Everyone’s Talking About Bugonia’s Ending, Here’s Why

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia is out in theaters now, and the film’s ending has left some fans divided about whether or not they enjoyed the new Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons movie.

Bugonia follows the story of two men, Teddy Gatz (Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, due to Teddy believing she is an Andromedan, a race of aliens that have come to Earth with the purpose of slowly eradicating life on the planet.

After kidnapping her, Fuller is treated like a prisoner in Gatz’s home, which has been outfitted to make sure Fuller can’t escape. Gatz and his cousin subject Fuller to a variety of odd rituals, including shaving her head so she cannot make contact with her “mothership,” covering her in antihistamine cream to prevent tracking, and later, torturing her via electroshock procedures.

What happens in Bugonia’s ending?

Throughout most of the movie, Bugonia treats the kidnapping like one done by a conspiracy theorist who has spiraled fully into his own beliefs. However, the final act of the movement completely flips the movie on its head in a major way.

The end of Bugonia sees Michelle breaking free of her capture and seemingly confessing, saying that she is an alien and that her people actually want to help humanity become enlightened, trying to guide them out of their flawed nature.

Michelle tells Teddy she’ll take him to the mothership to negotiate with the Andromedans, which was Teddy’s original goal. The two go to her office, where Teddy dies after an explosive vest inadvertently goes off. Fuller is knocked out in the blast, and after waking up in the ambulance, she demands that it stop and leaps out to head back to her office.

It’s then revealed that everything Gatz had thought was true: Fuller was an alien, and she teleports herself back to the Andromedan mothership. Fuller, revealed to be the Empress of the Andromedans, deems that the human “experiment” has been a failure, as humans do nothing but put themselves in their own peril.

The Andromedans then terminate the experiment, and a clearly sad Michelle then pops a dome over a model of Earth on their ship that kills every human. The final shots of the movie show the human race eradicated, while animals slowly begin to make their way around the planet.

Why is Bugonia’s ending so divisive?

The ending is a shocking one, especially given how the movie treats the idea early on. Some fans on social media were left a bit confused by the ending and how it fit thematically. To some, the movie’s ending seems to confirm that some conspiracy theorists are right in their beliefs, no matter how seemingly insane they may be, and they criticized it for seemingly vindicating Teddy’s actions.

To others, though, the movie’s ending is a perfect explanation for the state of the world. Teddy’s conspiracy may be right, but the way he cruelly goes about trying to prove it ends up inadvertently dooming the entire planet, thus proving the alien’s fears that humanity is often too cruel and gets in its own way.

Bugonia’s ending is one that will no doubt stir a lot of conversation, and whether or not it worked for the film will only be left up to time.

Source: Comingsoon.net