Bugonia's Screenwriter Details the Numerous Surprising Twists of Emma Stone's New Sci-Fi Movie

Bugonia writer Will Tracy barely recalls what happens in the original Korean movie. It's a little surprising, considering he crafted the screenplay for the director’s new reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than studying the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work viewed the movie once, jotted down some thoughts, and started the process.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet once,” the screenwriter states. “My memory was foggy on the movie all that well. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or honoring someone else's vision. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them each stand on their own.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in the new version) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the identical in both films, the differences are notable. To start, the writer rewrote the lead role, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (The director chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

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

“I wasn't really focused on the twist aspect,” he says. “I didn't want the movie to just be a gadget that does a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, he has a lot to say on the subject. The interview with the writer covered the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and the director collaborated to execute those surprises.

Warning: Complete details follow for the ending of Bugonia.

So is Emma Stone an alien or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Just like in the original film, the conclusion of this version reveals that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in hiding. After tricking her kidnapper the unstable man (Plemons) into ending his own life using her advanced device, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. During the two-hour film, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may require several rewatches to fully understand.

“She 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 viewing it again. What the repeat viewers are going to perceive,” Tracy explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this film, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

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

Designing the aliens and their vessel

Once Stone’s character ultimately shows her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before Bugonia ends. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which Tracy shares was intended to look like a marine animal while avoiding high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-type design for the spaceship, something very natural,” he comments.

They should feel strangely somewhat tribal or ancient.

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

“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually kind of tribal or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” the writer states. He adds that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the idea of any element being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the world (or just humankind)

Maybe the most significant change between Bugonia and the original is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens respond to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying the world. Bugonia takes a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its beings opting to snuff out all human life, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants unharmed.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were located moments earlier, but the Earth continues. How viewers, are meant to make of these events is open to discussion. Is the ending of the film optimistic or bleak? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be better off without us?

Tracy does not wish to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Some people find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a tragic finale, a hopeless ending,” he states. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or happy conclusion. I think there are various interpretations to understand it.”

Bugonia is in limited theatrical release at present, with a wide release on Halloween.