The Screenwriter Discusses the Countless Wild Twists of Emma Stone's New Science Fiction Film

Bugonia writer the writer has a hazy memory of what transpires in the original Korean movie. This is somewhat unexpected, since he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the original 2003 film. Instead of poring over the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work viewed the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” the screenwriter explains. “My memory was foggy on the movie all that well. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or honoring someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to those movies was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s certain is an alien in disguise is pretty much the same in each movie, the differences are significant. Firstly, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a woman. (Lanthimos cast his regular partner Emma Stone in the part.) The conclusions differ slightly too, in the way they tackle their central question: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

Tracy believes that resolution is a bit irrelevant.

“I wasn't really concerned with the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a gadget that performs one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, he has a lot to discuss on the subject. The interview with the writer covered the film’s ending and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos worked together to bring those twists to life.

Warning: Complete details follow for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not?

In brief: Absolutely.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the end of Bugonia discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her captor Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, 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 keeps audiences guessing through a layered portrayal that may take several rewatches to comprehend entirely.

“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 perceive,” the writer explains. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”

Tracy pauses, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

Once the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding high-tech visuals.

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

The goal was for them to seem oddly kind of primitive or primitive.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: bulbous dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely somewhat primitive or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the notion of any element being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the world (or just humankind)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials respond to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by blowing up planet Earth. This adaptation adopts a slightly subtler approach, with its beings choosing to eliminate all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

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

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were located just before, but the world continues. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of the film optimistic or bleak? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off in our absence?

Tracy does not wish to provide a clear resolution in any direction.

“Some people see it as a extremely dark conclusion, or a sad ending, a despairing ending,” he says. “Other people see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in limited theatrical release at present, with a wide release on Halloween.