Seeing Tenet in cinemas is an exciting enough experience on its own – but now there's even more reason to see it. A Dune trailer has been witnessed by some cinema-goers, who report a clip lasting just over a minute and a half being played in front of Christopher Nolan's new movie.
Two members of the 12DOVE team went to separate public screenings of Tenet in the UK and neither saw a Dune trailer – however, we have since heard from people in Canada who saw the teaser footage. Here's what happens in it.
**Spoiler warning! A proper Dune trailer will be appearing online in the coming weeks. You may wish to save yourself until then.
The teaser starts with Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides standing in a large room, followed by a look at a box. Cut to Rebecca Ferguson's Lady Jessica, Paul's mother, who's holding a needle to Paul's neck.
Dune readers will recognise this as "the box", a nerve induction device that causes the victim to feel intense pain and is used to test self-control. "What's in the box?" asks Chalamet's Paul. The response from a veiled Lady Jessica? "Pain."
Cut to: the sands of Dune and Paul standing on a ship that moves like a dragonfly, all intercut by Chalamet in serious pain from "the box". There are brief looks at House Atreides, Oscar Isaac's Leto Atreides, Zendaya's Chani, and Javier Bardem's Stilgar, who removes a mask.
Perhaps the most interesting moment comes when a man, who appears to be Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, emerges out of some slime. That's followed by a glimpse of a few more characters, including Chang Chen's Dr. Yueh, Sharon Duncan-Brewster's Dr. Liet-Kynes, Dave Bautista's ghostly Glossu Rabban, and Jason Momoa as swordmaster Duncan Idaho. It's a whistlestop tour of some huge names – almost overwhelming.
We then finish with another look at Paul, who speculators believe is here being accepted by the Fremen, the natives of the desert planet Arrakis. In the books, Paul becomes an outcast and ends up with the Fremen. The trailer ends with a snazzy, animated Dune logo.
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A description can certainly do no justice to the Dune trailer, which needs to be seen on the big screen. Dune has been directed by Blade Runner 2049's Denis Villeneuve, who will no doubt do justice to Frank Herbert's epic tale. The full trailer is expected to go online later in September – we'll report back when online.
