‘Dune: Part Two’ set to ‘Boots’ from ’28 Years Later’ trailer is THE spice, y’all!

The Oscars may have deemed it ineligible for a nomination, but we can all agree that Hans Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part Two is GOATed and elevates the already staggering spectacle. But an X user just proposed we add a different spice to the mix. Imagine a trailer for Dune: Part Two set to the war poem ‘Boots’ by Rudyard Kipling, à la 28 Years Later trailer… do you see the vision?

Inspired by the 28 Years Later trailer, X user @kocasoda production posted an edit of the biggest moments from Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic—like the sandworm emerging, Paul thumping his chest before the knife fight with Fyed Rautha, and Chani’s face reveal in Paul’s dreams about the holy war—and set it to a spoken-word recording of Kipling’s 1903 poem by American actor Taylor Holmes. And the result is haunting!

First published in 1903, ‘Boots’ is a poem by English author and poet Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book) that imagines the recurring string of thoughts going on in the mind of a British soldier marching during the Second Boer War where the British were colonising parts of South Africa. According to Ralph Durand’s A Handbook to the Poetry of Rudyard Kipling, if you read the first four words in each line at the rate of two words per second, it spans the marching beat that a British foot soldier was used to.

“We’re foot—slog—slog—slog—sloggin’ over Africa
Foot—foot—foot—foot—sloggin’ over Africa —
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up and down again!)
There’s no discharge in the war!”

– ‘Boots’ by Rudyard Kipling

Interestingly, Holmes’ recording of the poem been part of US Navy’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training school that teaches its recruits how to survive if they’re captured and tortured by enemies.

But why is this 1903 poem suddenly everywhere? Well, one could argue that life lately has been feeling a lot like an endless zombie march through a never-ending war zone for most of us, hasn’t it? But on a serious note, the poem caught everyone’s attention after the trailer for Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later was set to the same eerie recording of the poem.

People noticed just how accurately it fit the theme and haunting visuals of the 28 Days Later sequel, in which the war of survival against the rage virus zombies and the adoption of militaristic measures and lifestyle to bring the situation under control feels like it has no end even after all this time has passed.

This isn’t the poem’s only pop culture credit though. In another zombie outing, ‘Boots’ was also used in the cinematic trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Zombies Terminus game, which begins with a sequence set in a prison on Terminus Island where the Requiem senior team is being held.

It’s interesting that the poem has popped up twice in one year now, and has definitely made an impression on fan psyche with curious fans discovering its history, watching the trailers, and making these edits.