The Screenwriter Details the Many Wild Twists of Emma Stone's New Sci-Fi Film

The film screenwriter the writer has a hazy memory of what transpires in the original Korean movie. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he penned the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of studying the source material for ideas, the writer behind his previous work viewed the film once, jotted down some thoughts, and began writing.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy states. “I didn’t really remember the film in great detail. I didn't want 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 basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in the new version) who kidnaps a business leader he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is mostly the identical in both films, the differences are considerable. For one thing, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, played by a man in the director's original, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the part.) The conclusions differ slightly as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

The screenwriter feels that resolution is somewhat beside the point.

“I never was really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

However, he has plenty to discuss on the topic. The interview with the writer covered the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the ways 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 an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in the original film, the end of this version discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact alien royalty in hiding. After tricking her captor the unstable man (Plemons) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. During the 118-minute movie, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may require 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 aware of people viewing it again. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” the writer explains. "She was aware the second time a person watches this movie, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

He pauses, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

After the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was meant to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[The director] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-type design for the spaceship, something quite organic,” he says.

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

The aliens' clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the aim was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely somewhat tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer states. He notes that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the notion of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the Earth (or only humanity)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying the world. This adaptation adopts a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its beings opting to eliminate all mankind, while keeping the planet and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the screenplay was a depiction of the planet after humanity,” the writer explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the globe. Every person lie dead where they were standing just before, but the Earth continues. What we, as an audience, are meant to make of these events is open to discussion. Is the ending of Bugonia hopeful or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or worth saving? Would the world be improved in our absence?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer in any direction.

“Some people see it as a very bleak ending, or a sad finale, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Other people view it as being a oddly optimistic or happy ending. I think there's different ways to read it.”

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