Daily Dialogue — August 5, 2013
INT. PAUL’S ROOM — ARRAKEEN PALACE — DAY
The LIGHT decreases and Paul stands trembling. As he moves to the bed he sees a portion of the headboard slowly folding down and he sees a chrome sliver of metal glide out from within the dark opening. He freezes.
PAUL: (inner voice) A hunter-seeker!… It can’t get me if I don’t move… It’s too dark in here for it to see clearly…
The hunter-seeker begins to lift and swing across the room and back–searching.
PAUL: (inner voice) I’ve got to grab it — the suspensor field will make it slippery on the bottom — I must grip it tightly.
The seeker drops a little, circling around the bed. A faint HUMMING sound is heard.
PAUL: (inner voice) Who is operating that thing?… It has to be someone in the Palace. I could shout for help but it would kill whoever opened the door…
Just as Paul finishes this thought the other door to his room begins to open and the Shadout Mapes peers in. The hunter-seeker arrows past Paul toward the motion. Paul swiftly reaches out and grips the deadly thing. It HUMS and twists violently in his hand. With a powerful turn and thrust, Paul slams the glass nose of the seeker into the stone wall. The seeker goes dead in his hand. He looks up into the deep blue eyes of the Shadout Mapes.
SHADOUT MAPES: (shaken) It would have killed me… not so?
PAUL: I was the target. It went to the motion. Who are you?
SHADOUT MAPES: I am the Shadout Mapes… the housekeeper.
PAUL: A Fremen… Could she be the operator? No…
SHADOUT MAPES: I must cleanse the way between us…. You saved my life… and we Fremen pay our debts. It’s known to us that you’ve a traitor in your midst. Who it is we cannot say but we’re certain of it.
PAUL: (inner voice) A traitor…
— Dune (1984), David Lynch (screenplay), Frank Herbert (novel)
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=W5Dj
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is talking to one’s self, suggested by camdeaver.
Trivia: During the film’s original release, “cheatsheets” explaining much of the movie’s setting and its more obscure vocabulary were handed out to moviegoers at some theaters.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary in dialogue from Traci:
TRACI: (inner voice) Oy vey!
TRACI: A screenwriter’s double whammy “no-no” here; on-the-nose Exposition delivered via Inner-Voice/Talking to Oneself.
TRACI: (inner voice) It’s astounding that with all the blunt exposition, cheatsheets were still required?
Comment Archive