The Screenwriter Details the Many Unexpected Twists of Emma Stone's Latest Sci-Fi Film

Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, since he penned the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than studying the source material for ideas, the screenwriter behind The Menu watched the movie a single time, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy explains. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or honoring another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them exist independently.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who kidnaps a business leader he’s certain is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in each movie, the variations are significant. To start, the writer rewrote the lead role, played by a man in the director's first version, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the part.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

Tracy believes that resolution is somewhat not the main focus.

“I wasn't really concerned with the twist aspect,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a gadget that does one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

However, he has a lot to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter covered the film’s ending and its implications, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to bring those twists to life.

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

So is Emma Stone an alien or not an alien?

In brief: Absolutely.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version discloses that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her captor the unstable man (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. During the two-hour film, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered performance that may take multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“She frequently discussed how it was the first time she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be aware of people watching the movie a second time. How those rewatching are going to think,” Tracy explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

He pauses, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Designing the aliens and their vessel

After Stone’s character finally does reveal her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, which the writer shares was meant to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

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

The goal was for them to seem oddly somewhat tribal or ancient.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, instead of 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 a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He adds that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the notion of anything being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the world (or just humankind)

Maybe the biggest difference between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the aliens react to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by blowing up the world. This adaptation adopts a slightly subtler approach, with its beings opting to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the script was a vision of the planet after humanity,” the writer explains.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. All humans lie dead where they were standing moments earlier, but the Earth keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of these events is up for debate. Is the ending of the film optimistic or bleak? Are people doomed or worth saving? Is the planet be better off without us?

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

“Some people find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a tragic finale, a despairing ending,” he states. “Other people see it as being a oddly optimistic or happy conclusion. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in select cinemas at present, with a wide release on Halloween.