Usually, it's only critics who get to see films early. Denis Villeneuve made a special exception for a dying fan ahead of the release of Dune 2.

Global News ran a story on a man who was in end-of-life care at Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in Quebec and had a dying wish to see the forthcoming sequel. This happened in January, over a month out from the film's official release. One of the workers at the facility, Josée Gagnon, posted about it and made it possible. Sébastien Pilote saw the post and got Gagnon in touch with Villeneuve's team.

“I thought to myself, what can we do? Then my husband reminded me that I could make anything happen. So I posted on social media and we were in contact with Villeneuve’s team within 12 hours,” Gagnon told Global News.

They initially offered to have the man present at the Los Angeles of Montreal premiere of the film. Gagnon once again persisted, telling Villeneuve's wife, who is also a producer of the film, “You don’t understand, he’s at the end, there’s no way to move him.”

Denis Villeneuve's assistant then flew to the facility. “It was a race against time because from one day to the next, we didn’t know if he would make it. He only had a few days left,” Gagnon said.

The race's finish line

The assistant arrived, NDAs were signed, and the man had the choice of one person to watch Dune 2 early with. He chose one of the caregivers at the facility.

“She took everyone’s phones away and played the movie on the laptop for just the two of them in his room. Neither she nor I watched it. It was this really big deal,” Gagnon told the outlet. “I was told even the President of the United States wasn’t able to see it before its release.”

The man didn't have the strength to watch all of the film. But from what he did see, he enjoyed it thoroughly. Sadly, the man died just a couple of days later.

“It’s for him, it’s for that man that we make films,” Villeneuve said in a statement after the man's death.

Dune 2 chronicles the continued rise of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he seeks revenge against House Harkonnen. Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgård, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken all star in the sequel.