Bugonia's Screenwriter Discusses the Countless Surprising Turns of the Latest Science Fiction Movie

The film screenwriter Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what happens in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he penned the screenplay for the director’s new adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of analyzing the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the movie once, took a few notes, and started the process.

“I watched the original once,” the screenwriter explains. “I didn’t really remember the movie all that well. I didn't want to feel like I had to be slavishly following or recreating or honoring 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 Bugonia) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is pretty much the identical in both films, the differences are notable. Firstly, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the part.) The conclusions vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not?

Tracy believes that answer is a bit not the main focus.

“I never was really concerned with the surprise element,” he comments. “I didn't want the film to just be a toy that performs a single trick, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter touched on the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to bring those twists to life.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the ending of the movie.

So is the character an alien or not?

In brief: Absolutely.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in disguise. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. During the 118-minute movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered performance that may take several rewatches to fully understand.

“Emma 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 think,” the writer says. "She knew the second time a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

He trails off, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect this awareness in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

After Stone’s character finally does reveal her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding high-tech visuals.

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

They should feel strangely kind of primitive or primitive.

The aliens' clothing is equally fascinating as their ship: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Once more, the aim was to go against conventional science fiction.

“Regarding the attire, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually somewhat tribal or basic, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's a very detailed 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 disliked the notion of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the world (or only humanity)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by blowing up the world. This adaptation takes a slightly subtler approach, with its aliens opting to eliminate all mankind, while keeping the planet and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the screenplay was a depiction of the planet after humanity,” Tracy says.

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the globe. All humans are deceased where they were located moments earlier, but the Earth keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or pessimistic? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be better off without us?

Tracy isn’t willing to provide a clear resolution in any direction.

“Certain viewers see it as a very bleak ending, or a tragic ending, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Other people see it as being a oddly hopeful or positive conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to understand it.”

The film is in limited theatrical release now, with a wide release on Halloween.