The Next-Level Musical Easter Eggs of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ Films
The sandy sci-fi franchise has some clever hidden music references for those willing to do the sifting.
Author’s Note: This piece is not meant to be an analysis of the music theory behind Hans Zimmer’s monumental scores for the Dune films. That is a topic deserving of a completely separate piece, one which I am currently working on, and will be linked here when it is completed. I’m also not here to explain Dune lore in-depth, but there are plenty of resources for that online. Or you could just read the books. They’re pretty good.
Since it first made its way to the screen, music has played an essential part in all adaptations of Frank Herbert’s Dune. This makes sense for a number of reasons, not least of which is that Herbert’s series of novels have inspired a number of band names and concept albums over the years. Dune, the best-selling literary science fiction saga of all time, has always loomed large amongst not only science fiction fans, but visual artists, politicians, economists, environmentalists, and of course, filmmakers.
The first adaptation of Dune was a failure (as we will see), but by tying itself to the surrealist filmmaking and psych rock scenes of the 1970s, it cemented itself as a franchise…
