Designing the desert: A deep dive into Dune 2's sound design
Exploring the collaborative genius of Richard King and Hans Zimmer as they blur the lines between music and effects to create an otherworldly yet familiar soundscape offering immersive experience
This essay was written for Sound Design and SFX course, during my first semester of doing Master of Arts in Film, Television, and New Media Production. Personally, this was a really cool project which gave me the opportunity to re-watch Dune once more and re-watch Dune: Part 2 multiple times, especially keeping an eye - or well, an ear - out for how the sound led the narrative smoothly. Hearing is a sense that I haven’t tapped into much when analysing movies, so this challenge pushed me to pick up on minute details that I’d let pass normally. Shoutout to Prof. Baylon Fonseca for leading the class for this course and assigning me this essay. I immediately knew I had to pick this movie when we were informed of the assignment.
Abstract
Dune: Part 2 (2024) features sound design by Richard King which gives the audience a chance to explore Arrakis by going on a cinematic journey not just through visuals but by inviting them to take a step further into the story world with their auditory senses. This analysis focuses on the blend of dialogue, sound effects, ambience, and musical score and how it serves the story. By exploring the creative choices and liberties taken by Richard King and delving deep into the distinct soundscapes of the Harkonnen and Fremen world, my goal is to highlight how sound acts as a storytelling device by building a connection between the audience and the world that the story is trying to portray, and how Dune: Part 2 achieved it successfully for me.
Designing the Desert
The Dune world is known for its epic scale, and for exploring themes of power, prophecy, and survival which is highlighted through cinematic elements beyond just plot and dialogue - making tasteful use of visuals and sound design. Dune: Part 2 (2024) focuses on taking the audiences deeper into Arrakis and introducing the Harkonnen world too, with notable contrasts that I will be explaining in detail further.
The desert of Arrakis is a living, breathing force of its own, and the movie's approach consistently captures its dual nature - both beautiful and deadly. The Harkonnen and Fremen have distinct cultural universes, and the sound design brings life to alien creatures and environments and shapes the audience's experience of both worlds.
This immersive experience is led by the film's sound designer Richard King, who is an Academy Award-winning sound designer and is known for his memorable work in films such as Dunkirk, Inception, and Interstellar. The sound work for the movie is particularly successful due to Richard King’s seamless collaboration with the rest of the crew featuring Joe Walker (Picture Editor), Hans Zimmer (Composer), Denis Villeneuve (Director), and re-recording mixers Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill.
All the elements of sound in the movie blend smoothly, which means breaking down the layers takes away from the essence and impact particular scenes carry. With the harmonious transition between music and effects, at times I can't tell where one ends and the other starts unless I focus on it to pin-point it, since instead of competing they work together to accomplish one common goal of transporting you into the story world. To capture these nuances, the analysis will break down key moments from the film where sound played a pivotal role in impacting the narrative and shaping the cinematic experience at great length for me, and how one element of sound complemented the other.
Sound design is an important aspect of every film, shaping audience perceptions and enhancing storytelling. More than just filling silence, it influences mood, character, and setting, guiding the audience’s emotional journey. Denis Villeneuve wanted sound designer Richard King to create soundscapes that transport viewers into fictional worlds and enhance realism. King collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer to construct an otherworldly yet grounded sound experience. King’s sound design elevates the narrative by aligning auditory cues with character emotions and story arcs.
Sound played a huge role in pacing the movie, particularly through the use of silence and low-frequency rumbles in this film. In scenes where characters encounter sandworms, King uses silence followed by faint tremors that gradually intensify as its threat draws near. This pacing helps build suspense and lets the audience feel the characters’ fear as they brace for the worm’s arrival.
The sound design also reflects the character's emotions, especially for Paul, whose journey from uncertainty to empowerment is the central plot of the story. When Paul struggles with his visions of the future, King uses sound techniques to communicate Paul’s inner turmoil.
The immersive qualities of the sound design take the world of Arrakis and transform it from a fictional desert into a tangible, breathing world. By blurring the lines between music, dialogue, effects, and ambience, King’s sound design allows viewers to feel as though they are watching a documentary that captures all the natural sounds with a boom mic - a goal that has been re-iterated by Denis multiple times when talking about his vision for the film's sound design.
Dialogues
The use of different languages that are made up for the movie helps project the concept of otherworldly beings, right from the introduction of the movie, with Galach - the language of the Imperium and Harkonnen’s feeling more alien with a brutal and harsh tone to it, especially when paired with background score and ambience that reflected their environment. Chakobsa - the language of the Fremen, had a more earthy, mystical feel to it supported by the background score and ambience sound used for Arrakis. Even the sound of birds made by Stilgar offers a touch of familiarity to it with how close to real birds it sounds.
The dialogue throughout the movie has a unique approach that reflects power dynamics. Bene Gesserit’s, “The Voice” - a vocal technique that commands obedience - had a more ancestral, powerful, and percussive feel to it. “The Voice” had more resonance achieved by playing the recording via bass speakers and re-recording the sound from the speakers to achieve the deepened and reverberated texture. King also used distorted echoes and overlapping voices to create a sense of disorientation when Paul had dreams or hallucinations.
The sound of natural elements of the desert can sometimes be overwhelming yet dialogues remain clear and precise for the most part unless it was intentionally dampened out to highlight the environment. When Paul and Chani share a moment in the open desert and open up to each other, their voices are clear yet slightly muted, with the ambient sound, the sound of sand moving with the wind, and Chani’s Love Theme song ‘A Time of Quiet Between the Storms’ complementing the dialogues as a delicate backdrop, creating a moment led by warmth and sincerity as the music slowly envelops the audience, taking over fully by the end. But in scenes involving sandstorms, the noise of sand and winds layer around the characters' voices, distorting them, and muting their movements, representing how the desert can overpower mortals whenever it needs to as it is a force to be reckoned with that is beyond control.
When Paul successfully rides the sand-worm, at the start of the action Paul is barely audible, with the sound of worm movement taking over the senses primarily to focus on its size and strength, with Paul’s tiny and feeble voice as he struggles and grunts further driving the narrative as you can barely hear him yelling over the sound of the action. As Paul gains control again, the music cues in to help build a powerful moment that gives him a heroic and powerful persona as the music takes over in sync with him feeling more confident.
Sound effects
Sound effects are important in portraying the otherworldly qualities of Arrakis, particularly through the sounds of the sandworms and Ornithopters. King’s team engineered distinctive sounds for most of the elements by recording acoustic elements and re-working them to sound more in line with the elements shown in the movie to give them a familiar yet strange feel.
The sandworms are an important part of Arrakis’s ecosystem and to emphasise their power, King uses layered low frequencies and bass-heavy rumbles that are felt more than heard. He wanted to capture the nuances of the sound by considering velocity, and friction since it has to represent the driest textures possible while maintaining a smooth flow, akin to the waves of the ocean. King recorded large objects dragged across desert sand and gravel and amplified it in the edit to make it bigger and capture the worms’ “grandfather sound” - a deep, rumbling hum as if 50 tons of sand were moving at 50 miles per hour. Instead of creating terrifying sounds, the worm sign starts as a soft vibration - like insects fluttering across the sand. The auditory “worm sign” begins small, almost delicate as a warning, and grows gradually, evoking a god-like reverence instead of monstrous fear. This approach adds a spiritual and respectful layer to the worms, positioning them as ancient guardians rather than monsters, with their powerful rumble representing power rather than being just frightening.
In a scene where Paul stands before an approaching Shai-Hulud, the sandworm, the ground-shaking bass increases as the worm closes in. When the worm goes up, an explosive roar erupts, accompanied by the sounds of shifting sand. This detailed layer reinforces their god-like status in the Fremen culture and the high-stakes risk of navigating Arrakis.
The Ornithopters, dragonfly-inspired flying machines, have a mechanical yet organic sound, with flapping, insect-like rhythm since it was developed by manipulating the recording of a beetle flying, and adding dynamics to it for when the Ornithoper accelerates, decelerates, and when it moves by with a doppler shift. This design choice shows the technology of the Dune universe in a blend of natural and artificial, increasing its believability. By showing futuristic technology through recognizable, earthly sounds that are manipulated, King makes the world of Dune iterate the feeling that the environment is familiar yet strange.
King’s sound choices depicting the “movement” of the sand are unique as well, by giving it a life of its own. During scenes across the desert, there are faint sounds of sand shifting, almost like small creatures moving just beneath the surface, accompanying the characters' steps. This nuanced effect adds to the feeling that the desert is alive and constantly aware of everyone's presence. It builds tension as if Arrakis itself is watching and testing everyone - especially at night when the sound of creatures and insects is amplified to signify they come out at night when the heat is gone.
In scenes involving the Fremen’s thumper ritual to summon sandworms, there is a deep, rhythmic bass drum that echoes. The thumper’s beat is slow, resembling a heart’s pulse, and as the thumper’s drumming intensifies, the sound deepens, emphasising the looming presence of the sandworms. The thumper sound was captured through a mix of overground condenser mic, underground condenser mic, and underwater hydrophones mic in the Death Valley desert.
King’s sound design also redefines combat through shields. In a fight, every hit lands with a delayed, low-pitched pulse that reverberates briefly, as if absorbed by the shield. The effect shows the physical strain. The sound for the shield was initially supposed to be gun-like, to establish it as a weapon and stand out from the sound of shields in other movies that often have a constant hum sound that overwhelms the senses, however when a glitchy effect was recorded on the synthesiser accidentally, it seemed to fit perfectly with the sequence. After adding a beeping sound to represent impact, Denis then took the sound to the visuals team asking them to add a pulsating red layer around the characters at moments of contact to accompany the sound.
Music
Zimmer's departure from the traditional orchestra brought a unique character to the film. Rather than depending on conventional instruments, he chose to use new ones that reflect an ancient yet futuristic vibe. These custom instruments had an ambiguous quality as well.
He worked with a team that designed wooden speakers paired with electronic effects, including the Osmose keyboard, which provided a vibrato texture to the keys. Additional instruments, like the duduk built from a PVC pipe horn played by Pedro Eustache, added a raw, unrefined feel to form an unforgettable Chani's Love Theme - A Time of Quiet Between the Storms that is spread across the movie representing Chani’s connection to Paul and the desert too along her love for it by blending electronic and acoustic textures that showed the vulnerability of human connections.
Zimmer and King worked with a shared goal to create a seamless experience where sound and music merge cohesively together. Their past experience working together on Nolan films, allowed them to create sounds that work together rather than compete with each other so that the final result shows all elements working together beautifully rather than being a muddled mess.
The sound design and score were intentionally blended to act as one unified storytelling tool. Zimmer and King roadmapped the sound long before the final mix and their collaboration allowed each sound to feel intentional, with Denis as a conductor guiding King to treat sound musically and Zimmer treating music sonically. The result avoids overwhelming the audience, ensuring each element is purposeful and creates an organic flow between sound, music, and visuals, enhancing the story’s emotional impact. This helps the sound as an emotional guide rather than a mere backdrop. Zimmer and King achieved a blend of sound and music, making it nearly impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.
The music score, composed by Hans Zimmer also uses unconventional acoustic sounds, such as throat-singing and wind instruments. King complements these musical elements with sounds from the environment, allowing music and sound design to seem more like organic accompaniments.
The film strategically alternates between music-driven scenes and ambient-driven moments, using music to lead important moments and silence to increase tension. For instance, in scenes of danger or suspense, King allows the ambient sounds to dominate, creating a sense of stillness and unease that music might have disrupted.
Ambience
Throughout the film, the omnipresent wind of Arrakis carries a haunting tone that highlights the vastness of the desert, with layers of rustling sand and distant echoes. These sounds are often subtle, but they create an immersive environment. In one scene where Paul and Chani sand walk across the desert at dawn, the ambient sounds of swirling sand and a low, eerie hum create an atmosphere of stillness.
Each location within Arrakis has its distinct ambient sound. Sietch Tabr - the Fremen sietches are portrayed with hollow echoes and dripping water sounds, in contrast with the windy atmosphere of the open desert. The sound of the sietches is further nuanced through chanting, footsteps, and whispers layered to signify the spiritual community aspect. This distinction gives each environment its own signature sound.
In Dune: Part 2, King crafted two distinct sonic landscapes to represent opposing forces - the harsh industrial world of the Harkonnen and the spiritual world of the Fremen.
King created an industrial soundscape for Geidi Prime - the Homeworld of House Harkonnen. This industrial tone was also used for Salusa Secundus - the Imperial Army Planet. In scenes with the Harkonnens, there were deep metallic clangs. This industrial quality was highlighted to evoke a cold presence. In the gladiator battle scene, King introduces a deep, guttural chanting and cheering through feedback loop layers which echo through the battlefield, positioning them as a relentless force.
In stark contrast, the Fremen's soundscape draws inspiration from the beauty and simplicity of nature, using wind to symbolise the grounded connection the Fremen have with the desert. Here, wood and sand instruments replicate the natural sounds of Arrakis. King and Zimmer worked with virtuoso musicians to play custom-designed instruments, creating tones that mimic the “songs” sung by the wind as it blows across the dunes.
The natural ambience of Arrakis was captured in desert locations, with ambient noise recorded at different times of the day. In Death Valley, King and his team recorded mostly at night after the heat of the sun was gone, and there was more stillness. Foley artists on the team worked on recording and layering distinct sand sounds that have different textures, densities, and interactions with characters and objects.
King carefully positioned moments of silence to create intense, focused listening experiences. In battle scenes, selective use of silence heightens the suspense and the silence “racks focus,” so audiences tune into crucial sounds, such as the beat of the thumper or the movement of the sandworms. This works the same way cinematographers focus on highlighting certain movements through focused, zoomed shots - when done carefully this helps the audience focus on what emotions the creators want them to hear in the story rather than picking between 10,000 different sounds that battle for attention.
During Paul’s climactic confrontation with the worm, all other sounds fade, leaving only the rumble of the sand, drawing attention to Paul’s tiny voice, and heightening his struggle.
A moment that particularly stood out to me was Paul's battle with Feyd-Rautha, where the music and ambient sound were silenced, with just the clash and clang of weapons and body contact, grunts by Paul and Feyd-Rautha being audible along with their deep breaths and occasional gasp from the audience of the battle, drawing you into the fight and increasing the tension in the scene. The music score enters again when Paul gets control and defeats Feyd-Rautha. By using silence to strip away distractions, King created a focused listening experience, allowing specific sounds to take on greater significance.
Conclusion
Richard King’s sound design for Dune: Part 2 showed me how each subtle sound contributes to a larger narrative and emotional framework, enriching the storytelling and bringing Dune’s universe to life.
I learnt about the importance of using real-world recordings, and innovative sound design techniques and how they can take the audience on a deeply immersive journey that feels as if “captured on the day the shots were taken.” The layering of soundscapes, the design of ambiguous yet familiar sounds, and the seamless blend of music and effects make Dune: Part 2 an unforgettable sonic experience for me since rather than overwhelming me, the sound choices draw me into a tangible world of Arrakis, connecting me to Paul's journey and the journey of other characters with more emotional investment.
The sound design not only builds a convincing alien world but also serves as a key storytelling tool. This analysis helped me appreciate the meticulous treatment of dialogue, sound effects, ambient textures, and musical integration to create a fully immersive cinematic experience. It also made me more aware of the fact that sound plays a key role and shouldn't be thought of as an afterthought but instead let it help me shape the narrative right from the start.
Dune: Part 2 achieves a level of immersion that I have not experienced often in film. Richard King’s work invited me into a world that feels alive, where each sound shows the environmental, cultural, and emotional nuances of Arrakis. Rather than merely impressing, the sounds of Dune teleported me to another world.
Resources
The Sound Design of Dune: Part II; Enhanced Media
How The Sounds of Dune Were Made; Thomas Flight
Dune | The Sounds of Dune | Behind The Scenes with Denis Villeneuve; Warner Bros. Entertainment
Dune: Part Two | Deeper into the Desert: The Sounds of the Dune; Warner Bros. Entertainment
Thanks for diving into the world of Arrakis with me!
Next time you watch a film - any film - try closing your eyes for just 30 seconds. You might be surprised by how much of the story you can still follow, and how powerfully the soundscape affects you without any visuals at all.
As Denis Villeneuve and Richard King demonstrated with Dune: Part Two, sound isn't an afterthought - it's fundamental storytelling. That rumble beneath your feet? It might just be a sandworm coming to change your world :)
What's Next?
In upcoming newsletters, I'll be exploring:
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Let's Connect
Did this analysis change how you experienced Dune? Do you have a film whose sound design blew you away? Hit reply and let me know - this isn't a monologue, it's the start of a conversation!
"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." – Dune
Until next time, listen closely,
Sania
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A bite-sized review of a bird focused documentary
OH! You don't say 😏
Very very cool & astute observation and insights! The score Dune really is unmatched in every aspect gotta love it