The emperor’s troops, blades wielded, were staring up at a tremendous dust cloud. For a moment, there was just wind, punctuated by silence. And suddenly, there they were: elephantine sandworms, with apocalyptic maws, effortlessly piercing the veil. Jaws dropped—both in the cinema, and on screen—just as the leviathans, adorned with Fremen fighters, careened into the sands of Arrakis.
Whatever your overall opinion of the movies Dune: Part One and the just-released Part Two, the sandworms, the ferocious, fictional animals of that desert-smothered world, are undeniably impressive. Credit goes not only to Frank Herbert, the late author of most of the book series on which these films are based, but to director Denis Villeneuve and his team of creatives, who brought these primaeval beasts to life on screen. They are a thundering presence that somehow feels real, rather than something dreamed up in the minds of artists.
Of course, these sandworms aren’t real—but that they seem so authentic made me wonder if, in fact, elements of them could be found in nature. In some ways, they are unfeasible animals. But in other, more surprising ways, they aren’t as mythical as you may believe.
Fear is the mind-killer, size is the worm-stopper
Despite their unyielding fearsomeness, the Fremen don’t regard the sandworms as monsters, but rather something more benevolent, omnipotent, and almost deific. They refer to them as Shai-Hulud–varyingly translated as “the eternal thing” or “grandfather of the desert.” Crucially, a biproduct of the sandworms’ biology is spice—a multipurpose substance that boosts longevity in the Fremen while allowing navigators to plot safe passage between the stars. And the Fremen frequently make use of these gloriously gigantic worms as forms of transport and, when the need arises, defence.
Scientifically speaking, the impressive size of these sandworms may be their most glaring problem. They can grow up…
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