Throughout Smile 2, Naomi Scott’s Skye Riley is constantly chugging bottles of water, and here is why she can be seen drinking so much throughout the film. Despite being a sequel to 2022’s Smile, protagonist Skye Riley is far different from original movie protagonist Rose Cotter.

Rather than being a doctor, Skye Riley is an international pop sensation who is dealing with the smile entity while also starting her tour, making things incredibly complicated for her. Skye also has to face off with her dark past throughout Smile 2, something that is connected to the character’s water drinking habits. Smile 2 picks up merely six days after the original Smile ended, meaning that the smile entity is still running rampant throughout the United States.

Through its use of original Smile character Joel, the smile entity manages to make its way to Skye Riley at the beginning of Smile 2, meaning that it has a much larger platform than ever before. The film spends a lot of time examining the character of Skye Riley before the curse leads to her inevitable downfall, with the audience learning a lot about Skye Riley’s past and how it affects her now.

Drinking A Bottle Of Water Is Meant To Give Skye A Sense Of Control

Several times near the beginning of Smile 2, Skye Riley runs to her refrigerator, grabs a bottle of water, and chugs the entire thing. This is clearly a set-up due to the frequency and focus that the behavior gets, but it isn’t revealed why she does this until later in the film. Smile 2 eventually reveals that Skye Riley used to have substance abuse problems, with her frequent use of drugs and alcohol becoming well-known by the media. This culminated in the car accident that killed her boyfriend Paul, leading to Skye turning her life around.

As Skye explains to her friend Gemma, the drinking of the Voss water bottles was a strategy recommended by one of her therapists. She says that, whenever she desires drugs or alcohol, she is instead supposed to go to the refrigerator and drink an entire bottle of water. This is meant to give Skye a sense of control over her addiction, with her satisfying her desire with something less harmful than substances.

Multiple scenes see Skye get stressed due to the influence of the smile entity only for her to run for the fridge, highlighting how dedicated she is to this method of treatment.

The Voss Waters Give Skye A False Sense Of Control As The Smile Curse Spreads

Although drinking the Voss water bottles is an effective way for Skye Riley to deal with her substance addictions, they also give her a false sense of control as the smile curse spreads. The latter half of the film sees many of the scenes centered on the effects of the smile curse taking place in Skye’s apartment. When things like the mob of smiling fans appear, Skye runs and grabs a water bottle in an attempt to calm herself down.

The choice of Voss water bottles was addressed by director Parker Finn, who explained that the water bottle had to be functional (ie breakable) and have a classy vibe befitting of a pop superstar. In an interview with Collider, he explained:

“It needed to be something that was sort of fancy, like a pop star might have it on their rider. A bit obnoxious, maybe.”

While Skye believes that the water bottles are helping her in these situations, almost everything that happens in these scenes takes place in her head. The smile curse in Smile 2 is meant to represent the stress and horrors of addiction and fame, the two biggest problems that Skye deals with throughout her character arc.

Because of this, Skye’s drinking of the water bottles is meant to represent a coping mechanism that doesn’t actually address the root cause of the issue, with them being temporary solutions as the smile curse continues to spread.

How Many Voss Water Bottles Skye Drinks In Smile 2

Multiple scenes see Skye Riley drinking the Voss water bottles throughout Smile 2, but finding out exactly how many she drinks is a little complicated. There are at least four moments where the audience sees Skye drinking a water bottle on screen, but that doesn’t mean that she just drank those. Smile 2 also shows several empty bottles and bottles that have been partially drunk, meaning that there are more off-screen.

Naomi Scott actually suffered through drinking all of the full Voss water bottles with no clever editing tricks. Speaking with Cinema Blend, Scott explained that the water played such an important role, she felt it had to feel real:

It was just awful. I was burping like mad. I was bloated, and I thought, ‘Gosh, who thought this would be one of the hard things?’ Parker was like, ‘You know you don’t have to keep [drinking], and I was like, ‘No.’ Especially in this moment, it needs to be [real].

It is eventually revealed that Skye is hallucinating much of Smile 2, meaning that she may not have drunk some of these bottles at all. For example, at one point in the film she breaks a bottle, with it later being revealed that the bottle is still intact. Thus, the amount of real versus fake bottles is up to interpretation, with this being one of the many mysteries left at the end of Smile 2.

Release Date

October 16, 2024

Runtime

127 minutes

Director

Parker Finn

Writers

Parker Finn

Producers

Robert Salerno, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, Parker Finn