Smile 2 ending, explained: Skye Riley’s tragic final hour

Smile 2 ending, explained: Skye Riley's tragic final hour

As a seasoned gamer and movie enthusiast who has weathered countless plot twists and mind-bending narratives, I must say that Parker Finn’s “Smile 2” left me utterly bewildered and intrigued. The film’s final act was a rollercoaster of emotions, with theEntity pulling off some truly masterful manipulation of reality.

Spoilers ahead for Smile 2

The second installment of the movie released in 2022, titled ‘Smile 2’, can now be rented or purchased on-demand. Many viewers believe that director Parker Finn’s sequel surpasses the original in scale, quality, and fear factor.

In this instance, the Entity focuses on Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a global pop sensation who is still recovering emotionally from a severe car accident that hospitalized her and took the life of her actor boyfriend. With her already fragile state, she becomes an ideal target for this malignant presence, which operates like a parasite, compelling its hosts to take their own lives in front of others before moving onto the next victim.

In October of last year, “Smile 2” was launched, garnering favorable comments from critics and raking in an impressive $132 million at the box office against a production budget of just $28 million. It appears that we might be witnessing the start of a trilogy, as the climax of “Smile 2” leaves room for a potentially thrilling third installment. Let’s delve into the movie’s final sequence for a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the ending of “Smile 2”.

The Entity’s show-stopping performance

Near the closing scenes of “Smile 2”, the plot takes some significant turns to intensify the dramatic suspense. A past event is revisited through a flashback showing that Skye was responsible for the fatal car accident that claimed her boyfriend’s life. They were both under the influence of drugs, leading to a heated argument, which escalated with Skye inadvertently swerving the steering wheel.

The following shocking moment features Skye waking up in a special retreat after she blacks out in her apartment during the fight with the menacing Entity-created backup dancers. Her mother, Elizabeth, brutally kills herself with a shard of glass from a broken mirror. Or did she? Skye realizes that Elizabeth stabbing herself was a hallucination and it was actually her who killed her mother.

In a state of necessity, Skye reaches out to her friend Gemma for assistance as she flees. They head towards a Pizza Hut, planning for Skye to encounter Morris there with the hope of ending the Entity once and for all. However, the trickster isn’t finished yet. The person in the car isn’t actually Gemma, but another illusion. To make matters worse, Skye listens to a voicemail from the real Gemma, which discloses that the Entity has been posing as Gemma during their recent encounters for an entire week. Regaining her composure, Skye manages to snap out of the hallucination.

Morris and Skye intend to carry out their strategy inside the walk-in freezer, as the cold would reduce Skye’s body temperature more rapidly, facilitating revival. However, their plan does not work as intended. Skye administers herself an injection designed to halt her heart, but it has no effect on the Entity.

In a more troubling turn of events, Skye awakens only to discover herself on stage amidst her tour, with her mother cheering from the audience. It dawns on Skye that she had been experiencing delusions, and the Entity seizes this moment to execute Skye in full view of everyone at the concert. It appears as if the Entity infects everyone present almost instantaneously.

What was real and what was fake?

The part of the movie that leaves viewers baffled is when we discover towards the end that a significant portion, if not the entire third act, was merely a hallucination experienced by Skye. Despite her apparent actions in temporarily eliminating herself and battling the Entity to regain control over her mind, the final scene shows that these efforts were futile. The Entity remains and is even more menacing than before.

By placing Elizabeth among the spectators, it becomes clear that Skye didn’t murder her, and there’s a possibility that Elizabeth never even went to the retreat. However, the film’s conclusion leaves us uncertain about which parts of Skye’s narrative are true and which might be fabrications. The scene where Skye discovers “Gemma” is actually the Entity hints at Skye experiencing hallucinations since witnessing Lewis commit suicide. It’s possible that everything that followed might not have happened in reality at all.

Chatting with The Wrap, director Parker Finn revealed he loved the ending because it felt meta.

In the game of life, I found myself peering into the same screen as the cinema-goers, watching ‘Smile 2’. It struck me, were we the ones who did this to Skye? Are we unwittingly involved in some bizarre loop, where our act of viewing has consequences that echo back on us?

Smile 2 is now available on demand.

2024-11-20 22:25