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This article contains spoilers from Smile 2, in theaters now. It also contains a mention of suicide.
Smile has been one of the most unique horrors in the modern era. Like other high-concept horrors such as It Follows, it focuses on a curse spreading like an infection. Writer and director, Parker Finn, dealt with Rose in the first Smile as the victim being targeted.
Now, Finn has made Smile 2, which revolves around the curse haunting a popular singer, Skye. Interestingly, there are elements from the previous movie that are brought back. A major aspect is connected to Kyle Gallner’s Joel. Sadly, there isn’t a happy ending in sight for the police officer who tried to aid Rose.
Who is Smile’s Joel?
Joel Is a Police Officer and Rose’s Ex-Boyfriend
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In Smile, Joel was Rose’s ex-boyfriend. As the entity haunted her and began breaking her mind, she kept seeing people smiling and a gory wave of death around her. Rose leaned on Joel for emotional support and to help her solve the curse. They investigated past cases, where suicides transferred the curse to others.
Joel Actor Details
|
Actor Name |
Kyle Gallner |
|
Date of Birth |
Oct. 22, 1986 |
|
Place of Birth |
Pennsylvania, USA |
|
Notable Movies |
Strange Darling, Dear White People |
|
Notable TV Shows |
Smallville, Veronica Mars |
Unfortunately, Joel failed to save Rose. The latter ended the first film in a cabin thinking she had beaten the curse. However, the entity went inside, fully possessed her and caused her to light herself on fire. Joel broke into the place to save Rose, only to see the act. This meant the curse was now on him, kickstarting the events of Smile 2.
Joel Is Brutally Killed In Smile 2
Joel’s Death Passes the Curse to Lewis
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Smile 2 opens with Joel in a car hearing Rose burning up and screaming. Those scenes aren’t revealed as they are left up to viewers’ imagination. Joel’s main goal is to try to pass the curse by killing one of the fiends in front the other. The first movie had Joel and Rose learn that this would pass the trauma (and thus, the curse) to the witness. Joel thinks that because these two men killed a mother some time back and escaped the brunt of the law, they deserve this.
It’s karma in his eyes. He holds one of the villains at knife-point and enters the drug den. He slits the man’s throat, so the other man on the couch can see it. However, the witness fires his gun in a shootout. Joel shoots back and mortally wounds the man. This means there is no witness to pass the curse onto. Both criminals die. When Joel tries to leave, the other gangsters arrive, chase and shoot at him.
Joel ends up running into the street and being killed by a speeding truck. This passes the curse to a witness who was trying to buy drugs from the den: Lukas Gage’s Lewis. Lewis is Skye’s drug dealer, who kills himself when she visits later on. She then inherits the curse to form the spine of the film, and reiterates how this movie is about a dark chaing of events and consequences.
Joel tried to be a hero but failed. Coincidentally, it inverts Rose’s actions, as she tried to kill a patient at the hospital she worked at, hoping to pass the curse to her boss as a witness. Rose came off desperate and lacking altruism. Joel, as selfish as he was, wanted to pass the curse onto vile people and not innocents. Ultimately, both protagonists fall prey to the entity, which cements that in Finn’s Smile horror universe, everyone is expendable.
Smile 2 is now playing in theaters.
About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.
- Director
- Parker Finn
- Release Date
- October 18, 2024
- Studio
- Cast
- Kyle Gallner , Naomi Scott , Lukas Gage , Rosemarie DeWitt , Dylan Gelula , Peter Jacobson , Raul Castillo , Miles Gutierrez-Riley
- Runtime
- 132 minutes
- Distributor(s)
- Paramount Pictures
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