The Writer Explains the Numerous Wild Turns of the Latest Science Fiction Film

The film screenwriter Will Tracy barely recalls what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, since he wrote the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of poring over the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind his previous work viewed the movie a single time, took a few notes, and began writing.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy states. “My memory was foggy on the film all that well. I didn't want to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or honoring another filmmaker's work. 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 certain is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is pretty much the identical in each movie, the differences are considerable. For one thing, the writer re-envisioned the lead role, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a female character. (The director chose his frequent collaborator the actress in the role.) The conclusions vary a bit as well, in the way they tackle their shared core mystery: Is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

Tracy feels that resolution is a bit irrelevant.

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

Nevertheless, Tracy has plenty to say on the topic. Our discussion with the writer covered Bugonia’s ending and its implications, along with the methods he and Lanthimos worked together to execute those surprises.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers ahead for the conclusion of Bugonia.

So is the character an extraterrestrial or not an alien?

Short answer: Absolutely.

Similar to in the original film, the conclusion of Bugonia discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in hiding. Once she manipulates her captor Teddy (Plemons) into ending his own life using her teleportation technology, Fuller beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The reality that this comes as a surprise is a testament to Stone’s acting skills. During the 118-minute film, she maintains suspense through a layered portrayal that may require 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. What the repeat viewers are going to perceive,” the writer says. "She knew the second time a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

He pauses, before adding, “Thus, her performance needed to reflect of that in her performance.”

Designing the Andromedons and their spaceship

After the CEO finally does reveal her true nature, we get a brief glimpse of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before the film concludes. Their ship has a unique design, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a marine animal while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

“[Yorgos] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the spaceship, something very natural,” he says.

They should feel strangely somewhat primitive or primitive.

The aliens' attire is just as interesting as their vessel: bulbous dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Again, the goal was to go against conventional science fiction.

“Regarding the attire, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually kind of primitive or primitive, and yet also quite ornate and not primitive, because it's such an intricate and elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer says. He notes that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the notion of anything being smooth and metallic, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the Earth (or only humanity)

Maybe the biggest difference between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials respond to their ruler's abduction and mistreatment by destroying the world. Bugonia adopts a somewhat more nuanced approach, with its aliens choosing to eliminate all human life, while leaving the Earth and its remaining creatures unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the screenplay was a depiction of Earth post-human existence,” Tracy says.

In the film's conclusion, we see a series of shots of existence across the planet. All humans lie dead where they were standing just before, but the world continues. How viewers, are supposed to interpret these events is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of Bugonia hopeful or bleak? Are people fated to perish or worth saving? Is the planet be better off in our absence?

The screenwriter does not wish to provide a definitive answer in any direction.

“Certain viewers find it to be a very bleak ending, or a sad ending, a despairing ending,” he states. “Other people see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive ending. In my opinion there's different ways to read it.”

The film is currently in limited theatrical release at present, with a broader opening on Oct. 31.