How the Bugonia Script Makes Absurdity Feel Dangerous

The film I've thought about the most in the last year is probably Bugonia. Yorgos Lanthimos' films are usually dark and even grotesque but always have something to say. Bugonia centers on two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap a pharmaceutical CEO, convinced she's an alien plotting to destroy Earth.

That is such a wild logline. And the wildest loglines can become films that draw the audience in and leave them thinking about it long after they've left the cineplex. Since seeing the film and now reading the script, I cant stop thinking about this bizarre film that feels strangely relevant to the moment we've living in.

The script for Bugonia works because it keeps the story grounded in three ways: 

1. Teddy's moral certainty that Michelle is an alien.
2. The audience's real-world anxieties and how they reflect back to us.
3. A structural suspense that waits until the last possible moment to resolve the question at the center of the story.

Together those choices create a script that begins as paranoia and slowly transforms to feel like something that's a little dangerous. 

Give The Absurd a Moral Mission

What makes the premise of Bugonia unsettling instead of silly is that the main character believes he's acting for a moral reason. He's certain that he is preventing a world ending catastrophe. That belief reframes the absurdity of the situation because it grounds it in a character’s own truth. The story then becomes about a man who believes he has a responsibility to act instead of being about a bizarre conspiracy theory.

When we see Teddy constantly convincing Don of the moral imperative to act, the extreme behavior can feel illogical. But the absurd premise slowly gains weight as the main characters treat it like a duty rather than an eccentric idea.

On page 11, early in the script, Teddy explains to Don why their mission matters:

Here, Teddy is not behaving like someone chasing a conspiracy. He’s correcting something wrong from his past. He believes that something has been taken from humanity and that he is part of the group that will restore it. While that something is real, it's also a metaphor for his own mother. This action description clarifies his psychology for us. He’s not a madman, he wants to be a hero. Without this conviction, the story would collapse. Since he sees himself as a man finally doing something about the broken world, the absurdity becomes serious. This speaks to last week's newsletter; a delusional character must be convicted in their delusion. It's what makes them believable.

I also want to note the incredibly strong choice to have the main character strongly word the objective and theme of the film right before smashing to the title card. So satisfying. That sort of writing choice always lets the reader know they're in the good hands of a writer who knows that they're doing.

The Tone Reflects Real Anxiety

The tone of Yorgos’ work, especially in Bugonia, is often described as surreal and darkly funny, but those stylistic choices are used amplify real cultural fears. Teddy’s conspiracy theory may sound irrational, but the emotional experiences behind it are recognizable to the reader. What appears absurd on the surface often reflects something very real underneath.

On page 31, Teddy explains to Don why Michelle must be stopped:

That exchange contains three anxieties reflected from the real world. The first being environmental collapse. Teddy explicitly connects Michelle to pesticides linked to honeybee deaths. The bee population becomes a symbol of ecological fragility and the possibility that the natural systems humans depend on will collapse. 

Another anxiety is the distrust in corporate power. Teddy calls Michelle's actions “pure corporate evil.” He believes powerful executives are making decisions that destroy entire ecosystems while remaining insulated from consequences. Large corporations are shaping the world in ways ordinary people cannot influence.

Finally, systems that are beyond the individual control. Teddy’s theory is that the real decision-makers aren’t even human, they’re alien. And while that may sound absurd, it psychologically expresses a familiar feeling. The systems running the world are invisible and impenetrable. A corrupt CEO can do irreparable damage to the planet, and the average person has no way to stop them. Teddy’s conspiracy is his way of explaining that loss of control, both in his life and in the world around him.

Wait as Long as Possible to Answer the Question

The smartest structural decision in Bugonia is how long the script waits to answer the questions at the center of the script: is Teddy right? is Michelle really and alien, or is this the paranoid fantasy of a damaged man?

The script refuses to resolve that tension too early. In fact, it waits until the last possible moment and then the ending flips everything on its head.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Michelle is revealed to be an Andromedan emperor and the conspiracy Teddy described is real. But Teddy misunderstood the moral equation. He believed that aliens were destroying the planet. But in reality, they were studying humanity, trying to correct an aggressive trait that they had previously implanted. After witnessing Teddy’s violent behavior towards their emperor, the aliens reached a different conclusion. 

Humanity is the failed experiment. 

Michelle then chooses to exterminate the human species so that the planet can recover. And the final page of the script confirms that. After a montage of humanity across the world collapsing to their death at the push of a button, it’s a quiet world without disruption from humans. Bees return to their hives, animals begin to move through fields and the ecosystems revive now that the destructive species is removed.

Teddy was right, but for the wrong reasons.

Humanity was the villain. But revealing that at the end of the first or even second act would have completely deflated the story. The tension would have instantly evaporated. But by saving it until the last five pages, the tension breaks swallowing the audience in a wave of thought as they exit the theater.