“Bugonia” Ending Explained: Is Michelle Really an Alien?
- - “Bugonia” Ending Explained: Is Michelle Really an Alien?
Keith LangstonFebruary 15, 2026 at 7:45 PM
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Emma Stone in 'Bugonia' (2025).
Peacock
The buzzworthy thriller Bugonia is captivating and shocking audiences thanks to its wild premise that only gets more intense as the film goes on.
The Yorgos Lanthimos-directed movie stars Jesse Plemons as Teddy, a delusional incel who lost himself down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories after his mother’s illness.
Already sick and with no other options, she opted to join a clinical trial for a new drug, which only made her sicker. Now comatose and on a ventilator, her illness causes Teddy to become angry and desperate, which sends him spiraling down into the dark web, where blogs and chat rooms convince him that aliens from the Andromeda galaxy are secretly controlling Earth and using humans as slaves and experiments.
In Bugonia, Teddy reaches the climax of his hysteria by recruiting his autistic cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), to help him kidnap pharmaceutical exec Michelle (Emma Stone) and lock her in their basement. Michelle runs the company whose experimental medicine worsened Teddy’s mother's condition, and now Teddy is convinced she’s an alien who purposefully didn’t help his mom. After kidnapping her, he makes his demands: Teddy wants Michelle to contact her Andromedan brethren to set up a meeting with him, where they’ll confess their crimes.
Much of the film takes place in Teddy’s basement, centering around the tense exchanges between him and Michelle, who is desperately trying to get Teddy to believe she isn’t an alien. But the longer Michelle is trapped in the basement, and the closer law enforcement is to finding her, Teddy becomes more desperate and more erratic, all culminating in an explosive finale.
From what happens to Teddy to whether Michelle is an alien, here's the Bugonia ending, explained.
Warning: Bugonia spoilers ahead!
How does Bugonia end?
Stavros Halkias in 'Bugonia' (2025).
Peacock
At the start of Bugonia's explosive finale, the town sheriff, Casey (Stavros Halkias) stops by Teddy’s house. Knowing the connection Teddy has to Michelle and seeing his growing paranoia, rage and delusion, the sheriff has a hunch that Teddy likely has a connection to Michelle's disappearance.
After the sheriff arrives, Teddy tries to distract him and instructs Don to hold Michelle at gunpoint in the basement while he takes care of the sheriff. Teddy leads the sheriff outside towards his apiary to get him out of the house. Meanwhile, Michelle tries to appeal to Don, who seems like the more sensible of the two. But what she discovers is that Don is deeply hurt and lonely, and wishes she really were an alien so she could take him away on a spaceship.
She tries to convince him she’s not an alien, but he keeps begging. Finally, with no other options, Michelle tries to appease Don by saying that yes, she’s an alien, and if he lets her go, she will take him with her far away from Earth. Finally, it seems like she’s convinced him, and Don says, “Ok, I’m ready to leave.” He then lifts the gun to his head and shoots himself.
Teddy and the sheriff both hear the gunshot from outside, and knowing that his cover is blown, Teddy throws one of the beehives in the sheriff’s face and then kills him with a shovel. Teddy runs inside and confronts Michelle, who says that Don killed himself.
Recognizing how dire the situation has become now that bodies are piling up, Michelle decides to try and buy herself time by playing into Teddy’s delusion. She tells him that he’s right about everything. She’s an alien, and she poisoned his mother … but there’s a cure. She says there’s a bottle of antifreeze in her car, but it isn’t really antifreeze. It’s a secret alien medicine that will cure his mother. All he needs to do is go to the hospital and inject it into her IV.
With nothing else to lose, Teddy bikes to the hospital and injects his mother with antifreeze, killing her. Michelle's plan was that he’d hopefully be caught in the act, ending the ordeal. But Teddy manages to escape and comes back to the basement, demanding an end to this right now. He wants to meet her Andromedan comrades, and it has to happen immediately, or she dies.
What happens to Teddy and Michelle at the end of Bugonia?
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in 'Bugonia' (2025).
Peacock
Michelle tells Teddy that the secret portal to her spaceship is located in a closet in her office. The two travel to her office, and all of Michelle's employees are clearly shaken by seeing her arrive with a strange, disheveled man after she’s been missing for almost a week.
After they get in her office, Teddy reveals that he’s armed himself with a suicide bomb in case negotiations with the Andromedans go bad. Michelle desperately tries to come up with a way to escape and tells him he needs to get in the closet with the doors closed while she inputs a code on her calculator (which she says is actually an Andromedan communication device), and that there’s a three-second delay before he’s beamed up.
As she slowly counts down from three, she walks towards her office door, hoping to make an escape. But before she can, Teddy’s homemade explosive detonates, killing him and knocking her unconscious.
Is Michelle actually an alien in Bugonia?
Emma Stone in 'Bugonia' (2025).
Peacock
The big twist happens at the end of the movie. After the explosion, Michelle regains consciousness inside an ambulance. As she comes to, she asks, “So … he’s dead, right?” The paramedic says that he’s dead and that it’s actually pretty common for homemade explosives to go off without warning because they’re made improperly.
Michelle takes off her oxygen mask, rips out her IV and jumps out of the ambulance, and runs back to her office. When she arrives, her office is now a crime scene, but she walks in anyway despite the police telling her to stay out. She grabs the calculator, gets into the closet and then vanishes.
The next scene shows her on a spaceship with the other Andromedans, and she’s revealed to be their Empress. Together, they discuss the fate of Earth and whether it’s worth saving.
What happens to Earth at the end of Bugonia?
Jesse Plemons in 'Bugonia' (2025).
Peacock
The Andromedans ask the Empress what should be done with Earth, and she tells them that humans have had their time and have squandered it by killing each other and the planet instead of building a prosperous society. She walks over to a diagram of Earth that’s covered with a bubble. She takes out a spear and pops the bubble.
The final scenes of Bugonia show that all humans on Earth have simultaneously died. As the scenes change, showing lifeless bodies littered across the planet, the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” by Marlene Dietrich plays. However, the scenes also show that animals weren’t affected, and the planet now belongs to them.
From the subtle messages about humans destroying the environment to Teddy’s self-created descent into madness, to the Andromedans clearly declaring it at the end of the movie, Bugonia is a smart, dark and stinging critique of humanity that portrays people as a plague upon the Earth.
Does Bugonia have a post-credits scene?
Jesse Plemons in 'Bugonia' (2025).
Peacock
There are no post- or mid-credits scenes in Bugonia. However, the credits are filled with ambient sounds, like chirping birds and weather, further showing that the Earth is still very much alive and thriving — without humans.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
