Bugonia's Screenwriter Discusses the Countless Wild Turns of Emma Stone's Latest Science Fiction Movie

The film writer Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, given that he penned the script for the director’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the original script for ideas, the screenwriter behind The Menu viewed the film a single time, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” the screenwriter says. “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 remaking or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the same in each movie, the variations are significant. For one thing, Tracy rewrote the lead role, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (The director cast his regular partner Emma Stone in the part.) The conclusions vary a bit too, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy believes that resolution is a bit beside the point.

“I wasn't really concerned with the surprise element,” he comments. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a gadget that performs one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

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

Spoiler Alert: Complete details ahead for the ending of the movie.

So is the character an extraterrestrial or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a complex portrayal that may take multiple viewings to fully understand.

“She talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to act where she felt she had to be aware of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to perceive,” Tracy says. "She was aware the second time a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

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

Creating the Andromedons and their vessel

Once Stone’s character ultimately shows her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before the film ends. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy shares was intended to look like a marine animal while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

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

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

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their ship: bulbous robes made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to go against conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely somewhat primitive or basic, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” the writer says. He adds that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the notion of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the Earth (or only humanity)

Maybe the most significant change between the new film and the original is that in the first version, the aliens respond to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying the world. This adaptation takes a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its aliens opting to snuff out all human life, while leaving the planet and its remaining creatures intact.

“What I wanted to achieve in the script was a depiction of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy says.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the globe. All humans lie dead where they were located just before, but the world keeps spinning. How viewers, are meant to make of all this is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia optimistic or bleak? Are people doomed or worth saving? Would the world be improved in our absence?

Tracy 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 states. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or happy ending. In my opinion there are various interpretations to understand it.”

Bugonia is in select cinemas now, with a broader opening on Halloween.