'Dune' Director Denis Villeneuve Breaks Down the Gom Jabbar Scene

Hi, my name is Denis Villeneuve.

I'm the director of Dune,

and this is Notes On A Scene.

The test is simple.

Remove your hand from the box and you die.

What's in the box?

Pain.

So this is a very iconic scene,

taken out of the book

Paul Atreides, the hero of the book,

will go through some very specific test

called the Gom Jabbar.

And it's a test that is designed to see

if humanity will overcome his animal impulses.

Defiance in the eyes,

like his father.

Leave us.

I deeply love the idea to start a sci-fi movie

in the library.

I think it's that the counterpoint of it is

kind of beautiful.

Why a library?

It says a lot of things about Dune's world.

There's no computers in this world.

In Dune's world, AI has been banned,

there is no more artificial intelligence.

Dune is about the triumph of the human spirit.

Our teams at Vermont designed an insane amount

of beautiful carpets in

order to bring the idea of ancient culture.

As you can see, the chairs are designed.

So the Reverend mother looks almost like a chess figure.

I asked Greg Fraser, the cinematogropher

to bring a level of darkness

in the scene that will feel almost like

you are like having a nightmare.

And it's exactly what I had in mind when I read the book

at 14 years old.

This scene happened right at the beginning of the shoot,

it was one of the first scene I shot with Ferguson.

And of course, the great Charlotte Rampling.

I love working with these actors,

they were absolutely amazing.

And frankly, after that scene,

I started to breathe because I knew that I had did casting,

the right casting.

Leave us.

She's supposed to be in control of her emotions.

She's almost about to, again, almost about to touch him,

but she can not allow herself to do that because she is

in front of her mother superior or having to brought

her own son into a test that could mean his death.

It shows the tension between the motherhood

and being a Bene Gesserit sister.

You just missed my mother in her own house.

Come here.

Kneel.

Here're several things that are happening.

The Bene Gesserit can use something called as

the voice in order to control the other humans' will.

Meaning that here the Reverend mother,

using this voice can channel and go into the Paul

as really subconscious and asking to cross the room

and kneel in front of her.

I thought at the beginning that it could look silly

if it's about to cross the room like a zombie.

And it came into my mind to embrace right away

from the beginning, the point of view of the character,

and to fall into a very short period of time in some kind of

micro coma, like a narcolepsy that will snap.

And he will just awaken in front of her.

To create that feeling of narcolepsy,

we thought that what could be interesting is

to make very strong, powerful dollies camera movement,

and the same time switching off the lights of the room,

they brought this idea in order to create that feeling of a

disorientation and vertigo.

And as we are moving the camera,

we are not touching the focus.

So it means that the characters are diving

into the out of focus zone of the image.

And also, I must say, it's great editing.

Joe, cut it at that, at that to be very, very fast.

So it's really like a blink.

We'll feel disorienting and,

and destabilizing for the audience.

Like if they had been themselves victim of the voice.

You just speak to my mother in her own house.

Come Here.

Kneel.

The voice itself of the Reverend mother,

that came with a lot of experiments.

I was obsessed by the idea that when you use the voice,

you should, you should, you should be

channeling ancient voice inside yourself.

I love the idea that you will channel the voice

of very ancient powerful grandmothers.

And that maybe it says a lot of things

about my own family background,

but it's something that I thought was like very powerful

and fresh idea.

I think it's pretty meaningful.

How dare you use the voice on me?

I deeply love the veil.

The idea was to create a feeling of distant,

a religious feeling as well.

It's a religious congregation and I wanted to,

to have the feeling that there's something about like the

medieval nuns that do have a feeling of someone that is

above reality.

At the end of the day, it just felt deeply right.

Charlotte Rampling was not supposed to wear the veil

to all the scene,

but quickly I realized that it created this very strong

mystery and she just looked definitely more powerful.

And I decided to shoot the whole scene with it,

knowing that I had one of the best actress in the world,

hiding most of the face,

but I thought it was because I was just seeing

her powerful eyes behind.

I thought it was definitely the way to do it.

Put your right hand in the box.

The box, one of the very iconic objects.

I said to my team,

it's not an expression of our take on the book.

I want Frank Herbert to be on the screen.

We basically went with the description that was in the book,

bringing it feeling of something ancient,

something dangerous,

something that cast shadows inside.

For me, I didn't want to use any visual effects

for this scene.

I really wanted it to be like a mental scene,

meaning that it will be a scene that will rely

into the acting of the actors and

that the actors will express the inner pain

without having the help of any visual effects.

Your mother bailed you. Obey me.

Greg and I had tried to create a feeling of oppression and

making sure that the room felt closing on Paul, that is,

there is no way to escape.

The Reverend mother is designed to make sure that she will

look like towering of the rim.

The box was designed, so it fit exactly.

So we will feel that the hand is kind of trapped inside.

And honestly, frankly,

it's one of my favorite shots of the movie. Why?

Because it's all there.

You have the power of Charlotte Rampling,

the Reverend mother towering over Paul.

And there will be here a connection,

a mental connection where Paul will experience

tremendous amount of pain coming from

a nerve induction like hypnotism.

There's something kind of a sacred quality to the scene.

The science-fiction here is more about the evolution

of the human brain.

And I think it's like, it's all about that.

This is what Dune is about.

I hold at your neck, the Gom Jabbar.

Poison needle.

Instant death.

Here in that specific moment,

I wanted Charlotte to jump on him like a snake.

It needed to be surprising.

And that at a superior speed.

We had a great time designing those needles.

I wanted them to be ancient.

We rehearsed. We're trying to have to find that position.

That was the way I imagine Charlotte holding the needle.

And for me, just something very delicate and very powerful,

like a scorpion right now, ready to strike.

And it's a very feminine in position, but in the same time,

it's all Beth. And I thought that was,

that was something in saying something interesting

about the Bene Gesserit.

The feeling of it is closer to a period movie,

more than a sci-fi, there's something historical.

And we try to protect that,

that the quality and the custom-design and some elements

of the set design and definitely in the, in the props too.

It was important for me to,

to keep roots into our reality and still, I mean,

a projection on something that is a bit mad.

The test is simple.

Remove your hand from the box.

And you die.

What's in the box?

Pain.

No need to call the guards.

Your mother stands behind that door.

No one would get past her.

I love the beginning of the inner conflict going

into Jessica's mind.

Paul's character is understanding

that first he has been trapped, but more importantly,

he has been trapped by his own mother that will

create a tension that will go to the whole movie after.

Why are you doing this?

An animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its own leg

to escape.

What will you do?

That's a line that is taken straight from the book.

There's so much great lines in the book, of course.

Every time I had a question or a doubt,

I always went back to the book, even as I was shooting,

even when I was editing,

as we were composing the music as the Hans Zimmer was doing

the music, we were always going back to the book,

reading the book.

I mean the together, I mean, it was like the Bible.

It was the holy words.

I mean, it was like the way to, to stay in contact with,

with Frank Herbert, I have the deep,

deep respect and admiration for him.

He's one of my favorite author.

And I wanted to make sure if he had seen this movie,

he will feel that love.

Tiny clue that there's something happening in deep inside

that box that we have no idea what it is,

but the way Timothee moves gently his hand here is like,

for me, that perfect.

This is exactly the intention that I asked him to do

in this moment.

Just like a tiny, tiny suggestion that he is starting

to feel something inside that doesn't feel right.

Ah.

Silence.

I would say for the record,

Timothee was afraid of Charlotte Rampling for real.

I must not fear.

I must not fear.

I must not fear,

probably the most famous word coming out of the book.

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

It's like a little needle fear,

Jon Spaihts and I had the idea that it will be said

by the mother outside the, of the room that we will go back

and forth between the mother and the son

to install this idea that this movie will be

about their relationship.

It was one of the first scene that I did with

Rebecca Ferguson here.

I asked Rebecca to experience like a kind of

quiet, sheer panic.

She will slowly by slowly being able to control the emotion.

For me Rebecca Ferguson is a titan to values.

I mean, her level of precision is absolutely insane.

And I got exactly what I needed in order to express

what I wanted to do with the scene.

Hear the sound here.

That is coming from a combination of Hans Zimmer,

that design for this moment,

and then will be one of the more, most harrowing,

and unbearable score ever written for,

for a scene where you have the impression

to be at the dentist.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little death that brings obliteration.

Here again, one of my favorites songs on the movie,

it's actually a Hans Zimmer sound.

I think it's made out of a,

kind of crazy scream from human voices

that are like compress a billion times.

And it's like, Hans drove his team crazy with our sounds.

I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass

over me and through me.

So here it's a very, very, very,

very important key moment in this scene,

which is that Paul is put under so much pain,

something deep inside and subconscious

that was hidden there,

will go closer to the surface.

The presence of the, what we call the quiz that's ada hoc

and kind of a super being.

I think that in this scene,

we have to feel that the Reverend mother will love

to kill Paul,

but she will not because she will witness something here

in this very specific moment,

we can see in Charlotte Rampling eye here that she has doubt

that she has the birth of a fear that he could be,

maybe the one.

And when it has gone past...

The scene becomes it was before like a kind of a duel.

We were like shifting from the Reverend mother to Paul,

having them in confrontation mode,

having them in a double shuts,

meaning that you have the presence of the other character in

the foreground, try to create a feeling of oppression.

Paul is taking the upper side of the scene coming out from

this very specific close-up where we felt that the channels,

something that he was not expecting.

I decided to push the camera on.

So we will feel that he's now our taking power

in the scene.

I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

In the book, the idea of fire is important.

Paul is supposed to feel that his hand is burning

and I didn't want to have like CGI flames

or any suggestions.

I went for mental suggestion.

We designed that burned hand here that was made out

of a real hand.

And we applied on it in CGI, like a texture of burnt wood.

I think it's a pretty powerful and striking image that was

added later in the editing process.

Where the fear has gone,

there will be nothing.

Here, we are hearing the,

the voice of a singer that was a piece written

by Hans Zimmer.

Joe Walker and I, my editor, we had the idea to put the,

put this voice on top of the scenes.

The idea was to enhance the feeling of Paul

starting to be possessed by some kind of

very strong female power.

And at the same time to have like to create what I will dare

to see like a curve of, of some kind of weird,

painful orgasm that goes to a limit at one point where the

Reverand mother will feel that you went too far

and she has to stop because she's feeling

that the more she's pushing him,

the more he resists and the more he resists,

the more something else is strangely happening inside him.

And that the scene is shifting in the,

in his advantages.

Only I will remain.

Here. It's one of my favorite shots of the movie too,

it's like, this is the hand of Zendaya playing Chani.

The more I was shooting Zendaya,

the more I was inspired.

And I started to improvise in the desert shots that I knew

that I would use later in the dream sequences.

In this shot of a female hand covered with blood,

holding a Chris knife.

For me, it was the most powerful way to bring the idea

of [mumbles] an event that Paul will fear

to the old story,

The idea that tremendous amount of violence and pain

will come out of his journey.

I wanted these visions to be as close to our dream,

own dream experience.

I thought that it would be very dramatically interesting

to have a character that has work envisions,

but doesn't have the key to understand the puzzle.

Enough.

For the first time.

I think I did this movie for a single audience member,

which is me.

I read the book 40 years ago.

I deeply fall, felt in love with it.

I was aware that there are millions of hardcore fan

of the book out there,

but I took up in my shoulder to deal with the one that I was

the most afraid of, which is me.

I was a teenager. That was a totalitarian dreamer.

I was arrogant. I was pretentious.

I had big dreams. It was kind of frightening for me.

And I will say that the truth is as any movies,

it's movies are made of victories and failures.

There's some moments in doing

that I knew I was not good enough.

There's others that I feel that it was very close

to the original dream.

And the Gom Jabbar scene is definitely one that I knew

that at 14 years old, I will have been okay with that.