The Screenwriter Explains the Numerous Unexpected Twists of the Latest Sci-Fi Film

The film writer Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what transpires in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, considering he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the source material for inspiration, the writer behind The Menu viewed the film once, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” the screenwriter explains. “I didn’t really remember the film all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be slavishly following or recreating or honoring another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to both films was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in Bugonia) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is mostly the same in each movie, the differences are considerable. Firstly, Tracy rewrote the lead role, played by a man in the director's original, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the part.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they address their central question: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

The screenwriter believes that answer is somewhat irrelevant.

“I never was really concerned with the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a toy that performs one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

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

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers follow for the ending of Bugonia.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not?

In brief: Absolutely.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the end of Bugonia reveals that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in hiding. Once she manipulates her captor Teddy (Plemons) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, Fuller beams back up to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. Throughout 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 act where she felt she had to be conscious of people watching the movie a second time. How those rewatching are going to think,” Tracy explains. "She was aware the second time someone sees this film, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”

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

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

After Stone’s character ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

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

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

The Andromedons’ clothing is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the aim was to go against conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely kind of tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy states. He adds that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the world (or just humanity)

Perhaps the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens react to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by blowing up the world. Bugonia adopts a slightly subtler approach, with its aliens opting to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the planet and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the script was a vision of Earth post-human existence,” the writer says.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. All humans are deceased where they were located moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret all this is open to discussion. Is the ending of the film optimistic or bleak? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved in our absence?

The screenwriter does not wish to provide a clear resolution either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a tragic ending, a hopeless outcome,” he says. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely hopeful or happy conclusion. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in limited theatrical release at present, with a wide release on Oct. 31.