Bugonia's Writer Explains the Countless Surprising Twists of the Latest Sci-Fi Film
Bugonia writer the writer barely recalls what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he penned the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest reimagining of the original 2003 film. Instead of studying the original script for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work viewed the film a single time, took a few notes, and began writing.
“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” Tracy explains. “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 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 pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is pretty much the identical in each movie, the differences are significant. For one thing, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, originally male in the director's first version, as a woman. (The director cast his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they address their central question: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not?
Tracy feels that resolution is somewhat irrelevant.
“I wasn't really concerned with the surprise element,” he says. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a gadget that performs a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”
Nevertheless, he has a lot to discuss on the subject. The interview with the screenwriter touched on Bugonia’s ending and what it all means, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.
Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.
Therefore, is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not an alien?
In brief: Absolutely.
Similar to in the original film, the conclusion of Bugonia discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in disguise. After tricking her captor the unstable man (Plemons) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.
The fact that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. Throughout the 118-minute movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered portrayal that may take 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 viewing it again. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” Tracy says. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”
He trails off, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her acting.”
Designing the aliens and their vessel
After the CEO ultimately shows her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before the film ends. Their ship has a unique design, which the writer shares was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding high-tech visuals.
“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something very natural,” Tracy comments.
They should feel strangely somewhat primitive or ancient.
The Andromedons’ clothing is equally fascinating as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to defy conventional science fiction.
“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely somewhat tribal or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He adds that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the idea of any element being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”
The end of the world (or just humankind)
Perhaps the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its beings opting to snuff out all mankind, while keeping the planet and its other inhabitants intact.
“What I wanted to achieve in the script was a vision of the planet after humanity,” the writer says.
In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. All humans are deceased where they were standing just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are meant to interpret these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of Bugonia hopeful or bleak? Is humanity fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off in our absence?
The screenwriter isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer either way.
“Certain viewers see it as a extremely dark conclusion, or a sad ending, a hopeless outcome,” he states. “Other people see it as being a oddly hopeful or happy conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to understand it.”
The film is in limited theatrical release now, with a broader opening on Oct. 31.