The Writer Discusses the Numerous Surprising Turns of Emma Stone's New Science Fiction Movie

Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy barely recalls what transpires in the original Korean movie. That’s a bit of a surprise, given that he wrote the script for the director’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of studying the source material for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work watched the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and got to work.

“I watched the original the one time,” the screenwriter explains. “I didn’t really remember the movie all that well. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be slavishly following or remaking or honoring another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is mostly the identical in each movie, the variations are significant. To start, Tracy rewrote the executive character, played by a man in the director's first version, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his regular partner Emma Stone in the role.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not really?

Tracy feels that answer 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 performs 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 topic. Our discussion with the writer touched on Bugonia’s ending and what it all means, 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 the movie.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not an alien?

In brief: Yes.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her captor Teddy (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

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

“She talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to act where she felt she had to be conscious of people viewing it again. How those rewatching are going to think,” Tracy says. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

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

Designing the aliens and their spaceship

After the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[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 oddly kind of tribal or primitive.

The aliens' clothing 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, 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 such an intricate and beautiful design on those unusual woven outfits,” the writer states. He adds that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of any element being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the Earth (or only humankind)

Perhaps the biggest difference between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the aliens respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying the world. This adaptation adopts a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings choosing to eliminate all mankind, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

“What I wanted to achieve in the screenplay was a vision of the planet after humanity,” Tracy says.

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 moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret all this is up for debate. Is the ending of Bugonia hopeful or pessimistic? Is humanity fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off without us?

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

“Certain viewers see it as a extremely dark ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless outcome,” he states. “Different audiences view it as being a oddly hopeful or happy conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to understand it.”

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