Bugonia's Writer Details the Numerous Wild Twists of the New Sci-Fi Film

The film writer the writer doesn’t really remember what happens in the original Korean movie. This is somewhat unexpected, given that he wrote the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the original 2003 film. Rather than studying the source material for ideas, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the movie a single time, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I watched the original once,” the screenwriter says. “My memory was foggy on the movie all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or honoring another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them exist independently.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (the actor in the new version) who kidnaps a business leader he’s certain is an alien in disguise is largely the same in both films, the variations are significant. Firstly, the writer re-envisioned the lead role, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the part.) The endings differ slightly as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

The screenwriter feels that answer is a bit irrelevant.

“I never was really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a gadget 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 plenty to discuss on the subject. The interview with the screenwriter covered the film’s ending and its implications, along with the methods he and the director worked together to execute those surprises.

Warning: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.

Therefore, is the character an alien or not?

In brief: Yes.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of Bugonia reveals that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, she transports to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. During the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a complex portrayal that may take multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“She frequently discussed how it was the first time 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 says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

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

Designing the aliens and their vessel

After Stone’s character finally does reveal her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while steering clear of futuristic aesthetics.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something quite organic,” Tracy comments.

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

The Andromedons’ attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded robes made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat primitive or basic, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer 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 some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or just humanity)

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 ruler's abduction and mistreatment by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings 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,” the writer explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the globe. Every person lie dead where they were standing just before, but the world keeps spinning. How viewers, are meant to make of these events is open to discussion. Is the ending of Bugonia optimistic or bleak? Are people doomed or worth saving? Is the planet be improved without us?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Certain viewers see it as a extremely dark ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to read it.”

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