What is "Bugonia" Actually Trying to Say?

The following contains spoilers for Bugonia (2025). Proceed with caution!

In Bugonia, a conspiracy theorist and his cousin kidnap a wealthy tech CEO after they become convinced she’s an alien plotting to destroy humanity. Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest film, which was nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, stars Emma Stone as Michelle, Jesse Plemons as Teddy Gatz, and Aidan Delbis as Don. 

The central thrust of the movie is the negotiated relationships between Teddy and Michelle, Michelle and Don, and Don and Teddy. As the leader of the cousins, Teddy tells Don what to believe and how to act at all times. It’s clear that the two of them have been on their own for years and formed a codependent relationship to get by. Don, who is autistic, believes his cousin but has a different moral compass that adds tension to their relationship. Michelle is able to play off the two of them, relying on pathos to endear herself to Don and conspiracy-brain logic to seed doubt in Teddy’s brain.

The film seems like an extreme interpretation of the conspiracy theorists—like those of Q-Anon and MAGA generally—that exist in real life. And then, there’s the twist. What was Lanthimos trying to say by revealing that Michelle was an Andromedan alien all along? The end of the film forces us to question the entire narrative.

It’s Not Worth Being Right

Of course, the most obvious point of the film is that it actually doesn’t matter whether or not conspiracy theorists are correct in some of their logic. Yes, Teddy was able to identify an Andromedan by looking at them and recreated a model of their spaceship, but he ultimately saw something different than himself and assumed bad intent. This assumption clouded his vision and made him unable to react logically.

It wasn’t his far-fetched ideas that clouded his judgement (and led to the destruction of the human race) but his hatred that caused his demise. 

From the minute he decides to capture his first victim, there are only two options. Either Teddy is wrong and he’s killing innocent humans, or he is correct and he’s doing experiments on Andromedans that are capable of feeling pain. He is not giving them a fair trial or a chance to explain themselves. Even once Michelle tells the truth, Teddy refuses to let himself believe it. He’s committed horrific acts that are only justified if the Andromedans are evil. He’s in too deep to back out now.

You see this logic mirrored in the people who voted for Trump. Many of them are aware that what he is doing in Minnesota and across the United States is both cruel and illegal, but they refuse to let themselves process that on a conscious level. Their treatment of immigrants is only justified if the immigrants are the bad ones, and so they continue to make allowances for greater and greater evils by the administration.

Don knew about all of the previous people Teddy had murdered in their basement, but he still had to believe that Teddy was a good person and that this time he wouldn’t hurt anyone. He let his guilt consume him until he ultimately died by suicide rather than change his mind. Had he let Michelle free in that moment, he would have saved everyone’s life. If Trump voters and politicians admit they were wrong and make a choice for good, they could make a genuine difference. Unfortunately, it’s more common for people to burrow deeper into their belief system and retreat to where the grief can’t touch them. For Don, that place was the promise of outer space. For Trump voters, that place might be the internet. 

The Weakness of Women

Yorgos Lanthimos consistently plays with the power dynamics between men and women throughout his body of work. In Poor Things, Emma Stone’s character has a childlike naivety that leaves her vulnerable to exploitation. Even over the course of the film, her development never allows her to be completely free from the men who want to control her. With Bugonia, Lanthimos takes a different approach to the same question of power. Stone’s character this time is unquestionably the cleverest person in the room, and yet she still finds herself at the mercy of male aggression. The only reason she is ultimately able to save herself is because she is not a woman, but an alien.

It’s interesting to compare Bella Baxter of Poor Things to Don in this film. While Bella quite literally has the brain of a child, Don is autistic and is treated like a child by his cousin. When it is a woman in that position, Lanthimos tells a story of over-sexualization and exploitation. In Bugonia you see the opposite reaction, and Don is over-infantilized. 

Treating these two films as in conversation with each other, Michelle’s alien status makes clear a central premise of Lanthimos’ logic: intelligence is a useful tool in men, but unnecessary (and inconvenient) in women. Michelle survives because she is not a human, and so her cleverness is ultimately a tool available to her. Were she human, it would mean nothing. Teddy kept his own mother alive in a coma for years because by this very logic, her brain is not important. A woman is her body, and that part was still working. 

For those who haven’t seen Bugonia yet, I highly recommend the film. It’s disgusting and eerie and is both an escape from the state of the world and a metaphor for it. Run to the theater and watch. Better yet, pretend Bugonia is chasing us and (if you live in the U.S.) get out in your community to fight ICE and the rise of fascism that’s chasing us all.