The Screenwriter Details the Countless Surprising Turns of Emma Stone's New Science Fiction Film

The film screenwriter Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what transpires in the original Korean movie. That’s a bit of a surprise, considering he wrote the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest reimagining of the original 2003 film. Rather than poring over the original script for inspiration, the writer behind The Menu watched the film a single time, jotted down some thoughts, and began writing.

“I’ve only seen the original the one time,” Tracy explains. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or honoring another filmmaker's work. The most respectful approach to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in Bugonia) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is largely the identical in both films, the variations are significant. To start, Tracy rewrote the executive character, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a woman. (The director cast his regular partner Emma Stone in the role.) The conclusions differ slightly as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is the character an alien in disguise or not really?

Tracy believes that resolution is a bit not the main focus.

“I wasn't really concerned with the twist aspect,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a toy that performs one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has plenty to say on the topic. Our discussion with the writer covered the film’s ending and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos collaborated to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Complete details follow for the ending of Bugonia.

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

In brief: Absolutely.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version reveals that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact alien royalty in hiding. After tricking her kidnapper Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, Fuller transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour film, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered portrayal that may take several rewatches 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 conscious of people watching the movie a second time. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” Tracy explains. "She knew the second time a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

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

Designing the Andromedons and their vessel

After the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a quick look of her ship and fellow aliens before Bugonia concludes. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which Tracy shares was meant to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[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 strangely kind of primitive or primitive.

The Andromedons’ clothing is equally fascinating as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely somewhat primitive or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and beautiful design on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy states. He adds that the director “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the world (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and abuse by blowing up planet Earth. This adaptation takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens choosing to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the planet and its remaining creatures intact.

“My intention to do in the script was a vision of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy says.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of existence across the planet. Every person are deceased where they were located moments earlier, but the world continues. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of all this is open to discussion. Is the ending of the film hopeful or bleak? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be better off in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to offer a clear resolution either way.

“Some people find it to be a extremely dark ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in limited theatrical release now, with a wide release on Halloween.