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If you’re curious about the connection between the title Bugonia and a film featuring two conspiracy theorists who abduct the head of a major pharmaceutical company, believing she is an invasive alien species, the answer lies with bees.
In director Yorgos Lanthimos’s (known for The Favourite, Poor Things) latest black comedy thriller, currently in cinemas, amateur beekeeper Teddy Gatz (played by Jesse Plemons) suspects his honey bee hives are suffering from colony collapse disorder—a phenomenon where worker bees mysteriously vanish, leaving the queen and colony doomed—due to chemicals manufactured by Auxolith, the megacorporation led by powerful CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone). Teddy also works for Auxolith as a low-level warehouse employee and harbors a profound resentment towards the company. Years prior, Auxolith administered an experimental opioid withdrawal drug to his mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), which left her in a persistent vegetative state. This incident plunged Teddy into a world of internet conspiracy theories, eventually leading him to believe Michelle is an extraterrestrial in disguise from the Andromeda galaxy, dispatched to Earth as part of a plot to eradicate humanity. One phase of the Andromedans’ plan, according to Teddy, is the extermination of all bees.
Now, to explain how “Bugonia” relates to all of this. The title is an ancient Greek word meaning “progeny from an ox,” referring to a ritual stemming from the myth that bees could spontaneously generate from the carcass of an ox killed without any blood being spilled—a sacrificial method often involving prolonged animal suffering. Beyond the obscure nature of the largely unknown word appealing to Bugonia‘s filmmakers, screenwriter Tony McNamara (known for The Menu, Poor Things) informed TIME that the title can also be interpreted as a symbolic nod to the movie’s overarching message. The film itself is based on South Korean filmmaker Jang Joon Hwan’s 2003 sci-fi cult classic Save the Green Planet!.
“One might interpret it as a metaphor for contemporary existence, particularly American life, or human civilization, if one chooses,” he stated. “It suggests that new opportunities or life could emerge from the ruins of something deeply flawed. That’s one perspective.”
Of course, the full depth of this metaphor’s application to Bugonia is not unveiled until the film’s concluding minutes, when the truth about Michelle’s extraterrestrial origins finally comes to light.
Is Michelle an alien?
After Teddy’s docile yet easily manipulated cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) fatally shoots himself with a shotgun in front of Michelle—torn between his loyalty to Teddy and the guilt stemming from her kidnapping and torture—Michelle convinces a distraught Teddy that she has been hiding the Andromedan cure for his mother’s condition inside an antifreeze bottle in her car’s trunk. This leads to a predictably horrifying sequence in which Teddy rushes to his mother’s long-term care facility and injects antifreeze into her IV line, resulting in her death.
Meanwhile, Michelle, who manages to retrieve the keys to her chains from the pocket of the deceased Don, has an opportunity to escape her captivity. However, after she uncovers a secret room in Teddy’s basement filled with the remains of his previous test subjects-turned-victims, she chooses to remain behind.
When Teddy returns, she confronts him about his experiments and knowledge of the Andromedans, then confesses the history of her alien race. She claims they arrived on Earth during the time of the dinosaurs and accidentally caused that species’ extinction, subsequently creating a new species in their own image to repopulate the planet. Michelle narrates an elaborate and complex story, but insists Teddy was mistaken about the Andromedans attempting to infiltrate and poison humanity. Instead, she states, humans are independently destroying Earth, its animals, and themselves through climate change, warfare, and countless other destructive actions. The Andromedans, according to Michelle, have been desperately working to find a way to save humanity from itself. Nevertheless, at this point in the movie, it remains uncertain whether she is being truthful with Teddy or, to put it frankly, merely manipulating him.
With a lunar eclipse scheduled for that night, Michelle tells Teddy she will bring him with her to her mothership by transporting him to space via the teleportation closet in her office. However, upon their arrival at Auxolith, Teddy reveals he is wearing a bomb vest as a contingency plan. Michelle states she will teleport him first, typing an incredibly lengthy number into a calculator in what appears to be a desperate tactic to gain time. But as he steps into the closet, his vest detonates, blowing him to pieces and rendering Michelle unconscious. She later regains consciousness in an ambulance and quickly escapes to return to Auxolith. Back in the closet, she successfully beams herself up to her mothership using the calculator, revealing her identity as the Andromedan empress. It turns out Teddy was correct about numerous specific details concerning the Andromedans—from their hair functioning as their means of communication to the precise architecture of their spacecraft.
Following a council meeting with her Andromedan advisors, Michelle ultimately determines that humanity is an unsuccessful experiment. She then bursts a bubble encircling an Earth model, causing every individual on the planet to instantaneously—and without bloodshed—perish. Bugonia then concludes with an extended montage, scored by Marlene Dietrich’s rendition of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, depicting bodies scattered worldwide precisely where they collapsed when the bubble burst. Nonetheless, a glimmer of hope for Earth itself persists, as bees are depicted returning to their hives. According to Tracy, this ending is designed to profoundly impact audiences given the current state of human history.
“The conclusion of Bugonia confronts the distinct political shifts and pervasive sense of hopelessness we currently experience,” he explained to TIME. “[A]s time progresses and the climate crisis intensifies, appearing increasingly dire and even irreversible to some, questions about our relationship with the planet, envisioning a world without us, and defining our purpose here become ever more prominent.”