The Big Picture
- Christopher Walken adds gravitas to Dune: Part Two as Emperor Shaddam IV, creating memorable moments similar to his iconic dancing roles.
- Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" music video subtly references key Dune plot points, connecting Walken's performance to the sci-fi series.
- Walken's unexpected dancing talents shine in the video, revealing a different side to his career and adding a unique touch to the iconic visuals.
There's no better way to exert the power of a monarch upon an audience than having them played by an icon such as Christopher Walken. In Dune: Part Two, he plays the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and adds a gravitas to the movie's final act that is comparable only to that of Timothée Chalamet's protagonist, Paul Atreides. As striking as his part is, that's actually not Walken's first connection to the Dune universe. In the year 2000, he starred in the music video for Fatboy Slim's 2001 song "Weapon of Choice" — the one where he dances around an empty hotel lobby in zero gravity. What's funny about this is that the song is heavily influenced by Frank Herbert's novels, something a lot of people are only realizing now.
Dune: Part Two
PG-13 Sci-FiDramaActionAdventure810Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
- Release Date
- March 1, 2024
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Cast
- Timothee Chalamet , Stellan Skarsgård , Florence Pugh , Zendaya , Rebecca Ferguson , Javier Bardem
- Runtime
- 166 minutes
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Writers
- Frank Herbert , Jon Spaihts , Denis Villeneuve
Fatboy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice' Has Many References to 'Dune'
"Weapon of Choice" is not only a great song, but it's also one of the defining music videos of the 2000s. Directed by Spike Jonze, it starts with Christopher Walken looking bored while sitting in a hotel lobby. As the song comes up on the radio, his body slowly starts to move to the rhythm until he jumps up and starts dancing all around the lobby, climbing up tables and dancing down escalators. When he takes the elevator and arrives at the next floor, he jumps down to the lobby below again and then starts to float around as if dancing in zero gravity.
Walken tearing up the lobby as if it were a dance floor is so attention-grabbing, that people barely paid any attention to the lyrics of "Weapon of Choice" until he was cast in Dune: Part Two. As it turns out, there are nods to some of the sci-fi series' defining plot points. Fatboy Slim uses samples from a lot of songs, including the bassline from "All Strung Out Over You" by The Chambers Brothers and instrumental breaks from "Into My Own Thing" by Sly & The Family Stone, but, somehow, the best and most quotable verses are exactly the ones related to Dune.
Just as Walken starts dancing, a heavily synthesized voice starts singing "Don't be shocked by the tone of my voice, check out my new weapon, my weapon of choice." By now, people who have watched at least one of Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies know that "The Voice" is a central plot device in the life of the main character Paul Atreides. His mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), has trained him in the ways of the Bene Gesserit since his childhood. The Voice is one of the Bene Gesserit's weapons of choice (no pun intended), a way of modulating their speech to make whoever is being targeted obey them without question. This ancient sisterhood plots the course for the great houses that rule the galaxy through their secret breeding program, using their political and religious influence (or their "voice") to make everything go according to their plans.
'Dune: Part Two' Review: Timothée Chalamet’s Sci-Fi Epic Is Bigger Than Ever — and That’s Not Always a Good Thing
Denis Villeneuve completes the first part of his epic based on Frank Herbert's series.As Walken climbs up a table in the hotel lobby, the modulated voice now starts singing "Walk without rhythm, and you won't attract the worm." This is an even clearer nod to Dune, now to the native people of Arrakis, the Fremen. In Part Two, one of Paul's trials to truly be accepted as a Fremen is to cross the desert on foot, which may be deadly if not done properly. The dominant creatures in the desert are the giant sandworms, which the Fremen call Shai-Hulud. They are extremely sensitive to vibrations in the ground, so walking normally, one step after another, establishes a rhythm that attracts them. To avoid them, the Fremen created sandwalking, a way of moving around the desert without establishing a rhythm and emulating the desert wildlife. Sandwalking is more like shuffling rather than walking, and not one step can be the same as the previous one. If they walk without rhythm, no sandworms will be attracted. In a recent GQ interview, Walken himself acknowledges the nod: "They kind of do that slide and dance, when they walk in the desert." Slide and dance, or walk without rhythm, and it won't attract the sandworm.
Finally, there's yet another way that "Weapon of Choice" relates to Dune, but only the Villeneuve movie adaptations. To avoid stepping on the desert sand and quickly climb rocky hills and small mountains, the Harkonnen soldiers and the Sardaukar use anti-gravitational mechanisms that allow them to float. In the "Weapon of Choice" video, Walken floats around the hotel lobby in a very similar way to how the soldiers do in the movie. That, however, is definitely a coincidence, not planned how mentioning the Voice and sandwalking was. "He’s a very interesting guy, the Fatboy Slim guy. He must’ve read the book," as Walken says in the interview.
"Weapon of Choice" Reveals a Different Side of Christopher Walken as an Artist
Walken is one of the greatest actors of his generation and has had some pretty iconic roles - some that left a mark on audiences in just one scene, even - but the image of him dancing in "Weapon of Choice" still manages to be one of the most iconic of his career. It says a lot about his abilities, because audiences are used to seeing him in much more dramatic roles, like the Emperor in Dune: Part Two or Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter.
His background is much different, however. In a Theater Talk interview, Walken talked about his earlier work as a chorus boy who toured with companies doing musicals like West Side Story. He learned to dance while still a teenager, but started doing theater with more dramatic roles, especially in Shakespeare, as a way of keeping busy. His career then took a turn for more grounded roles, and he never had the chance to perform his dancing until Spike Jonze contacted him about the "Weapon of Choice" video. He had known Jonze for a while and had expressed his wish to get his dancing on film while he was still young enough to do it. The idea for the video itself came from Jonze, who liked making music videos with dancing elements and knew Walken would be up for it. In an interview for The Nine Club, Jonze talked about how Walken's dancing is supposed to be a sort of fantasy that comes out of mundane things, as his father used to travel the country and stay in hotels just like the one in the video.
The fact that Walken got to make this video at all is a marvel, as it just happened due to many factors coming together - his unfulfilled dream of dancing on screen, Jonze's creativity, and the fact that Norman Cook (artistically known as Fatboy Slim) himself couldn't be in it. Cook was scheduled to do the floating dance at the end of the video, meaning Walken would only dance in the lobby and hotel halls. However, the video was recorded in a Los Angeles hotel on the same day Cook and his wife were welcoming their child, leaving the floating to Walken, too. Lucky for us, it's Christopher Walker who's happily floating around to the sound of an eerie, commanding voice that speaks about sandworms.
Dune: Part Two is now in theaters.
