The director behind Smile 2 helped explain the film’s insane ending and what it might mean for the franchise's future.
The new movie follows superstar singer Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who gets infected with the Smiling Demon when her drug dealer Lewis (Lucas Gage) violently kills himself in front of her.
Skye’s life only goes downhill from there—as tends to happen with this particular evil entity.
Smile 2 Plot Spoilers Breakdown
Skye’s downside into insanity is gradual, much like it was for Rose Cotter in the first movie.
No one believes her, and everyone thinks she’s losing it, potentially having regressed to drugs.
The only person who does believe her is Peter Jacobson’s Morris—the brother of one of the Smiling Demon’s previous victims. However, his solution is to temporarily kill Skye, a lifeline she doesn't grab.
Things get so bad that after nearly succumbing to the demon itself, Skye wakes up in a private wellness center. Here, she gets into a nightmarish altercation with her mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) which sees the demon taking control of Skye and violently killing her mom.
In a frantic, mad panic, she escapes the facility with a gun stolen from a police officer and a car she stole from one of her drivers. Thankfully for Skye, her rekindled best friend (Dylan Gelula) decides to tag along—though the joke’s on Skye because her former best friend had never answered her call earlier in the movie and was never really there; it was the demon all along.
Skye races over to Morris, proving to herself that she is under control and not the demon. Morris sets everything up in an abandoned building, ready to vanquish the demon forever.
Things seem off the moment he says he needs to grab something in the other room.
This is when the Smiling Demon has one last confrontation with Skye, one in which it looks like the superstar will win. But, in classic fashion, the demon is in full control, and Skye was never coming out on top.
But then comes the insane twist: none of what audiences or Skye witness in the last thirty minutes of the movie has been real. The last real moment was likely in the wellness center before her mom died, but where this reality break happens is left open for interpretation.
Now, Skye Riley finds herself on stage, performing in front of thousands upon thousands of people in the outfit she hated. While her mom is alive and well, Skye is not.
The Smiling Demon takes over, triumphing over Skye. Now in full control of the singer, the evil entity smiles at all onlookers and brutally smashes the microphone into Skye’s face—killing her as the audience watches in horror.
Smile 2 Director Explains That Insane Ending
In an exclusive interview with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, Smile 2 director Finn Parker
In theory, the ending of Smile 2 could allude to the Smiling Demon blossoming into a full-blown epidemic, potentially even a worldwide crisis.
When asked if that’s set to happen, Parker played coy, noting how he sees the sequence as a “sort of meta-commentary:”
"I love that you're asking that question. It felt like a really interesting meta-commentary on the platform of not only celebrities but also how audiences and fandoms, and we, as the public, can be complicit in the downfall of somebody who's on the world stage."
The director wanted audiences to ask themselves if they did this to Skye:
"In those final moments, there's literally the audience in the arena staring through the screen at the audience sitting in the movie theater. And I want the audience asking themselves, 'Wait, did I do this?' I came back for a 'Smile' sequel. Have I done this to Skye? That felt very exciting to me."
“There are a lot of really interesting directions it could go,” the director teased about what might be next:
"There are a lot of really interesting directions it could go. I'm excited to see how people respond to 'Smile 2,' but we'll have to wait and see what's in store for the future."
When asked directly if the Smiling Demon can even possess more than one person, Finn played coy, noting that he himself has “a lot of theories:”
"That's a great question. I have a lot of theories, but I like to never fully put my thumb on the scale. I wanted to end the film on a literal mic drop and hopefully have people asking those exact questions."
As for when the actual break in reality for Skye Riley was in that last act of the movie, Parker admitted that “there is a very specific moment” where it occurs, but wouldn’t confirm which it was:
"I have a lot of feelings about that. I think that the film is actually spelling it out, but it's maybe something that can sort of go past people on a first watch. For me, there is a very specific moment when we leave what we perceive as full-blown reality, and where we go from there, I think we can't totally trust everything."
When asked how he wanted to make Smile 2 different than the original, Parker shared how he wanted to challenge himself to “set the sequel in a really unexpected world:”
"I was really excited to sort of go into this sequel in a really fresh, unexpected way. I didn't want to take an obvious continuation route but rather challenge myself to set the sequel in a really unexpected world. The world of a mega pop star that feels sort of diametrically opposed to where we were in the first film. But thematically, I wanted to re-lens what the smile is exploding, as far as the interior psychology of a character, and it felt like an opportunity to sort of get people to reevaluate what it is to sort of be guarded, to be hiding something, and to feel like you have no agency in your life."
For these movies, multiple actors have to come in and nail that terrifying and unsettling smile that audiences know all too well.
“There are real human performances,” Parker confirmed, noting that there isn’t CGI to any of them:
"I love the fact that these are real human performances. We're not trying to over-exaggerate into some weird CGI mess on their face or anything like that. We hit a certain level of Uncanny Valley by keeping it human performance. And you know, it depends on the actor. Sometimes they come in, and it's like, they know, it like that. They've clearly been practicing at home."
“Sometimes, it takes some coaching,” the director admitted, adding how things like “framing, color palette, and sound design really help:”
"Sometimes, it takes some coaching, but it's always about being with them in the space, getting them comfortable, teaching them. You know, I have a few key sort of instructions that helps them find it. And then it's using framing, color palette, and sound design—all those things that come together really make it that menacing smile."
What Should Fans Expect From Smile 3
While a Smile 3 has not yet been confirmed, given the series’ popularity, another sequel is highly likely.
It also helps that this second film set up future installments perfectly.
While it hasn’t been confirmed if the Smiling Demon can pass on to more than one person at once, the possibility of it doing its thing on the world stage and becoming an epidemic seems too great an idea to simply pass up. The scope of future installments would be unbelievably large, and the stakes higher than ever.
It would create endless possibilities for what might come next, leaving room for limitless creativity.
One thing is for sure, though: on a storytelling level, it would be nice to see someone break the cycle. Having someone actually live through this experience and best the Smiling Demon, even if only partially, seems like the next step.
Smile 2 is now playing in theaters worldwide.
