Explore the Screenplay of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Film About a Conspiracy Theorist and Humanity’s Choices
The film premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival and has since earned a nomination for Best Feature at the Gotham Film Awards. Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Aidan Delbis, the film adapts the 2003 South Korean dark comedy Save the Green Planet! into an English-language narrative.
Bugonia follows two conspiracy-driven cousins, Teddy Gatz (Plemmons) and his neurodivergent cousin Don (Delbis). They believe that the Earth is under the control of a sinister alien race known as the “Andromedans,” who they argue are destroying the planet, exemplified by the declining honeybee population. In pursuit of their conviction, they kidnap Michelle Fuller (Stone), the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Auxolith, where Teddy works in a low-level position. Convinced that Michelle is an alien in disguise seeking global destruction, they chain her in their basement, shave her head to prevent alien communication, and try to compel her to contact her mothership. This bizarre situation escalates into a tense standoff marked by the captors’ extreme paranoia and the CEO’s corporate ruthlessness, culminating in shocking violence and a twist that confirms the captors’ frantic fears.
Teddy serves as the film’s central anti-hero, whose character is shaped by personal tragedy and influenced by conspiratorial thinking fostered by online echo chambers. His motivations are deeply personal: his mother, portrayed by Alicia Silverstone, fell into a coma after participating in a clinical trial for an Auxolith drug. Teddy’s abduction of Michelle becomes a desperate act of revenge intertwined with his delusional mission to save humanity. Despite his monstrous actions—kidnapping, torturing, and ultimately killing—Teddy’s behavior stems from a profound sense of powerlessness and exploitation. The film presents him as both a dangerous fanatic and a tragic victim of late-stage capitalism and misinformation.
Bugonia serves as a sharp, dark satire that delves into pressing anxieties of contemporary society, addressing themes of conspiracy, misinformation, class struggle, moral ambiguity, and profound social alienation. In keeping with the signature style of director Yorgos Lanthimos, the film refrains from simplistic moral judgments, instead inviting audiences to grapple with the complexities of dysfunctional systems that dictate modern life. This narrative approach creates an unsettling atmosphere, compelling viewers to confront the moral gray areas inherent in its characters and the societal pressures that inform their actions.
The film’s power lies in its ethical ambiguity, serving as a commentary on how political and economic structures can isolate individuals, transforming them into antagonists. Viewers find themselves torn between feeling sympathy for the broken, exploited Teddy and disgust for his actions, while also viewing the coldly manipulative Michelle with a mixture of fear and condemnation. This deliberate ambivalence represents the film’s core thesis: systemic exploitation and alienation lead individuals to internalize conflict and direct their frustrations toward each other, rather than challenging the larger forces of oppression.
Read the screenplay below.
