Bugonia's Writer Discusses the Countless Wild Twists of the Latest Science Fiction Film

The film screenwriter Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what happens in the original Korean movie. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he penned the script for the director’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of poring over the original script for inspiration, the screenwriter behind The Menu viewed the film once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet once,” Tracy explains. “I couldn't clearly recall the film in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The most respectful approach to those movies was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is pretty much the same in both films, the variations are significant. For one thing, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, originally male in the director's first version, as a woman. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator the actress in the part.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

The screenwriter feels that resolution is a bit irrelevant.

“I wasn't really focused on the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a toy that performs one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has plenty to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter covered the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the ways he and the director collaborated to execute those surprises.

Warning: Complete details ahead for the ending of the movie.

So is the character an extraterrestrial or not an alien?

In brief: Absolutely.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of Bugonia discloses that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact a royal extraterrestrial in disguise. After tricking her captor Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her advanced device, Fuller beams back up to her alien vessel.

The fact that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. Throughout the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may require several rewatches to comprehend entirely.

“She frequently discussed 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 perceive,” the writer explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

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

Designing the aliens and their vessel

After the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and other extraterrestrials before the film ends. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[The director] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-type design for the vessel, something quite organic,” he says.

They should feel oddly somewhat primitive or ancient.

The aliens' clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous robes made from large, ropey threads. Again, the aim was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear strangely kind of tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He notes that the director “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the idea of any element being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humankind)

Maybe the biggest difference between Bugonia and the original is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by blowing up the world. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens choosing to snuff out all human life, while keeping the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“What I wanted to do in the script was a depiction of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were located moments earlier, but the Earth continues. How viewers, are supposed to interpret these events is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or bleak? Are people doomed or worth saving? Would the world be better off without us?

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

“Some people find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Other people view it as being a oddly optimistic or positive ending. I think there's different ways to understand it.”

Bugonia is in limited theatrical release now, with a broader opening on Halloween.