Deep Dark Secret is a minor character in Disney•Pixar's 2024 animated feature film Inside Out 2. He is a dark, beefy, gorilla-like figure who represents Riley's deep, dark secret.
Background[]
Personality[]
In front of others, Deep Dark Secret appears scary, but in truth, he is very timid. Presumably, the secret he is keeping makes him feel ashamed, a possible nod that Riley feels ashamed of the secret.
Physical appearance[]
Deep Dark Secret is a beefy, humanoid-looking creature. He has ashen black skin and glowing, white eyes. He also has long arms that almost rreach the ground and short legs with bare feet. His only clothing is a hooded robe and pants; both garments made of burnt-looking burlap fabric. This along with the Deep Dark Secret's plush appearance gives the impression of a burnt rug, foreshadowing that Riley's deep dark secret was that she burned a hole in the rug.
Role in the film[]
After Lance Slashblade began his introduction, Deep Dark Secret appears behind him, which Bloofy introduces him to the Emotions - Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust, by name. Lance advises the Emotions to not know, while Joy replies that Riley's secrets about a rogue emotion took over Headquarters, leading Joy to ask the heroes to help them escape the jar. Later when Lance began to help the Emotions escape the jar, his rolling power is not strong enough to tumble it down, so Joy asks the Dark Secret to help free them from the jar, which he manages to smash it with his fist, followed by the Emotions and Lance escaping the Vault when Anger used a dynamite that Pouchy provided them. The survivors trapped inside the safe manage to escape, except for Dark Secret who decides to remain inside, but not before a group of security guards approach the heroes who are inside the Vault.
During the post-credits scene, Joy returns to the Vault and asks Dark Secret that it is time for him to get out, which he nervously escapes the safe where he was trapped within. He then reveals to Joy the secret about "burning a hole in the rug", which she was expecting another secret related to the pool, just before Dark Secret embarrassedly retreats back to the safe and later closing it.
Gallery[]
Concept art[]
Screenshots[]
Miscellaneous[]
Trivia[]
- His design is very similar to Wreck-It Ralph, as well as Dark from the children's book Orion and the Dark and its homonymous animated adaptation made by DreamWorks Animation. Coincidentally, Paul Walter Hauser (who voiced Embarrassment in Inside Out 2) voiced Dark in the film.
- Originally, when Joy was going to ask him of what his deep dark secret is at the end of the credits, he was going to say that "Riley has a crush on Val." But after some final changes to the final film to make Riley and Val more platonic, the script was rewritten and instead had him say that "Riley burnt a hole in the rug." Although from his mouth movement you can tell what the original line was going to be.
- His physical appearance bearing resemblance to Embarrassment, the timing of his appearance when Anxiety took over the Headquarters, and the fact that he was inside the Vault with another "forgotten" crush of Riley's are likely a nod to latent homosexuality, suggesting that Riley repressed her feelings towards Val due to anxiety of the embarrassment that is associated with defying heteronormative code.
