Bugonia's Writer Details the Many Wild Twists of Emma Stone's Latest Science Fiction Film

The film writer the writer doesn’t really remember what happens in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, considering he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the original 2003 film. Rather than studying the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind The Menu watched the movie a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” Tracy states. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie all that well. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or honoring someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to those movies was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in Bugonia) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in each movie, the variations are notable. To start, the writer rewrote the executive character, originally male in the director's original, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the part.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they address their central question: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

Tracy feels that resolution is a bit beside the point.

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

However, he has a lot to discuss on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter touched on the film’s ending and what it all means, along with the ways he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.

Warning: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not an alien?

In brief: Yes.

Just like in the original film, the conclusion of this version discloses that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named her character, is in fact alien royalty in disguise. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into killing himself using her advanced device, Fuller transports to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. During the 118-minute film, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may take multiple viewings to fully understand.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the first time 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,” the writer explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees 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.”

Designing the aliens and their vessel

Once the CEO ultimately shows her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which Tracy shares was meant to look like a marine animal while steering clear of futuristic aesthetics.

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

The goal was for them to seem strangely somewhat primitive or primitive.

The aliens' clothing is just as interesting as their vessel: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to go against conventional science fiction.

“Regarding the attire, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually kind of tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He adds that the director “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the notion of any element being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the world (or just humankind)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying the world. Bugonia adopts a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings opting to eliminate all human life, while keeping the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to do 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 located just before, but the Earth continues. What we, as an audience, are meant to interpret these events is up for debate. Is the ending of Bugonia optimistic or bleak? Are people doomed or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved without us?

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

“Some people see it as a extremely dark conclusion, or a sad finale, a hopeless outcome,” he says. “Different audiences view it as being a oddly optimistic or happy ending. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is in limited theatrical release now, with a broader opening on Halloween.