If you turned on MTV for any length of time in 2001, you almost certainly saw Christopher Walken flying through the lobby of a Marriott in Los Angeles. Even in an era where music videos are more hotly debated than they are now, it’s a strange sight. Walken’s trim shock of gray hair matched his gray suit, accessorized with a red tie; he looks more like a movie star than a guy on a long layover.
The music is Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice,” a quirky little ditty that made you want to dance. Having trained as a dancer in her youth — and doing a lot of tap and more in “Pennies From Heaven” (1981) — Walken is well equipped for the concept cooked up by video director Spike Jonze: Normal-looking guy hanging out in a hotel lobby hears a song, starts dancing, then flies off the a mezzanine before, eventually, returning to his seat. The video was a hit, winning several MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy.
The lyrics to “Weapon of Choice” (sung by Bootsy Collins) are so twisted — the point isn’t the words but the hypnotic beat. But if you listen closely, you can pick up the line “Walk without a beat/and it won’t attract a worm.”
Yes, this is a reference to “Dune.”
In Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, giant ancient sandworms that live beneath the desert on the planet Arrakis are extremely dangerous to humans, though their powers can be used for travel and other purposes. They are one of the most famous elements of the story, so immediately recognizable that they were turned into a dubiously conceived popcorn bucket for the release of the new “Dune: Part Two” by Denis Villeneuve. And they’re attracted to the rhythmic beats on the surface, so the Fremen — people who live in the desert of Arrakis — walk in strange, loping, arrhythmic steps to avoid accidental detection.
In the video, Walken even seems to mimic those steps:
These lyrics also appear. They can say anything, of course.
Don’t be surprised
in the tone of my voice
Check out my new weapon
weapon of choice
But it would certainly make sense if it was a reference to “the voice” (or is it THE VOICE?), a powerful voice distortion used by the mystical sisterhood Bene Gesserit to control people in “Dune.”
It’s all a funny reference in 2021, when the first installment in Villeneuve’s adaptation of “Dune” hits theaters. But it got even funnier in “Dune: Part Two.” In the new film, the role of Emperor Shaddam – who engineered the destruction, or so he thought, of House Atreides, making him technically the worst of the bad guys – is played by Walken himself.
Opportunity? Maybe. Funny? Absolutely.
