Movie Substrate · Film

Inside Out (2015)

★ 7.9 · 23,382 ratings on TMDB

Meet the little voices inside your head.

Inside Out poster★ 7.9

When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.

DirectorPete Docter
CastAmy Poehler, Bill Hader, Diane Lane, Kaitlyn Dias, Kyle MacLachlan, Lewis Black
GenresAdventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama
The emergence reading

In Inside Out, consciousness is carried by abstract concepts — a plane of “inner mind”. The story fights on E8 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing emotion, memory, identity, puberty.

↷ abstract conceptsUSemotionmemoryidentitypuberty
⇄ Parameter shift — the dial this world turnsrigor: rigorous
E8emotionemotions are conscious, autonomous agents that run a headquarters inside the mind (cognition · personal)
Also inConsciousness hiding in abstractionsFilms about memoryFilms about identityFilms that alter a rule of reality
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Same rung, same subject

Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.

Anastasia (1997)E8 · identity, memoryKubo and the Two Strings (2016)E8 · identity, memoryAlice Through the Looking Glass (2016)E8 · identity, memoryBig Fish (2003)E8 · identity, memoryMulholland Drive (2001)E8 · identity, memoryThe Host (2013)E8 · identity, memory

Same subject, different rung

The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.

Frozen II (2019)E7/E9/E10 · rare rung · identity, memory

Also bends a rule of reality

Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.

Inception (2010)alters at E8 · same rung · looseSource Code (2011)alters at E8 · same rung · rigorousOblivion (2013)alters at E8 · same rung · looseEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)alters at E8 · same rung · rigorousNight at the Museum (2006)alters at E8 · same rung · looseYour Name. (2016)alters at E8 · same rung · loose

Also hides consciousness here

Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.

Jojo Rabbit (2019)consciousness in abstractions · imagined-hate friendShazam! (2019)consciousness in abstractions · sin-embodied realmThe Book of Life (2014)consciousness in abstractions · mythic afterlifeDay & Night (2010)consciousness in abstractions · day‑night dualitySlumberland (2022)consciousness in abstractions · dreamscapeDrop Dead Fred (1991)consciousness in abstractions · imaginary friend realm

Same subject, different mask

The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.

Toy Story (1995)consciousness in objects · identity, memoryBlade Runner 2049 (2017)consciousness in machines · identity, memoryToy Story 3 (2010)consciousness in objects · identity, memorySpirited Away (2001)consciousness in the dead · identity, memoryFinding Dory (2016)consciousness in animals · identity, memoryThe Others (2001)consciousness in the dead · identity, memory

Same people

Shared director or cast.

Riley's First Date? (2015)Amy PoehlerUp (2009)dir. Pete DocterSoul (2020)dir. Pete DocterMonsters, Inc. (2001)dir. Pete DocterInside Out 2 (2024)Amy PoehlerMan of the Year (2006)Amy Poehler