The Writer Explains the Countless Wild Twists of the Latest Science Fiction Film

The film screenwriter Will Tracy has a hazy memory of what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, considering he crafted the screenplay for the director’s latest adaptation of the original 2003 film. Instead of poring over the source material for inspiration, the screenwriter behind The Menu watched the movie a single time, jotted down some thoughts, and began writing.

“I’ve only seen the original once,” Tracy states. “I couldn't clearly recall the movie all that well. I didn't want to feel like I had to be slavishly following or remaking or paying tribute to another filmmaker's work. The fairest thing to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in the new version) who abducts a business leader he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is largely the identical in each movie, the differences are significant. Firstly, the writer rewrote the lead role, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s first version, as a female character. (The director chose his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The endings differ slightly as well, in the way they address their central question: Is this person an alien in disguise or not really?

The screenwriter believes that answer is a bit not the main focus.

“I wasn't really concerned with the twist aspect,” he says. “I didn't want the film to just be a gadget that performs one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

However, he has plenty to discuss on the subject. The interview with the writer touched on the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the methods he and the director collaborated to bring those twists to life.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers follow for the ending of Bugonia.

So is the character an extraterrestrial or not?

In brief: Yes.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the conclusion of this version reveals that Stone’s character, a pharmaceutical executive named her character, is actually alien royalty in disguise. After tricking her captor Teddy (the actor) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, Fuller 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 layered 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 aware of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to perceive,” the writer says. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

He pauses, before adding, “So she had to be aware this awareness in her acting.”

Creating the aliens and their spaceship

Once the CEO finally does reveal her real identity, we get a quick look of her spaceship and other extraterrestrials before Bugonia concludes. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which the writer reveals was meant to look like a marine animal while avoiding futuristic aesthetics.

“[Yorgos] was really interested in almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the vessel, something quite organic,” he says.

They should feel strangely kind of tribal or ancient.

The aliens' attire is equally fascinating as their vessel: rounded robes made from thick, woven cords. Again, the goal was to defy conventional science fiction.

“For the costumes, instead of being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat primitive or primitive, and yet also highly decorative and not primitive, because it's a very detailed and beautiful design on those unusual woven outfits,” Tracy says. He adds that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He wasn't into the idea of any element being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The end of the Earth (or just humankind)

Maybe the most significant change between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the first version, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by destroying planet Earth. This adaptation takes a slightly subtler method, with its beings opting to eliminate all human life, while leaving the Earth and its other inhabitants intact.

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

In the movie’s final moments, we see a series of shots of existence across the globe. All humans lie dead where they were located just before, but the world continues. What we, as an audience, are meant to interpret all this is open to discussion. Is the ending of the film hopeful or bleak? Is humanity fated to perish or worth saving? Would the world be better off in our absence?

Tracy isn’t willing to offer a definitive answer either way.

“Certain viewers see it as a very bleak conclusion, or a tragic finale, a hopeless outcome,” he says. “Other people see it as being a strangely hopeful or happy ending. I think there's different ways to read it.”

The film is currently in select cinemas at present, with a broader opening on Halloween.