Bugonia screenwriter the writer has a hazy memory of what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, since he penned the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of analyzing the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the movie once, took a few notes, and began writing.
“I’ve only seen the original the one time,” the screenwriter explains. “I didn’t really remember the film all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to both films was to have them exist independently.”
While the premise of a emotionally troubled man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who abducts a business leader he’s certain is an alien in disguise is mostly the same in both films, the variations are notable. To start, Tracy rewrote the lead role, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a female character. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator the actress in the part.) The endings differ slightly too, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?
Tracy believes that resolution is somewhat irrelevant.
“I never was really focused on the surprise element,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a toy that does one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”
However, Tracy has a lot to discuss on the topic. The interview with the writer touched on Bugonia’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and the director collaborated to execute those surprises.
Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.
Therefore, is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not an alien?
In brief: Yes.
Just like in the original film, the conclusion of Bugonia reveals that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she transports to her alien vessel.
The reality that this is unexpected is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. During the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered portrayal that may require several rewatches to comprehend entirely.
“Emma talked a lot about how it was the initial instance 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 perceive,” the writer says. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”
He trails off, before continuing, “So she had to be aware of that in her acting.”
Creating the Andromedons and their vessel
After Stone’s character ultimately shows her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before the film concludes. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which Tracy shares was intended to look like a sea creature while steering clear of futuristic aesthetics.
“[Yorgos] 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 tribal or primitive.
The aliens' attire is just as interesting as their vessel: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.
“Regarding the attire, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely somewhat primitive or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the notion of any element being smooth and metallic, or a hyper-futuristic look.”
The end of the world (or only humankind)
Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying the world. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all mankind, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants unharmed.
“My intention to do in the script was a depiction of Earth after humanity,” Tracy says.
In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the globe. All humans are deceased where they were located just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are meant to interpret all this is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia optimistic or pessimistic? Is humanity fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved without us?
The screenwriter does not wish to offer a clear resolution in any direction.
“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak conclusion, or a sad finale, a despairing ending,” he states. “Other people see it as being a oddly hopeful or positive conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to understand it.”
Bugonia is currently in select cinemas now, with a broader opening on Halloween.
