Bugonia’s bold ending is the scariest of 2025 – even though it isn’t a horror movie

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The new film, Bugonia, is now playing in theaters. While its release around Halloween might seem strange—it’s not a scary movie—the ending will likely change your mind. Like all films by Yorgos Lanthimos, Bugonia is a truly original experience, finishing with a powerful and unforgettable conclusion.

This film is a remake of the South Korean movie Save the Green Planet! and tells the story of Teddy and his cousin Don, who kidnap Michelle Fuller, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Teddy believes Michelle is an alien and plans to use her to reach her home planet, hoping to drive away the invading Andromedans and save Earth.

Throughout much of Bugonia, Teddy seems like a typical conspiracy theorist, particularly when Michelle starts explaining how a calculator can power a transporter to her mothership. However, the story takes a surprising turn: Michelle is actually an alien, and not only that, she’s the Empress of Andromeda – just as Teddy suspected. What happens next is truly unsettling.

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By the time we discover Michelle is an alien and see her leave on an Andromedan spaceship, both Teddy and Don have already died. Sadly, Teddy’s earlier actions continue to have devastating and fatal effects on all of humankind.

Earlier in the film, Michelle tells Teddy a story – which turns out to be true – about how the Andromedans created humans after accidentally wiping out the dinosaurs. However, humanity didn’t develop as the Andromedans hoped, becoming “selfish and cruel.” Despite their attempts to improve us through experiments, things never changed.

Teddy’s increasingly violent behavior – including kidnapping and killing people he believed were Andromedans, even when they weren’t – pushes Michelle to her limit. She decides humanity is a lost cause and destroys a model of Earth aboard the mothership by popping the protective bubble surrounding it. The film Bugonia then ends with a montage revealing the immediate, worldwide death of every human being.

Set to Marlene Dietrich’s ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone’, the film ends with a haunting and surprisingly darkly humorous scene: everyone on Earth has simply died while going about their daily lives. It’s a truly unforgettable conclusion that will likely leave you feeling a sense of existential dread, and wondering how fragile life really is.

It’s unlikely a mysterious figure like Michelle is secretly controlling everything. But with so much bad news and the constant worry about climate change – which the book Bugonia really emphasizes – the story’s surprising conclusion feels especially impactful.

If you’ve seen the original Korean film Save the Green Planet!, you already know Michelle isn’t what she seems – that’s a big part of the story there too. The twist in that movie was that the Earth got blown up because this guy, Kang Man-shik, decided humanity was a lost cause. But in this version, Lanthimos and the writer, Will Tracy, changed things so you’re left to really sit with the idea of humanity’s downfall – it’s a much more drawn-out, unsettling experience.

The last scene of Bugonia actually left me feeling hopeful, even if it wasn’t a happy ending for us humans. It shows bees flying back to Earth, and that’s where the movie’s title comes from! Apparently, there’s this old Greek ritual called ‘Bugonia’ where people believed bees could actually be born from the body of a dead ox. The movie seems to be saying that humanity is the ox, and our end might allow the Earth to start over, repopulated by bees and other creatures. It’s a really thought-provoking way to end the film!

Tracy told Den of Geek that he’s satisfied with how audiences reacted to the ending of Bugonia, whether they found it scary, hilarious, strange, or even depressing. He’s happy with any interpretation viewers have of the film’s bleakness.

He hopes the movie doesn’t leave viewers with a single, fixed idea about its meaning, or feeling overly sad or happy. He wants it to spark conversation so people will want to discuss it over drinks or dinner afterwards.

Tracy explained that a depressing conclusion would be accepting things will never change. However, she believes we shouldn’t see past events as unavoidable destiny, but rather as something that doesn’t define our future.

Think of it this way: if we want a better future, we need to truly listen to one another and build strong, supportive communities. We need to stop harming ourselves, and focusing on that positive change offers a hopeful outlook.

Bugonia is in cinemas now.

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2025-10-31 23:20