Bugonia's Writer Discusses the Many Wild Turns of Emma Stone's New Science Fiction Movie

The film writer Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what transpires in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, since he wrote the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of studying the original script for inspiration, the screenwriter behind The Menu viewed the movie once, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy states. “My memory was foggy on the movie all that well. I didn't want 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 each stand on their own.”

While the premise of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in the new version) who kidnaps a business leader he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is pretty much the same in both films, the variations are significant. To start, the writer re-envisioned the lead role, played by a man in the director's original, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the part.) The conclusions differ slightly as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy believes that answer is a bit beside the point.

“I never was really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a toy that does one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to discuss on the subject. Our discussion with the writer touched on the film’s ending and its implications, along with the methods he and the director worked together to bring those twists to life.

Warning: Complete details follow for the conclusion of the movie.

So is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

In brief: Yes.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version reveals that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her captor the unstable man (Plemons) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she transports to her alien vessel.

The fact that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. During the 118-minute film, she maintains suspense through a complex performance that may require several rewatches to fully understand.

“Emma talked a lot about 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. How those rewatching are going to think,” Tracy explains. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”

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

Designing the aliens and their spaceship

Once the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her ship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a unique design, which the writer reveals was meant to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

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

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

The aliens' attire is just as interesting as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat primitive or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy states. He notes that the director “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the notion of any element being smooth and metallic, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation takes a slightly subtler approach, with its beings opting to eliminate all human life, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants intact.

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

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. All humans are deceased where they were located just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are supposed to interpret all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or pessimistic? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be better off without us?

Tracy does not wish to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Some people see it as a very bleak ending, or a tragic ending, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Other people view it as being a oddly optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to read it.”

The film is in select cinemas at present, with a broader opening on Oct. 31.