The Writer Explains the Numerous Unexpected Turns of the New Science Fiction Film

The film writer Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what happens in the original Korean movie. That’s a bit of a surprise, since he penned the screenplay for the director’s new adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of studying the original script for ideas, the writer behind his previous work watched the movie once, took a few notes, and began writing.

“I watched the original once,” Tracy states. “I couldn't clearly recall the film in great detail. 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 both films was to have them exist independently.”

While the basic plot of a emotionally troubled man (Jesse Plemons in the new version) who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is largely the same in each movie, the differences are significant. To start, the writer rewrote the executive character, played by a man in the director's original, as a woman. (The director chose his regular partner the actress in the role.) The endings differ slightly as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

Tracy feels that resolution is a bit irrelevant.

“I wasn't really focused on the surprise element,” he says. “I didn't want the movie to just be a toy that does one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

However, Tracy has a lot to discuss on the subject. The interview with the writer covered Bugonia’s finale and its implications, along with the methods he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers follow for the conclusion of the movie.

Therefore, is the character an alien or not an alien?

Short answer: Yes.

Similar to in the original film, the conclusion of Bugonia reveals that the CEO, a big pharma CEO named her character, is actually a royal extraterrestrial in hiding. Once she manipulates her kidnapper the unstable man (the actor) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, Fuller transports to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this is unexpected is a proof to Stone’s acting skills. During the 118-minute film, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may take several rewatches to comprehend entirely.

“She frequently discussed how it was the first time she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be aware of people watching the movie a second time. How those rewatching are going to think,” Tracy says. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

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

Designing the aliens and their spaceship

After Stone’s character ultimately shows her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their vessel has a unique design, which the writer reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

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

They should feel strangely somewhat primitive or primitive.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel strangely kind of primitive or basic, and yet also quite ornate and sophisticated, because it's such an intricate and beautiful design on those strange knit costumes,” Tracy states. He notes that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the notion of anything being sleek and silver, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The conclusion 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 leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia adopts a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens opting to eliminate all mankind, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

“What I wanted to achieve in the script was a depiction of the planet after humanity,” the writer explains.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the globe. Every person lie dead where they were standing moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are supposed to make of these events is up for debate. Is the ending of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Is humanity fated to perish or worth saving? Would the world be improved in our absence?

The screenwriter does not wish to provide a definitive answer either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic ending, a despairing outcome,” he states. “Different audiences see it as being a oddly hopeful or positive conclusion. I think there's different ways to understand it.”

Bugonia is in select cinemas at present, with a wide release on Halloween.