Why can't the characters just go around the apps given that Jailbreak has some kind of map? It was because they were being hunted down by bots, so taking shortcuts was the safest option.
Even Gene's name is Fridge Brilliance. After all, his uniquity was inherited by his father's genes.
Or, if you're a biology geek, a gene is a DNA locus where variable instructions may occur. If Gene were to be named for a genetic component that causes only one outcome, he'd be named Allele instead.
Assuming Alex can't empty his trash can, Gene sentenced Akiko Glitter to a Fate Worse than Death: going through the cycle of her dance, in the trash full of trolls, garbage, and other malicious software. She doesn't know how to do anything else, so she has no choice but to dance in pure agony — forever. Many people have pointed out how disturbing this is, comparing it to the fate of a victim from a Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Story. The fact that Gene doesn't even bother to save her, despite seemingly befriending her minutes earlier makes it even worse.
Emojis sexually reproduce. It must be exceedingly difficult for certain Emojis to have sex, especially the ones representing apathy and sadness.
We're spared any implication that Emoji reproduction works the same way as human reproduction. Whether this is better or worse depends on your imagination, making this less Nothing Is Scarier and more Nothing Is Squickier.
Every time that you take that old phone to get recycled or break it, you are committing mass murder against the sentient workers inside each of the apps. At least in this universe.
Gene had the ability to express any emotion, and yet of all the terrible things that happened to him along the journey, he only became unemotional when his crush rejected him. This suggests that he felt entitled to have her and placed way too much emotional weight on getting the girl.
How much emotional weight is too much? Why can't we think that he was just heartbroken because the girl he loved rejected him, without all this "he thought she had to be his" stuff?
And it could have been the last straw. Failing at his job, murderbots going after him, rejected by his crush. All within less than 24 hours.
Or a sick emoji. If you're mute, you still can talk in sign language (if it exists in Textopolis) or in writing, but what would you do with permanent nausea?
The movie clarifies that EVERY phone has an entire civilization living within it, spanning at least a few generations. This basically turns humans into disturbing God archetypes whom the Emojis constantly find themselves at the total mercy of. Every phone has a civilization that is one step from total genocide if the user finds that the phone doesn't serve them the way they'd like (admittedly, this is unknowingly on the human's part, but still). How many other Emoji towns have been totally wiped from existence?
Also, anyone whose had an iPhone before can tell you that there is a million ways for one to lose its functions; most usually last only a good few years before the battery life starts to deteriorate, many people shatter the screens or drop the phones in the toilet, and some simply throw away their old phones in favor of newer ones even if the old phone isn't broken at all. In other words, Gene's efforts didn't save Textopolis, it merely pushed back their inevitable fate.
Also, assuming that a user, like Alex, doesn't have the phone destroyed, but merely reset, that means that one phone can have multiple civilizations exist in its lifespan, with one being annihilated to make room for the new one. How many Textopolises have existed on Alex's phone alone that were never able to save themselves?
Notably, the movie didn't end with Gene and the others fighting against this oppressive system; instead, it ends with Gene merely appeasing Alex in an unexpected way, sparing them until the next time the phone glitches. The Emojis merely see it as an inevitable aspect of their existences and something that cannot be fought against. Humans Are Cthulhu, indeed.
The only situation that should require the Emojis to have the face they represent would be when they're used - and they're given a heads up before they're used. Outside of that, there's literally no reason why they should stay with the face they represent.
Alex is too nervous to talk to Addie...yet he already has her cell phone number, which he would've only gotten had he talked to her.
Though it's possible someone else passed her number onto him. Or his inability to talk to her was a more recent development, and he got her number before his attraction-induced nervousness set in.
