When Rosita is about to do a high dive off of a catwalk during the group's performance rehearsal, she suddenly becomes terrified of heights and falls to her knees on the platform from terror. What's worse is that her kids and husband are there (she even asks worriedly if her kids saw what happened) and she, for some reason, loses all her prior bravado. From there, this inadvertently leads to her losing the lead role to Porsha, after the latter performs the stunt with ease and proves she can sing as well, and Crystal intimidates Buster into making the call when Porsha insists she's better for it.
Afterwards, Rosita insists to the gang she's fine, but we see her later in her hotel room's bathroom crying. She is (temporarily) given a much smaller role as an alien, she looks miserable when we first see her in costume during rehearsals, and at several points, she gazes sadly and longingly at the sight of how much fun Porsha is having with the wirework. She's clearly kicking herself mentally, feeling like her fear has caused her to miss out on something great.
Later on she gets back the part, only to shut down again during the big performance. The same horror as before happens just elevated to eleven with a whole audience watching her. The only reason she snaps out of it is because of the horrific sight of Buster falling to his death.
Norman: (anxiously) Oh honey....
Early on, Johnny admits that he doesn't think he's good enough to make it in a place like Redshore City, and he's all set to let his opportunity to go there pass him by, until Rosita talks some sense into him and convinces him to give it a try anyway. Things seem to go well after that, until Johnny is assigned to work with Klaus Kickenklober, an abusive dance instructor, and he fails every single task that Klaus demands of him. After a while, not only does his self-doubt from earlier return, it also grows significantly worse as Klaus goes out of his way to destroy his self-esteem for hours during their sessions. Eventually, Johnny starts to crack under pressure (to the point where his hand is trembling by the end of the day), as he realizes he's never going to get better and he's going to let down everyone else in the theater troupe who's counting on him. He decides to vent his anger at Klaus and snaps his own skateboard in half in a fit of rage, only to immediately become mortified as he realizes he just broke something that holds a lot of sentimental value to him.
Clay Calloway's wife, Ruby, died fifteen years ago, and when that happened Clay himself became depressed, lost his drive to be a famous rock star, and lived in seclusion and isolation ever since. No one ever knew what happened to him, he just sort of disappeared from the Public Eye. We can see and hear the pain in Calloway's face and voice when Ash found out why he decided to live alone for all of these years.
Ash playing "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" to herself on Clay's porch, while Clay walks down the stairs and looks at pictures of him and Ruby.
Ruby is seated in a wheelchair in a few of these, implying she died from a degenerative illness. Apparently he can't bear to part with it; her folded wheelchair is still visible in his closet at the bottom of the stairs.
Even more so if you know the song's backstory - Bono has said it was a conversation he wished he would have had with his friend Michael Hutchence. To think that someone idolized and beloved by so many could potentially be driven so low...
If you look closely at Clay’s facial expression while Ash plays “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”, his eyes look like they’re welling up. Ash even lays her head on him, clearly feeling sympathy for the poor lion.
Jimmy Crystal's treatment of his daughter Porsha. It's shown he's only willing to support her with material goods but not emotionally, and doesn't even really seem to care about her that much.
In a subtle moment after Crystal intimidates Moon into giving Porsha the lead role, as he leaves the studio Porsha, in the background, calls out bye to him, but he completely ignores her. She looks visually saddened.
Later, after word gets out Porsha was "fired" from the show, Crystal is enraged - and then he yells at Porsha to stop crying because she's "embarrassed [him] enough", as we find out he's actually angry over the fact that everyone will think he has a "talentless loser for a daughter". While Porsha did overreact and misinterpret Buster simply offering her Rosita's role as opposed to the lead, it's still hard not to feel bad for how her father treats her, and her realizing he doesn't care about her. When Miss Crawly appears at her bedroom window to recruit her for the show, she's in bed, still sobbing.
While Jimmy is roaring at his own daughter, Jerry and Suki are in the background looking blatantly appalled and terrified. It's a very sad implication what it's like for anyone living around this monster.
Another subtle moment regarding Porsha's overreaction: as she's storming out, she accuses Moon and the rest of the crew of hating her and sounds like she's about to start crying then and there as she declares she doesn't care if they hate her. Taking into account how cold her father is once she's no longer in the lead role, one could argue Porsha's eagerness to be the star of Out of This World was motivated by her wanting to make her father proud of her. Porsha's extreme reaction to being "fired" and her heartache at Jimmy's reaction begs this question: what has he done in the past to make Porsha's self-esteem so dependent on being a star?
As the group prepare to leave Redshore City to evade Jimmy's goons, they see Crystal himself on a talk show in their hotel room, publicly mocking them for being talentless losers and tactically gloating they are finished. Cowed and heartbroken, they begin to leave, only for Clay to wistfully ask if they really just want to hide their whole life like he did. Having just came out of his shell, it is made apparent that Clay has now started to realize how much of his life he wasted hiding in misery.
Buster: We'll all feel better when we're safe at home. Clay: You sure about that? Because I can tell you, running and hiding away is not what it's all cracked up to be. Buster: Well....we don't have a choice. Clay: (sadly) Yeah, well, all these years I thought the same but, turns out there's always a choice. Just never had the guts to make the right one. Know what I mean?
During the climax of the movie, Jimmy Crystal takes Buster as high above the stage in his theater as he can and then throws him off the side of a catwalk to die. Rosita swoops in and saves his life thankfully, but it can still be pretty upsetting to see the look of absolute terror and helplessness on the poor koala's face as he falls in slow motion towards the raging wormhole below him.
Porsha: DADDY, STOP IT!!! Suki: MR. CRYSTAL, NOOOO!!!!
The implied Ignored Epiphany with Jimmy. As soon as Marcus catches up with Crystal, he calmly drags him up close to the stage and makes him watch the cast (including both of their kids) get a standing ovation. As soon as Buster is out of Jimmy's reach, he lets him go while he applauds Johnny. Even after Jimmy has calmed down however, the sight only makes him realize the potential profit the show could grant himself. While Marcus did everything he could to make amends and support his son before heading to prison in the first film, Jimmy doesn't once think about his daughter before he is arrested.
