That 'Inside Out 2' post-credits scene, explained (original) (raw)

Warning: This story contains spoilers about Inside Out 2.

As is now customary for many Disney properties, their latest title, Pixar's Inside Out 2, comes with a post-credits scene. However, it's more comic relief than a tease for future outings, which is often the case with Marvel Cinematic Universe credits scenes.

The film, a sequel to 2015's Inside Out, returns us to Riley's brain, where Joy (Amy Poehler) and the other core emotions are inundated with a flock of newcomers who arrive with the onset of puberty. Led by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), the new emotions take over Riley's brain, banishing Joy and the core emotions to the recesses of Riley's mind, where they must journey to retrieve her sense of self.

Along the way, they encounter obstacles, including a sar-chasm (visualized as a canyon), and endure some time in Riley's mind vault, where they meet Riley's secret crush, video game character Lance Slashblade (Yong Yea), and more ominously, Deep Dark Secret (Steve Purcell).

In the early credits, there are a few brief scenes where Riley's parents ask her about her time at hockey camp, and her emotions run through the various possible responses, from spilling all of the truth to making something up. Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) comes to the rescue and has Riley respond simply, "It was good," sending her parents' core emotions into a tizzy.

'Inside Out 2'.

PIXAR

The true _post_-credits scene is a comedic button on the film and a payoff to an earlier joke. We see Joy beckoning Deep Dark Secret out of the vault, attempting to get him to reveal the secret. It turns out it's that Riley once burned a hole in the rug. Joy guessed it would be the time Riley peed in the pool, a supposition that sends Deep Dark Secret scurrying back into the shadows of the vault.

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“The Inside Out world is so cool because you can take these abstract elements that we all know about the brain and you can physicalize them,” director Kelsey Mann previously told Entertainment Weekly of bringing emotions and various elements of our brains, like our secrets, to life.

It's pretty mild stuff for a "deep, dark secret," as is to be expected as a 13-year-old. But perhaps we'll get to know more about this Secret and how he operates in Riley's mind in the forthcoming Inside Out TV series, slated to come to Disney+ next spring.