The Writer Explains the Countless Unexpected Turns of the Latest Science Fiction Film

Bugonia screenwriter the writer has a hazy memory of what happens in the original Korean movie. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he penned the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Rather than analyzing the source material for ideas, the writer behind his previous work watched the movie a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” Tracy states. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be slavishly following or remaking or honoring someone else's vision. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in Bugonia) who abducts a business leader he’s certain is an alien in disguise is pretty much the same in both films, the differences are significant. To start, Tracy re-envisioned the lead role, originally male in the director's original, as a female character. (The director chose his regular partner Emma Stone in the part.) The conclusions differ slightly as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not really?

The screenwriter believes that answer is a bit irrelevant.

“I wasn't really concerned with the twist aspect,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the film to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, Tracy has a lot to say on the topic. The interview with the screenwriter covered Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the methods he and the director collaborated to execute those surprises.

Warning: Complete details follow for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is the character an alien or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Just like in the original film, the end of Bugonia reveals that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. Once she manipulates her captor the unstable man (the actor) into killing himself using her advanced device, Fuller transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. Throughout the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may require multiple viewings 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 aware of people watching the movie a second time. How those rewatching are going to think,” Tracy explains. "She was aware the second time a person watches this film, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

He pauses, 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 real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which the writer shares was meant to look like a marine animal while avoiding high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-type design for the vessel, something very natural,” Tracy says.

They should feel oddly kind of tribal or ancient.

The aliens' clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous robes made from large, ropey threads. Again, the aim was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely kind of tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer states. He adds that the director “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the world (or only humankind)

Maybe the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation adopts a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens opting to eliminate all human life, while leaving the planet and its remaining creatures intact.

“My intention to achieve in the screenplay was a vision of the planet after humanity,” Tracy says.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. Every person are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the world continues. How viewers, are meant to make of all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Is humanity doomed or worth saving? Is the planet be better off in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer in any direction.

“Some people find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic ending, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Other people view it as being a strangely optimistic or happy conclusion. I think there are various interpretations to understand it.”

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