Bugonia's Screenwriter Details the Many Wild Twists of Emma Stone's Latest Sci-Fi Film

Bugonia writer the writer barely recalls what transpires in the original Korean movie. That’s a bit of a surprise, since he crafted the script for the director’s latest adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of poring over the source material for ideas, the writer behind The Menu viewed the movie a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” the screenwriter says. “My memory was foggy on the movie in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or paying tribute to someone else's vision. 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 abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is largely the same in both films, the variations are notable. To start, the writer rewrote the lead role, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a female character. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The endings differ slightly too, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy believes that answer is a bit irrelevant.

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

However, Tracy has plenty to say on the subject. Our discussion with the writer touched on the film’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and the director worked together to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version reveals that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a proof to her performance. During the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may take multiple viewings to fully understand.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the first time she had to act where she felt she had to be conscious of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” the writer explains. "She was aware the second time a person watches this film, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

He pauses, before continuing, “So she had to be aware of that in her performance.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

Once Stone’s character ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[The director] 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 oddly kind of primitive or ancient.

The Andromedons’ clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous robes made from large, ropey threads. Again, the aim was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat tribal or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy states. He notes that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the Earth (or just humankind)

Maybe the most significant change between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials react to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by blowing up the world. Bugonia adopts a slightly subtler approach, with its beings choosing to eliminate all human life, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the screenplay was a vision of the planet post-human existence,” Tracy explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. All humans are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the Earth continues. What we, as an audience, are supposed to interpret all this is up for debate. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or pessimistic? Are people doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be better off in our absence?

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

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Other people see it as being a strangely optimistic or happy ending. In my opinion there are various interpretations to read it.”

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