The Screenwriter Details the Countless Wild Twists of the Latest Science Fiction Movie

The film screenwriter Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what happens in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, since he penned the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Rather than poring over the original script for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work watched the film a single time, jotted down some thoughts, and got to work.

“I watched the original once,” the screenwriter 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 remaking or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a emotionally troubled man (Jesse Plemons in Bugonia) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in both films, the variations are notable. To start, the writer re-envisioned the lead role, originally male in the director's original, as a female character. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator the actress in the role.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

The screenwriter believes that answer is a bit irrelevant.

“I wasn't really focused on the twist aspect,” he comments. “My intention wasn't for the film to just be a toy that performs a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, Tracy has a lot to discuss on the subject. Our discussion with the screenwriter covered Bugonia’s finale and its implications, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Complete details ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version discloses that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. After tricking her captor Teddy (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, Fuller transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a proof to her performance. During the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may take multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“Emma frequently discussed how it was the initial instance 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,” Tracy explains. "She knew the second time a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”

Tracy trails off, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

After the CEO finally does reveal her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before the film concludes. Their ship has a unique design, which the writer shares was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[The director] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something very natural,” Tracy comments.

They should feel oddly somewhat tribal or primitive.

The aliens' attire is just as interesting as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Again, the aim was to go against conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely somewhat tribal or basic, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer states. He adds that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the notion of any element being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the world (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and the original is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a slightly subtler method, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all human life, while keeping the planet and its remaining creatures intact.

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

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 just before, but the Earth keeps spinning. How viewers, are meant to make of all this is up for debate. Is the ending of Bugonia optimistic or bleak? Is humanity doomed or worth saving? Would the world be improved in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to provide a clear resolution in any direction.

“Some people see it as a very bleak ending, or a tragic finale, a despairing outcome,” he says. “Other people see it as being a oddly optimistic or happy conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to read it.”

The film is in limited theatrical release at present, with a wide release on Halloween.