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Uh, thank you, Joy. But I'll have you know I'm not scared of everything.
―Fear


Fear is one of the four tritagonists (alongside Anger, Disgust and Bing Bong) of the Disney/Pixar film Inside Out.

He is one of the five emotions inside the mind of Riley Andersen. He appears to be unsure of himself, an emotion that matches his name.

He is voiced by Bill Hader in the first film. And Tony Hale in the sequel.

Official Description[]

Fear's main job is to protect Riley and keep her safe. He is constantly on the lookout for potential disasters, and spends time evaluating the possible dangers, pitfalls and risk involved in Riley's everyday activities. There are very few activities and events that Fear does not find to be dangerous and possibly fatal.

Role in the Film[]

Inside-Out-Fear-lineupcrop
Io Fear tablet2

Fear appears in the film as one of the five emotions inside Riley Andersen's mind. He works at HQ with the other emotions. His position is to keep Riley safe. When Riley and her parents relocate to San Francisco, he, Anger, and Disgust are upset about the shortcomings that came with the move, but Joy manages to have the bright side of the situation. When Joy and Sadness get lost Riley's mind, along with the core memories (relevant memories that power up islands that represent Riley's personality) Fear proposes that he and the remaining emotion act like Joy until she returns, but this backfires when he, Anger, and Disgust are unable to make Riley joyous due to their respective emotion representations and he and his friends unintentionally cause Riley to make decisions that cause the islands to fall into an abyss that erases memories.

He attempts to give up and exit headquarters, but the memories that he and the other emotions have produced prevent that from occurring. When Anger proposes influencing Riley to take a bus back to Minnesota since she has happier there, Fear talks him out of it. He handles dream duty (a job where an emotion watches a dream) where the actions of Joy, Sadness, and Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong, cause him to freak out, prompting Anger to put his plan into action. Fear, although unsure about the plan, foolishly allows it to occur. However, Anger's plan cause the remaining islands to crumble into the abyss.

Realizing their mistake, they try to reverse it, but this proves to be impossible. When Joy and Sadness make it back to headquarters, Fear, Disgust and Anger, beg Joy to fix the crisis, but Joy lets Sadness fix it. With the disaster averted, Riley's life improves, with new personality islands made by the emotions and a bigger control console that the emotions use to control Riley.

Video Games[]

Disney INFINITY 3.0[]

Fear is set to appear in Disney INFINITY's third installment as a playable character.

Quotes[]

  • "Woah, sharp turn!"
  • "Let me guess. We have no pants on."
  • "Brain freeze!"
  • "What the heck is that?!"
  • "Does anybody know how to spell 'meteor'?"
  • "Boy Band Island? Hope that's just a phase."
  • "I sure am glad you told me earthquakes are a myth, Joy. Otherwise I'd be terrified right now!"
  • (Referring to his favorite part of the car ride to San Francisco) "Wearing a seatbelt!"
  • "What was that?! That wasn't anything like Joy!"
  • "Sure, it's the coward's way out. But this coward's gonna survive!"
  • "Boo! Pick a plotline!"
  • "Man, she is one bad actress."
  • "Oh, I wish Joy was here!"
  • (while fidgeting in fear at Riley's nightmare) "It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's just a dream."
  • "All right, we did not die today! I call that an unqualified success."
  • (on his favorite daydream) "Ooh! That looks safe!"
  • "Just because Joy and Sadness are gone, I have to do stupid Dream Duty."
  • "The van is lost?! It's the worst day ever!"
  • "Ah, if anyone needs me, I'll be whimpering softly to myself."

Gallery[]

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Inside Out has a collection of images and media related to Fear.

Trivia[]

  • According to Pete Docter, his appearance is based on a raw nerve.
  • Fear's eyebrows are black instead of purple.
  • Fear is the only emotion that can float.
  • The hair that protrudes from the back of his head changes depending on his current emotion. Usually, it is located behind the head. If he is worried or scared, it gives a zig-zag shape. If he is sad, it maintains its normal curvature, but falls downwards.
  • Surprisingly, despite being the very definition of being scared, he's not afraid of Riley's nightmares, instead viewing many of Riley's dreams and nightmares as "cheesy" and "lacking plot lines".
  • He treats being put on Dream Duty (monitoring Riley's dreams and waking her if they are too scary) as a chore and despises doing it. He is able to point out and predict many different dream tropes such as teeth falling out and going to school with no pants on, similar to someone watching a badly-written movie.
  • Fear has many of the scenes he was improvised by his actor Bill Hader. For example, Bill was never in the script to represent slapstick when Fear tried to "give up" intentionally to get to be sucked through the recall tube.
  • In an early draft, it was Fear who was supposed to get lost with Joy in Riley's mind instead of Sadness, as the writers thought it would be funny. However, the plot wasn't going well and so Docter decided that Sadness would be better, claiming that sadness helped him get through the stress of the plot troubles.
  • During the development of the film, when Joy and Fear are lost even as the story goes on, Fear was originally called Freddie.
  • Despite his fearful and worrisome nature, he appears to be the group's pacifist, wanting to make sure Riley adequately responds to his parents without causing aggravation between them and Riley.
  • Fear and Anger are the only two male emotions in Riley's mind.
  • Fear and Anger are almost opposites of each other but share many similarities with one another.
    • Both are the main male characters.
    • Female characters outlast them in numbers.
    • Both hate broccoli.
    • They are both really smart.
    • They both wear ties and wear work-like outfits as their main attire.
    • They are both almost similar to Mario and Luigi.
    • They both eventually have a soft spot for Sadness.
    • However, they are both opposites and oddly have the stereotypical bully vs nerd friendship.
    • Fear is purple and Anger is red.
    • Fear is fearful, passive and quirky, Anger is brave, combative and strong.
    • Fear gets scared and Anger gets angry.
    • Fear has a nose and Anger does not have a nose.
    • Anger seems to be closer to Disgust wears Fear is with Joy.
  • Fear's voice actor also portrayed Spamley from Wreck It Ralph 2.
  • He and Joy are shown to have a close relationship, understandably due to the fact it is implied that he was the first emotion Joy met after Sadness (who she showed immediate distaste for). He was born on October 16th, 1950 and 64-65 in the series
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