Bugonia's Writer Details the Many Unexpected Twists of Emma Stone's New Sci-Fi Movie

The film screenwriter the writer has a hazy memory of what happens in the original Korean movie. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he crafted the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than poring over the source material for ideas, the writer behind his previous work watched the film a single time, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet once,” Tracy explains. “I didn’t really remember the movie all that well. I didn't want to feel like I had to be slavishly following or recreating or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to both films was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in each movie, the variations are considerable. Firstly, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a woman. (The director cast his regular partner the actress in the part.) The conclusions differ slightly too, in the way they tackle their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

Tracy believes that answer is a bit irrelevant.

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

However, he has plenty to say on the subject. The interview with the screenwriter covered Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the methods he and the director collaborated to bring those twists to life.

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

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

In brief: Absolutely.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in hiding. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her advanced device, she transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this comes as a surprise is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. Throughout the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal 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. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” Tracy says. "She was aware the second time a person watches this movie, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

He trails off, before adding, “So she had to be aware this awareness in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their vessel

Once the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their ship has a unique design, which the writer reveals was meant to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

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

The goal was for them to seem oddly kind of tribal or ancient.

The aliens' attire is just as interesting as their vessel: rounded robes made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually kind of primitive or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He notes that the director “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the world (or just humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and the original is that in the first version, the aliens respond to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation adopts a slightly subtler method, with its aliens choosing to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the script was a depiction of the planet post-human existence,” Tracy explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. Every person lie dead where they were located moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia hopeful or bleak? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off in our absence?

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

“Certain viewers see it as a extremely dark ending, or a sad ending, a despairing ending,” he states. “Other people view it as being a strangely hopeful or happy conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to understand it.”

The film is in select cinemas at present, with a broader opening on Oct. 31.