This all follows from the original, the most notable change being that the captured CEO is a woman, but this gender-swap yields little reward. Before she’s kidnapped, Michelle goes through her daily routine—a self-defense lesson, red light mask session, an assortment of daily supplements—but this is merely fodder for a brief fight scene and a single quip about how her exorbitantly expensive cosmetic procedures have her looking exceptionally youthful for a 45-year-old woman. Any insight into the poignancy around women, from celebrities to CEOs to every woman in between, feeling pressure to assimilate to the same tired beauty standard is untouched by Bugonia. (At the very least, not one lazy “girlboss” joke was uttered.)
For several days, Teddy and Don try to torture a confession out of Fuller. This mostly entails an excruciating electroshock contraption, emphatically homemade, after which Teddy is even more convinced of the CEO’s Andromedan heritage, though the metrics he cites are nonsensically vague. Those who’ve seen Save The Green Planet! can map where the plot goes from here: There is an unexpected personal connection between Teddy and Fuller; the importance of bees to the Earth’s ecosystem is expounded upon; a nosy but feckless cop (Stavros Halkias, far more subtextually perverted than necessary) starts poking around Teddy’s property. It’s not entirely disappointing that The Menu and Succession writer Will Tracy hews closely to the blueprint of Jang’s well-calibrated movie, but it is a missed opportunity to reassess the central characters’ stakes—be they delusional or justified.
At the very least, Plemons is terrifying and pathetic as Teddy, a tortured soul whose only liberation lies in becoming a torturer himself. But no character depth is cultivated, save for an underwritten tangent involving his comatose mother (Alicia Silverstone). The unfortunate backstory of Save The Green Planet!’s central protagonist is woven into the story more elegantly this time around, allowing for the audience to ruminate on the conflicting factors that both support and discredit his conspiracy. But knowing even more about Teddy and Don—their family, upbringing, and dynamic—would have intensified the weight of their claim eventually being proven correct or crackpot. Plemons is an expert at commanding even the slimmest of roles (his character in Civil War is on screen for about five minutes, and is easily the most chilling and memorable), but there just isn’t enough narrative meat to chew on here. The lack of pronounced personalities all around is also a disservice to Stone’s character. Particularly now, when the assassination of CEOs is considered by some to be a necessary reckoning, why should anyone care if a fictional one—undoubtedly embroiled in dubious practices—lives or dies?
Bugonia is a Greek word, one which refers to the ancient Mediterranean belief that bees spontaneously spawn from the carcasses of dead animals. Though bees are a fixation of Teddy and Fuller (one fosters their habitat, the other depletes it), this concept is never directly addressed. However, its final scene—the most artistically congruent with Lanthimos’ previous output, a shocking series of images with no emotional resonance—hints at a new hope if not for humanity, then for the ecosystem that allows life to thrive on Earth. Bugonia is faithful to its source material, but unable to reinterpret Save The Green Planet! for our imperiled era. The chaotic cacophony that surrounds us may be difficult to parse, but Lanthimos’ approach amounts to a dull buzz in one’s ear—not nearly loud or direct enough to cut through the noise of cultural and political dissonance.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Will Tracy
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone
Release Date: October 24, 2025