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“Smile Ending Explained: What Rose’s Fate Means for the Upcoming Sequel”
Here’s everything you need to know about the chilling conclusion of Smile and what it could mean for the highly anticipated sequel.
Smile captivated audiences with one of the creepiest viral marketing strategies in recent memory. Ahead of the film’s 2022 release, actors with unsettling, fixed smiles appeared at major public events, including baseball games, creating buzz and curiosity about the movie. That eerie grin, seen by millions on TV, drew people in — and Smile delivered on its promise.
Director Parker Finn told Entertainment Weekly in 2022 that he aimed to create a movie that “feels like a sustained panic attack from start to finish.” His vision was successful, with Smile surpassing box office expectations, grossing $217 million worldwide thanks to strong marketing and word-of-mouth.
“Smile Ending Explained: What Rose’s Fate Means for the Upcoming Sequel”
The story revolves around psychotherapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), who becomes the latest victim of a curse passed through suicide. After witnessing a patient take her own life with a haunting smile, Rose is thrown into a nightmare where she is relentlessly pursued by a malevolent entity that takes on familiar forms, always accompanied by that eerie grin. Rose races against time to break the cycle before the curse claims her life, as it has with previous victims.
While Smile was a hit with audiences, its ambiguous finale left fans divided and intrigued about what’s to come. Let’s break down Smile’s ending and what it could mean for the sequel.
Why Does the Entity Appear as Rose’s Mother? Throughout Smile, the entity acts as a metaphor for unresolved trauma, which gets passed from person to person, much like the curse itself. In the film’s final act, this metaphor becomes literal when the entity manifests as Rose’s deceased mother.
Near the end of the film, Rose realizes that to break the curse, she needs to isolate herself with no witnesses around. She returns to her abandoned childhood home — the place where her mother died. By now, we know Rose has been haunted by her mother’s death since childhood, having been present when it happened.
Inside the house, the entity appears as Rose’s mother and begins taunting her. The trauma isn’t just about the death, but also the emotional abuse Rose endured growing up. A brief flashback reveals that Rose, as a child, made the choice not to call for help when her mother was dying.
In her struggle to survive, Rose tries to remind herself that none of what’s happening is real. The entity responds, “Your mind makes it real,” and then morphs into a terrifying, monstrous version of her mother. Rose fights back, setting the creature and the house on fire, believing she has destroyed the curse and the guilt that has plagued her.
What Happens When Rose Escapes the House? Believing she has conquered the curse, Rose leaves the burning house behind and heads to see her ex-boyfriend Joel (Kyle Gallner), the only person who has believed her. Seeking comfort, she asks him to stay with her. Joel agrees, saying, “I’ll stay with you forever.” But then, he smiles — that same sinister smile Rose thought she had escaped.
In a shocking twist, Rose realizes her victory was an illusion. She never truly left the house or the curse behind.
“Smile Ending Explained: What Rose’s Fate Means for the Upcoming Sequel”
Suddenly, Rose finds herself back outside the burning home, with the real Joel arriving after having followed her. She runs inside and locks the door, confronting her fate alone.
Does Rose Survive in the End? No, Rose does not survive. In a nightmarish final sequence, the entity, still in its monstrous form, overpowers Rose. It peels off its face to reveal a grotesque, skinless creature with multiple sets of jaws inside an enormous smiling mouth. The entity enters Rose, taking over her body.
When Joel finally breaks into the house, he finds Rose smiling eerily and dousing herself in gasoline. She lights a match and goes up in flames, likely passing the curse onto him.
The ending plays into classic horror tropes — the evil force remains unstoppable. Whether it’s a supernatural entity (It Follows), a curse (The Ring), or fate itself (Final Destination), these lethal forces tend to persist. In Smile, the entity’s survival feels inevitable.
“Smile Ending Explained: What Rose’s Fate Means for the Upcoming Sequel”
However, the film’s ending sparked debate, particularly regarding its portrayal of mental illness. Some viewers saw Rose’s fate as a tragic statement about the difficulty of overcoming trauma, while others felt the film leaned too much into bleakness and nihilism.
Director Parker Finn explained in an interview with The Latch, “I like complex, messy, sometimes ambiguous endings that can stir debate. With the themes and motifs we were exploring, I didn’t want to do anything easy or neat.”
What Does Smile’s Ending Mean for the Sequel? With Smile’s massive success, a sequel was almost inevitable. Soon after the original’s release, Smile 2 was officially announced, with a planned release date of October 18, 2024. While Kyle Gallner will reprise his role as Joel, the sequel will primarily focus on a new character, a world-famous pop star played by Naomi Scott, who becomes the entity’s latest target.
This new direction opens the door to expanding the franchise’s mythology. Finn has expressed his desire to avoid merely repeating the first film, stating, “If there was to be more Smile, I’d want to make sure that it’s not just a repeat of this film; it’d have to be something really unexpected with a bunch of surprises up its sleeve.”
“Smile Ending Explained: What Rose’s Fate Means for the Upcoming Sequel”
With this in mind, Smile 2 promises to dive even deeper into the terrifying world Finn has created, and fans can expect more twists, scares, and unsettling smiles in the next chapter.
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