r/moviecritic • u/Glad_Wasabi_59 • 1d ago
Bugonia (2025) is one of the wildest, most challenging movies of the decade. Let’s talk about that ending.
I finally caught up with Bugonia (2025), and I am still trying to process it. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the premise itself is completely unhinged: two conspiracy-obsessed guys kidnap a high-powered CEO because they are absolutely convinced she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.
The performances are world-class. Jesse Plemons is phenomenal as a sad, hopeless guy plagued by past trauma, and Emma Stone is incredible as always. Beyond the weirdness, the movie is overflowing with rich ideas, tackling heavy themes like capitalism, conspiracies, religion, and modern life.
It's sitting at a solid 7.4/10 on IMDb and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes sense because it is an incredibly polarizing movie. It’s the kind of film that deliberately undercuts itself in ways that will frustrate some and completely delight others. But whether you loved it or hated it, Lanthimos succeeds in making you think about it long after you leave your seat.
For those who have seen it: what did you think of the ending? Did the twist win you over, or did it leave you incredibly frustrated?
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u/mtnfox 1d ago
I don’t understand why people say there is a twist ending. The whole lead up of the movie is asking if he is crazy or not.
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u/BarbacoaBarbara 1d ago
Hes crazy and he’s right
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u/mtnfox 1d ago
Maybe I worded that wrong. I watched the movie knowing there were two possible endings. Either she is an alien or she isn’t an alien and that’s where the tension comes from. A twist ending would be some sort of third option like he was the alien or something.
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u/BarbacoaBarbara 20h ago
The tension to me came from her chess game with a vastly inferior intellect. He was just a clever enough to figure out who she was but not smart enough to know what she’s capable of.
I just assumed she was an alien to begin with though, I seem to be in the minority on this one
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u/redditsucksass6 1d ago
Words don't actually have meaning anymore you can just say whatever
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u/TavernerTaverner 23h ago
paraphrased: the writers intended the viewer's tension to stem from the kidnapping struggle, not the question of her home planet
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u/spoink74 1d ago
I saw this on an airplane. It's not a movie I would've picked if I wasn't stuck in a seat. I fucking LOVED this movie. It throws curveball after curveball and sticks each subsequent landing. Is it a character study? Is it a meditation on the nuance and complexity of the modern world? Or is at an absurdist descent into nihilism? Or is it just a gumchewing action thriller?
The answer is yes.
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u/YouHadMeAtAloe 1d ago
It’s a remake of the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet! which I highly recommend watching
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u/Dale_Carvello 1d ago
I blindly purchased Save the Green Planet! on DVD back in 2005, and I was floored. The various elements and shades of different genres balanced perfectly; it was bizarre and funny, but never in a way that undermines the serious moments.
I haven't seen Bugonia yet, but I wonder if it takes a more grim approach than the original?
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u/Colover32 1d ago
I liked it a ton, it does bring up the conspiracy rabbit hole in a super interesting way to me, especially with the ending context, the guy was right like 100% but the way he went about it was really wrong and insane, does that legitimize his claims? Or is he still crazy since he didn’t really have ANY hard evidence?
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u/GiraffeCalledKevin 1d ago
He was right but he made it worse. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it so I could be a bit off on some details, but wasn’t Emma’s character one of the only aliens left still wanting to try and fix things? & then he tortured her and it changed her mind so she decided to do what she had to do even though it pained her.
Also, this film is a remake! Original is a South Korean film from 2000. I haven’t seen it yet but it’s on my movie watch list.
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u/Colover32 1d ago
Yea I think shes in a position of apathy towards us. She seemed really disconnected with normal people, the way her company and personal life was run seemed very lonely and sterile, the experimental drugs his mother was given to treat her was also part of this distancing herself from humanity in a lot of ways and using money to make amends,her whole apology to him about his mother is that they didn’t pay him enough but it’s never going to be enough money. So it’s interesting to see her make the choice at the end, I think she was being sort of becoming more human than alien and we do carry very self destructive qualities
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u/ThirstyWolfSpider 15h ago
What you're saying also reminds me of what Josh Johnson has to say about the Unabomber in his recent "What Unabomber Hitting #1 Says About Us", with a gradual arc working its way between "this person has some real points" and "oh, this probably isn't a good way to respond to it", but with "Bugonia" traveling that path in the opposite direction.
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u/hajnalidelfin 1d ago
SPOILER!
I was angry at first but then I put it together in my head. The movie hints at the guy's background (dad leaves them, mom gets into a coma, police officer raped him when he was a child) but doesn't discuss it at length. Then the movie provokes the viewer into various discourses about feminism and marxism and whatever. Then the movie has a purposefully surreal ending, as if to say: even if all these weird conspiracy theories were true, what then? Did he not get abandoned and raped?
Because in real life when somebody starts talking about some stupid conspiracy theory we usually try to convince them with rational arguments, whereas the movie shows that the reason people get into such rabbit holes in the first place is because they function as escapism. Being obsesses with conspiracy theories is escapism, in his case from trauma.
The movie calls out the very coping mechanism the main character uses by provoking the viewers into it: what the story really is about is his brutally traumatising childhood which wouldn't be changed at all by aliens being real. Yet, the viewers are invited to discuss at length the various mock subjects that the movie offers such as diversity quotas or feminism or economic theory or whatever.
The movie's ending expresses this sentiment: Even if the weirdest conspiracy theories were true, let's pretend that they are, would it overwrite your traumas of your childhood, the emotional reality of your life, which is what your life really is? Who cares if the freemasons or the Rothschilds or whatever are secretly controlling the world, who cares if Covid really were manmade or whatever, do they change anything about what's really meaningful about your life?
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
I can get behind that. But I'd also argue that ultimately the ending chooses to answer those questions in a nihilistic way. Nothing matters, we all die anyway.
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u/mindgamesweldon 1d ago
It answers it with an ironic twist that the supposed “above it all” aliens are also mired in emotions. One traumatic experience and the thing does to the world what was done to her. He succeeded in passing on his trauma, same as a lot of parents do to their children
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
But that's the beauty of these things right, that it can be interpreted in different ways? Where you see the symbolic nature of passing trauma, I see the irony of a universe where we are judged (and punished for) for our worst actions/moments rather than our best.
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u/Glad_Wasabi_59 1d ago
Damn bro, how much this movie hooked you i get it. Its clear looking at the effort. So, i take it as yes that you liked it
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u/crumbaugh 1d ago
It's good and a little off-beat but it certainly isn't "one of the most challenging movies of the decade"
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u/INtoCT2015 1d ago
Same. It was a good movie. But the ending to me was a bit gimmicky. It felt like the punch line of a joke, not some thought provoking brain twister
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u/trickyspanglish 1d ago
Wasn’t even challenging at all. Then again, reddit isn’t the best place for movie critique
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u/INtoCT2015 1d ago
Reddit is stuck in the neverending “subverts expectations = 4D chess masterpiece” trap.
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u/trickyspanglish 8h ago
That and “this movie is about [insert current societal issue] therefore 10/10”
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u/drumscrubby 1d ago
It was a better movie than Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. That’s for sure.
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u/ToneBalone25 1d ago
I don't think these two films are even remotely comparable outside of the fact that aliens are revealed in the end. And in disclosure day you knew it was coming whereas in Bugonia it was a twist.
And Spielberg v Lanthomos is night and day
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u/MrsMiterSaw 22h ago
Disclosure Day was the worst movie I have seen in years. It's like they took 1978 Spielberg and gave him modern techniques, and so he made a movie filled with nothing but what have become trite alien invasion tropes, but added nothing else, including event the slightest idea of a sound plot.
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u/drumscrubby 21h ago
It was a car chase movie. Of all the personal accounts and supposed stories coming from former government agents, the current zeitgeist etc, there’s just so much to possibly work with. Total let down
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u/TheCalifornist 1d ago
Wayyyyy better than stupid ass clunky DD.
I love Bugonia because it's a great symbolic framing of today's greatest concern for the lay-people: Billionaires, and the rest of us.
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u/DeadMeeT6969 1d ago edited 1d ago
The whole post is about Bugonia. The OP specifically inquires about its ending. & all you can do is piss & moan about Disclosure Day? Media literacy truly is dead.
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u/drumscrubby 1d ago
In anticipation of all the things Disclosure Day might have been, as much as I was let down therein, Begonia surprised and entertained. Sorry you’re upset 😢
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u/MrsMiterSaw 22h ago
Oh no. Someone completely hijacked an open comment section and ruined the entire discussion for you with their own thoughts.
Youre the kind of person who thinks a remake/reboot ruins an old movie, aren't you?
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u/3i3e3achine 1d ago
Dumb.
It's like saying my dad welds, better than your mom Cooks
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u/bglickstein 1d ago
The ending bothered me a lot. Trying to articulate why to my wife on the car ride home, I hit on the explanation that the rich and powerful are so divorced from the rest of humanity that they _might as well_ be aliens, and that insight made me like it.
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u/explosivo563 1d ago
I was always confused by the people who say the ending ruined it, but for me that makes the whole movie. Without it, it would have just been filed away with other thriller/horror type movies, but still a very good one. I was along for the whole ride and not sure if she was actually an alien or not. And I'm sure another watch will be just as good.
But it's not really a "challenging movie". It's pretty straight forward actually.
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u/Spooky_Celebration 1d ago
I loved the ending! The shots of human beings around the world just being shut down while everything else around them still lives. It highlights just how banal our existence really is, and how little we matter in the end. Reminded me of the poem and short story “There Will Come Soft Rains.”
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u/apophalyptica 1d ago
I enjoyed the movie, but I would not say I thought about it for more than a few seconds. The ending was fine, but not “I need to unpack the significance of this movie” impactful.
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u/Future-Starter 1d ago
anybody who's raving about it--make sure to also watch Save the Green Planet!
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u/Low-Librarian7669 1d ago
I kept thinking while watching that just for once I wanted a movie to end that way and it did exactly what I wanted it to.
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u/pewpersss 1d ago
it seems a lot of yall are polarized on the ending. this isn't my original idea, i read it in another thread and liked this take the best:
when his body explodes and his head hits her head, the shot is dramatically shown, in a way that nothing else was filmed the entire movie. the theory is that when his head hit hers, she went into a coma.
from there. she had somewhat of a "shared delusion" in her coma state and that's why the aliens "existed". look at everything going on during that ending, teeth chairs, brain wrinkle costumes, etc. it was all in her head
imo this makes the most sense, rather than she was actually an alien and the world ends
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u/sklatch 1d ago
It’s not one of the wildest, most challenging films of the decade though is it. Come on. Be serious.
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u/JamesTKirk1701 1d ago
Yeah if you thought this was wild and challenging, you will be pleased to find so many more options within the last ten years.
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u/book67 1d ago
I was shocked by the reveal and found it hilarious, had no clue it was coming. Maybe because I was high. Loved it! I need to watch it again knowing the ending.
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u/iforgotwhich 1d ago
I didn't know it was a remake of Save The Green Planet, so about fifteen minutes in I'm kinda not liking it for that reason, because I think I already know the ending. Jesse Plemons is just so dang good I stuck with it and though I knew it was coming, really enjoyed the ending. It messed with me twenty years ago a lot more, for sure.
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u/ghostofkozi 1d ago
I liked it personally. I think with most films, viewers online are too caught up in how they would do something or how they would improve a film. But the enjoyment factor was there and goofy aliens or not, I enjoyed Bugonia.
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u/Regular-Amoeba5455 1d ago
It felt like it should have been a movie that was already made and remade multiple times because it’s such an original concept, then I learned this was the remake.
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u/nautical_likeness 1d ago
that's a great way to put it, the concept feels so obvious in retrospect like how nobody thought of this before
i had same feeling watching, kept thinking this must be based on some 70s cult film but nope, original was korean and barely anyone saw it
the ending still got me even knowing it was a remake, lanthimos just has way of making everything feel unsettling even when you think you know whats coming
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u/Weird-Nothingness 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was always laughing with conspiracy theorists until the Epstein files were -partially- published.
Seems like that being a part of a mass audience makes you susceptible to mainstream propaganda.
Moving onwards, I will try to be more lenient with the “madmen” of the world.
I am not implying that this was the movie’s message but it resonates with me thematically.
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u/MixSpecial7798 1d ago
That WAS the point of the film, to me. Armed with all the knowledge he extracted, he had one vital part wrong and that doomed him.
I can fall down a conspiracy rabbit hole and possibly reveal some truths about the world but I'm still Bob from Podunk, OH. I have no authority over anything but maybe my life and my family. If I do find some bizarre truths, how would it serve me? Only alienate me from my peers and friends. I can't actually DO anything about it. Meanwhile, my actual life is falling apart.
We have this global mindset we're not used to at all (as a species) and it gives us the impression we're able to make significant changes to the world if only we woke the world up to 'some vital truth'. When, in reality, we are ants dreaming of moving mountains.
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u/Low-Recording5927 1d ago
I enjoyed it, great cast and performances. Haven't previously watched Kinds of Kindness I was ready to guess the ending. Still odd and fun.
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u/moonstandmusic 1d ago
I don’t mind that she was an alien on paper, but their portrayal was way too corny for me and I didn’t care for the ending as it was done.
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u/redpillbluepill69 1d ago
Yeah I was pretty astounded that most people don't think the film completely falls apart in the final third, and I say this as a huuuuge Yorgos fan.
I think it's very written for the moment/for people who watch movies in a way that I don't, which is, trying to guess what will happen at the end, looking for clues along the way- essentially you're intended to watch the film like a conspiracy theorist.
But I did not watch that way and was like "this suuuucks lol it's such a cop out! This film is making a mockery of itself!" Lol
Def part of it is how disappointing for Yorgos of all people, such an original and darkly funny imagination, art directed and imagined the two final sequences the way he did, in such a boring and obvious and conventional way.
I liked that the very very end used no cgi just practical effects but I just think there had to be more creative and interesting ways to execute it, or just leave it out like. It looked and felt so rushed and clueless (to me)
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u/Analogvinyl 1d ago
So you think he shouldn't have stuck with the source material.
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u/redpillbluepill69 1d ago
Yeah, personally... (For me personally in my unpopular opinion) Whenever there is a remake, I am like... Why this movie remade, and why now.
And for me, the film only answers the why now question, and it does on a very surface level - the obvious connection.
Which is, there's a lot of violent conspiracy theorists who are basing their beliefs on a very emotional truth and awareness that in many ways, they are powerless in their own lives and controlled by extraordinary forces of wealth and power bigger than themselves.
But I think, for me, personally, it could've and should've gone deeper than that to justify a reboot
And I also think, this should have been a more creative reimagining of the source material rather than resting even more heavily on the viewers investment in the twist/in plot.
Idk, part of it was my expectations too, when I heard "Yorgos adapting save the bees", I kind of thought it would be more based, more weirdo magical realism like the memory sequences in the hospital, so it could just be being underwhelmed with it being a pretty straightforward three-hander that completely unravels when the films emotional center leaves
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u/Pearman1982 1d ago
I thought it was great.Best movie I have seen in awhile and I thought the ending was amazing.Look forward to seeing it again.
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u/Y0___0Y 1d ago
I loved this film but absolutely hated the “twist”.
It seems like Yorgos did not know how to end the film in an impactful way and so he decided on that…
The crazy guy was right about everything the whole time. His brother dying was now a noble sacrifice rather than a consequence of his hubris. Emma Stone’s character was no longer a corporate executive with inpeccable shrewdness and communication skills that allowed her to talk an unhinged individual off the edge. She’s just an all knowing alien. It changed everything about the movie that I liked!!!
I feel like the world needed a movie showing the consequences of mental illness, isolation, internet conspiracy theories. And this film almost encapsulated that perfectly.
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u/Jdmcdona 1d ago
Did you miss the whole point?
The aliens were real but were trying to make humanity better.
Jesse was right in theory but all of his actions were wrong. He doomed the entire planet by seeking revenge in place of compassion, resorting to the base nature of humanity the aliens were trying to improve.
So the twist is yes the conspiracy guy was right but he was also deranged, selfish, vengeful, and dangerous, and served as the final microcosm of humanity’s flaws.
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u/before8thstreet 23h ago
Nooooo way too feel good and sanctimonious for someone as nihilistic and intelligent as Yorgos. The point was to turn the criticism inwards on the movie: mass entertainment, like movies (including this one your watching), have replaced discourse, politics, civics, you name it...anything that could actually bring about a reasoned public. The fact that the movie "proves" the insane guy is right is an ironic comment on the brain dead, death spiral our culture is in now where entertainment has become a proxy for truth. It would be way too self-righteous for Yorgos to claim that films, even his films, are somehow not complicit.
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u/Suitable-Many-8517 1d ago
It's an adaptation of Save The Green Planet. That's how that ended.
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u/PeachesBlooms 1d ago
wait that actually makes the ending make more sense, still think it hits differently depending on whether you know the original or not
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u/vladis466 1d ago
I think you’ve missed the point. By validating the crazy guy completely in the ending it shows us exactly how ridiculous reality would have to be to entertain all these conspiracy theories, how much of a Fantasy it really is
Just know how over the top and Looney all those final scenes are
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u/Fun_Budget7641 1d ago
Not everything has to be entrenched in reality and metaphor.i kind of loved the twist,it was absurd and on brand with yorgos.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Dirt-98 1d ago
Maybe he stayed true to the original material since its a remake
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u/LuckyConstruction546 1d ago
Maybe all high powered CEO are aliens and it changes nothing and you can still like the movie.
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u/HumanTraffic2 23h ago
Reading this I was trying to remember what that ending reminds me of...
I just watched Frailty.
Totally different plot but similar concept. Batshit crazy psycho turns out to be right.
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u/PuzzleheadedKey9444 21h ago
I liked the way it ended - it was a relief valve. The whole movie was so intense it felt like the ending made it so I could actually like the movie.
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u/EveryAccount7729 1d ago
It's odd when a movie says this alien civilization is this powerful. Interstellar travel. Planet seeding / experiments etc.
but then they freak out over one local torturing one of them ?
that's like if we decided to shut down all anthropological trips to the new world after Roanoke or something. it doesn't intellectually track. Either these are brutal galaxy manipulating aliens, or they are not. They let one of their citizens abandon a whole planet scale experiment for basically no reason. for "feels'
"one of them found out and caught one of us and tortured one of us "should be more exciting to them. humans are surprisingly advanced and ingenious. And we need to study this event to learn how to prevent it through the whole universe repeating. . . .
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u/lykqid 1d ago
You have misinterpreted the reasoning for ending their experiment. It is explained by the aliens in their scene.
"The experiments have nearly all failed. There are only two human subjects remaining and the likelihood of success is zero. Because of who they are. A decision has to be made."
"We believe that it is over. They have had their time. And in their time they have imperiled the life they share. And so we have decided their time will end."
The earth experiment failed, torture or not.
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u/Moose_a_Lini 1d ago
I don't think the aim of this film is total realism..
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u/EveryAccount7729 1d ago
that's not a small detail though.
logically an alien civilization "doing science" at that scale would value the science way more than this type of irrelevant bullshit.
it's a question akin to like "do scientists actually believe in their work or are they just fucking around"
the movie lands on the later. "scientists are evil" basically. Instead of "scientists are good"
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u/Moose_a_Lini 1d ago
I think it's difficult to make firm claims about a completely alien civilisation, and what it's motives would be. It's an easy fallacy to make to assume human like emotions or reasoning for a species that evolved independently.
But also my first point stands - the film was not interested in being realistic, so it kind of doesn't matter.
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u/Skin4theWin 1d ago
I think it tracks spectacularly. Conspiracy theory - Climate Change is a hoax. Reaction of Government - shut off NOAA, cancel all scientific research, cancel grants to any environmental research that discusses climate change, spend billions to buy out sustainable energy production, kill entire departments...etc etc.
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u/couchslinger 1d ago
I thought it was one of the most original films i had ever seen... then i found out it waa a remake of a korean movie, it kinda lost some of its shine on me, but i still like it.
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u/Numerous-Ad-1167 1d ago
What did what code she gave him really mean? Blow up how? Or was it accidental?
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u/SecureHuckleberry7 1d ago
My interpretation is that Emma Stone's character was a regular human and Jesse Plemons' character was just a schizophrenic serial killer. I think the movie ended as soon as Jesse went into the closet and his head blew off and hit Emma Stone in the head and knocked her out. I viewed the rest of the film with the spaceship and all as the last couple seconds of Jesse's brain/imagination as he bled out on the floor of the office.
My interpretation was she wasn't an alien despite what was shown on screen, but also fun to read it straight up.
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u/NorthernBudHunter 1d ago
I don’t see the ending as : he’s right. I see it as this is what the craziness would look like if he was right. I enjoyed that ending, and I am satisfied with it, or at least my interpretation of it. It may not be what the author intended
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u/CauliflowerBoth866 1d ago
Teddy was delusional...but he also wasn't. Emma Stone's aliens were absolutely goofy for a reason....it was a metaphor. Hear me out.
So, there's this guy who molested Teddy. He reaches out to Teddy, and apologizes the best he can. He has empathy. He's human. Teddy forgives him.
So, there's also this lady who is semi-responsible for Teddy's mom's death. She refuses to acknowledge wrongdoing and has no empathy. She's NOT human. She IS alien to Teddy. Teddy was not delusional in that aspect...she's completely alien to him....and the end is just showing us she might as well be a space alien, because she is not like the rest of us.
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u/Choice_Commission_10 1d ago
An allegory about the destructive capacity of billionaires and that they are the malignant minority force that has taken over society, destroying anything for profit.
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u/North-Persimmon2221 1d ago
It was even better the second time. One of the few that I would say that about.
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u/MickXander 1d ago
It bothered me that Teddy's delusions were 100% right. Her turning out to be really an alien, even a powerful one, was a twist I did not see coming (and dumbfounded me in a way I have never experienced while watching a movie before), but then we see he was right down to the exact design of the ship, the nature of Earth, etc., was a little too much.
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u/drewlius24 1d ago
He tortured all that info out of the aliens he captured before. The real messed up part was that he tortured and killed many peopled, but only a few were the aliens and they gave up all the knowledge they had: ship details, who the leader was, etc.
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u/j3r3mias 1d ago
He was not 100% right. The aliens were trying to save humanity from self-destruction, and decided a different fate at the end. He killed his mother in the end. I was really expecting her to get better but it didn't happened.
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u/PG3124 1d ago
I’m a little fuzzy on the details, can you remind me how he killed his mother?
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u/0rangePolarBear 1d ago
He injected her with anti-freeze thinking it was medicine to cure her (after the alien told him so)
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u/Interesting_Stick411 1d ago
I don't follow this interpretation. Teddy had only discovered certain details through horrifying coercion/brutality as shown in his hidden "autopsy" room. But his entire worldview was so flawed that he ended up dooming the entire human race.
The movie is not about "fringe" beliefs holding truth (as some comments below have claimed) and the reading that Teddy is somehow validated by the end is the exact opposite of what is shown. He is a deeply flawed and damaged character that projects his trauma into the world around him. He thinks he is in conflicts with an unseen alien force, when he is actually in conflict with himself and his own human nature.
Teddy's refusal to remain unwavering in his worldview results in the deaths of his remaining family before ultimately being the tipping point in deciding the fate of humanity.
He is not portrayed as some "genius fringe thinker". His adversary corrects his grammar, causing him to lash out. He's ignorant of the actual science behind colony collapse syndrome. And the biggest tell is that he kills his mother by injecting her with antifreeze thinking it will save her. (A bit on the nose criticizing conspiracy nutjobs, no?) Stone's character horrified, says something like "I didn't think you were stupid enough to do it"
Anyways dunno if anyone will read all this, but I disagree with the reading: fringe conspiracy nutjob was actually right the whole time. It's more like: fringe conspiracy nutjob murderer projects his personal pain onto a cosmic struggle, ultimately dooming the entire human race.
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u/Mammoth_Foot4134 1d ago
It's what is so awesome about Teddy as a character. He is somehow right about something that everyone else is wrong about, but he's also then wrong about everything else.
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u/chrismceachern 1d ago
I think the best movies dont make points, they spark discussions. Its dismissive to say one opinion is right and the other is wrong.
A lot of artists (directors, musicians, painters, etc) will leave things ambiguous for this very reason - and even when they dont, most artists will agree theyre motivated to create their work by their own experiences, but release it to the world for everyone to take what they will from it.
If I wanted to be spoonfed a story I'd go see a Marvel movie.
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u/Negihama0824 1d ago
Teddy as a character and this movie in general makes me think a lot about The Stranger by Camus, and the whole absurdist lens.
I agree with a lot of your points and also think Teddy being "right" in some sense is true and complicates the whole story in an interesting way. Obviously he's fucking insane - killing bad - and also chemically castrating your cousin with a developmental disability who doesnt truly have agency to consent is also, bad.
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u/Glad_Wasabi_59 1d ago
Fair point, but I felt like him being right down to the tiny details made the tragedy and black comedy land way harder. It makes you realize the 'madman' was actually the only one who saw the world for what it really was.
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u/doeeyedfinalgirl 1d ago
do you not see how easy that conclusion is to transplant onto real-life conspiracies and the myriad worrisome implications there?
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u/ManagementMinute8554 1d ago
I don't think people who are watching Bugonia are propagating theories like the one in the film.
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u/spoink74 1d ago
Just because he was right doesn't mean he wasn't absolutely insane and delusional.
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u/boristheblade223 1d ago
Interesting. I was the opposite way. The more the story went on the less I could see the movie ending any other way. For example if it had been in his head all along I couldn’t see any other way for the ending to be as compelling.
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u/cushing138 1d ago
The perfect ending would’ve been to just not show anything and leave it up to the audience. I liked the movie up until the end but the aliens were shot in such a goofy way that it killed the movie for me. I have no real problem with showing the aliens but man, it just looked so stupid.
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u/happy35353 1d ago
See I loved the aliens’ design! It was absolutely absurd but so is the concept of the movie and the bullshit system we live in. I think having the absurdity of how we run our world and the choices that we as a species make called out by people with such a ridiculous design aesthetic made the point hit home harder. Like, “yeah we look ridiculous but look at YOU.” I could totally see why it wouldn’t work for some people but it worked for me.
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u/AmaazingFlavor 1d ago
I strongly disagree. The alien reveal and the style of that scene was such a clean break from everything else, it was spectacular. Poor Things is one of my favorite films and even just a taste of that surrealist, maximalist style at the end elevated everything else for me
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
I feel like the difference there is the Poor Things had an a outlandish whimsical tone throughout. The juxtaposition here felt like how Shyamalan's twists got to the point of being a twist just for the sake of a twist undoing what came before narratively.
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u/AmaazingFlavor 1d ago
Yeah I dunno, like I said I liked the juxtaposition and thought it elevated the film
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
And I thought it was a detriment.
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u/AmaazingFlavor 1d ago
I also don't agree with the twist feeling like a Shyamalan ending, it didn't really feel like a twist to me at all. As the film went on and things spiraled out of control it seemed more and more apparent that he was actually correct, but I very much expected the film to leave things with an ambiguous ending. So when it didn't do that I was very pleasantly surprised
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
I saw the ending coming as well. I'm suggesting the juxtaposition of the whimsical tonally and nihilistic narrative just didn't work for me especially when the final message was that life is messed up, and there's a great chance we'll all be ultimately judged/remembered by our worst moments rather than our best, but none of that really matters because we're all dead anyway.
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u/DontClickTheUpArrow 1d ago
This would’ve been so predictable! You never see the aliens coming and that’s what makes it great!
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u/cushing138 1d ago
It’s a Yorgos movie so there was a better than 50% chance of them being real. I just thought it’d be a bit better than Santa Claus vs the Martians
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u/ZizzyBeluga 10h ago
The perfect ending would've been for her to bring Jesse Plemons up to the ship and shown him he was right
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u/thatkid234 1d ago
I don't think the ending ruined the movie but I agree I would have preferred it open ended. Like if she mysterously walked into that closet and the movie just ended. Explicitly showing the aliens destroying the earth just felt a little too.. direct, for what is otherwise a suspenseful movie.
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u/Mammoth_Foot4134 1d ago
I like a good ambiguous ending, but on the other hand I appreciated that Bugonia committed to an ending and went for it. It also makes Teddy a much more interesting character for it to be confirmed that he was right.
I do however agree with you on the art style of the alien and aliens at the end. I'm sure the intent was for it to be goofy and comedic, but to me it just felt half assed and low effort.
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u/Nervous_Recover_6152 1d ago
Yeah but even that’s been done to death. Ending was fine. This was also a remake from what I understand. The movie works better without the ending, but having a cheeky laugh after a heavy narrative doesn’t ruin the movie (for me anyway). You just have to separate the ideas in your head.
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u/Some_Development1052 1d ago
I did not consider it wild or challenging. It was pretty straightforward. I enjoyed it but it didn’t blow my mind. I thought it had a good twist at the end.
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u/Elegant-Analyst-7381 1d ago
I enjoyed it fine while watching it but haven't thought of it since. It's interesting that it's stayed with you, but I thought it was fairly forgettable outside of the great performances. I didn't care one way or the other about the "twist" ending.
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
I didn't mind the ending, though I saw it coming pretty early into the movie. I didn't particularly like the "whimsical" aesthetic and tone shift juxtaposition at the ending. I think what made it the most challenging is any social commentary touched on during the film is ultimately wiped out by the futility of the narrative. For example, he's spins a narrative about capitalist greed and financial exploitation but in the end suggests it doesn't matter as we're all dust in the wind.
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u/Negihama0824 1d ago
On first watch I was a bit conflicted on the ending. Jesse Plemons not being nominated, and not winning, the Oscar for best actor is a crime against cinema humanity that I will not recover from.
I recently rewatched it. The ending second time around actually was much more satisfying and it was fun to watch knowing the twist and each character's position throughout the movie. Between The Favorite, Poor Things, and Bugonia, I rate Yorgos high on the list of best directors of the past decade for sure. Kinds of Kindness went too far into theater la la land, but generally speaking he puts some ish on cinema that's refreshing. And Emma Stone fucking kills it in all of these roles.
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u/ToneBalone25 1d ago
There's nothing challenging about it. It's a really straight-forward narrative that just has a bonkers end reveal
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u/Difficult_Mixture103 1d ago
It’s two movies, when I watched it blind it was one thing and the second time it was completely different. I think it’s great.
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u/s2sergeant 1d ago
I loved it! I like Emma Stone and the premise was interesting to me. About halfway though I thought, “I hope she is an alien!” 👽
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u/CalagaxT 1d ago
I loved the movie for the visual style and acting. I had seen the original, so the twist was not a twist.
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u/Mammoth_Foot4134 1d ago
I really liked the ending, what I did not like was the art direction for the aliens and alien craft. I understand the intent was probably to be ironic or comedic, it just didn't land for me. Otherwise, I love this film.
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u/SergeiFencewick 1d ago
While I guess it's under the category of modern life the best part of the movie was the facade of Emma Stone's character and the indirect criticism of our inefficient, overly polite, phony, euphemism-laden business seminar-speak in US culture. As soon as I heard "have a dialogue," I knew the script was going to be pretty sharp and brave. While I liked the ending, it didn't exactly stick the landing. Still, it was strong, insightful film overall.
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u/Additional_Name_706 1d ago
Loved the film. Gosh it would have been so much better if they ended it at the closet explosion. Just an ominous line about there being no blood...maybe a shot of a space ship, roll credits.
Going all the way with that final scene, having Emma stone speaking klingon... Just, why?
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u/Glittering-Path-2824 1d ago edited 1d ago
yes. that 💩 ending ruined what was, up to that point, an excellent, entertaining and engaging movie. i dislike lanthimos but watched this to be fair in my assessment of his work. right up to the end i was thinking “hmm maybe i was wrong about him being david lynch on meth” but bingo…the ending just reinforced my opinion.
and fwiw he didn’t make me think about it long after the film because he fucked up the story with that ending. i no longer cared for its themes.
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u/YesNoIDKtbh 1d ago
It's strange to me, because the "twist" as you put it was obvious to me within the first few minutes, and I refuse to believe it wasn't for a lot of other people too. I don't know why, but it seemed a bit classic "subvert your expectations"-thing that the overly zealous and crazy conspiracy theorist would be right all along.
So personally I found the ending rather disappointing. I would've preferred an actual twist, or at least something I didn't expect. Overall I thought it was decent, but I won't ever watch it again. I found it too predictable and a bit over the top. Good performances though.
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u/Ill_Procedure_8714 1d ago
Bugonia had a challenging premise decades ago, when the original film came out. But I do agree; Lanthimos did a wonderful job with the remake. All the changes feel good and appropriate
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u/Psychological_Pay145 1d ago
Proper emporer's new clothes stuff. A bang average film heavily reliant on people overindulging it.
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u/TheSamizdattt 1d ago
I love the movie, but not be because of the “twist.” He did a similar thing in Kinds of Kindness, where the fantastical thing turned out to be real all along. I get that there are thematic reasons in both cases, but I hope Lanthimos doesn’t start shyamalaning himself.
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u/RedSmokingFerret 1d ago
Loved it. Was 100% sure the movie would conclude on the loonies being delusional. Mind started getting blown from the closet scene till the end. I just regretted the “kill all humans” which I did not understand where it was coming from or why…
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u/Repeat-Mammoth 1d ago
One of the better films I've seen this year. Every part of it blew me away. The acting, the set up for the ending, the cinematography. Beautiful done. I was waffling back and forth the whole time on what the outcome would be.
The Andromedons were a little goofy but I found that part to be a kind of comic relief juxtaposed over something very serious.
Honestly the one scene that had my jaw on the floor was what happened with Don. That shit totally caught me off guard.
Great film
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u/Rambl3On 1d ago
It wasn’t a bad movie by any stretch. But I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
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u/chrismceachern 1d ago edited 1d ago
Damn near a perfect movie in my opinion. Gorgeous shots, fascinating script, really great acting all around, timely themes that are more digestible than Yorgos' other stuff. Still super weird but toned down enough for my pallet. For context, I like The Lobster and Sacred Deer but Kinds of Kindness was way over the top for me. Still havent seen Poor Things or any of his other work.
Of course the ending is crazy but its not supposed to be taken that seriously. I love the "conspiracy theorists are fucking crazy but imagine they were right the whole time?". I think a lot of conspiracies are rooted in some sort of fact, but people run off the deep end with it and let it affect their lives. We often write-off these people but "what if" is a super fun and interesting concept and sparks different kinds of discussions.
- What does the thought process look like when people go down this path?
- What is motivating them?
- How far will they take it?
- How does it affect their day to day life?
- When does their noble mission to expose the truth, to help people see the light, actually become a selfish personal mission to redeem themself for all they've sacrificed in this pursuit?
- If aliens were real, what would they be doing here and what would that look like?
I mean... keeping an eye on us so we dont destroy the entire universe, and taking the form of a soulless CEO kind of makes sense and sparks a whole other fun discussion on corporate psychology and financial barriers to education and success. I love that aliens are always the bad guys, here to destroy us, but maybe we we're the bad guys all along (we definitely are lol). It sparks discussions on human nature and forces new objective perspectives outside of our selfish human nature.
Can I just say again that its gorgeous? Those wide angle shots... chef's kiss. The way he builds tension and then just unleashes it on us in like a five minute timespan... felt like a damn heart attack. It took me time to process what the hell just happened by the time the credits rolled.
I saw this three times in theatres. One of my all time favourites instantly. I am obsessed.
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u/kylejohnkenowski 22h ago
I think it would’ve been a much better film if they hadn’t gone with that ending.
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u/Sure-Appearance-2769 19h ago
I mostly agree with your review, but what was challenging about the film? I found it quite straightforward
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u/makefascistfearagain 18h ago
One of the wildest and most challenging movies?
It was a fucking remake dude
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u/Dr-Gravey 16h ago
Love the movie, jaw-dropping acting
I will admit that I had a dread feeling building up of ‘please don’t let him be right’. Watching her brilliant, kickass character defuse the all-time greatest unhinged lunatic is simple but so compelling. That was hard to let go when it was sold so completely, but that’s the whole point I suppose
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u/IllHaveTheLeftovers 14h ago edited 14h ago
Hahaaaa I am currently watching this movie for the first time, just cringed as the chemical castration needle went in….
I’m living rurally and downloaded tons of movies, I associate this movie with good ratings and I assumed a title that means “flowers” would be light…. Just jumped on Reddit with the intention to find another movie - but I’m going to take this as a sign.
I’m strapped in, after a big week adventure I’m exhausted but already intrigued.
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u/Physical_Mirror6969 13h ago
I didn’t hate the twist but the montage of dead people at the end was overkill tbh
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u/CanadianKaiju 7h ago
I had the ending spoiled and still spent the whole time wondering if the spoiler was simply a lie/bait. Extremely good movie. Insane acting chops.
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u/Cmonnoyoucmon 5h ago
I like Lanthimos a ton, but he is his own tell. If you asked yourself how he would end this movie, you’d guess what happened. But I still appreciate it for being unique. The whole thing was just a long, average Dark Mirror episode with very good acting that elevated it. Also, the costumes at the end look so cozy.
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u/shapedbydreams 2h ago
I liked it right up until they confirmed the aliens were real. I liked it even less when they decided to just end all human life because of one asshole. That montage with all the lonely pets at the end broke my heart. Like you just sentenced all of them to death too!
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u/the_astronomistress 1h ago
If she just went into the closet and we saw a flashing light and THAT WAS IT, it would’ve been a more powerful ending. But the actual ending sucked balls I hated it
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u/Josifjar 43m ago
It’s been a minute since watching the movie but as someone who has a family member not too dissimilar to Jesse Plemon’s character, I feel the ending portrays schizophrenia and adjacent mental illnesses in a way other medias haven’t. The movie toys around with Jesse’s truths and whether Emma Stone is or isn’t an alien and only reveals it once Jesse’s character dies. The absurdity that comes after his death (as if the whole movie wasn’t absurd) was his ultimate truth displayed on the big screen, and vindicates Jesse’s torture, misdeeds, and cruelty. While there were other scenes that helped us sympathize with his character, the reveal of Jesse being right flips Jesse’s actions in a way that makes him the anti-hero of our story instead of a pitiful, unempathetic, mentally-ill psychopath that the movie was hinting towards. However, mental illness like Jesse’s fundamentally changes a person’s rational (a la chemical sterilization, and instantly believing Emma’s lies when it fits his narrative). All these insane dots he’s connecting are just that: insane. Once Jesse blows up, what we see after is only what Jesse anticipated to happen if he fails his mission, which I’m sure is what he was thinking as he realized the bomb was going off before he “teleports to the mothership”. It’s a movie about a lack of accountability, mental health, and bugs or smth idk. I’m not a big theme guy I just connected with the movie in that way cause of family and when asking friends what they thought, they just assumed he was right not actually crazy and that was it. While I do like either interpretation, I believe the mental-illness-ending interpretation explores how devastating, horrifying, and saddening untreated mental illness can become. I know I’ve experienced it secondhand, and this movie will stick with me for those reasons.
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u/Fit_River-7859 1d ago
It was my favorite movie of last year. I find it very layered the ending and the score elevated it for me