The Writer Explains the Many Surprising Twists of the New Sci-Fi Movie

Bugonia screenwriter the writer barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, given that he penned the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the source material for ideas, the screenwriter behind The Menu watched the film a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched the original the one time,” Tracy states. “My memory was foggy on the film in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be slavishly following or remaking or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The most respectful approach to those movies was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who kidnaps a business leader he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is pretty much the same in both films, the differences are considerable. Firstly, the writer rewrote the executive character, played by a man in the director's first version, as a woman. (Lanthimos cast his frequent collaborator the actress in the role.) The endings differ slightly as well, in the way they address their central question: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not really?

Tracy believes that answer is somewhat irrelevant.

“I wasn't really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a gadget that performs a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

However, he has plenty to discuss on the subject. The interview with the writer touched on the film’s ending and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the end of Bugonia discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is actually alien royalty in hiding. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a proof to her performance. During the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a layered performance that may require several rewatches to fully understand.

“Emma frequently discussed how it was the first time she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be aware of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to perceive,” the writer explains. "She knew the second time a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

He pauses, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

After Stone’s character finally does reveal her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their ship has a unique design, which Tracy reveals was meant to look like a sea creature while steering clear of futuristic aesthetics.

“[The director] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-type design for the vessel, something quite organic,” he comments.

They should feel oddly somewhat tribal or ancient.

The aliens' clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat primitive or basic, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials react to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its aliens opting to snuff out all human life, while leaving the Earth and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the script was a depiction of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy explains.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the globe. Every person lie dead where they were standing just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are meant to make of all this is up for debate. Is the ending of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off without us?

Tracy isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer in any direction.

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak conclusion, or a tragic ending, a despairing ending,” he says. “Other people view it as being a oddly optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is in limited theatrical release at present, with a wide release on Halloween.