The Screenwriter Details the Countless Wild Twists of Emma Stone's New Sci-Fi Movie

The film screenwriter the writer doesn’t really remember what happens in Save the Green Planet!. That’s a bit of a surprise, considering he crafted the script for Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest adaptation of the 2003 Korean dark sci-fi comedy. Instead of studying the original script for inspiration, the writer behind his previous work watched the film a single time, took a few notes, and got to work.

“I watched Save the Green Planet the one time,” Tracy says. “I couldn't clearly recall the film in great detail. My aim wasn't to feel as though I had to be faithfully adapting or remaking or honoring another filmmaker's work. The most respectful approach to both films was to have them be judged separately.”

While the premise of a emotionally troubled man (the actor in Bugonia) who abducts a pharmaceutical executive he’s convinced is an extraterrestrial hiding on Earth is mostly the same in each movie, the variations are notable. To start, Tracy rewrote the lead role, originally male in Jang Joon-hwan’s original, as a woman. (Lanthimos cast his frequent collaborator Emma Stone in the role.) The conclusions differ slightly too, in the way they address their shared core mystery: Is this person an extraterrestrial or not?

The screenwriter feels that resolution is somewhat 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 a single trick, and then once it does that surprise, it's like: OK, well, what else does this toy do?”

However, he has plenty to discuss on the subject. The interview with the writer covered the film’s finale and its implications, along with the ways he and Lanthimos collaborated to execute those surprises.

Warning: Complete details ahead 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 this version discloses that the CEO, a pharmaceutical executive named Michelle Fuller, is actually alien royalty in disguise. Once she manipulates her kidnapper the unstable man (Plemons) into ending his own life using her advanced device, Fuller beams back up to her alien vessel.

The fact that this is unexpected is a testament to her performance. Throughout the two-hour movie, she keeps audiences guessing through a layered performance that may require several rewatches to comprehend entirely.

“She talked a lot about how it was the first time she had to give a performance where she felt she had to be conscious of people watching the movie a second time. What the repeat viewers are going to think,” Tracy explains. "She was aware the upon a repeat viewing a person watches this film, They know that I know that I'm… understand?”

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

Designing the Andromedons and their vessel

Once the CEO finally does reveal her real identity, we get a quick look of her ship and fellow aliens before the film ends. Their ship has a distinct appearance, which Tracy reveals was intended to look like a sea creature while steering clear of high-tech visuals.

“[The director] was really fascinated by almost like a jellyfish-inspired shape for the vessel, something quite organic,” Tracy comments.

They should feel oddly somewhat primitive or ancient.

The Andromedons’ clothing is just as interesting as their ship: bulbous dress-like garments made from thick, woven cords. Once more, the aim was to defy sci-fi movie tradition.

“For the costumes, rather than being advanced, they [were meant to|aimed to] feel unusually somewhat primitive or basic, 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 notes that Lanthimos “viewed it as being a extremely old society. He disliked the idea of anything being sleek and silver, or some ultra-modern cosmic vision.”

The conclusion of the world (or only humankind)

Perhaps the most significant change between the new film and Save the Green Planet is that in the original Korean movie, the aliens respond to their leader's kidnapping and mistreatment by blowing up planet Earth. Bugonia takes a slightly subtler approach, with its beings choosing to snuff out all mankind, while keeping the planet and its other inhabitants unharmed.

“My intention to achieve in the script was a depiction of the planet after humanity,” the writer says.

In the movie’s final moments, we see a sequence of scenes of existence across the planet. Every person are deceased where they were located just before, but the world keeps spinning. How viewers, are supposed to interpret these events is open to discussion. Does the conclusion of the film hopeful or bleak? Is humanity doomed or deserving of rescue? Is the planet be improved in our absence?

The screenwriter isn’t willing to provide a definitive answer either way.

“Certain viewers find it to be a extremely dark conclusion, or a tragic ending, a despairing ending,” he states. “Different audiences see it as being a strangely optimistic or positive conclusion. I think there's different ways to understand it.”

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