How Big and Powerful Are The Sandworms In Dune?

Sandworms in Frank Herbert's Dune universe are giant organisms that dominate the environment of the desert planet Arrakis and are revered as deities by the indigenous fremen species. The colossal worms are critical to the Imperium as they are the exclusive source of a rare and valuable material known as melange, or "the spice," which is essential for interplanetary travel. In the series, the most crucial and valuable substance in the cosmos is melange, a potent narcotic that provides the user with an extended lifespan, increased vitality, and heightened consciousness. Some individuals can develop prescience, a type of precognition rooted in genetics but enhanced by consuming bigger amounts of the spice.

[@nameless1674]

Yoo it's my first time being first in a vid:D can u pin?

[@DrDope164]

ur pathetic

[@rasmuspedersen3563]

Why would u be pinned? whats the idea?

[@alienelephant4721]

@@rasmuspedersen3563 ATTENTION ;P

[@BloxyCheeseGameplays]

@@rasmuspedersen3563 looking for an argument? not today buddy

[@rasmuspedersen3563]

@@BloxyCheeseGameplays Wut? O_o

[@KePzez]

So here's the jist of it: Sandworms in Dune are autotrophics kind of. The reason Arakis is a dessert planet is because of the juvenile form of Sandworms, called the Sand Trouts, microscopic plankton like life forms that absorbs any moisture in the planet and storing them deep beneath the sands to survive and make their own food, now the sand trouts are all over the planet of Arakis and the Sandworms their adult counterparts filter feeds them to sustain their massive size. A sandtrout transitions to becoming a sandworm by simply not being eaten and surviving long enough to be big enough to be the one doing the eating. Basically the Sandworms survives through cannibalism .

[@user-tw3mm6ru1s]

Aaand the fact that humans want the spice and refuse to release the water from under the sands

[@aaronkinganimations9495]

Dune was started by a bunch of drug addicts who were so addicted to spice that they destroyed a beautiful planet just to fulfill there drug addiction despite also creating territorial worms that will kill you as soon as you take a step.

[@ZillaAlpha_CG]

Sandworms are always interesting to me, great video

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

Like 90% of the good stuff in Dune are the sandworms.

[@shevyalvia6491]

you also forgot to mention that aside from drug melange, Shai'Hulud (Sandworms) are like plants, they are the source of Oxygen in Arrakis

[@efence4713]

4:50

[@will_cashgrow2294]

Samdworms are in a few movies. Dune, Beetlejuice and Tremors

[@masonmcfadden4886]

Can't forgot the exogorth worms on star wars

[@joebrat6809]

They're also in The Hobbit trilogy (not sure if they appeared in any of the books). I definitely think Tremors stole the idea from Dune, although the graboids are much smaller.

[@samfahy6594]

Movie was missing Burt Gummer he'd have sorted the whole mess out

[@joebrat6809]

@@samfahy6594 haha yeah The Harkonnens didn't have him on their side unfortunately.

[@tyreemilon9022]

Spice also exists in the Star Wars universe

[@brendanharan4501]

I’m sorry but, the way you say Vehicle sounds like you are saying Bagel and it is hilarious. Mostly the image of sandworms consuming industrial bagels.

[@miriamemanueleforneris3701]

Surely One of the biggest worm of all movies

[@javierclavijo722]

XDD

[@josephwilliams5292]

One of, but the one in Star Wars was bigger

[@wagwandubzxxx7450]

Basically Alaskan bull worm

[@keithrichardson-dd1uo]

Something that bothers me about the worms is that if they are as aggressive towards eachother as we’ve been told why don’t they attack eachother when they are ridden close to eachother like the movies or when the fermer jump off when they get to their location wouldn’t they attack eachother?

[@javierclavijo722]

probably for the same reason they have been tamed by tiny humans lol: the pain inflicted by the maker hooks. haven't seen the movie yet but surely explain how the ride works.

[@vi5ionnono507]

Long story short, the hooks that are used to ride a sandworm basically hit a pressure point that causes the worm to be completely under the control of whoever is riding it.

[@LorasInSpace]

Long story short, they are very far from as aggressive against each other than hinted at by the creator. Had he read the books we would've been told this was not an issue and we could've skipped about 2-3 minutes of the video. Oh well.

[@RoostaTeetha]

Late reply, but here goes: In the books, the Fremen typically ride the worms until the worms are near exhausted and have so little energy that they won't bother trying pursue and eat their riders. They'll just bury themselves and rest after the riders release them. There isn't much in the books that goes into detail on the worms fighting and eating one another but it's speculation from the in world characters. Another thing from the books is that they don't specify if the Fremen usually take multiple worms together. It's at least explained that the riders will worm hop from one to another as the creatures keep tiring themselves out, but the only instance I remember for certain where multiple worms are ridden at once next to each other is in the climactic battle at the end of the 1st book/2nd movie. No explanation on how they released them afterwards but I guess there was enough food to be devoured at the base that the worms didn't bother fighting each other(?) or they just rode them out until the worms were tired as usual. I took the side by side worm-riding scene as something played up for the theatrics. A lot of the minor plot points were skipped and major parts embellished for the movies but it was done well.

[@olleselin]

So cool that they actually work as transport use!

[@-e6195]

cool, but where is the image and comparasion of the thumbnail???

[@user-dl4bo1tx9o]

Who's excited for Dune part two?

[@miquelgraanoogst6633]

Part 3

[@alwayz_bet_black9160]

Godzilla vs the worms

[@brandonpollard8928]

Godzilla, i love him so much man

[@javierclavijo722]

Sandworns, eat that shi

[@TherandomshitstormerCXVII]

@@javierclavijo722one atomic fart🗿

[@TherandomshitstormerCXVII]

Godzilla

[@Pochitaqa]

Godzilla 180+ meters Worms 100-2500 meters I love Godzilla but this ain't even a fight

[@patrickjohnmacatol559]

I knew they had this in Australia

[@samboermans6155]

In dune Messiah, a very large sandworm is mentioned of about 100 meters. So I think Frank Herbert meant them as smaller, more 50-100 meters long or so

[@jimbojimbo6873]

That’s height though not length

[@MichaelHain.]

If lenght, sounds like a female. If height, definitely male

[@LorasInSpace]

I'll add to this - a very large sandworm has a height of about 100 meters. To put in other words: a very large sandworm has a DIAMETER of a 100 METERS. Imagine if your head was 100 meters from jaw to the top of your head. That would be the measurement given.

[@d3adst4r31]

thats his face lenght

[@BlueSkyCountry]

The political structure in Dune is already medieval, and Arrakis is a world where actual medieval battles would play out perfectly. Imagine captive sandworms used as trebuchets, slinging great boulders and vessels full of Greek Fire at fortresses, the slow moving projectiles easily penetrating their shields and wreaking havoc, then other sandworms used as siege towers, advancing up to the walls, and then rearing their heads upon where hundreds of knights are standing in readiness, and as soon as they are level with the walls, the warriors charge across, unleashing crossbow bolts.

[@killahasbigrpk8711]

I think using the worm itself as siege equipment (as seen in the movie) is much more effective than attaching additional siege equipment to it

[@LorasInSpace]

The political structure has regressed to noble houses, yes. Good luck using exploding nukes as stones to throw at your opponent, on the other hand.

[@patrickday4206]

Where did you get the idea that sandworms will eat smaller ones as food? I remember they are territorial and eat sand plankton

[@DanteYewToob]

Spoiler alert, those are another part of the sandworm lifecycle.. Basically sandworms are their own lifecycle and circle of life all in one. They birth hundreds of thousands of tiny “plankton” babies, that grow into sand trout. Plankton and sand trout need water to survive and sand trout secrete a sort of slime that makes sand water tight to allow water to pool somewhere.. as they mature they consume the water and use it to grow and at some point water becomes anathema to sandworms. The slime that sand trout makes gets left behind when the water is gone, that slime dries and gets mixed into the sand and becomes spice. Sandworms eat sand trout and young sandworms, and just like fish, although many are born only a few ever make it to full maturity. Sandworms mate, find somewhere wet underground and lay the plankton eggs and I think (don’t quote me.. I’m not sure but I think…) the sandworm dies, and it’s body is used as nutrition and the body fluids and blood gets “filtered” through the sand and processed by the plankton to become some of the water the trout need… etc. circle continues… Worms, and spice. A big closed loop of life.

[@patrickday4206]

@@DanteYewToob somehow I missed where it said that the plankton are worms in a stage in the book thanks

[@codename495]

Sand plankton is the youngest stage of the sand worm. Sandplankton, sandtrout, sandworm

[@ayatgabir2531]

Can you make a video talking about? Planet of the apes size comparisons, biggest to smallest.

[@masonmcfadden4886]

Exogorth vs sand worms?

[@themysticalcolby]

Was thinking this exact same thing

[@ineedalife6]

Exogorth reach up to 900 meters in length, so they'd be larger than most Sand Worms except for the extremely large at the south pole of Arakis and the Old Man of the Desert.

[@Dieter1971]

I'll show you mine if you show me yours... Lol!

[@nmahangu]

Pinworms

[@erdieaquino7104]

one of these can gobble up a collossal titan

[@legionarii4711]

6:32 POV: you have a water gun and a sand worm is coming

[@marcust66]

They make good fishing bait

[@ae364]

Thumper? I barely know her! 😅👍

[@deddyseptiyanto6859]

Spice = sandworm's shit?

[@codename495]

Spice= sandtrout afterbirth+ shit+time-water.

[@johno1544]

I think it's more the dead bodies of larval sand worms called sand trout.

[@shardon8607]

I heard somewhere that it was more like sandworm sperm

[@Chris-jw8vm]

Someone in the comments section described it. Sounds more like snot.

[@LorasInSpace]

Essentially, yes.

[@86samsky]

Make me wonder why you wouldn't build harvesters larger than the largest worms. More spice less loss. The presumable answer is the worms would evolve in size

[@willbordy]

I just have the knowledge of the movies, but I think would just be destroyed anyway, The harvesters seem to be gigantic, and the worms are just bigger, even if you made the thing lets say 4 times bigger the worm instead of eating it whole would body slam the thing, and I don't really think anything man made can withstand a body slam of a creature that swim in sand like it's nothing, specially because of the near indestructible armor, massive weight and most likely their bones are made of something other them bones to allow them to reach such sizes without crumbling into each other. Also, harvesters are already super slow and flying them to a new place when the old one is depleted of spice seems easier them just walking the whole way. To be honest I'm surprised that the harvester is not smaller to allow some kind of evasive maneuver when a worm pop of without warning

[@harrytownsend5093]

Bless the maker and his water

[@minchy9094]

As someone who hasn’t watched dune but like mythological creatures, intersting

[@LorasInSpace]

I can relate but I wish he would keep to the lore.

[@DanteYewToob]

As much as I love the dune movies, and the new design it kinda bugs me that the mouth is just always open. Add three lips to it that can close and it would be perfect!

[@brendanharan4501]

Idk I like it. I don’t remember what Frank Herbert’s exact description might have been, but they are filter feeders so it would make sense that their mouths are always open.

[@jaythekid4728]

They’re not open tho. There’s a throat that closes

[@melt6894]

It’s not always open, they appear to have lips which you see starting close after an attack. We just see them open, because that’s when they are attacking

[@09archange]

Ok, how exactly is the only effective weapon against those things is nukes? Does the person who wrote this story understand how powerful nuclear weapons are? Little boy was capable of destroying anything within a 64 square kilometer radius and that is the smallest deployed nuclear weapon, Dune is technically the future which means that the bombs there may very well be able to cover 1000 kilometer radius or more, that is WAAAAY too much of an overkill to use on something like a worm, even IF they were all the length of the Old Man of The Desert, a more realistic approach if you wanted to kill them and didn’t care how, would be to set up a few thumpers around a MOAB (mother of all bombs) once a worm swallows it, the explosion and the shock wave should be more than enough to deal with a medium sized worm.

[@Oceangoaway]

One unmarkable tomato

[@augustusrexbunao1448]

1000 years for that size is small. for my opinion they can live for 50 thousand years

[@JamesWilliams-gv7zd]

Sandworms don't slither like snakes nor ambulate like inch worms. Anyone ever seen a sandworms butt? I bet they jet out sand for propulsion

[@mooske6352]

The use of "underscores" reminds me of chatgpt

[@rattusgrenadus8291]

You got that yt accnt of a dude who once almost sort of tried to do something w their life and now only copes by suppressing any thought of ever being a real person

[@XavierThe5layer]

Long and robust 🥴

[@joejackson4627]

Yueh said the LARGEST were 450m.

[@marcodegiovanni3696]

He never went to the South xD

[@hawk66100]

Yuen was wrong.

[@LorasInSpace]

The Imperium is delightfully wrong-informed. The largest measure in kilometers. Not meters.

[@hawk66100]

@@LorasInSpace “Usul has called a big one. Again, it is the legend.” -Stilgar

[@joejackson4627]

@@LorasInSpace Not bad. I like that answer.

[@shawndaugherty4445]

20 seconds in and I'm already disinterested by you pronouncing freman as freeman.

[@LorasInSpace]

Pretty sure there's even a "how to pronounce" at the end of every book. Hard to get it wrong if you've read anything by Frank. I feel your pain.

[@kuskuskus1212]

If Australia was a planet

[@accessdenied5998]

Their weakness is water

[@_robustus_]

I saw Paul’s worm in the French Dispatch. Sooo hot.

[@mindq4328]

😆

[@javierclavijo722]

my dude made a video to explain how powerful the 14,000,000 ton sandworms are

[@DavidGarcia-oi5nt]

Worst math ever lol

[@beatrice3506]

The sand worms look like a butt 😅 .. are in eye 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@mindq4328]

Sphincter worm

[@CoNteMpTone]

This entire video is AI scripted and read.

[@abraxanAc0lyte]

nothing will ever stop me from putting my schlorgabingus in the dune popcorn bucket

[@mindq4328]

That's a sandtrout