The Writer Details the Countless Surprising Twists of the New Sci-Fi Film

The film screenwriter Will Tracy barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. It's a little surprising, given that he wrote the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of analyzing the original script for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work viewed the film once, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen the original the one time,” the screenwriter says. “My memory was foggy on the film in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be slavishly following or remaking or paying tribute to someone else's vision. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them exist independently.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in each movie, the variations are considerable. For one thing, Tracy rewrote the lead role, played by a man in the director's first version, as a female character. (The director cast his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the part.) The conclusions vary a bit too, in the way they tackle their central question: Is the character an alien in disguise or not?

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

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

Nevertheless, Tracy has plenty to discuss on the topic. The interview with the writer covered Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Complete details ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Just like in the original film, the end of Bugonia discloses that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in hiding. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (Plemons) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she transports to her alien vessel.

The reality that this is unexpected is a proof to her performance. Throughout the 118-minute film, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may take multiple viewings to fully understand.

“Emma talked a lot about how it was the first time 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 perceive,” the writer explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”

He trails off, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Designing the aliens and their spaceship

After Stone’s character ultimately shows her real identity, we get a quick look of her ship and other extraterrestrials before the film ends. Their ship has a unique design, which Tracy shares was meant 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,” Tracy 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. Once more, the aim was to go against conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually kind of tribal or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the notion of anything being smooth and metallic, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion of the world (or just humanity)

Perhaps the biggest difference between the new film and the original is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials respond to their leader's kidnapping and abuse by destroying planet Earth. Bugonia adopts a slightly subtler method, with its aliens choosing to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“What I wanted to do in the screenplay was a vision of Earth after humanity,” the writer explains.

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of life across the planet. Every person lie dead where they were located moments earlier, but the Earth continues. How viewers, are supposed to interpret all this is up for debate. Is the ending of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Is humanity fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved in our absence?

Tracy does not wish to provide a clear resolution in any direction.

“Certain viewers find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a tragic ending, a despairing ending,” he says. “Other people see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. I think there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in limited theatrical release now, with a wide release on Halloween.