The Writer Discusses the Countless Unexpected Twists of Emma Stone's Latest Sci-Fi Film

Bugonia writer Will Tracy barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he crafted the screenplay for the director’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of poring over the source material for inspiration, the writer behind The Menu watched the movie a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched Save the Green Planet once,” the screenwriter explains. “My memory was foggy on the film all that well. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or honoring another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot 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 identical in both films, the differences are considerable. For one thing, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the part.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

The screenwriter believes that answer is somewhat irrelevant.

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

Nevertheless, he has plenty to say on the topic. The interview with the screenwriter touched on Bugonia’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to execute those surprises.

Warning: Complete details ahead for the ending of Bugonia.

Therefore, is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the end of Bugonia discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her advanced device, she transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. During the two-hour film, she keeps audiences guessing through a complex portrayal that may require several rewatches to comprehend entirely.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the first time 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 think,” the writer explains. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

Tracy pauses, before continuing, “So she had to be aware of that in her performance.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

Once Stone’s character ultimately shows her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a unique design, which the writer shares was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-type design for the spaceship, something quite organic,” he comments.

They should feel oddly kind of primitive or ancient.

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

“For the costumes, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely somewhat tribal or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He adds that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the Earth (or just humanity)

Perhaps the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying the world. This adaptation takes a slightly subtler method, with its beings choosing to snuff out all human life, while leaving the planet and its remaining creatures unharmed.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of life across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were located just before, but the Earth continues. How viewers, are supposed to make of these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia hopeful or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be improved without us?

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

“Some people find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a sad ending, a hopeless outcome,” he states. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to understand it.”

The film is currently in select cinemas at present, with a wide release on Oct. 31.