During the first Dune film, viewers may notice that the Harkonnen leader, Baron Harkonnen, is quite corpulent and even appears to float. As the film progresses, you realise that this leader is, in fact, floating and that you did not dream it. So, what causes the Harkonnen leader to float? This is why.This article contains spoilers for the upcoming Dune film.Baron Harkonnen Cannot Support His Own WeightBaron Harkonnen is a hulking man who is so obese that he can’t walk under his own weight. Based on how he sits near the beginning of the film, you might mistakenly believe he has a snake body. You’ll see his feet through his robes in a later scene, confirming that he’s actually floating.
The Harkonnen people’s leader has a complicated physiology. (And, in case you’re wondering, he only rules over House Harkonnen and their associates.) He is not the Emperor in general. He is simply the most powerful leader in Dune Part 1.)The Baron’s ability to float visually represents a key point in the book’s plot. Vladimir Harkonnen’s “most notable feature” as he ages, according to Dune’s wiki, is his extreme weight, which reflects his hedonism and gluttony. Because his muscles are unable to support his extreme weight, he stands using “belt-mounted suspensors.”
These suspensors allow him to move around by allowing him to float in mid-air.According to the wiki, the suspensors only allowed “some levitation to a certain degree,” so he may be floating more extensively in the film than intended in the books.There’s an interesting Reddit thread about his suspensors that asks if they really let him float or just made him weigh less. People replied that in the books, they simply removed some weight and allowed him to “bounce” when he walked.
So it appears that the film took some liberties with that concept, allowing him to float high in the air rather than simply bounce due to his lighter weight. (Another Reddit user pointed out that the soldiers seen slowly falling to the ground in one scene are also wearing suspensors.)The Baron also appeared in Lynch’s film, so this is a theme carried forward from the previous work, albeit not entirely true to the book’s telling. Some viewers believe that Denis Villeneuve’s floating is a nod to Lynch and Jodorowsky, who also portrayed him floating.
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