Bugonia's Screenwriter Discusses the Countless Surprising Turns of Emma Stone's New Sci-Fi Movie
Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, given that he crafted the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the source material for ideas, the writer behind his previous work viewed the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and began writing.
“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy states. “My memory was foggy on the film in great detail. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The most respectful approach to both films was to have them exist independently.”
While the premise of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons 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 differences are considerable. Firstly, the writer re-envisioned the executive character, originally male in the director's original, as a female character. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the role.) The conclusions vary a bit as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?
Tracy feels that answer is somewhat beside the point.
“I never was really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a toy that performs a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”
Nevertheless, he has plenty to say on the subject. The interview with the screenwriter touched on Bugonia’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.
Warning: Complete details ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.
Therefore, is the character an alien or not?
In brief: Yes.
Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of Bugonia reveals that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. Once she manipulates her captor 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 her performance. During the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a complex performance that may take several rewatches to fully understand.
“She frequently discussed how it was the initial instance she had to act where she felt she had to be aware of people viewing it again. What the repeat viewers are going to perceive,” Tracy says. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this film, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”
He trails off, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her performance.”
Designing the aliens and their spaceship
Once the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a quick look of her ship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their ship has a unique design, which Tracy shares was meant 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,” he says.
The goal was for them to seem strangely kind of tribal or primitive.
The aliens' clothing is equally fascinating as their vessel: bulbous dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.
“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely kind of tribal or basic, and yet also quite ornate and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the notion of any element being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”
The end of the Earth (or only humankind)
Perhaps the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the aliens react to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation adopts a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its aliens opting to snuff out all mankind, while keeping the planet and its other inhabitants intact.
“What I wanted to do in the script was a vision of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy says.
In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. Every person are deceased where they were located just before, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are meant to make of these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia optimistic or bleak? Are people doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be better off in our absence?
Tracy does not wish to provide a definitive answer either way.
“Some people see it as a very bleak conclusion, or a sad ending, a hopeless outcome,” he says. “Different audiences view it as being a oddly optimistic or happy conclusion. I think there are various interpretations to read it.”
The film is in select cinemas at present, with a broader opening on Oct. 31.