Jodorowsky's Dune Uncovered

Scene 38 : The Gom Jabbar

Still as part of the flashback Leto explains to a visibly pregnant Jessica that he can't marry her as he needs to allow the Major Houses to expect an alliance with one of them, but he promises that he'll never take a wife.

The memories fade and we return to Jessica and the Reverend Mother in the castle. The Reverend Mother berates Jessica for disobeying orders and giving Leto a son instead of a daughter. Paul must be tested to see if he is the Kwisatz Haderach.

Jessica lets Paul enter the room, and tells him that he must do everything the Reverend Mother asks before she leaves them alone.

The Reverend Mother removes a cube from the folds of her clothing, one of the side is open - "Put your right hand here".

Paul does so without argument, and the box begins to emit an electronic noise, as soon as it does the Reverend Mother holds a needle at his neck, Paul starts to turn to look, but, using the Voice, he is commanded to stop.

"You have a Gom Jabbar near your neck. If you take your hand away, you will die in 2 seconds" announces the Reverend Mother, who tells Paul that the box is a test to see if he is really human.

The noise from the box becomes louder and louder as Paul feels like his hand is burning away. Paul bites his lip and digs his fingers into the palm of his free hand (but he doesn't recite the Litany against Fear at this point in the script).

"Nobody has ever endured such suffering", and the box is turned off, and the pain immediately ends. On the Reverend Mother's instruction Paul reluctantly removes his hand, which he is relieved to discover is unharmed.

"Pain by nervous induction" laughs the Reverend Mother as Jessica enters. Paul learns that he maybe the "Kwisatz Haderach" and that the legends sown on Dune may help him and his mother, but that his father will die.

Paul is then commanded, in the Voice, never to reveal that to anyone.

The Moebius storyboards are very similar to the script, apart from the Leto scene at the start and the Reverend Mother's use of the Voice at the very end. This is also the first scene that is recognizably "Dune" from the novel.

Continue to Part 12: Harkonnen Castle