Bugonia's Screenwriter Discusses the Numerous Unexpected Turns of Emma Stone's Latest Sci-Fi Film

The film screenwriter Will Tracy barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, considering he crafted the screenplay for the director’s latest reimagining of the original 2003 film. Rather than studying the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the film once, took a few notes, and began writing.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy says. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie in great detail. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to those movies was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a business leader he’s certain is an alien in disguise is largely the same in both films, the variations are considerable. For one thing, Tracy rewrote the executive character, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a female character. (The director chose his regular partner Emma Stone in the part.) The endings differ slightly as well, in the way they tackle their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

Tracy feels that resolution is somewhat beside the point.

“I wasn't really concerned with the surprise element,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a toy that performs one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, Tracy has a lot to say on the subject. Our discussion with the writer covered the film’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Complete details ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.

Therefore, is the character an alien or not an alien?

Short answer: Yes.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version reveals that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named her character, is actually alien royalty in hiding. After tricking her captor the unstable man (the actor) into ending his own life using her advanced device, she transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may take multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“Emma frequently discussed 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 think,” the writer explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this film, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

Tracy pauses, before continuing, “So she had to be aware this awareness in her acting.”

Designing the Andromedons and their vessel

After the CEO ultimately shows her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before the film concludes. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which the writer shares was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

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

They should feel strangely somewhat primitive or ancient.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the aim was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually kind of primitive or basic, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” the writer says. He notes that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the world (or only humanity)

Maybe the biggest difference between the new film and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation takes a slightly subtler method, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all human life, while leaving the planet and its remaining creatures unharmed.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the globe. All humans are deceased where they were located just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are meant to make of these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia hopeful or bleak? Are people fated to perish or worth saving? Would the world be improved in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak ending, or a sad finale, a despairing ending,” he states. “Different audiences view it as being a oddly optimistic or happy ending. In my opinion there's different ways to read it.”

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