The Writer Explains the Countless Unexpected Turns of the New Sci-Fi Movie

The film writer the writer has a hazy memory of what transpires in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, considering he wrote the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than poring over the original script for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work watched the film once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet once,” Tracy states. “I didn’t really remember the film all that well. 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 both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is mostly the identical in each movie, the variations are considerable. To start, the writer rewrote the executive character, played by a man in the director's original, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator the actress in the part.) The conclusions vary a bit too, in the way they tackle their shared core mystery: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not really?

Tracy feels that resolution is somewhat beside the point.

“I wasn't 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: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to discuss on the topic. The interview with the screenwriter touched on Bugonia’s ending and what it all means, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers follow for the conclusion of Bugonia.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not?

Short answer: Yes.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in disguise. After tricking her captor the unstable man (Plemons) into killing himself using her advanced device, she transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. Throughout the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered performance that may take multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the first time she had to act where she felt she had to be aware of people watching the movie a second time. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” Tracy explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

Tracy trails off, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their vessel

Once Stone’s character finally does reveal her real identity, we get a quick look of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which Tracy shares was meant to look like a marine animal while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

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

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

The Andromedons’ attire is equally fascinating as their ship: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually somewhat tribal or basic, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” the writer says. 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 a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens react to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation adopts a slightly subtler approach, with its beings opting to eliminate all mankind, while keeping the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

“My intention to do in the screenplay was a vision of the planet after humanity,” the writer says.

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. Every person are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be improved without us?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to provide a clear resolution either way.

“Some people find it to be a extremely dark ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless outcome,” he states. “Other people view it as being a strangely optimistic or positive ending. In my opinion there are various interpretations to understand it.”

The film is in limited theatrical release at present, with a wide release on Oct. 31.