Dune: How Denis Villeneuve Secretly Made The Gom Jabbar Scene So Stressful

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has a lot of moments of tension, but perhaps the most stressful of them all is the Gom Jabbar scene. With previous directorial efforts like Prisoners and Sicario, it’s no surprise that Villeneuve is so adept at racking up tension, and it’s fascinating how he was able to apply a few secret tricks to make the moment between the mentally powerful Paul Atreides and the Reverend Mother such an effective exercise in generating stress for the audience, as well as the characters therein.

The scene comes early in the film and makes for a powerful introduction to the Bene Gesserit and the Reverend Mother who puts Paul through a mental test. “The test is simple,” the Reverend Mother says as she places the poisoned needle — known as the Gom Jabbar — to the side of his throat. The tension in the scene comes primarily from Paul’s struggle to keep his hand in the mysterious box, and Lady Jessica’s recital of the litany of fear from outside the room. While Lady Jessica seems afraid of Paul later in Dune, here she merely fears for her son’s wellbeing. So how exactly did Villeneuve manage to make the Dune scene so stressful?

In a video interview with Vanity Fair, Denis Villeneuve shed light on the Gom Jabbar scene and the tricks he employed to build tension. The director revealed how he asked his cinematographer, Greig Fraser, “to bring a level of darkness in the scene that will feel almost like you are having a nightmare.” There is indeed a nightmarish quality to the scene, as most of the shots are enshrouded in darkness. This choice already predisposes the scene towards tension as it supplies it with an undercurrent of fear — as nightmares are prone to do. The darkness ensures the audience – who already are unsure of what this apparatus is or does exactly – are left even less clear of any detail but Paul’s increasing pain and panic at the situation. However, this is far from the only factor that ensured such a high level of tension in the scene.

Villeneuve, who learned a valuable lesson from Blade Runner 2049 in establishing such visually iconic scenes, also reveals that the initial shot of the box is one of his favorites in Dune. He describes how he had the box designed to fit Timothée Chalamet’s hand to the letter in order to create the feeling of his hand really being trapped within. Meanwhile, Charlotte Rampling’s hand rests atop the box, making the power dynamic between the Reverend Mother and Paul Atreides quite explicit. Villeneuve also had Chalamet subtly move his hand around in the box as Paul is overcome with pain, . Regardless of how Dune’s mysterious box really works, it’s clear that its design was an integral part of Villeneuve’s plan for creating tension in the scene, and he was able to really do so using a few neat visual details and acting cues.

Another part of the scene that Villeneuve worked on was Lady Jessica’s recital of the litany of fear outside the chamber. Again, he made sure to convey tension through the actor’s performance — in this case via Rebecca Ferguson who plays Paul’s mother. In the interview, Villeneuve recalls how he asked Ferguson to “experience a quiet sheer panic” as she worries for her son suffering through the test of will. This is followed up with the memorable recital of the litany of fear, which includes the iconic “fear is the mind killer” line. Ferguson’s performance and her monologue to herself add another layer to the tension building within the chamber as Paul struggles with insurmountable pain at the threat of death.

Dune is certainly filled with stress as it plays out the fall of House Atreides and Paul and Lady Jessica’s narrow escape across the desert of Arrakis, and the Gom Jabbar scene early in the film is the perfect amuse-bouche for what comes later. Having Villeneuve himself reveal how he was able to create tension and make the scene so stressful offers valuable insight into his directing techniques and his ability to keep the audience at the edge of their seat.

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