If our lives are governed by deterministic chains of cause and effect, then moral responsibility, personal identity, and notions of fate versus agency become deeply complex. Art and cinema have long provided a powerful space to explore these questions, often through narrative structures involving time, memory, prophecy, artificial intelligence, or cosmic design.

“Witness me!” A battle cry and one of the last cinematic memes I can remember. Sure, movies are re-made and copied and in a way, those are memes too, but I mean a real meme - a line of dialogue that’s quoted and said by thousands of people in their daily lives for years - that line that is instantly recognisable or tickles your memberberries.

Thematically, Dune: Imperium excels in its translation of the Dune universe’s core ideas of political manipulation, scarcity, loyalty, betrayal, and destiny, into mechanical expression.

Villeneuve constructs a cinematic universe in which nature is not conquered, but worshipped. The film critiques imperialism, industrialism, and religious manipulation yet never loses its sense of awe. It is science fiction that re-enchants the world, reminding us that even in a deterministic universe, there is mystery, agency, and meaning.

Dune positions free will not as an innate human right, but as a fragile illusion sustained by culture, belief, and ignorance of deeper systems at work.