Dune, Fremen Needle Gun

original movie prop

This is one of the Fremen Needle guns seen (very) briefly in Davd Lynch's Dune. The weapon makes its best appearance during the scene when Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica first meet the Fremen. The Fremen draw needle guns and other weapons when they briefly fight with Paul. You can also see a number of holstered needle guns in the scene where the Fremen first show Paul and Jessica their water caches, and later when Paul first introduces the Fremen to the weirding module. (Once they're armed with weirding modules, I guess they ditched their needle guns...)

The gun is made of resin and fiberglass (or perhaps resin with something like fiberglass to give it more strength) and is painted to look like metal. This was owned by a member of the Dune props department -- he lives in Mexico, where it was filmed -- and he sold it through Profiles in History.

I tried to screen-match the gun but it's pretty much impossible. When the guns are drawn, it's dark. When there's a lot of light they're holstered. After consulting with a few prop experts as well as some people who've worked on Hollywood films, there's general agreement that this was probably used on camera -- scuffs around the handle from being held, and the high-points on the gun where it might have rubbed against a holster; some dings from seeing "combat" -- but we can't be certain.

(None of the screen caps are meant to imply that this prop is screen-matched -- they're just to show where these guns were used. Because seriously, if you blink, you'll miss them!)