“Inside Out 2” (2024) Plot, Characters and Ending Explained: How Does Riley Overcome Anxiety? 

By
Debosmita Das
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Inside Out 2 Cast, Characters, Plot, Ending Explained
Inside Out 2 Cast, Characters, Plot, Ending Explained (2024)

Disney and Pixar have recently released “Inside Out 2”! It takes us back to the world of feelings with a fresh and emotional narrative. Directed by Kelsey Mann, who also directed the first installment, it features voice actors Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Maya Hawke as Anxiety and Lewis Black as Anger among many more. This animated sequel picks up where the first one left off, depicting Riley’s endeavours to come to terms with her emotions while growing up. As she approaches puberty, Riley must deal with new experiences while also being guided through this strange territory by a new set of emotions that help her in her journey. The movie premiered in India on 13th June, 2024 in PVR, Andheri Mumbai. It was released in the theatres on 14th June 2024. 

Cast With Characters

  • Riley (Kensington Tallman): The protagonist, a 13-year-old girl navigating through adolescence and its challenges.
  • Joy (Amy Poehler): One of Riley’s primary emotions, who strives to keep Riley happy and positive. It’s colour is yellow. 
  • Sadness (Phyllis Smith): Blue emotion, who initially struggles but later finds her role in supporting Riley.
  • Anger (Lewis Black): Red emotion responsible for dealing with situations that frustrate Riley.
  • Fear (Tony Hale): Purple colored motion responsible for keeping Riley safe from potential dangers.
  • Disgust(Liza Lapira): Green colored motion responsible for ensuring Riley avoids unpleasant experiences.
  • Anxiety (Maya Hawke): A new emotion introduced in “Inside Out 2,” who takes over from Joy and causes turmoil by focusing on Riley’s anxieties and uncertainties about the future. It is orange in color. 
  • Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser): A new emotion who appears as a cute pink blob, trying to understand and assist Riley in dealing with feelings of embarrassment.
  • Envy (Ayo Edebiri): A cyan emotion, depicted as a pod with large eyes, though not heavily involved in the storyline.
  • Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos): An indigo blue, French-accented emotion who reflects boredom
  • Mrs. Andersen (Diane Lane): Riley’s mother
  • Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown): Hocky coach who is the head of Summer Hockey Camp
  • Val (Lilimar Hernandez): A high school senior and captain of the Fire Hawks, someone Riley looks up to.
  • Grace and Bree: Riley’s two best friends, who face changes as they prepare to attend different schools.
  • Nostalgia (June Squibb): Nostalgia, who looks like a bespectacled grandma, helps Riley remember everything from her childhood before she turned into a teenager.

Plot Summary

The story revolves around a teenager, Riley, who is thirteen years old. She faces the challenges brought about by adolescence with Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust as her core emotions. However, things are changing with new emotions like Anxiety, Embarrassment; Envy and Ennui. Anxiety takes over for Riley as she excels on the ice in hockey while also dealing with changes such as friends moving to other schools and developing an infatuation for a team captain. At the headquarters of her mind, the emotions struggle to regain control and help Riley through her emotional upheaval. They eventually work together to confront Anxiety and restore balance, integrating both positive and negative memories into Riley’s sense of self.

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Riley Gets New Emotions

Riley is now thirteen, and she’s a clever, nice, and amiable girl. She’s doing great at school and is an amazing friend. Joy is in charge of all the emotions, including Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust in the control room inside Riley’s head. They are all excited about Riley becoming a teenager. Riley adores ice hockey and plays it with her besties Grace and Bree.

Friendship Island has taken over from Family Island, hence shrinking it down to a drab little island as there’s new things to look forward to. The story starts with Riley and her friends winning a hockey game they played together. Their coach, Roberts, was so impressed that she invited them to a three-day hockey camp. The girls were on cloud nine at the thought of spending time together doing what they truly enjoyed.

However, Riley doesn’t know that puberty is about to start. The night before camp, Joy and the other emotions hear the approach of puberty. With puberty come new and strong emotions that wreak havoc in her mind. Before Joy can figure out what’s happening, a new group of emotions arrives, making changes to Riley’s mind.

How Does Anxiety Take Control of Riley’s mind?

The following morning, she snaps at her mother. The emotions at the headquarters got confused. We are introduced to new emotions: Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy and Ennui. Anxiety is full of fears and concerns about everything. Embarrassment is a cute pink blob, while Envy has big eyes and Ennui is a cool girl with a French accent. The new emotions still look forward to meeting with the old ones who have taken care of Riley all these years. The new emotions don’t agree with the old ones on how to handle things. Joy has been in charge for 13 years, but Anxiety has different plans and worries about the future. This makes Riley feel uneasy and anxious.

Riley believes that her sense of self is shaped by positive memories such as helping friends or feeding a stray cat. These memories make her feel good because she knows she has done some good things. However, back here in the real world, there are new challenges to face. For instance, she had a crush on Val, the captain of the Fire Hawks and a high school senior; also, her best friends next year will go to another school, so their trio will be separated.

Joy wants Riley to stay close with her old friends, whereas Anxiety thinks she needs to make new friends immediately so as not to be left alone. When Joy and Anxiety fail to come to a compromise, the latter assumes control, leaving out other emotions, making Riley disconcerted and confused. Anxiety locks away Riley’s old emotions and starts building a new sense of self with the new emotions. Envy and Ennui do not change anything notable. However, Ennui saves Riley from total defeat against anxiety. 

Riley is now doing things that were so unlike her before. She befriends Val and her mates and pretends to be cool by making fun of her favorite music band, which eventually makes her distance from Grace and Bree. 

How Do The Old Emotions Free Themselves?

Eventually, the old emotions are freed with the assistance of secret friends of Riley, such as a TV show host who looks like a dog and talks similar to Dora the Explorer and a video game hero. 

Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust are watching helplessly as the Anxiety takes over and starts to ruin Riley’s life. They feel useless and left out, even though Joy keeps trying to find a way back to help Riley. They ride on the stream of consciousness to get to headquarters, but when, in the actual world, Riley makes a sarcastic comment, it creates a chasm that destroys their path. This is what convinces Anxiety that it would be best for her future if she stuck close with Val and ignored her old friends.

Sadness has been cut off from the group when she tries climbing up a pipe so as to bring up everyone else at the back of Riley’s mind, where Anxiety threw her old sense of self. Everyone begins complaining as they encounter difficulties while finding their way back and Joy can’t take it any longer.

Anger calls Joy delusional for always making things look okay, admitting that he himself is delusional because it’s the only way to keep Riley happy. She wants nothing more than to save Riley, but others are annoyed. Finally, however, this time around, Anger leads Fear and Disgust into rallying behind Joy hence reminding her how she has always held them together.

What Happens In The Final Game Of The Hockey Tryouts?

Riley really wants to get on the hockey team. Val, a freshman, scored two goals in this game last year, and Anxiety pushes Riley to do even better. They stress her out so much that she sneaks into the coach’s office to look at his red book, which contains everything about the players. She then sees “not ready yet” written about her, and Anxiety flips out.

Meanwhile, Sadness partners with Embarrassment which is starting to understand that now might not be a good time for Anxiety. They stay hidden until they can bring the other emotions up. Sadness tries to control Riley using Ennui’s phone when she sneaks into the coach’s office, but they get caught.

The rest of them go over to imagination land, where they find Anxiety’s little helpers feeding scary pictures of Riley’s future into her head. Joy and the others take control over these minions and turn the scary images into happy ones so that Riley can finally rest before the big game. From there, they go through a brainstorm, when Anxiety tries to come up with a plan to help Riley impress the coach, and finally reach the base of a stream-of-consciousness river. At this point in time, dynamite was used by them to blow up all those bad memories that Joy had thrown away to help them build a new Riley.

“Inside Out 2” (2024) Ending Explained: What Happens When Anxiety Loses Control?

Riley was caught in the grip of the final game of hockey at the camp, where she had to do everything possible to join the high school team. In her resolve, she gets into a fight with her teammates and inadvertently injures Grace, her best friend. Consequently, causing a major breakdown for Riley, anxiety’s handling of controls inside her mind becomes most furious.

This scene is remarkable because it feels so intimate. Riley is burdened by the expectations of previous friends and new acquaintances alike. The disorderly mixture of these sentiments escalates her anxiety even further. With this two minute penalty call on Riley, things just get too hard for her, and she begins to hyperventilate. Inside her mind, Anxiety creates a storm around the control panel, preventing other emotions from interjecting.

Meanwhile, Joy, along with other emotions, has been struggling to reach their headquarters for two days. They eventually make it, and Joy convinces Anxiety to let go of Riley and allow herself to be herself again. Joy talks with Anxiety about what she learned while trying to cheer him up during their journey together. He tells Anxiety that he is not helping Riley by holding on too strongly anymore. Fearfully, then unwillingly, anxiety lets go almost immediately, after which Riley starts calming down.

Riley begins to grow calm, and a new sense of herself starts to form. Instead of just one flower representing my identity, many colorful flowers bloom, symbolizing the variety of our experiences. They understand that their role is to protect her sense of self, not create it. They gather around Riley’s new sense of self and give it a big hug, showing their support. 

At the end, Riley acknowledges that sometimes she needs help and does not always have to be perfect. This allows her mind to open up and share with friends exactly how she feels about certain situations in life, thereby providing solutions where needed. The emotions step back from supervising operations, so now Riley takes over control. Then she goes on to give the most the most outstanding performance ever during such a game in this way. 

Riley is nonchalant about making the high school team or not after the match. Val reminds her that there will be next year if she doesn’t make it, and Riley accepts fate. And they have very happy emotions because they love all sides of Riley. The last scene does insinuate that Riley gets into the team. 

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