The Writer Details the Many Wild Turns of Emma Stone's New Sci-Fi Film

The film writer Will Tracy barely recalls what transpires in Save the Green Planet!. This is somewhat unexpected, given that he wrote the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest reimagining of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Rather than analyzing the source material for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work watched the film once, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I’ve only seen Save the Green Planet once,” Tracy says. “I didn’t really remember the film all that well. My aim wasn't to feel like I had to be slavishly following or remaking or honoring someone else's vision. The fairest thing to those movies was to have them exist independently.”

While the premise of a mentally unstable man (the actor in the new version) who kidnaps a business leader he’s certain is an alien in disguise is largely the same in each movie, the differences are considerable. To start, the writer rewrote the lead role, played by a man in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a female character. (Lanthimos chose his frequent collaborator the actress in the role.) The conclusions differ slightly as well, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

Tracy feels that answer is somewhat irrelevant.

“I never was really focused on the twist aspect,” he comments. “I didn't want the movie to just be a gadget that performs one surprise, and then after the reveal, it's like: Alright, so what's next?”

Nevertheless, he has a lot to say on the topic. Our discussion with the screenwriter covered the film’s finale and what it all means, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to bring those twists to life.

Warning: Complete details ahead for the ending of the movie.

Therefore, is Emma Stone an alien or not?

Short answer: Yes.

Similar to in Save the Green Planet, the end of this version reveals that Stone’s character, a big pharma CEO named Michelle Fuller, is in fact alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper Teddy (Plemons) into killing himself using her teleportation technology, she beams back up to her Andromedon spaceship.

The fact that this is unexpected is a proof to her performance. During the two-hour movie, she maintains suspense through a complex portrayal that may require multiple viewings to comprehend entirely.

“She talked a lot about how it was the initial instance she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be aware of people viewing it again. How those rewatching are going to perceive,” the writer explains. "She knew the upon a repeat viewing someone sees this movie, They are aware I am conscious of… understand?”

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

Creating the aliens and their vessel

Once Stone’s character finally does reveal her true nature, we get a quick look of her ship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their vessel has a distinct appearance, 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-type design for the vessel, something very natural,” he says.

The goal was for them to seem oddly somewhat tribal or primitive.

The aliens' attire is just as interesting as their vessel: rounded dress-like garments made from large, ropey threads. Again, the aim was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“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 elegant creation on those strange knit costumes,” the writer states. He adds that Lanthimos “thought of it as being a very ancient civilization. He disliked the idea of any element being smooth and metallic, or a hyper-futuristic look.”

The end of the Earth (or only humanity)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and the original is that in the original Korean movie, the extraterrestrials react to their ruler's abduction and abuse by blowing up planet Earth. This adaptation takes a somewhat more nuanced method, with its aliens opting to eliminate all mankind, while leaving the planet and its other inhabitants intact.

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

In the film's conclusion, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. All humans are deceased where they were standing moments earlier, but the world keeps spinning. What we, as an audience, are meant to make of these events is up for debate. Is the ending of Bugonia optimistic or bleak? Are people doomed or deserving of rescue? Would the world be improved without us?

Tracy does not wish to offer a clear resolution either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a extremely dark ending, or a tragic finale, a despairing outcome,” he says. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely hopeful or happy conclusion. In my opinion there's different ways to understand it.”

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