Bugonia's Screenwriter Discusses the Numerous Unexpected Twists of the Latest Sci-Fi Film

Bugonia screenwriter Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what transpires in the original Korean movie. That’s a bit of a surprise, since he crafted the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the original 2003 film. Instead of studying the original script for ideas, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the movie a single time, jotted down some thoughts, and began writing.

“I watched the original once,” the screenwriter says. “I didn’t really remember the movie all that well. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be slavishly following 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 premise of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s certain is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in each movie, the differences are significant. For one thing, the writer re-envisioned the lead role, played by a man in the director's first version, as a woman. (The director cast his frequent collaborator the actress in the role.) The conclusions vary a bit too, in the way they address their central question: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

The screenwriter feels that answer is a bit not the main focus.

“I never was really concerned with the twist aspect,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, Tracy has plenty to say on the subject. The interview with the screenwriter covered the film’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and the director worked together to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Complete details follow for the ending of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an alien or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in the original film, the end of Bugonia discloses that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her captor Teddy (the actor) into killing himself using her advanced device, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may require multiple viewings to fully understand.

“Emma frequently discussed how it was the first time she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be aware of people viewing it again. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” the writer says. "She knew the second time someone sees this movie, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

Tracy trails off, before continuing, “So she had to be aware this awareness in her performance.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

After Stone’s character ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her ship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a marine animal while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

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

The goal was for them to seem strangely somewhat primitive or primitive.

The Andromedons’ attire is just as interesting as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, rather than being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually kind of primitive or basic, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He adds that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the Earth (or just humankind)

Maybe the most significant change between the new film and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings choosing to eliminate all human life, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to do in the script was a vision of the planet after humanity,” Tracy says.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of life across the globe. All humans lie dead where they were located moments earlier, but the Earth keeps spinning. How viewers, are meant to make of all this is open to discussion. Is the ending of Bugonia hopeful or bleak? Are people fated to perish or worth saving? Would the world be better off in our absence?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to offer a clear resolution either way.

“Certain viewers see it as a extremely dark ending, or a tragic ending, a despairing outcome,” he says. “Different audiences view it as being a strangely optimistic or positive ending. I think there are various interpretations to understand it.”

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