Dune: How The Fremen Get Off The Sandworms, Explained

The sandworms in the Dune franchise are movie monsters even more powerful than Godzilla. That ferocity makes the sandworm riding sequences in "Dune: Part Two" so exhilarating. Viewers get to watch Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) summon one of the creatures and then ride on its back, using an intricate hook system to expose an inner layer of the worm's flesh and prevent it from submerging back into the sand. The movie contains other scenes of Fremen riding sandworms, but while we see how people can get on, the film never shows someone getting down.

That question is answered in the later Dune book, "Children of Dune." In a somewhat anticlimactic manner, the Fremen just ... hop off. Ideally, this is done when the sandworm has been worn out enough to where it won't try to attack the Fremen out in the open desert. It's all chronicled in a sequence featuring Leto Atreides II, the son of Paul and Chani (Zendaya), who eventually becomes the grossest Dune character by becoming a man-sandworm hybrid. Leto II needs to get off a sandworm and protect himself via stilltent to have an extra layer of protection during a storm.

While sandworms are powerful, even they need breaks once in a while. Therefore, someone may need to get off a worm once it slows down and summon another worm with a thumper to continue the journey. The books refer to journeys in units of "thumpers" to explain how many sandworms will be needed for a given trek.

Portraying the Fremen (and Paul) jumping off a sandworm could be very cool to witness cinematically. While the act wasn't shown in "Dune: Part Two," director Denis Villeneuve hinted back in 2024 that he knew how he would show in the next film, telling IndieWire that he explicitly wanted to film someone getting off a worm. 

"I knew how," he admitted. "I found a way. It was not dramatically necessary in 'Part Two' to see someone get out of the worm, but I know how to do it. And I can't wait to put that on screen." Jumping off a sandworm could be as fascinating as watching Paul jump on a worm in "Dune: Part Two." Plus the trailers for "Dune: Part Three," which adapts Frank Herbert's second novel, "Dune Messiah,"  already tease a movie that is much more visually interesting than the novel. The book is generally perceived as not quite as engaging as the first, featuring much talking and politicking, which don't necessarily lend well to a visual medium like an all-out war with the Harkonnens. 

There are many things "Dune: Part Two" gets wrong from the book, but one would assume many other changes are coming to "Dune: Part Three." One such alteration could involve the sandworm dismount method. Regardless, more sandworm action will always be a good thing.