Inside Out 2 Ending Explained (2024)

One of the most enthralling aspects of Pixar's Inside Out was how original the concept was. The 2015 animated movie explored young Riley and her colored emotions -- represented as sentient individuals in her mind. They took turns controlling her disposition in public from their control panel at the headquarters in her mind. They influenced how she thought, behaved and viewed the entire world.

Now, Pixar has released Inside Out 2, continuing the story of Riley a year later. However, as she goes through puberty, things aren't as smooth as her emotions would have liked. To top it off, new emotions appear, complicating Riley's personality. Riley ends up at a hockey camp, alienating her friends, Bree and Grace, after the new emotions kick the old ones out. This leads to a dramatic, inspiring finale that speaks to the power of identity and how not every existential crisis needs a solution.

Inside Out 2's Villain Is Anxiety

The orange-hued Anxiety (voiced by Stranger Things' Maya Hawke) leads the second generation of emotions. She's joined by Adèle Exarchopoulos's Ennui (the indigo avatar for boredom), Ayo Edebiri as the cyan Envy, and Paul Walter Hauser as the pink Embarrassment. Anxiety doesn't endorse the plan that Joy devised. Joy kept discarding bad memories, while using good ones to form Riley's belief system. This led to the 13-year-old's sense of self forming as a blue crystalline tree. It held Riley's mantra that she was "a good person."

Unfortunately, puberty resulted in the old emotions not controlling Riley properly. Thus, after the new crew moves in, a coup occurs. Anxiety believes she has a better scheme. She eventually tampers with the memories and belief system. She thinks anxiety will push Riley to be better at hockey and pleasing her new teammates, led by Val. This causes Riley to do uncharacteristic things like mistreat her best friends and break rules. With a game on the line to decide if she'll be accepted into the high school team next year, Inside Out 2's Riley sneaks into the coach's room the night before and reads from her notepad.

Anxiety doesn't care about her mental state because she thinks Riley will improve from this sin and learn what is needed to succeed at the next morning's tryouts. Embarrassment, however, doesn't like what is happening. He ends up working with Sadness, who sneaks back into headquarters to help wrest the panel away from Anxiety. The latter is naive, innocent and means well, but she makes Riley behave selfishly and self-sabotages herself at the game. She pressures herself to score three goals and break Val's record, but the coach benches her for foul play.

Inside Out 2's Joy Has to Find Riley's Sense of Self

Anxiety ejected the original sense of self to the back of Riley's mind. She wanted to create a new identity. However, things backfire on game day. Riley's new belief is that she isn't "good enough." Joy senses things are off-kilter, so she uses her team to head to the back of the mind to find the old sense of self. She thinks once Sadness takes back the panel and lets them in, they can bring Riley back to being her previous self.

Joy and the other emotions have many obstacles to overcome. They avoid the Mind Police, and work on reshaping Imagination Land so that Riley has a good night's sleep and not nightmares. They even have to deal with sarcasm chasms that make Riley a mean girl. The heroes end up scaling the deleted memory crystals and finding the tree, but they need a way to get back to the tower. Anger summons Pouchy, a memory of an old cartoon character that Riley used to watch.

Pouchy offers up explosives, allowing them to blow the cliff up and ride the crystal balls back to Riley's mind. They also find the ambition zone and have a Justice of the Supreme Court float back to the tower. Sadly, they have to avoid a brainstorm where ideas in the form of glass bulbs rain down. It's all due to Anxiety needing to figure out how to get Riley back in the game. As Anxiety fiddles with the console, she has an anxiety attack which leads to Riley hyperventilating and panicking.

Thankfully, the heroes dodge the storm and end up back on the panel. Joy rescues Anxiety from her breakdown and lets her know it's okay to fail. They replace the new sense of self with the old one again, but this doesn't work either. At this point, Joy knows she made the same mistake Anxiety made: she didn't let Riley be her natural self.

Joy's Team Works With Team Anxiety in Inside Out 2

Joy realizes it's not right that she deleted bad memories. She kept pruning and pruning, placing pressure on Riley to form her identity. That's unfair and stressful for such a young teenager. Riley needs the pain and angst, because they're part and parcel of life. Instead, Joy feels like a hypocrite for doing what Anxiety and her emotions did.

By evening things out, Riley should be able to process the ups and downs better. It's the only way to create a healthy teenager who knows that life won't be ideal. All the emotions hug, unite and precipitate a new sense of self. This is the balanced Riley. As she calms down due to the two groups uniting, her friends show up. Despite being on the opposite team, Grace and Bree check in on her in the time-out zone.

Riley admits she got resentful knowing they were going off to different schools. This made her want to impress Val's squad as she felt like she needed to replace Bree and Grace. With all the cards on the table, they hug and make it clear they won't ever stop being friends. With Riley settled, the yellow Joy takes the console at Anxiety's behest. Riley wants to feel joy again, so it's the right move, evidenced by the yellow shimmer of the sun hitting Riley's face in the gym, as well as the panel glowing.

Riley hits the court, skating for fun again. She has cut her anxiety and is in love with the game once more. Competition doesn't matter anymore, as she accepts how life must change to evolve. The film fades out from the final score, because it's not important. This represents Riley's growth and maturity.

Inside Out 2's Riley Starts a New Life

In the Pixar movie, Riley moves to her new school in the Bay Area, but she keeps in close contact with her friends via phone. She loved playing on the Foghorns team with them, but she is all in on her new friends and the distinct possibility the coach would pick her for the Firehawks. Granted, Riley does have some anxiety as the clock ticks down until the squad is announced, but the emotions are more centered.

They place Anxiety in a recliner where she has tea and gets a massage. This relaxes Riley as she reads the message. The movie doesn't show the list, but Riley has a broad smile. It hints she has a spot in the team, which will allow her to follow her idol, Val, and be the youngest person on the junior varsity hockey team. As Inside Out 2 concludes, Riley has learned her lesson, as have her emotions.

This augurs well for a Riley who finally has a handle on things, which is something her parents are grateful for after she was bratty at home. Ultimately, Riley is on the right track to pursue the destiny she wants to carve out as a level-headed hockey player. Even if there are bumps on the road, the emotions and the teenager are better equipped to deal with them.

Inside Out 2 is now playing in theaters.

Inside Out 2

Adventure

Comedy

Family

Fantasy

Follow Riley, in her teenage years, encountering new emotions.

Director

Kelsey Mann

Release Date

June 14, 2024

Cast

Amy Poehler , Phyllis Smith , Lewis Black , Tony Hale , Kaitlyn Dias , Liza Lapira , Maya Hawke

Writers

Meg LeFauve

Main Genre

Animation

Production Company

Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures