Was Morris real in ‘Smile 2,’ or was it just the entity messing with Skye Riley’s head since the very first text message Morris supposedly sent? The answer is rather complicated, so stick with us to find out.
‘Smile 2,’ unquestionably one of the best horror movies of the decade and probably among the best horror sequels ever made, makes you question every event that transpired in the film, especially whether or not any of it was real. Of course, not everything was a hallucination, but many incidents are still left open for interpretation.
The sequel makes us think we’ve figured out the movie before taking away everything we think we know. One of the first utterly shocking moments arrives when it is revealed near the climax that Skye (Naomi Scott) never actually reconnected with her former BFF Gemma. The whole thing turned out to be all in her head and everything she shared with Gemma was apparently an illusion.
Gemma was obviously not real for the entirety of the movie, but what about Morris, the man who supposedly wanted to help Skye get rid of the entity once and for all?
Smile 2: Was Morris Real?
Unlike her estranged BFF Gemma, who was explicitly disclosed as not being real until the final phone call in the car, there’s no such confirmation about Morris. This is one aspect of the film that will need further clarification from the director or the actors themselves. We’re initially led to believe the mysterious stranger, later revealed to be Morris, is a real character ever since he sends the first ominous text message to Skye Riley writing, “Were you at Lewis Fregoli’s apartment last night?”
Throughout the movie, the entity feeds Skye multiple delusions, giving her false hope that she could get rid of the curse, only to take that away each time. This has led many to believe that Morris was always a figment of her imagination. Additionally, Morris’ method of saving her seemed too easy, making fans question if it was just the entity playing along.
On the other hand, there’s a good possibility Morris was fake only at the Pizza Hut ending. As one viewer pointed out,
I’m pretty sure all of reality only started being fake after one of the hallucinations got her in her apartment and stuck its hand down her throat. Everything else was an illusion until she steps out of the cocoon at the concert.
So, could Morris’ plan have worked if she went along after meeting him at the bar? That certainly seems to be the case. The fantasy elements appear to have begun at her apartment when those smiling dancers stick their hands down her throat. But it also raises another question:
It still doesn’t explain how she got from her bedroom in that scene to the concert. Was the parasitic demon in control of her for the entire time after the bedroom backup dancer scene and just putting her on autopilot until the concert began?
This might sound like a plot hole, but the demon was definitely in full control of her body and was just keeping her distracted enough to nail the final blow at the concert. We also saw how the entity could drive for Skye while she thought she was in the passenger seat talking to her friend, so whatever this monster is, it can keep you on autopilot while it sings, dances, and drives, upon taking control of the host.
Therefore, the best theory is everything from the Wellness Center to the Pizza Hut freezer is an illusion. In hindsight, it’s also worth noting that the demon version of Gemma says hi to Skye’s mom at her apartment, but Elizabeth never acknowledges her. It seems like this particular scene was just a ploy to trick the audience into thinking Skye’s BFF and all their interactions were real.
This is basically our interpretation of the events, piecing together evidence from the film. But ultimately, there’s no official confirmation that Morris was ever actually present in the movie. In the climax, it is revealed that the whole death and resurrection thing was planned out by the entity itself, and the freezer scene at Pizza Hut was all in her head. Skye and Morris absolutely did not meet the second time, at the very least.
There’s an argument to be made that Morris could have been real when they met the first time in the bar, and he is a genuine character who knows how to defeat the entity. However, until we get official word, we can’t rule out the likelihood that Morris was an illusion just like her interaction with Gemma and nobody has figured out a way to beat the entity in the ‘Smile’ universe, at least not yet.
Besides Morris, What Else Was Not Real in Smile 2?
Fans have had their share of discussions on Reddit, especially about Morris and whether he was real. One user wrote,
Was morris real? Were any of the events meeting him real or was she just hallucinating. So trippy. More than the 1st
Another replied,
I believe what Morris said at the bar was reality. “It’s day three, if you don’t do it now, It won’t give you another chance.” Her escaping the bar to the apartment might be the last bit of reality before hallucinating to the end
Meanwhile, there were other illusions in the film as well. Skye thought she had brutally taken the life of her mother at the recovery clinic, but Elizabeth’s death never happened for real. Skye then went full desperate criminal mode carrying a gun in public and threatening to shoot anyone that got in the way of her escape, but that did not happen, either. This is obvious since the concert takes place at the end, suggesting there were no criminal charges against her that might have led to her arrest.
Likewise, the ending scene with Morris and the injections wasn’t real. We’re led to believe for a brief moment that Skye succeeds in sacrificing herself to take out the entity, but it explicitly tells her that the whole sequence involving the freezer is in her head. This leads to the brutal ending scene where Skye, as expected, fails to beat the curse and dies in front of thousands in attendance at her concert.
The ending begs the question—can the entity now infect people on a massive scale? So far, we’ve only seen this demon, monster, or whatever it is, impact one person at a time. This means either it will choose one victim from the audience, most likely Skye’s mother Elizabeth, who couldn’t have been more traumatized after witnessing what happened to her daughter on stage, or we’ll see a full-blown pandemic of infections on ‘Smile 3,’ which will the biggest scale of horror we’ve seen in this franchise.
