Bugonia's Writer Discusses the Numerous Wild Turns of the New Science Fiction Movie

The film screenwriter the writer barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, given that he penned the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than studying the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet the one time,” Tracy explains. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or honoring someone else's vision. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled 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 notable. To start, the writer rewrote the lead role, originally male in the director's original, as a female character. (Lanthimos cast his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The endings differ slightly as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy believes that answer is a bit irrelevant.

“I never was 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 after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, he has plenty to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter covered the film’s finale and its implications, along with the methods he and the director worked together to bring those twists to life.

Spoiler Alert: Complete details follow for the ending of the movie.

Therefore, is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

Short answer: Yes.

Just like in the original film, the end of this version discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, Fuller transports to her alien vessel.

The reality that this is unexpected is a proof to her performance. Throughout the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered portrayal that may take several rewatches to fully understand.

“Emma frequently discussed how it was the first time she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be conscious of people viewing it again. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” the writer explains. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this film, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

He trails off, before adding, “So she had to be aware of that in her performance.”

Creating the aliens and their vessel

After the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a unique design, which the writer shares was meant to look like a marine animal while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-type design for the spaceship, something very natural,” he says.

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

The Andromedons’ attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded robes made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to go against conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely kind of primitive or basic, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and beautiful design on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He adds that the director “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the notion of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the world (or just humankind)

Perhaps the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by destroying the world. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings choosing to eliminate all human life, while keeping the Earth and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“What I wanted to do in the script was a depiction of the planet after humanity,” the writer says.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of life across the globe. Every person lie dead where they were standing moments earlier, but the Earth keeps spinning. How viewers, are supposed to make of all this is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia hopeful or bleak? Is humanity fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be improved in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to offer a clear resolution either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Different audiences view it as being a strangely hopeful or positive conclusion. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is in select cinemas now, with a broader opening on Halloween.