Bugonia's Writer Discusses the Many Unexpected Turns of the New Sci-Fi Movie

Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. It's a little surprising, since he penned the screenplay for the director’s new adaptation of the original 2003 film. Rather than studying the source material for ideas, the writer behind his previous work viewed the film once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I watched the original once,” Tracy states. “I didn’t really remember the film in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be slavishly following or remaking or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to both films was to have them exist independently.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s certain is an alien in disguise is mostly the same in both films, the differences are considerable. For one thing, Tracy rewrote the lead role, originally male in the director's first version, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his regular partner Emma Stone in the part.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they tackle their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

Tracy feels that answer is somewhat not the main focus.

“I wasn't really concerned with the twist aspect,” he says. “I didn't want the movie to just be a gadget that performs a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, he has a lot to discuss on the subject. Our discussion with the screenwriter touched on Bugonia’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

Short answer: Yes.

Just like in the original film, the conclusion of this version reveals that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named her character, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into ending his own life using her advanced device, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a proof to her performance. Throughout the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered performance that may take several rewatches to fully understand.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be conscious of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” Tracy says. "She knew the second time a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

Tracy trails off, before continuing, “So she had to be aware of that in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

Once Stone’s character finally does reveal her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their ship has a unique design, which the writer shares was intended 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 very natural,” Tracy comments.

They should feel strangely kind of tribal or ancient.

The Andromedons’ clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous robes made from thick, woven cords. Again, the goal was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely kind of tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the notion of any element being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the world (or just humanity)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and abuse by blowing up the world. This adaptation adopts a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants intact.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of existence across the planet. Every person are deceased where they were standing just before, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or worth saving? Is the planet be improved in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to provide a clear resolution in any direction.

“Certain viewers see it as a very bleak conclusion, or a tragic finale, a despairing outcome,” he states. “Other people view it as being a oddly optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to read it.”

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