The Screenwriter Details the Countless Surprising Turns of Emma Stone's New Science Fiction Film

The film writer Will Tracy doesn’t really remember what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, given that he wrote the script for the director’s latest reimagining of the original 2003 film. Instead of studying the original script for ideas, the screenwriter behind his previous work watched the film once, took a few notes, and began writing.

“I watched the original the one time,” the screenwriter says. “I didn’t really remember the movie in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be faithfully adapting or recreating or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the basic plot of a mentally unstable man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an alien in disguise is mostly the same in both films, the differences are significant. Firstly, the writer rewrote the executive character, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a woman. (The director cast his frequent collaborator the actress in the part.) The endings vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their central question: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

The screenwriter believes that resolution is a bit irrelevant.

“I never was really concerned with the twist aspect,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a toy that does a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, Tracy has plenty to say on the subject. The interview with the screenwriter covered Bugonia’s finale and what it all means, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

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

So is Emma Stone an alien or not?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in the original film, the conclusion of Bugonia discloses that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is actually alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her alien vessel.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a testament to her performance. During the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a complex performance that may take multiple viewings to fully understand.

“She talked a lot about how it was the first time she had to act 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 knew the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… you know?”

Tracy pauses, before continuing, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

After Stone’s character finally does reveal her true nature, we get a quick look of her spaceship and fellow aliens before the film concludes. Their ship has a unique design, which the writer shares was intended to look like a sea creature while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something quite organic,” Tracy says.

They should feel strangely kind of primitive or primitive.

The aliens' clothing is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the goal was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, instead of being futuristic, they [were meant to|aimed to] appear unusually kind of tribal or basic, and yet also highly decorative and sophisticated, because it's a very detailed and beautiful design on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He notes that the director “viewed it as being a very ancient civilization. He wasn't into the idea of anything being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or just humanity)

Perhaps the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials respond to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by destroying the world. This adaptation takes a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its beings choosing to snuff out all mankind, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants intact.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of life across the globe. All humans are deceased where they were standing just before, but the Earth keeps spinning. How viewers, are supposed to interpret these events is up for debate. Does the conclusion of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Are people fated to perish or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved in our absence?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to offer a clear resolution either way.

“Some people find it to be a very bleak ending, or a tragic ending, a hopeless ending,” he says. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. In my opinion there are various interpretations to read it.”

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