Bugonia's Writer Details the Countless Wild Turns of the Latest Sci-Fi Film

Bugonia screenwriter the writer barely recalls what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, since he wrote the screenplay for the director’s new adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the source material for ideas, the screenwriter behind his previous work viewed the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and got to work.

“I watched the original the one time,” the screenwriter says. “I didn’t really remember the film in great detail. I didn't want 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 each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in the new version) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s certain is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is pretty much the identical in both films, the differences are notable. To start, the writer re-envisioned the executive character, played by a man in the director's original, as a female character. (The director chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the part.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is the character an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy feels that resolution is somewhat irrelevant.

“I wasn't really concerned with the surprise element,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to discuss on the topic. The interview with the writer touched on Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.

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

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not?

In brief: Yes.

Similar to in the original film, the end of this version reveals that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her captor the unstable man (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her alien vessel.

The fact that this comes as a surprise is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. During the 118-minute movie, she maintains suspense through a complex performance that may take several rewatches 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. How those rewatching are going to think,” the writer says. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

He pauses, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her acting.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

Once the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy shares was meant to look like a sea creature while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

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

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

The Andromedons’ attire is just as interesting as their vessel: rounded dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Again, the aim was to go against conventional science fiction.

“Regarding the attire, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually kind of tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He adds that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the notion of anything being smooth and metallic, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the world (or just humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying the world. Bugonia adopts a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its aliens opting to snuff out all human life, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the script was a vision of the planet after humanity,” Tracy says.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of existence across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were located just before, but the Earth keeps spinning. How viewers, are supposed to interpret these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Are people doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be improved without us?

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

“Certain viewers find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a sad ending, a despairing ending,” he states. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely hopeful or happy ending. In my opinion there's different ways to understand it.”

The film is in select cinemas at present, with a wide release on Halloween.