Film Theory: The Mystery of Dune's Spice SOLVED! (Dune) 

Matpat: *spends 10 minutes explaining how prednisone is probably the bulk of spice* Also Matpat: "What about the genius calculations? Eh probably cocaine idk."

My late wife had Lupus and therefore took Prednisone from the age of 13 until she past at 30. She had a lowered immune system and suffered from night terrors from it but was always looking toward the bright side of her situation. She would have loved your video Matt and would definitely had started calling her daily med regimen her daily spice melange.

Actually, I recall Paul went blind because some rebels tried off him with a 'stone burner' atomic weapon, it blinded a bunch of other fremen as well. This became a plot point because blind fremen were considered useless and were expected to fall on their knives or die in the desert. I think its the former because, why waste the water? Paul said he'd pay for bionic eyes for those that wanted them. But I digress, its been a decade since I read original books, but I'm certain he didn't go blind from spice consumption. Still kudos on the theory combination of reality and imaginary worlds and the like.

Paul goes blind because he gets irradiated by a weapon know as a Stone Burner. Not because of his blue eyes.

Fun Fact: The worm hunters of Dune are based on a Native American tribe of whale hunters. The spice could be an analog for ambergris. It's pooped/puked out, the natives had no real commercial use for it, but the colonizers found it incredibly valuable. Sounds like spice to me.

As someone who took prednisone when I was as a kid, I was never informed that having blue sclera was a side effect. Kinda scary honestly.

After the new hosts took over, I was honestly surprised to hear Matt's voice

one flaw in this theory: if it was just a chemical substance, it'd be possible to synthesize it in a lab, so, no need to risk on Arrakis, or the dependency on (and dangers of) the sandworms would be necessary... I think the _melange_ is alive (a microbe) AND parasitic... the plankton, the trouts, and the worms are, essentially, the spice itself (like literally), these stages are merely forms the melange (whatever it really is) takes... _but that's just a theory, MY theory_

For anyone who has never read the books and only the movie, yeah a lot of stuff from the books inspired Star wars. There was also a lot of inspiration from the Valerian comics (which aren't from America so I can understand why not many people understand) not including more obvious inspiration from samurai movies and westerns. Besides its not really a rip off because Star wars is way less opposed to AI compared to Dune so its easier for a droid to calculate interstellar math than a human.

As usual, NO ONE that covers Dune understands the Navigator's Guild. They don't do calculations, they literally see the future. They see the future where they don't fly through a star and get to their destination. And then they do that.

I always associated the spice to oil - oil is extremely valuable because you need oil to produce energy and the world would grind to a halt without it

The spice was created for the book to represent oil in our real life. We all have become so dependent on oil in our day to day lives, the same way spice is essential for all progress in the dune universe. But a fun tidbit is that frank Herbert actually based his spice off a real life spice and it’s not a pharmaceutical drug but it does have psychedelic properties. Nutmeg. The most fought over spice with the highest human body-count for any spice in the world. Didn’t see that coming did ya. Ps: nice try if you thought salt would be the most fought after spice. I did too

My only problem with the claims of this video is Paul's blindness. His blindness has no connection at all to the spice. It's caused by a device that goes off that is designed to blind people.

"Man, sneaking a Ryan George reference is going to be difficult" MatPat: "actually its gonna be super easy,barely an inconvenience."

Yeah, I went and saw Dune a second time after watching it and it was worth the money. Amazing visuals and sound effects, the characters were well-played, and the storytelling was immaculate.

2:00 Mat : "And chair dogs. You heard that right, dogs that are also chairs" People who watched GF "Weirdmageddon" : "Oh No ! Anyways..."

Paul didn‘t lose his sight due to spice over-use. He lost the soft eye tissue from a stone burner a type of weapon used in an assasination attempt.

I don’t know how you research the contents of the books enough to know Paul goes blind, but not enough to know that he’s blinded by an atomic weapon, or that the explosion burns his eyes out entirely and he’s walking around as a weird, eye-less corpse-looking dude for a while.

Paul lost his sight from atomics in the books, not from spice. While the blue eye theory makes sense, it's not what causes blindness in any of the Fremen

I guess the women addicted to Dune’s spices are called Spice Girls

To add, "melange" can also mean "variety." That's right. The most lore-dense acclaimed sci-fi book series is a setup for a pun: "Variety is the spice of life."

I have been treated for autoimmune disease since 1999 and recently noticed the periphery of my iris has turned blue… thanks Mat Pat! Making an appt with my doctor ASAP!

I remember the blue thing! I recommend “why blue in nature is so rare”, if you want a deeper insight about the color blue in general! It’s super interesting!

The spice doesn’t affect Paul’s eyesight nor does it make him go blind. In Dune Messiah he is affected by a radiation based weapon caused a Stoneburner which destroyed his eyes. I literally just finished that book.

One of the side effects of spice melange is addiction - once you start taking it, you can't stop or you'll die. So if this stuff is an enhanced form of alien Prednisone, and your body's immune system becomes dependent upon it, then that would make sense. If you stop taking it, your immune system can't cope and you die. I do feel I have to point out that Paul's blindness is not caused by exposure to the spice. It was caused by a stone burner, an atomic-based weapon that emits something called J-rays when used. It is those J-rays that destroy the optic tissues and cause blindness.

The other consideration that you forgot to mention is the spice’s rarity and difficulty to synthesize. I can’t imagine Prednisone being that difficult to produce.

I showed this episode to a Dune-book-reader. They had these points to say 1. In the books, the spice doesn’t ‘Float’ out of the sand, it bubbles up from gas underneath to make piles (the ‘Spice Blows’) 2. He didn’t go blind from Sun/blue eyes, he went blind from radiation poisoning after he got too close to a stone burner 3. It’s not their poop, it’s their dying exhalation-like they drown to make the spice. They don’t poop it out 4. They also liked the movie 👌

Here’s an interesting one: in the scene “The Coneheads”, Mr. Conehead used a camera that left scorch marks on the wall of the house and burn marks on their daughters date. How powerful was that camera, and could a human actually survive it?

It’s a mélange - a mixture. It’s gotta have some DMT in there. DMT occurs naturally as an analog and sometimes as a precursor to Tryptophan, it looks quite similar to spice, it is a strong hallucinogen that has been shown to have some anti-tumerogenic effects, and neurogenic effects, along with reliably producing prophetic, spiritual, and religious experiences, resulting in a long-term change in personality. Also it could actually be plausible that some long-dead megaflora released pockets of DMT throughout Arrakis, after being crushed by millenia of pressure and heat. Also, people frequently refer to DMT as “The Spice.”

MatPat is one of the best theorists on RU-vid and yet he still can't pronounce Zendaya's name correctly

4:43 that’s kinda beautiful in a way though because the idea of me having direct connection to someone’s brain feels romantic in the least creepy way possible 😂

The human computer thing doesn't come from the spice. It comes from the Mentat training that was developed after computers were outlawed, long before the spice was discovered by the galaxy at large. And it's a product of the sand trout, which is a larval form of the sand worm. That whole ecology is kind of weird as the sand worms have three distinct phases in their lives, but they cycle through those phases, over and over, and the larger sand worms actually feed off of the tiny sand trout, which would grow into sand worms later in life, if they don't get eaten.

So I just started reading the books a little bit after they announced the new movie im just starting the last book written by Frank Herbert. So here are some things that don't line up. Some SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!! 1. Paul does go blind in the second book. But its from a outlawed super weapon called a stone burner. The scene talks of massive heat melting his eyeballs and of those near him young and old. 2. Spice doesn't make you great at math. That's becoming a "Mentat". Basically a human computer not created using spice. And thats not what "guild navigators" do. They plot a course trough space by basically seeing the future using spice and knowing what's a safe option because they have this limited ability to see in to the future(Not as big as Paul who is a mentant and a future seer/oracle/prescient). 3. Lady Jessica never had any delirium what so ever her daughter had it do to something called aberration and having the memories of her ancestors in her before having any memories of her own. The movie gives you a very different picture of jessica then the books. No where near as calm and collected as a bene gesserit is supposed to be. 4. The personality change comes from the sad ability and hopelessness of seeing the future. Multiple mentions of Paul and latter his Son The God Emperor Leto II being bored of and becoming disconnected because of this the latter especially.(Side note the son of Paul is one of the most amazing characters written imo and for Warhammer 40k fans you will see the inspiration for the emperor of mankind). So over all even though I don't disagree with the theory and its conclusion. The points made are based on missinformation or more so just reading it on a wiki out of context and not understanding how some thing happened.

Doesn’t Paul lose his eyes from a atomic stone burner?

Chronically suppressed immune system not only means lower immunity to infections, but also much higher rate of neoplastic tumors, especially when exposed to such massive UV light - this is the reason that the Fremen wouldn't statistically live longer and healthier than people not exposed to spice.

"If you've seen dune the movie, dune the old movie, dune the book..." People who played dune the videogame be like:

MatPat, you also forgot that the spice is officially so addictive that the addiction is what extends life. The body and mind get so addicted they will defy death and aging in order to keep getting it.

Videos hit different now. Now that Mat is no longer the host.

Hey a manga named toilet bound Hanako kun is becoming pretty popular recently, the fandom would be very happy if you were to do a theory on how it would end or possibly the yugi twins.

No! Paul didn’t loose his sight because of the Spice, in DUNE Messiah there was an attempt to assassinate him by blowing him up and he got blinded in the explosion.

But Paul's blindness is caused by a powerful weapon, a stone burner, which released radiation that destroyed his eye tissue, not by heavy spice intake.

gotta love seeing my favorite film parody channel, including clips from my *other* favorite film parody channel(s).

oh god matpat. he went blind because of a nuclear explosion

Few things get quite as frustrating here as when MatPat comes so close to having some good points, and just over focuses on trying to make something fit a specific talking point rather then just see what the data could mean on it's own, and when he gets some pretty major and basic fact wrong. Paul didn't go blind just from being out in the bright desert, he went blind due to being too close to, and looking right at, what was essentially a nuclear powered road flare the size of a building. And trying to force this into a 'this is just prednisone but with some added sci-fi stuff just, feels like trying to hard to make the spice something it simply isn't, as yeah it does have these other properties, and is made in a very different fashion with a lot of other things that don't add up. Yet, the fact so much does fit with it is itself worth looking at for how Spice works, and to establish that while clearly not Prednisone itself, it could very well be some form of corticosteroid similar to the drug, and examining how that could work out.

I started reading the series a year ago when they announced the movie last year. Since then I've read the entire series 3 times (I'm on my fourth time right now). I am now beginning a read-through of a bunch of prequel lore books its awesome to see more people who love this series as much as I do. it is also disappointing to see a lot of people who only see dune as a Star Wars knock-off and not the Star Wars inspiration that almost got star wars sued. To me, the Dune universe is better but that's an opinion. I'd love to start a group that also shares a love for the dune universe where we can discuss a bunch of unanswered questions. Dang y’all really blew this one up😂

Mat… I love you and your theories are so well-researched. But this makes it so much worse when you get a detail, especially a major one, incredibly wrong. Paul didn’t lose his sight due to desert exposure; he lost it because his eyes were burned out of his head due to radiation exposure from a “stone burner”- an Old World “atomic” weapon that gives off radiation that specifically ruins eye tissue when it runs. An event, by the bye, that takes place in the 2nd Dune novel, Dune Messiah.

I love you making sense out of things that wasn't even supposed to make sense!

Paul doesn't go blind because of spice usage, but because stone burners, which are basically radiation bombs, and specifically damage your eyes. Check and mate⸮

Something I just want to mention. You don’t have to necessarily be addicted to spice in order to have the blue eyes. Spice basically gets everywhere on Arrakis, it’s in the air you breathe and the sand that you walk in. You’re exposed to it so much, that in about a few years of continuous living on Arrakis, your eyes will turn blue.

I watched Dune in theaters, wow it was a cool movie. Certainly high level storytelling, as not a lot is explained verbally, rather everything important is shown to you and left for you to figure out. I love Dune's universe, it's just so cool. Also its pedigree is insane, being one of the inspirations for Tatooine in Star Wars is certainly nothing to shake a stick at. I can't wait for part 2. Also, watch the replies to my comment be Lou Lou and all the other s*x bots. I'm watching you.

you should make a theory on a manga called toilet bound hanako kun plsss!

Herbert was friends with Paul Stamets for whom the protagonist is named. Stamens introduced him to psilocybin from mushrooms. His experiences using them therapeutically are the inspiration for the spice.

Matt Patt, I love the enthusiasm. It's fantastic that you are in this fandom. But you REALLY missed the mark on a couple of lore points. Example: The Spice didn't impact Paul's eyesight at all. He goes blind in the second book because he looks at the explosion of a super weapon that emits a radiation that melts human eyes.

YEEEEESSSSS A DUNE THEORY. I unexpectedly *loved* that movie more than I thought I would. The costumes, the actors, the vibe of the world.

omg if you did a theory on the toilet boud hanako kun manga i'd be so happy!

Paul goes blind to what is pretty much an atomic flash grenade, this may be supplemented by spice, but it is the main reason for him losing sight. It literally burns out his eyes.

I love how you can pull these filaments of possibilities into something real. But being a Dune geek of the original six novels (I won't get into what I think of other novels), I have to point out that even though you did mention you were going by the Dennis Villeneuve version, you did mention something that happens in the second novel (and third movie, if Dennis and the studio are willing to close out the Paul story arc - but not really since there's a character that appears in the third novel that may or may not actually be Paul, not to be spoiled here), that Paul's blindness has nothing to do with the spice and all due to a Stone Burner nuclear device being detonated near him, a side effect being it melts your eyes. Okay, late-60's sci-fi weird. But since Paul has prescience, he can function as if he still had eyes as he can see the future a moment in advance. Due to his prescience he knows he has to suffer this fate for the events to play out along the Golden Path, even though he's too chicken to make the ultimate sacrifice, leaving it to his son, who Paul's prescience didn't inform him would be born. Remember that. It's important for the remaining novels :)

On a side note, Dune is one of the most visually spectacular movies I’ve ever seen

Spice.

Thats not why Muad'Dib lost his sight, that was a result of being exposed to the radiation produced by a nuclear device known as a Stone Burner

I can’t get over the fact that he mispronounced Zendaya’s name 😭 1:10

As someone who's experienced Prednisone psychosis I can verify that it is exactly 0% fun. I dread the possibility of my doctors even considering asking me to go back on it.

Just watched dune foe the first time last night and here I am obsessed watching everything on youtube 😅

You should do a video on who Sophie's real dad is in 'Mama Mia'.

Paul goes blind in the books, not from his spice usage, but because he was exposed to the flash of a nuclear weapon, which from the description, made me think his eyes actually popped, but his prescience of the future was powerful enough that he didn't need eyes

You are confusing blue and gray eyes here. Yellow-brown is from pigment, blue is from structures in the iris that scatter light, green is a mix of both and gray is the lack of both. If you start green and lose pigment, you may get blue, but if you start with brown and lose pigment, you get gray. You can also lose blue to get gray, which is what my eyes did. As a child my eyes were blue, but as I got into adulthood they got less vivid and became opalescent. The confusion you stumbled into is because of that opalescence causing many with gray eyes to be mistaken for blue or green. For Dune, it's an additive effect, not a subtractive one. In all versions it's a vivid blue, and it's usually depicted affecting the sclera also. There is a sclera tattoo that some have gotten to replicate the look with pigment, but in real biology you can get yellowing of eyes from chemical deposition in the sclera and iris, as well as other parts of the eye. Dune blue eyes are likely some chemical being deposited there. Colloidal silver notoriously causes bluing of skin when abused, so it's not without some level of precedent.

Zendayas got upgraded to a term 😅

Looks like the stuff you would put in a curry 0:24

You can really tell he didn’t really learn about the dune books because he says paul went blind from spice. He lost his eyes from a nuclear weapon thing in the second book

4:00 As someone with blue eyes who has done much research on melanin, I very much enjoyed hearing this part. I have fair skin, blue eyes, and brown-red hair, so in terms of melanin, I have some but less than many. Bow down to your low-melanin superior, you peasants.

more pitch meeting collabs please! 🧡

So glad to hear somebody just happily gushing about a movie.

“They’re not exposing each other to their germs.” That scene where the Fremen making camp collectively spit into a coffee machine.

2:50 I did not expect a special appearance by Ryan George!

If you think that it's strange for humans to eat worm poop. Remember that humans also consume kopi luwak coffee(civet pooped coffee cherries) and some shamans have distilled reindeer urine for its hallucinogenic effect.

the games, specifically the ones made by Westwood studios are fun games

Dune peeps: “artificial intelligence is too powerful and dangerous to be trusted” Also Dune peeps: “let’s get our most powerful leaders hooked on weapon grade ADHD drugs instead.”

I really love the vfx in Dune, the way they made the glass dust look like sand because it was filmed in slow mo was a much better choice then doing it digitally

7:23 euphoric... like euphoria one of zendaya's other series

UmMmACtshUAlLY Pauls eyes got melted by witnessing a space laser in "Messiah"

He went blind because of a nuclear weapon… The Stoneburner produced enough radiation to blind people nearby

Me before watching this episode: "It's just cinnamon" Me after watching this episode: I haven't fully watched it yet Edit: It's just prednisone, kinda boring but ok

And, I forgot to add, Spice does not cause hallucinations, but visions, and it only makes Paul's visions clearer, no other person sees visions of the future like Paul, during his time.

Very short answer: the spice is the dried poop of sandworm larvae. You're welcome.

In relation to Children of Dune: there was no invisible children born. There were a pair of children born, but due to the interaction of prescience (essentially precognition) and one of the children being born prescient, they were "invisible" to the others prescient views, but could easily be seen with the naked eye.

I'd love it if people who are hot to cover Dune to get views on YT would actually learn the lore first. Paul didn't loose his sight to spice, he lost it to a stone burner aka type of atomic device. But thanks to the spice and his kwisatz haderach prescience, he can function as if he can still see, because he's seen the future. (many futures, actually)

In dune Messiah Paul goes blind due to radiation from a “stone burner” (a nuclear weapon) going off near him. Not because of spice or the sun or anything like that

I have an auto immune disorder and I’ve had to take prednisone a lot. I appreciate the cool video. For anyone wondering taking it sucks. It keeps you from sleeping it messes up your hormones and just is awful. For me I’m in a constant state of rage and panic. Like my fight our flight is always on. Just to clarify don’t take it thinking you’re gonna get a super strong immune system or you are gonna start having visions or whatever

Can't wait for Dune: Part 2!

When we saw the spice in the new dune I could not stop laughing because my dad was like "The spice extend shelf life. the spice expand the culinary mind. the spice is vital to a good spaghetti sauce." and the homemade spice mix we put in our 16L (4 gal) sauce batches is reddish brown to burned orange.

Film Theory idea, how much would it actually cost to own Clifford?

Matpat, the ozone in the atmosphere of arrakis acts not only as a powerful greenhouse but also gets rid of UV light which would prevent much of the eye damage. It would also give every one of the characters a severe vitamin d defficiency

I didn’t think people still called her zen-die-ya, I thought everyone knows her name by now.

This video is DUNE perfectly.

Happy New year

Whomever edited this video deserves props. Very funny.

Paul wasn't blinded because of glare from the sun and spice usage. He was blinded after seeing an atomic explosion, or nearly atomic, it might have been a laser/shield interaction, which basically melted his eyes. Matpat, do better

I had been on prednisone since I was 8, treating a disease called Systemic Juvinile Idiopathic Arthritis. I got off it 3 years ago, and I can most definitely say I got the ‘Prednisone High’ I read the labels of everything I saw, everything. I definitely had mood changes, however being in denial of them. Anger, frustration, and not really caring about others’s feelings were a few of them. I was on it because basically SJIA is a Autoimmune condition where your own immune system fights back on your joints, tendons, muscles, and because of the Systemic part, my organs. I had to take HIGH amounts of Prednisone to weaken my immune system so I could actually walk. No joke, I had tablets at breakfast before school, and dinner before bed. I even had infusions of it every month, and cortisone injections in my joints. The only thing that was not mentioned in this theory was that it caused me to feel hungry at the strangest times, sometimes waking up at midnight to eat a bowl of spaghetti. I am so thankful I am off it, and happy that I can share my story.

Very excited to see how many people point out that Paul goes blind from a Stone Burner attack and not spice.

I wanted this exact video, thank you