Smile 2 spoilers follow.
Smile 2 is now available to watch on digital and streaming platforms, introducing even more people to its shocking ending.
But while it's shocking to us, writer/director Parker Finn always felt it was the "inevitable place" for Skye Riley's story to end.
"It didn't matter if that thought occurred to people, because that journey of how we get there is going to be surprising and effective, and the execution of that ending was hopefully going to blow out whatever anybody might've had in their mind to get there," he told Slash Film.
Smile 2 centres on Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a famous pop singer who is preparing for a comeback tour a year after being involved in a tragic car crash. As if battling addiction and trauma weren't hard enough, Skye will cross paths with the terrifying Smile Entity, a type of parasite that consumes its host with hallucinations and feeds their inner demons.
After seven days, the entity causes individuals to sinisterly smile before taking their own lives. Doing so in front of someone else allows the cycle to start again.
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There is a way to beat it, though – as explained by Morris (Peter Jacobson), an ER nurse whose brother was affected by the curse, the parasite can be killed if the host's body dies. Skye is not sure of this plan, understandably, but she might not have a better alternative.
And if you've still got questions after watching Smile 2, we're here to help by delving into its ending.
Smile 2 ending explained
When Smile 2 hits its third act, it's hard to know exactly which events are a product of Skye's nightmares and what is actually happening in real life.
After a particularly nasty attack from the Smile Entity, Skye is checked into a rehabilitation centre for a quick recovery before the first concert of her highly anticipated tour. Despite insisting she doesn't have the mental resilience to face the crowd, her mother snaps at her for letting everyone down.
Suddenly, Skye's mother starts smiling in an eerie way — and we know something terrible is about to happen. She breaks a mirror and, with a piece of glass, stabs herself repeatedly, splashing blood everywhere.
While trying to run away, Skye realises that she's the one holding the piece of glass and her robe is wet with her mother's blood. It's unclear if this is happening for real, or if the entity is tricking her again.
Related: Smile 2 called "scariest movie of the year" in first reactions
After managing a clumsy escape from the hospital, Skye bumps into her friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula), who helps her escape with a stolen car. The pop star has decided to take a chance on Morris' plan to kill the entity.
However, while in the car, Smile 2 offers a crushing revelation — Gemma was never really Gemma, but yet another hallucination. Skye finds this out when the real Gemma calls her in response to that first voicemail she sent her at the start of the film.
Somehow, Skye regains control of her own mind for long enough to get hold of the car and drive to the abandoned Pizza Hut where she's meeting Morris.
The nurse's plan is to stop her heart for a few minutes in the freezer room, so her brain stays alive for the resuscitation. However, when Morris leaves to get something, the nightmares start again.
Skye comes face to face with the entity, which has taken the shape of herself on the night of the car accident where her boyfriend (Ray Nicholson) died.
Dark hair and bloodied clothes, this fake Skye is here to put the final nail in the singer's coffin. Skye tries to fight it and stop her own heart, but soon it's revealed that this is, again, just a nightmare.
In the blink of an eye, Skye is on stage on the first concert of her tour. Thousands of people are looking at her, waiting for her to perform. Her mother (who seems to be alive) is cheering her from the sidelines. This might mean that everything from the rehabilitation centre to now has been a hallucination, but it's unclear.
While on stage, Skye sees another clone, this time identical to her current self, standing on stage. A monster crawls out of that body, approaches her and dives down her throat, consuming her entirely.
Related: Smile ending explained: Delving into that dark final twist
From the outside, the only thing people see is Skye collapsing on stage and having seizures, which prompts her team to run to help her. However, before they make it to her, she seems to recover. Slowly, she stands up and turns, facing the audience.
She is smiling... and it's not the good kind of smile.
The entity has finally taken over her whole body, and forces Skye to smash her microphone repeatedly in her head, killing herself in front of the audience. The scene only shows her fans, though, as they scream and run away completely terrified.
"I wanted to blur the lines between reality and fiction with this character of Skye, but also to have this meta commentary at the end about not only the audience [in the arena] staring through the screen at the audience in the movie theatre," Finn told Slash Film.
"This idea that, are we somehow complicit in what's happened here by coming back for a Smile 2? Have we done this to Skye? Which feels very a propos to celebrity, and fandom, and parasocial relationships."
As Skye dies, we are to understand that every single person attending this concert is now infected with the curse. It's hard to know for sure, as the movie doesn't offer more specific information about how this entity works or what to expect after that brutal ending.
If the ending of Smile 2 means that the Smile Entity is now running wild in thousands of people, things can get very ugly very fast. We'll have to wait for Smile 3 to find out.
Was Morris real in Smile 2?
One of Smile 2's biggest mysteries is Morris, the ER nurse that tries to help Skye. Was he ever real, or was he from the very beginning a hallucination created by the Smile Entity?
There's not a clear answer to that question, but there are some theories.
Some believe Morris is a real person at the start, when he texts Skye and meets her at a bar, but everything that happens at the abandoned Pizza Hut scene is a hallucination.
Others believe he was never real at all, pointing out that his text messages always conveniently arrived when Skye was about to call (the real) Gemma on the phone. Perhaps it was always a distracting strategy from the entity, and a way to give Skye a false sense of hope.
So, what is real and what is not in Smile 2?
With Smile movies, that's the main question. Though it doesn't always have a clear answer.
As we mentioned above, it's possible the hallucination in Smile 2 started right before Skye 'kills' her mother, which we know it's not real since she is alive at the end of the movie.
But, what if the hallucination started way before that moment?
Early in the film, Skye tries on a suit for the tour, but she doesn't like it because it shows her belly scar. Despite her complaints, at the end of the movie, that's the outfit she is wearing as her hallucination clashes with real life.
What if everything between that earlier scene and the ending wasn't real? We'll leave you to decide that.
Smile 2 is available to buy from Prime Video, iTunes, Microsoft Store and more in the UK.
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
