Bugonia's Writer Details the Numerous Surprising Turns of Emma Stone's Latest Sci-Fi Film

The film screenwriter the writer barely recalls what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. It's a little surprising, since he penned the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of studying the original script for ideas, the writer behind his previous work watched the movie a single time, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I watched Save the Green Planet once,” the screenwriter states. “I didn’t really remember the movie all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them exist independently.”

While the premise of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in both films, the differences are notable. Firstly, the writer re-envisioned the lead role, originally male in the director's first version, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner Emma Stone in the part.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

The screenwriter believes that resolution is a bit beside the point.

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

Nevertheless, he has plenty to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter touched on the film’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and the director collaborated to bring those twists to life.

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

So is Emma Stone an alien or not?

In brief: Absolutely.

Just like in the original film, the end of this version reveals that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. Once she manipulates her captor Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her advanced device, she beams back up to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may require 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 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 someone sees this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

Tracy trails off, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their vessel

After the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding high-tech visuals.

“[The director] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-type design for the spaceship, something very natural,” he says.

They should feel oddly kind of primitive or ancient.

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

“Regarding the attire, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually kind of tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer states. He adds that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the notion of anything being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humankind)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials react to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens choosing to snuff out all mankind, while keeping the Earth and its remaining creatures unharmed.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the globe. All humans lie dead where they were located just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are supposed to make of these events is up for debate. Is the ending of Bugonia hopeful or pessimistic? Is humanity fated to perish or worth saving? Is the planet be better off in our absence?

Tracy does not wish to offer a definitive answer in any direction.

“Certain viewers see it as a very bleak conclusion, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Other people see it as being a oddly optimistic or positive conclusion. I think there are various interpretations to understand it.”

The film is currently in limited theatrical release now, with a broader opening on Oct. 31.