Bugonia's Writer Details the Numerous Wild Turns of the Latest Science Fiction Film

Bugonia writer Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what happens in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, considering he penned the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Rather than poring over the original script for ideas, the screenwriter behind The Menu viewed the film once, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I watched Save the Green Planet once,” Tracy says. “I couldn't clearly recall the film in great detail. I didn't want to feel as though 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 each stand on their own.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons 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 significant. Firstly, Tracy rewrote the lead role, played by a man in the director's original, as a female character. (Lanthimos chose his regular partner the actress 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 believes that resolution is somewhat beside the point.

“I never was really focused on the twist aspect,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter covered Bugonia’s ending and what it all means, along with the methods he and the director worked together to bring those twists to life.

Warning: Full spoilers follow for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not?

In brief: Yes.

Just like in the original film, the end of Bugonia reveals that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named her character, is actually alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (Plemons) into killing himself using her advanced device, Fuller transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

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

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to act where she felt she had to be conscious of people viewing it again. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” the writer says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

He trails off, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

After the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their ship has a unique design, which Tracy 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-type design for the vessel, something very natural,” he says.

They should feel strangely somewhat tribal or primitive.

The Andromedons’ attire is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually kind of tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy states. He adds that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the idea of any element being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the world (or just humanity)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the aliens respond to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by destroying the world. This adaptation takes a slightly subtler method, with its beings choosing to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

“What I wanted to achieve in the script was a vision of Earth after humanity,” the writer says.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of existence across the planet. All humans are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the Earth continues. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of these events is open to discussion. Is the ending of Bugonia hopeful or pessimistic? Is humanity fated to perish or worth saving? Is the planet be better off without us?

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

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Other people view it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to understand it.”

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