept	primary	strong
Book One: Thufir Hawat suspects Lady Jessica	Hawat, distrustful of Jessica's Bene Gesserit loyalties, confronts both her and Leto with his suspicion that she is the household's traitor.	omitted	omitted; the film barely gestures at Hawat's paranoia and drops this confrontation entirely		strong
Book One: Feyd-Rautha introduced at Harkonnen court	The Baron's nephew and chosen heir appears early in the novel alongside the Baron and Piter de Vries, already maneuvering against his cousin Rabban.	omitted	omitted from Part One; his introduction is reserved for Dune: Part Two	primary	strong
Book One: the spice-harvester rescue and Paul's first sandworm sighting	Paul accompanies Leto and Hawat on a thopter rescue of a spice crew threatened by an approaching sandworm.	Film, mid first act	condensed and reblocked as a set piece		strong
Book One: Liet-Kynes escorts the Atreides	The Imperial Planetologist, outwardly neutral but secretly sympathetic to the Fremen, guides the Atreides across Arrakis and shares his ecological ambitions for the planet.	Film, first act	kept, altered; the character is recast as a woman (see change log)	primary	strong
Book One: the Baron's conspiracy with the Emperor	Baron Harkonnen, backed by the Padishah Emperor's Sardaukar troops, plots the destruction of House Atreides to reclaim Arrakis.	Film, first act, Harkonnen scenes	condensed		strong
Book One: Yueh's betrayal	Dr. Yueh, coerced by the Harkonnens' hold on his captive wife Wanna, disables the palace's defensive shield to let the attack through.	Film, second act	kept	primary	strong
Book One: Leto's capture and the poison-tooth attempt	Leto is captured by the Harkonnens and, at Yueh's instigation, attempts to kill the Baron with a poison gas tooth before he dies.	Film, second act	kept	primary	strong
Book One: Duncan Idaho's last stand	Duncan holds off Sardaukar troops single-handedly to buy time for Paul, Jessica, and Kynes to escape, killing many before he is killed.	Film, second act	kept	primary	strong
Book One: escape into the desert storm and Kynes's death	Paul and Jessica flee by ornithopter into a coriolis storm; Kynes, having helped them, is later stripped of survival gear by the Harkonnens and left to die slowly of exposure in the desert.	Film, second act	kept, altered; Kynes's death is restaged as a Sardaukar stabbing and sandworm set piece rather than a quiet death by exposure	primary	strong
Book Two: Paul and Jessica cross the open desert	The pair travel on foot across the deep desert, evading a sandworm drawn by the rhythm of their steps.	Film, third act	kept		strong
Book Two: the Fremen encounter and Jamis's challenge	Stilgar's Fremen band finds Paul and Jessica in the desert; Jamis, humiliated after Paul and Jessica overpower him, challenges them.	Film, third act	kept	primary	strong
Book Two: the Fremen weigh killing the off-worlders	The band debates killing the pair outright versus testing their worth, while Jessica's Voice and combat training influence the outcome.	Film, third act	kept, condensed		strong
Book Two: Paul's visions of Chani and a 'terrible purpose'	Paul's prescient dreams of Chani intensify, alongside a dawning, dreaded awareness of a holy war his rise may unleash across the universe.	Film, throughout	condensed, altered; shown more often and more vividly on screen, with the novel's explicit jihad terminology and interior dread thinned	primary	partial
Book Two: the journey to Sietch Tabr and meeting Chani	The Fremen band travels to their home sietch; Paul meets Chani in person for the first time.	Film, third act	condensed		strong
Book Two: the amtal rule and the Jamis duel	Jamis invokes Fremen law to challenge Paul to a duel to the death; Paul, hesitant to kill, ultimately kills him with a crysknife.	Film, climax	kept nearly beat for beat	primary	strong
Book Two: Stilgar names Paul Usul and Muad'Dib	After the duel, Stilgar gives Paul the sietch name Usul and Paul chooses the open name Muad'Dib, becoming Paul-Muad'Dib and gaining acceptance among the Fremen.	Film, closing scene	kept	primary	strong
Book Two: mourning rites for Jamis	The Fremen hold water-of-the-dead rites for Jamis, and Paul is more fully inducted into Sietch Tabr's daily life.	omitted	omitted from Part One; reserved for Dune: Part Two		partial
Book Two: the remaining chapters, Chani's romance and the Water of Life	Over roughly two years, Paul and Chani's relationship deepens and Jessica, secretly pregnant with Alia, drinks the Water of Life to become the sietch's Reverend Mother.	omitted	omitted from Part One; covered in Dune: Part Two	primary	strong
Book Three: Paul's raids as Muad'Dib and Alia's uncanny childhood	Two years on, Paul leads Fremen raids against Harkonnen spice operations while his sister Alia, born with full genetic memory, is regarded with unease.	omitted	omitted; covered in Dune: Part Two		strong
Book Three: the Emperor and Sardaukar arrive; Feyd-Rautha's rise	The Padishah Emperor and his Sardaukar come to Arrakis to put down the Fremen uprising, while Feyd-Rautha is positioned as the Baron's heir.	omitted	omitted; covered in Dune: Part Two		strong
Book Three: Paul's duel with Feyd-Rautha and the throne	Paul defeats the Baron and the Emperor, kills Feyd-Rautha in single combat, takes the Imperial throne, and accepts a political marriage to Princess Irulan while keeping Chani as his true love.	omitted	omitted; covered in Dune: Part Two	primary	strong

Change log

The argument. The mapping above is the evidence.

Omitted
The Arrakeen banquet, a long formal dinner that lays out the planet's political and economic pressures, is cut.
Novel, Book One → omitted
Removes the novel's one extended scene of open political maneuvering among the off-world factions. Frank Herbert is reported to have regretted the same scene's absence from the 1984 film.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
Thufir Hawat's survival of the Harkonnen attack, his capture, and his forced service and eventual poisoning under Harkonnen control are neither shown nor mentioned.
Novel, Book One and Book Three → omitted
Removes an attested subplot and leaves Hawat's fate after the attack unstated on screen.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
Count Fenring, the Emperor's confidant and assassin, and his Bene Gesserit wife Lady Margot Fenring do not appear in Part One.
Novel, Book One → omitted
Removes the Emperor's personal agent on Arrakis and the Imperial-court thread he carries. Margot Fenring is introduced in Dune: Part Two.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
Feyd-Rautha, introduced early in the novel at the Harkonnen court, does not appear anywhere in Part One.
Novel, Book One → omitted; introduced in Dune: Part Two
Leaves the Baron as the only Harkonnen principal in Part One and moves the succession thread to Dune: Part Two.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
Princess Irulan and the chapter-opening epigraphs from her in-universe histories, the novel's framing device, are absent from Part One.
Novel, epigraphs throughout → omitted
Removes the device through which the novel foreshadows events and presents Paul's rise as history already written.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Identity / design change
Liet-Kynes is changed from a man to a woman, which also changes Chani's parentage from father to mother.
Novel, Book One → Film, throughout
A source-stated identity trait is altered, and Chani's parent changes with it. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts said in September 2021 that the change was meant to update a story he described as skewing male, by modernizing the character who carries its ecological message.
Attribution: Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve, per a 2021 Los Angeles Times interview
Invented
The film opens with an original voice-over from Chani about Arrakis and Harkonnen rule, a framing device the novel does not use.
no source equivalent → Film, opening sequence
Replaces the novel's Irulan-epigraph framing with an invented device, and puts a Fremen point of view in the film's first minutes.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Invented
In a bedroom scene shortly before his capture, Leto tells Jessica he should have married her. The novel does not depict this exchange.
no source equivalent → Film, second act
States a feeling between Leto and Jessica that the source text does not attest.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Tonal shift
Paul's dread of a coming jihad is kept as a plot thread but thinned, and the novel's term 'jihad' is replaced on screen with 'holy war'.
Novel, throughout → Film, throughout
Changes the vocabulary the source uses for the coming war, and reduces the interior account the novel gives Paul's premonitions.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Tonal shift
Paul's prescient visions, occasional and interior in the novel, recur on screen as a visual device.
Novel, throughout → Film, throughout
Moves an interior device into images. The attested fact that Paul has the visions is preserved; their frequency and presentation change.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Kept, unflinching
Duncan Idaho's one-man stand against the Sardaukar, which buys time for the others to escape and ends in his death, is kept in full.
Novel, Book One → Film, second act
Keeps the death of a major Atreides figure on screen, with its timing and its cause unchanged from the novel.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Kept, unflinching
Yueh's betrayal, its coercive cause in his wife Wanna's captivity, and his killing by the Baron immediately afterward are all kept.
Novel, Book One → Film, second act
Keeps both halves of the attested fact: the betrayal from inside the household, and the coercion that produces it.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
The Baron's sexual predation toward drugged young male slaves, stated in the novel, is not depicted.
Novel, Book One and throughout → omitted
Removes one of the traits the novel states for the character. His cruelty, cunning, and plot function are kept.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
The reveal that Baron Harkonnen is, unknown to both, the biological father of Lady Jessica is never raised.
Novel, Book One → omitted
Removes a Bene Gesserit breeding-program secret that, in the novel, makes the Atreides and Harkonnen feud a family matter.
Attribution: unknown / production decision

People

Trait score = attested traits kept ÷ attested traits shown. Unstated traits are not rows.

Paul Atreides · Timothée ChalametleadAltered6/9 attested traits kept67

Paul's training, temperament, and acceptance by the Fremen carry over. The Mentat-training subplot is dropped, his prophetic dread is thinned, and the film has him confide his dreams to Duncan Idaho rather than to Jessica.

Identity	Heir of House Atreides, trained since childhood by his father and household mentors.	preserved
Body / ability	Receives extensive Bene Gesserit-derived combat and observational training from his mother.	preserved
Vocation / role	Secretly begins training as a Mentat under Thufir Hawat.the film drops the Mentat-training subplot along with most of the Mentat order	omitted
Personality	Cautious and questioning, uneasy about the destiny others keep hinting is his.	preserved
Arc	Experiences escalating prescient visions of Chani, the desert, and a dreaded 'terrible purpose', a holy war he fears he cannot stop.the visions are kept and shown more frequently on screen, but the explicit jihad terminology and interior dread are thinned	altered
Relationships	Confides his prophetic dreams to his mother, Jessica.the film has him confide in Duncan Idaho instead at the equivalent point	altered
Plot function	Kills Jamis in a Fremen duel after being challenged under the amtal rule, hesitating to kill him first.	preserved
Plot function	Is accepted by the Fremen of Sietch Tabr and given the names Usul and Paul-Muad'Dib.	preserved
Relationships	Witnesses his father's capture and Duncan Idaho's death covering his own escape.	preserved

Lady Jessica · Rebecca FergusonleadAltered6/8 attested traits kept75

Jessica's training, her defiance of her Order, and her role as Paul's teacher carry over. Her own parentage is never raised in Part One, the pregnancy with Alia is not depicted, and the film gives her more open grief than the novel does.

Vocation / role	A Bene Gesserit-trained concubine of Duke Leto, not his legal wife.	preserved
Body / ability	Trained in the Bene Gesserit Voice and prana-bindu combat and observation techniques, which she passes to Paul.	preserved
Moral code	Defied the Bene Gesserit's order to bear Leto only a daughter, giving him a son out of love instead.referenced directly in Leto's dialogue to Jessica in the film	preserved
Relationships	Is, unknown to her, the biological daughter of Baron Harkonnen, part of a Bene Gesserit breeding-program secret.	omitted
Personality	Maintains an outwardly disciplined, controlled Bene Gesserit reserve even under grief.the film gives her more visibly emotional, open grief than her more restrained book counterpart	altered
Plot function	Escapes the fall of Arrakeen with Paul by ornithopter after Yueh's betrayal.	preserved
Plot function	Is secretly pregnant with a daughter, Alia, at the time of the desert escape.	not depicted
Relationships	Serves as Paul's teacher and protector, imparting survival and combat knowledge in the desert.	preserved
Voice	Uses the Bene Gesserit Voice to command and manipulate people's actions at multiple points.	preserved

Duke Leto Atreides · Oscar IsaacleadAltered7/8 attested traits kept88

Leto's politics, the arrangement with Jessica, and his death all carry over. The novel's extended interior reasoning about the Arrakis trap is compressed into short dialogue.

Vocation / role	Duke of House Atreides, accepts the Arrakis fief despite recognizing it as a probable trap.	preserved
Personality	Idealistic and honorable, seeking a genuine Fremen alliance rather than pure exploitation of the spice.	preserved
Relationships	Keeps Jessica as his consort rather than his legal wife, for political reasons tied to a possible marriage alliance.	preserved
Arc	Privately recognizes and reasons through Arrakis as a Harkonnen trap before the household ever leaves Caladan.the film keeps the fact but compresses the novel's extended interior reasoning into short dialogue	altered
Plot function	Is captured following Yueh's betrayal and dies attempting to kill Baron Harkonnen with a poisoned false tooth.	preserved
Body / ability	An experienced field commander and pilot who personally trains Paul in leadership.	preserved
Relationships	Maintains a father-son relationship with Paul built on mutual respect rather than fear.	preserved
Vocation / role	Surrounds himself with three key men of trust: Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck, and Duncan Idaho.	preserved

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen · Stellan SkarsgårdsupportingAltered4/7 attested traits kept57

The Baron's cruelty, cunning, and plot function are preserved. Three stated facts are dropped: his predation, the disease the novel gives as the cause of his obesity, and his paternity of Jessica. Part One raises none of them.

Body / ability	Grotesquely obese, moving via anti-gravity suspensor devices built into his person.	preserved
Moral code	A manipulative, Machiavellian schemer who orchestrates House Atreides' downfall through Yueh's betrayal and Sardaukar troops.	preserved
Relationships	Uncle and mentor to Feyd-Rautha, whom he is grooming as his heir.	not depicted
Moral code	Sadistically cruel, personally overseeing torture and executions.	preserved
Moral code	Sexually predatory toward drugged young male slaves, an explicit trait tied to his villainy in the novel.	omitted
Appearance	His corpulence is explained in the novel as a disease inflicted by Reverend Mother Mohiam as punishment; he was once handsome and physically fit.	omitted
Relationships	Is, unknown to him and to her, the biological father of Lady Jessica, a Bene Gesserit breeding-program secret.	omitted
Plot function	Seeks to reclaim Arrakis and destroy House Atreides to avenge his family's earlier loss of the planet's stewardship.	preserved

Duncan Idaho · Jason MomoasupportingSame6/6 attested traits kept100

Vocation / role	A Swordmaster of House Atreides and one of Duke Leto's most trusted warriors.	preserved
Plot function	Sent ahead to live among the Fremen and report back on their strength as potential allies.	preserved
Relationships	Serves as a mentor and friend figure to Paul.	preserved
Personality	Brash and quick to loyalty and physical action rather than caution.	preserved
Body / ability	An exceptionally skilled swordsman.	preserved
Plot function	Makes a last stand against the Sardaukar to cover Paul, Jessica, and Kynes's escape, killing many before he is killed.	preserved

Gurney Halleck · Josh BrolinsupportingAltered5/6 attested traits kept83

Gurney's loyalty, his inkvine scar, and his role as Paul's weapons trainer are preserved. His baliset playing and ballads were filmed and cut from the release.

Vocation / role	House Atreides' Warmaster, a veteran soldier and weapons trainer.	preserved
Appearance	Bears a distinctive scar along his jaw from an inkvine whip, inflicted during his time as a Harkonnen slave.	preserved
Personality	Warm and loyal beneath a gruff, battle-hardened exterior.	preserved
Voice	An accomplished baliset player and singer of ballads, using music to express emotion he otherwise withholds.musical performances were filmed but cut from the release	omitted
Relationships	Fiercely devoted to House Atreides and personally to Paul, whom he helped train.	preserved
Vocation / role	Trains Paul in swordsmanship and combat readiness.	preserved

Thufir Hawat · Stephen McKinley HendersonsupportingAltered2/5 attested traits kept40

Thufir appears as a trusted advisor, with the Mentat order and its abilities downplayed. His suspicion of Jessica and his Harkonnen captivity are never shown, and Part One does not state what becomes of him after the attack.

Vocation / role	House Atreides' Mentat, a trained human computer who also runs the household's security and assassins.he appears as a general trusted advisor; the film downplays the Mentat order and its abilities almost entirely	altered
Personality	Deeply suspicious and paranoid, alert to the possibility of a traitor within the household.	preserved
Relationships	Suspects Lady Jessica of being the household traitor and confronts both her and Leto about it.	omitted
Plot function	Is captured alive by the Harkonnens after the fall of House Atreides and coerced into serving them as a strategist.	omitted
Moral code	Remains entirely loyal to House Atreides despite his paranoia.	preserved
Vocation / role	Has served as a Mentat and advisor across two generations of House Atreides, Leto and his father before him.	not depicted

Dr. Wellington Yueh · Chang ChensupportingAltered4/5 attested traits kept80

Yueh's betrayal, its cause in Wanna's captivity, and his death are preserved. His Suk conditioning is never mentioned, and the novel's interior account of his divided motives is thinned.

Vocation / role	The Atreides' personal physician, a Suk-trained doctor bound by conditioning against harming his patients.	not depicted
Relationships	His wife, Wanna, is held captive and tortured by the Harkonnens, which coerces his betrayal.	preserved
Moral code	Is torn between loyalty to House Atreides and desperation to save his wife, and tries to extract a measure of revenge on the Baron even in betraying Leto.the film keeps the outcome but gives little of the novel's interior buildup to his conflicted motives	altered
Plot function	Disables the palace's defensive shield, letting the Harkonnen and Sardaukar attack succeed.	preserved
Plot function	Arranges an escape route for Paul and Jessica and gives Leto a poisoned false tooth meant to kill the Baron.	preserved
Plot function	Is killed by the Baron immediately after his betrayal is complete.	preserved

Liet-Kynes · Sharon Duncan-BrewstersupportingAltered3/6 attested traits kept50

Kynes's function as guide to the Atreides and secret Fremen sympathizer is preserved. The character's gender, Chani's parentage, and the manner of death are all changed. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts said in September 2021 that the gender change was meant to 'modernize the messenger' carrying the story's ecological argument.

Identity	A man; the Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis.recast as a woman on screen	altered
Relationships	Chani's father.becomes Chani's mother on screen, following the character's gender change	altered
Vocation / role	Serves as Imperial Planetologist, outwardly neutral between the Great Houses but secretly a Fremen sympathizer.	preserved
Moral code	Dreams of a generations-long ecological transformation of Arrakis into a green world.	not depicted
Plot function	Guides the Atreides across Arrakis and ultimately helps Paul and Jessica escape into the desert.	preserved
Plot function	Dies in the Arrakis desert during the Harkonnen takeover.	preserved
Plot function	Is killed by being stripped of stillsuit and water and left to die slowly of exposure, thinking of his own father in his final moments.the film stages a Sardaukar stabbing and a summoned sandworm instead of a slow death by exposure	altered

Chani · ZendayasupportingAltered4/6 attested traits kept67

Chani's wariness of off-worlders and her fighting skill are preserved. Her parent changes with Kynes's gender, and her help before the duel is reduced to handing Paul the crysknife. The film also gives her an invented framing-narrator role, tracked in the change log as an addition rather than as a trait miss.

Identity	A young Fremen woman of Sietch Tabr, daughter of Liet-Kynes.her parent is recast as her mother rather than her father, following Kynes's gender change	altered
Plot function	Appears in Paul's prescient dream-visions before the two ever meet in person.	preserved
Personality	Guarded and skeptical of off-worlders, including Paul, despite his visions of her.	preserved
Vocation / role	A skilled Fremen fighter and survivalist.	preserved
Plot function	Gives Paul a crysknife and detailed practical fighting advice before his duel with Jamis.the film reduces this to handing him the knife without the detailed advice	altered
Relationships	Initially wants little to do with Paul, keeping her distance.	preserved

Stilgar · Javier BardemsupportingSame6/6 attested traits kept100

Vocation / role	Naib, leader of the Fremen of Sietch Tabr.	preserved
Personality	Pragmatic and disciplined, initially highly suspicious of off-worlders.	preserved
Moral code	Follows strict Fremen law, including the amtal rule and water discipline, even when personally reluctant.	preserved
Relationships	Comes to respect Paul and Jessica's abilities and sponsors their acceptance into the sietch.	preserved
Plot function	Names Paul 'Usul' and accepts his chosen name 'Muad'Dib' after the duel with Jamis.	preserved
Relationships	Leads the band that first encounters Paul and Jessica in the deep desert and debates killing them for their water.	preserved

Feyd-RauthacameoOmitted0/4 attested traits kept0

Absent from Part One. The character is introduced in Dune: Part Two (2024), played by Austin Butler.

Identity	Nephew and chosen heir of Baron Harkonnen.	omitted
Personality	Cruel, vain, and ambitious, groomed by the Baron to eventually rule House Harkonnen.	omitted
Plot function	Is introduced early in the novel at Harkonnen court alongside the Baron and Piter de Vries, already maneuvering against his cousin Rabban.	omitted
Body / ability	A skilled and theatrical gladiatorial fighter.	omitted

Creator stance

Time-stamped. Co-creators are never collapsed.

Denis Villeneuve

director and co-screenwriter

April 2020

Participating adapter

Ahead of the film's release, Villeneuve said he would not have agreed to adapt the novel as a single film, calling the book's world too dense and complex for that; he described telling Legendary from the start that the story needed two films rather than one, so that the ending of Part One could still feel like a full arc for Paul while leaving more story to come.

About:fidelitysource ↗

Jon Spaihts

screenwriter

September 2021

Participating adapter

In a Los Angeles Times interview around the film's release, Spaihts said the novel 'skews male in ways that don't feel completely contemporary now,' and argued that Liet-Kynes's message of planetary stewardship and building bridges to local communities was a modern one, so it 'seemed right to modernize the messenger' by changing the character's gender.

About:fidelitysource ↗

Brian Herbert

estate; son of Frank Herbert and co-author of later Dune novels

December 2020

Championed

After visiting the Budapest set and seeing early trailer material, Brian Herbert said he believed the film would come to be seen as the definitive screen adaptation of his father's novel and that Denis Villeneuve was the right director for the material.

Statement predates the film's release, based on the trailer and a set visit rather than the finished cut.

About:fidelityqualitysource ↗

Planned: dune-novel-to-2024-part-two.

Sources

Every score note points here. Wikipedia is a lead, not an authority.

referenceWikipedia: Dune (novel)
Publisher, publication year, the three-book structure (Dune, Muad'Dib, The Prophet), and Princess Irulan's chapter epigraphs
referenceWikipedia: Dune (2021 film)
Director, screenwriters, studio, distributor, runtime, and release details for the 2021 film
productionBox Office Mojo: Dune (2021)
Runtime and distributor for the 2021 film
primaryCollider: Why Dune Will Be Split into Two Movies, According to the Director
Denis Villeneuve's April 2020 stance on splitting the novel into two films
secondaryCollider: How Similar Is Dune Part One to the Book?
Feyd-Rautha's introduction delayed to Part Two; Baron characterization changes; Chani's expanded prominence and narration
secondaryBoundingIntoComics: Dune Screenwriter Jon Spaihts Explains Why Liet Kynes Is Race And Gender Swapped In Denis Villeneuve's Upcoming Film
Jon Spaihts's September 2021 quotes on the reasoning behind Liet-Kynes's gender change
primaryMovieWeb: Dune Creator's Son Calls New Movie the Definitive Adaptation
Brian Herbert's December 2020 stance on the film
secondaryScreenRant: Dune: 10 Biggest Changes Between The 2021 Movie And The Book
Irulan's removal, Kynes's gender and death changes, softened jihad terminology, the banquet's omission, CHOAM and Sardaukar backstory cuts
secondaryCBR: 10 Ways The New Dune Movie Is Nothing Like The Books
Baron characterization changes, Gurney's cut baliset performances, Thufir's minimized suspicions, Kynes's restaged death, Chani's reduced pre-duel advice
secondarySlashFilm: Thufir Hawat's Cut Dune Role, Explained
Thufir Hawat's novel captivity and poisoning arc, and its complete absence from the films
secondaryMovieWeb: Why the Best Scene From the Dune Book Was Cut From Both Movies
The Arrakeen banquet chapter's omission from both film adaptations, and Frank Herbert's own comment regretting its absence from the 1984 film
secondaryDen of Geek: Dune: What Denis Villeneuve Changed from the Book
Irulan's removal as a framing device, Jessica's altered use of the Voice, Baron characterization changes, Kynes's gender change and reframing as Chani's mother
secondaryScreenRant: 8 Biggest Dune Book Moments Denis Villeneuve's Movie Left Out
The banquet scene, Yueh's dropped backstory, Feyd-Rautha's absence, Hawat's suspicion of Jessica, and Gurney's cut musical scenes
secondaryScreenRant: Dune: 10 Things Only Book Readers Know About The Baron Harkonnen
The Baron's predatory trait, the disease/curse behind his obesity, and his secret paternity of Lady Jessica
referenceWikipedia: Count Fenring
Count Fenring's role in the novel and his absence from both the 2021 and 2024 films
secondaryDen of Geek: Dune Opening Sequence Puts Focus on Zendaya and Arrakis
The invented Chani opening narration replacing Princess Irulan's epigraphs
referenceShmoop: Gurney Halleck Character Analysis
Gurney Halleck's baliset-playing, inkvine scar, and loyalty to House Atreides in the novel
referenceShmoop: Dune Book II, Chapter 33 Summary
The placement of the Jamis duel and Paul's naming as Muad'Dib within Book Two of the novel

Record dune-novel-to-2021 · schema 0.2 · scoring 0.3-census · completeness census. Fidelity is not quality; the score is not a review.