Dune: Part One

In the distant future, Duke Leto Atreides is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to replace Baron Vladimir Harkonnen as the fiefholder of Arrakis, a harsh desert planet and the sole source of "spice", a valuable psychotropic substance that imparts heightened vitality and awareness. Spice is also key to interstellar travel. Emperor Shaddam, fearful of Leto's rising power, plots for House Harkonnen, aided by his Sardaukar troops, to retake Arrakis and destroy House Atreides. Leto is suspicious of the Emperor but weighs the risks against the power of controlling Arrakis and making an alliance with its mysterious natives, the Fremen.
Leto's concubine, Lady Jessica, is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit—a sisterhood whose members possess advanced physical and mental abilities. As part of a centuries-long breeding program, they instructed her to bear a daughter whose son would become the Kwisatz Haderach—a messianic superbeing with the prescience necessary to guide humanity to a better future. Jessica disobeyed and bore a son, Paul, whom she trains in Bene Gesserit practices. Paul also receives mentorship from Leto's aides Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, Wellington Yueh, and Thufir Hawat. The Reverend Mother and Imperial Truthsayer Gaius Helen Mohiam subjects Paul to a highly dangerous gom jabbar test to assess his humanity and impulse control, which he passes. Paul begins having troubling visions of the future.
House Atreides arrives on Arrakis. The Fremen revere Paul and Jessica, which she explains is due to the Bene Gesserit sowing beliefs on Arrakis centuries earlier. An attempt to assassinate Paul fails. At a secret meeting on the Harkonnen planet Giedi Prime, Mohiam insists that Baron Harkonnen spare Paul and Jessica in his coup, to which he duplicitously agrees. Leto meets and negotiates with Fremen chieftain Stilgar and meets the Imperial Judge of the Change, Dr. Liet Kynes, a planetologist who lives among the Fremen. During a flight over the desert, they rescue a stranded spice-harvesting crew from a giant sandworm, and Paul's exposure to the spice triggers intense premonitions.
Yueh betrays the Atreides and disables Arrakeen's shields, allowing the Harkonnens and Sardaukar to invade. Yueh incapacitates Leto, planning to exchange him for his wife, the Baron's prisoner. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule with which Leto can assassinate the Baron. After the Baron kills Yueh, Leto releases the gas, killing himself and the Baron's Mentat, Piter De Vries, but the Baron survives. Though the Baron arranged to have Paul and Jessica dropped deep in the desert to die, Yueh had left them with a fremkit with survival supplies. Jessica uses the Voice technique to overpower and kill their captors. Overnighting in the desert, Paul—surrounded by spice—has visions of a bloody holy war fought across the universe in his name.
After conquering Arrakis, Baron Harkonnen appoints his nephew Rabban to oversee the planet, and orders him to restart spice production to recoup the invasion's cost. Meanwhile, Duncan and Kynes find Jessica and Paul, who discloses his plan to marry one of Emperor Shaddam's daughters to avert a potential civil war arising from the Emperor's betrayal. When they are discovered by Sardaukar soldiers, Duncan sacrifices himself to enable Paul and Jessica to escape. Kynes also tries to escape but is caught and mortally wounded. Deep in the desert, Paul and Jessica encounter Stilgar's tribe, including Chani, the young woman from Paul's visions. When Stilgar commands lenience towards Paul and Jessica, the Fremen warrior Jamis challenges them to a ritual duel to the death; Paul accepts and wins. Contrary to Jessica's wishes, Paul joins the Fremen, determined to fulfill his father's goal of bringing peace to Arrakis.