The Screenwriter Details the Countless Surprising Twists of the New Science Fiction Film

Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. It's a little surprising, given that he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of poring over the source material for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work watched the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and got to work.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet once,” Tracy states. “I didn’t really remember the film in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be slavishly following or recreating or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The fairest thing to both films was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who kidnaps a business leader he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is pretty much the identical in each movie, the differences are significant. Firstly, the writer rewrote the executive character, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a woman. (Lanthimos cast his regular partner Emma Stone in the role.) The endings differ slightly too, in the way they tackle their central question: Is the character an alien in disguise or not really?

Tracy believes that answer is somewhat not the main focus.

“I wasn't really concerned with the twist aspect,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a gadget that does a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter touched on the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

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

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not?

In brief: Absolutely.

Just like in the original film, the conclusion of this version reveals that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named her character, is actually alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper the unstable man (Plemons) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. During the 118-minute film, she keeps audiences guessing through a complex performance that may require multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be conscious of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” Tracy says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

He pauses, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her acting.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

After the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their ship has a unique design, which the writer shares was intended to look like a marine animal while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something very natural,” he comments.

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

The Andromedons’ clothing is equally fascinating as their ship: bulbous robes made from large, ropey threads. Again, the goal was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely somewhat tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of anything being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or just humanity)

Maybe the biggest difference between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the aliens respond to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by blowing up the world. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings opting to snuff out all human life, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

“What I wanted to achieve in the screenplay was a depiction of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy 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 located moments earlier, but the world continues. How viewers, are supposed to interpret these events is open to discussion. Is the ending of Bugonia optimistic or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or worth saving? Is the planet be improved in our absence?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer either way.

“Some people find it to be a extremely dark ending, or a sad finale, a despairing ending,” he states. “Different audiences view it as being a oddly hopeful or positive ending. I think there's different ways to understand it.”

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