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This article is full of spoilers for Smile 2.
Lots of musicians spill their guts on stage, but no one does it quite like Skye Riley at the end of Smile 2.
Smile 2‘s stomach-ripping conclusion is the climax of Smile 2‘s mandate to go bigger in every way than the 2022 original. Whereas writer/director Parker Finn kept things small in Smile, dealing with therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) and her familial history of mental illness, Smile 2 raises the stakes to stadium tour size. This time, pop star Skye Riley (a committed Naomi Scott) becomes the target of the Smile Demon, who in this round of torment preys upon the guilt Skye feels for the death of her actor boyfriend (Ray Nicholson), the pressure she feels from her overbearing mother (Rosemarie DeWitt), and a substance addiction that still plagues her.
Putting an international superstar at the center of the movie (often literally, as most of the shots feature Skye in center frame) allows Finn to go epic and stay small at the same time. And by targeting a pop star, the Smile Demon can expand its reach, infecting millions through the power of media.
However, the big closing of Smile 2 raises big questions about the movie’s reality and future, questions we’ll try to answer below.
The Smile Demon Hits the Big Time
In the final moments of Smile 2, Skye walks on stage for a benefit concert, wearing a shiny blue outfit that she earlier complained failed to sufficiently hide the scar on her stomach. Standing in front of everyone, a vision Skye has of herself rips open that costume to reveal the scar and then rips open the scar, letting the Smile Demon crawl from her stomach and turn its gaze toward (the real) her.
At that point, the movie reveals what is really happening. Skye appears passed out on the floor after a blood-curdling scream. There are no guts or Smile Demon visible, but there is a very lonely woman who seems defeated by the darkness within. She then stands up and gives the audience that signature devious grin. The camera turns to the crowd, which includes not only her mother and supporters, but also a stadium of mostly teen girls. We watch their reaction to the squishy stabbing sounds happening off-screen before cutting back to reveal that Skye has killed herself by shoving her microphone into her eye.
In a bit rarely explored in viral monster stories (save for the mass upload of Samara’s haunted video in Rings), the Smile Monster gets to go global thanks to Skye. Now thousands of viewers in person, and surely millions who watch the recording, will be infected by the Smile Demon, having seen a traumatic death.
Skye’s Twisted Dark Fantasy
Parker Finn recently told Den of Geek about the joy of playing with the amount of knowledge the audience has, relative to Skye. “In the second movie, they’re coming in with more knowledge than where the character is,” he explained. “With the audience potentially being ahead of the character, I wanted to lean into that and see if I could use that against the audience and invite them in.”
Finn retains Skye’s ignorance about the Smile Demon first by killing off the first movie’s survivor Joel (Kyle Gallner) in the opening scene and then by withholding anyone who can explain to Skye what is happening until late in the picture. So while Skye doesn’t understand why she’s being haunted, we viewers know how the Demon takes control of its victim and makes them hallucinate, taking away their hold on reality. But unlike the first movie, Smile 2 attempts to hide just how early in the story the Smile Demon takes full control of Skye.
Likely more than a few viewers were skeptical of Skye’s former best friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula) coming back into her life so easily after what was apparently a nasty falling out. After all, the demon impersonated friends and family in Rose Cotter’s life in the first film. So when Skye receives a phone call near the climax of the film from the real-Gemma, who reveals she’s still pissed at Skye and hasn’t forgiven her (even as “Gemma” is currently driving Skye to Staten Island), that evil demonic smile spreading across the face of our “Gemma” is not necessarily a surprise. However, the trick of the movie is that not only is Gemma a hallucination… but so is almost the entire third act of the movie.
This is borne out by the most sinister set-piece in the film when the Demon takes the form of Skye’s adoring fans and back up dancers, and flash mobs Skye in her own apartment. They physically harass and beat the pop star, but one of them also sticks their hand literally down her throat. For the Demon, this is getting a foot in the door. We know from the first movie that the Demon’s final coup de grace is literally possessing its victims by crawling down their throats. Presumably, it began the process early for Skye so as to make sure that it can get her on stage to infect as many people as possible.
This bit of nastiness answers some questions: such as how the Demon “made” Skye kill her mother in the next scene (she didn’t, that was all in Skye’s head). But it also raises another chilling question: Did the Demon plan this all from the beginning? The drug dealer who infects Skye said when he sees her at his door that he has no memory of texting her. It seems probable the Demon texted Skye and was carefully curating her entire journey so as to make sure it can infect the whole world on her upcoming tour. It takes partial control of Skye early in the story, so as to make sure she does nothing to jeopardize getting up on that stage. Like Skye’s mother, record label, and various other sycophants and hangers-on, the Demon is using Skye from the start to get a piece of her fame.
What Do Smile 2’s Fantasy Scenes Mean?
“I wish you could feel what it’s like to be inside my head,” Skye snaps at her mom late in the film. Skye makes variations of that plea throughout the movie, sometimes in dialogue and sometimes even in her songs. Thanks to the fantasy scenes that take up almost half of the movie, we viewers do get to see what’s inside of her head, and it ain’t pretty. Finn uses our knowledge of the movie’s rules, as well as cinematography that puts Skye front and center, to charge the audience with complicity in her breakdown.
Whether or not that approach works is a matter of debate. However, the technique gives the movie a cynical and almost reactionary view on celebrities and media in general. It frames the relationship between artists and fans as toxic, with the public forcing pop stars to be larger than life idols, and those same musicians then infecting everyone with their demons. Literally so in Skye’s case. Consider that Skye picks up the Smile Demon while attempting to score drugs from her usual dealer early in the movie. Admittedly, there is an added social critique in that scene, because Skye is actually buying pain killers she cannot be prescribed because of her history with substance abuse. However, in function the metaphor is still clear: the sins of Skye’s past vices lead to her destruction, with her “demon in a bottle” becoming a literal demon that will destroy her like so many rock and pop stars before her.
And due to the way Skye is idolized for her music (and exploited), Skye’s own weaknesses go on to infect all of her youthful, innocent fans. At the end, they are literally corrupted by Skye after she fails to be the impossible role model she is pretending to be. Either by accident or design, Smile 2‘s themes become not particularly far removed from sermons that anti-rock-and-roll preachers gave about satanic messages hidden on records (Hell’s Bells, anyone?).
That theme gets even more pronounced during the closing credits. Smile 2 doesn’t have a post-credit scene, but the credits do mix sounds of Skye cry-screaming into the thumping pop song playing, solidifying the idea that music is dangerous.
We’ll see if Smile 3 expands on those themes in a more nuanced way. Or a third entry might just immediately kill off everyone who watched the concert, like Smile 2 did with Joel, and start fresh with a new set of victims. Whatever the next movie does, it will be hard to top Smile 2‘s shocking end—or put the demon back under the radar after everyone who attended Skye Riley’s last concert ends up committing ritualistic suicide a week later.
Smile 2 is now playing in theaters.
The post Smile 2 Ending Explained: Making Sense of that Game-Changing Final Scene appeared first on Den of Geek.
