Bugonia's Screenwriter Explains the Countless Unexpected Turns of the New Science Fiction Movie

Bugonia writer Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, given that he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the original 2003 film. Instead of analyzing the source material for ideas, the writer behind his previous work viewed the film once, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy states. “I couldn't clearly recall the film all that well. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The fairest thing to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is mostly the identical in both films, the variations are considerable. Firstly, Tracy rewrote the lead role, originally male in the director's original, as a female character. (The director cast his frequent collaborator the actress in the role.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they address their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy feels that resolution is somewhat irrelevant.

“I never was really concerned with the surprise element,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the film to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

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

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an alien or not?

Short answer: Yes.

Just like in the original film, the conclusion of this version reveals that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in disguise. After tricking her kidnapper Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her advanced device, Fuller transports to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a proof to her performance. During the 118-minute movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered performance that may require multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“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 viewing it again. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” Tracy says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this film, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

He pauses, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their vessel

After the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which Tracy reveals was meant to look like a sea creature while avoiding high-tech visuals.

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

The goal was for them to seem strangely somewhat primitive or ancient.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their ship: rounded robes made from thick, woven cords. Again, the aim was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually kind of primitive or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” the writer states. He adds that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the aliens respond to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by destroying planet Earth. Bugonia takes a slightly subtler method, with its beings opting to snuff out all mankind, while keeping the planet and its other inhabitants unharmed.

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

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were standing moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret all this is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia optimistic or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved without us?

The screenwriter does not wish to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Some people see it as a very bleak ending, or a tragic ending, a hopeless outcome,” he says. “Other people view it as being a oddly hopeful or happy conclusion. I think there's different ways to understand it.”

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