The Screenwriter Discusses the Many Surprising Twists of Emma Stone's Latest Science Fiction Film

The film writer Will Tracy barely recalls what happens in Save the Green Planet!. It's a little surprising, considering he wrote the screenplay for the director’s new adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of analyzing the source material for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work viewed the movie a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy explains. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie in great detail. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to those movies 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 alien in disguise is pretty much the identical in each movie, the variations are notable. For one thing, Tracy re-envisioned the executive character, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a woman. (The director cast his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The endings vary a bit too, in the way they address their central question: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not really?

The screenwriter feels that resolution is somewhat not the main focus.

“I wasn't really focused on the twist aspect,” he comments. “My intention wasn't for the movie to just be a gadget that performs one surprise, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

Nevertheless, Tracy has a lot to say on the topic. Our discussion with the writer touched on Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the ways he and the director collaborated to execute those surprises.

Warning: Full spoilers follow for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an extraterrestrial or not?

Short answer: Yes.

Just like in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version reveals that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. After tricking her kidnapper Teddy (the actor) into ending his own life using her advanced device, she transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a layered performance that may require multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“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. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” the writer says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… you know?”

Tracy pauses, before adding, “So she had to be aware of that in her performance.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

After the CEO ultimately shows her real identity, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia concludes. Their vessel has a unique design, which Tracy shares was intended to look like a sea creature while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the vessel, something very natural,” Tracy says.

They should feel oddly kind of primitive or ancient.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded robes made from thick, woven cords. Again, the aim was to go against sci-fi movie tradition.

“Regarding the attire, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually somewhat primitive or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy says. He adds that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the notion of any element being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the world (or only humanity)

Maybe the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the aliens react to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying the world. This adaptation adopts a slightly subtler approach, with its aliens opting to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“My intention to do in the script was a vision of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy explains.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of life across the globe. Every person are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the Earth continues. What we, as an audience, are meant to interpret all this is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be improved without us?

Tracy isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer in any direction.

“Some people see it as a extremely dark conclusion, or a sad finale, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Different audiences see it as being a oddly hopeful or happy conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to read it.”

Bugonia is currently in limited theatrical release at present, with a broader opening on Halloween.