Bugonia's Screenwriter Discusses the Many Unexpected Turns of the Latest Science Fiction Film

The film writer Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what happens in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, considering he wrote the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of analyzing the original script for inspiration, the writer behind The Menu viewed the film once, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” the screenwriter says. “My memory was foggy on the film all that well. I didn't want to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or honoring someone else's vision. The fairest thing to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in Bugonia) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s certain is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is largely the identical in both films, the variations are considerable. Firstly, Tracy rewrote the lead role, originally male in the director's first version, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the part.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their shared core mystery: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

Tracy feels that answer is somewhat beside the point.

“I never was really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a gadget that does one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, Tracy has plenty to say on the subject. The interview with the writer touched on Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the ways he and the director worked together to bring those twists to life.

Warning: Full spoilers follow for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is the character an alien or not an alien?

In brief: Yes.

Similar to in the original film, the conclusion of Bugonia discloses that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. After tricking her captor Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, Fuller transports to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a proof to her performance. During the 118-minute film, she maintains suspense through a complex performance that may take multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the first time 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,” the writer explains. "She was aware the second time a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

He pauses, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

Once Stone’s character finally does reveal her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was meant to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something very natural,” Tracy says.

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

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

“Regarding the attire, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely kind of primitive or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” the writer says. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the idea of any element being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end 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 ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying planet Earth. Bugonia adopts a slightly subtler method, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all human life, while keeping the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the screenplay was a depiction of Earth post-human existence,” the writer explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the globe. Every person are deceased where they were standing just before, but the Earth keeps spinning. How viewers, are meant to make of all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off in our absence?

Tracy does not wish to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak conclusion, or a sad ending, a despairing outcome,” he says. “Different audiences see it as being a oddly hopeful or happy conclusion. I think there's different ways to read it.”

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