In ancient Greek, the word “Bugonia” refers to a supernatural occurrence: bees spontaneously generating from the corpse of a sacrificed cow. In Yorgos Lanthimos‘ contemporary film of the same name, a part-time beekeeper, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), kidnaps Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of the pharmaceutical company that provides his full-time employment as a package handler.
[Spoilers ahead.] At the midpoint of Bugonia, Teddy’s secret grudge against Fuller is revealed. While holding her captive, as an apology for especially harsh treatment, he invites her out of his basement to share a meal. From opposite ends of the kitchen table, the adversaries confront each other’s humanity. Stone, as Fuller, projects an eerie calm when she discovers his motive: Teddy’s mother suffered fatal side effects of a drug that Fuller’s company produced.
This revelation is startling because Teddy claims to have another reason for kidnapping Fuller: he believes her to be the leader of an alien race intent on destroying humanity, a delusion that fuels a class struggle where, even after switching places, both oppressor and oppressed make valid points. Fuller accuses her conspiracy-obsessed captor of living in an internet-induced echo chamber. Teddy, in response, argues that such a point cannot be fairly made from Fuller’s privileged position as the CEO of a corporation that exploits the working class.
Bugonia uses these opposing perspectives to satirize both corporate workplace culture and chronically online culture; its two protagonists are high-functioning versions of different archetypes. Specifically, when refuting Fuller’s claim that the internet reinforces his false beliefs, Teddy says, “Is that some rabbit hole crap you read in The Times?” By pointing out that the proposed cure to the internet’s maladies can be found on it, Bugonia shows how society’s attempts to help disparaged people can be condescending.
While struggling with an illness, Teddy’s mother says, “They sell you the sickness, then they sell you the cure,” a paradox that both of the film’s protagonists embody. Fuller works for a corporation guilty of malpractice, a timely plot point in the wake of the opioid epidemic. However, in response, Teddy commits an atrocity of the same nature, insisting that Fuller is an alien and that he alone can save her.
Bugonia uses a narrative device common in kidnapping stories: its emotional resolution relies on the characters overcoming their righteous objections to one another. In Teddy’s mind, Fuller is an alien planning to destroy humanity. To Fuller, Teddy is an insane man who kidnapped her.
Nonetheless, by the film’s conclusion, the characters form an alliance of sorts. An impending lunar eclipse frames the storyline and provides suspense during an interminable period of captivity. Teddy believes Fuller can contact her “home planet” during the eclipse, and, as it nears, the pair races to observe it.
This alliance raises the film’s central question: Is reality subjective? If, in isolation, Fuller adopts her captor’s delusions, what else can people be convinced of?
Bugonia operates in extremes, and it treats this inquiry with a similar attitude by testing the limits of what the audience will believe. In an 11th-hour plot twist, Fuller reveals herself to actually be an alien. Teddy was right all along. The film’s initial corporate satire was a red herring. Bugonia is a satire of satire itself, prompting viewers to wonder, by analyzing media, are we just as counter-productive as Teddy appeared to be at first?
In the face of tragedy, life goes on. When Teddy initially kidnaps Fuller, she does not become angry with him. Instead, she calmly tells him that, due to her importance as CEO of a job-creating company, authorities will find her and arrest him. She says, “I’m a high-profile female corporate executive. Does that add a certain politicized optics to this?”
This observation, meant to threaten Teddy, is a fourth-wall-breaking clue that foreshadows the film’s departure from its timely premise. “Bugonia”, the Greek word, refers to bees spontaneously generated from the corpse of a sacrificed cow. At the film’s conclusion, humanity is sacrificed by an alien race. However, is such an antagonistic force unfamiliar to us? Pharmaceutical companies also treat people sacrificially.
No matter what tumult occurs, a colony of bees in Teddy’s backyard continues its routine undisturbed. Bees are ambivalent to the chaos and the beauty of the world, even though, through their organization, they prolong that beauty by pollinating flowers. To them, it is just a job. They have their own CEO: a queen bee. Even if she led them to their doom, they would follow her.