Bugonia's Screenwriter Explains the Countless Unexpected Turns of Emma Stone's Latest Science Fiction Film

The film writer Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what happens in Save the Green Planet!. It's a little surprising, given that he crafted the script for the director’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Rather than studying the original script for inspiration, the screenwriter behind The Menu viewed the movie a single time, jotted down some thoughts, and began writing.

“I watched the original once,” the screenwriter states. “I didn’t really remember the film all that well. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or honoring someone else's vision. The fairest thing to both films was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is mostly the same in each movie, the variations are considerable. For one thing, the writer rewrote the lead role, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his regular partner Emma Stone in the role.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not really?

The screenwriter believes that answer is a bit not the main focus.

“I wasn't really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a gadget that does one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, he has plenty to discuss on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter touched on the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

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

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not?

In brief: Yes.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the end of Bugonia reveals that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. Once she manipulates her captor Teddy (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, Fuller transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. During the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may require multiple viewings to fully understand.

“She frequently discussed how it was the first time she had to act where she felt she had to be aware of people viewing it again. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” Tracy says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

Tracy trails off, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their vessel

Once the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy shares was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding high-tech visuals.

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

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

The Andromedons’ clothing is equally fascinating as their ship: bulbous robes made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to go against conventional science fiction.

“Regarding the attire, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually somewhat tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “viewed 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 world (or only humanity)

Perhaps the biggest difference between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by blowing up the world. Bugonia adopts a slightly subtler method, with its aliens opting to eliminate all mankind, while keeping the Earth and its other inhabitants intact.

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

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the globe. Every person are deceased where they were located moments earlier, but the Earth keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or pessimistic? Are people doomed or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off in our absence?

The screenwriter does not wish to offer a clear resolution in any direction.

“Some people find it to be a very bleak conclusion, or a tragic finale, a despairing ending,” he says. “Other people view it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. I think there's different ways to understand it.”

The film is currently in limited theatrical release at present, with a broader opening on Halloween.