Bugonia's Writer Details the Numerous Unexpected Turns of Emma Stone's New Science Fiction Film

Bugonia screenwriter the writer doesn’t really remember what happens in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, since he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the original script for ideas, the writer behind The Menu watched the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” Tracy says. “My memory was foggy on the film all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is largely the identical in each movie, the differences are significant. To start, Tracy rewrote the lead role, played by a man in the director's original, as a female character. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the part.) The conclusions vary a bit as well, in the way they address their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

The screenwriter feels that resolution is a bit beside the point.

“I wasn't really focused on the surprise element,” he says. “I didn't want the film to just be a gadget that performs one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has plenty to say on the topic. The interview with the writer touched on the film’s ending and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to bring those twists to life.

Warning: Full spoilers ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not?

In brief: Yes.

Just like in the original film, the end of Bugonia reveals that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her captor Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her advanced device, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. Throughout the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a layered performance that may take several rewatches to fully understand.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to act where she felt she had to be conscious of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” Tracy says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

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

Designing the aliens and their vessel

After Stone’s character ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before the film concludes. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which Tracy reveals was meant to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[The director] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the vessel, something very natural,” Tracy says.

The goal was for them to seem oddly kind of tribal or primitive.

The Andromedons’ attire is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous robes made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the aim was to go against conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He notes that the director “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the idea of anything being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the world (or only humanity)

Maybe the biggest difference between the new film and the original is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a slightly subtler approach, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all human life, while keeping the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

“What I wanted to do in the script was a vision of Earth after humanity,” Tracy explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of life across the globe. Every person are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the world continues. How viewers, are meant to interpret these events is open to discussion. Is the ending of Bugonia hopeful or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off in our absence?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to provide a clear resolution either way.

“Some people see it as a extremely dark conclusion, or a tragic ending, a despairing outcome,” he states. “Different audiences view it as being a strangely optimistic or happy ending. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in select cinemas at present, with a wide release on Halloween.