Yorgos Lanthimos, whose films have won many awards and nominations, directed and released the comedy thriller Bugonia on October 31st, 2025. Bugonia follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a conspiracy theorist who believes that aliens have infiltrated important leadership positions around the globe, as he kidnaps Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), interrogates her, and experiments on her with the help of his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis).
The themes being explored in the film are the dangers of corporations, specifically their greed and exploitation of the working class, conspiracy and its origins, and the effect of trauma. Michelle Fuller is a big-time CEO of a pharmaceutical company that Teddy works at. She has a false persona of kindness and sincerity, but she is looking to preserve her image and the interests of her company. An example of her manipulation tactics would be the scene where she tells her employees that they can leave at 5:30pm, as to seem like she is being considerate of her employees, but throws in the caveat that if they haven’t finished their work, they must stay and complete it. She represents a greater issue in the United States and around the world that Lanthimos is trying to portray: corporate greed takes advantage of citizens each and every day.
To shift the focus to Teddy, the main themes explored through his character are conspiracy and the effect of trauma. He has dealt with a lot of trauma throughout his life. He was sexually abused by his babysitter as a child, and his mother is in a coma resulting from experiments done on her by Fuller’s pharmaceutical company. It suggests that these traumas caused Teddy’s violent nature and mistrust of corporations. This also explains his beliefs in highly speculative conspiracy, as many conspiracy theorists look for answers through theorization due to perceived powerlessness.
In a twist, Michelle finally admits that she is an alien to Teddy and takes him to her company to use a teleporter to her mothership. She tricks him into entering first and he explodes from her deception. She makes it back to her mothership and declares that humanity is beyond saving, claiming that it requires a reset. She then pops a bubble resembling Earth’s atmosphere on a diagram of the Earth and simultaneously kills every single human on the planet.
The soundtrack for Bugonia is used sparingly, yet very powerfully, particularly in the final sequence, where we see many different scenes of everyone lying dead on the Earth. I love how the movie is so impactful with so few actors and sets. In my opinion, Jesse Plemons genuinely gives an Oscar-winning performance, and Emma Stone’s performance is just as amazing.
Overall, I loved this movie, and it’s the best film I’ve seen in theaters in a very long time. I give Bugonia a 4.5/5.
