In Jim Jarmusch’s *Night on Earth* (1991), the "secrets" the characters keep are often central to the film's themes of perception versus reality. Because the setting is a taxi—a transient, anonymous space—characters feel emboldened to reveal hidden lives, tragic backstories, or eccentric private shames they would normally keep from the world.
Below are the specific secrets revealed or kept by the characters in each segment:
### 1. Los Angeles: The Secret Ambition
* **Corky (Winona Ryder):** A "tomboy" taxi driver who appears to be just another drifter. Her secret is a clearly defined, unconventional **career ambition**: she wants to be a mechanic. When the high-powered casting agent, Victoria (Gena Rowlands), offers her a life-changing movie role, Corky rejects it because she has "a plan" for her life that doesn't involve fame.
* **Hidden Detail:** Corky has a **partially-concealed bruise** under her left eye. It is never explained, suggesting a hidden personal struggle or a volatile home life that she keeps private while maintaining her tough, gum-chewing persona.
* **Victoria Snelling:** She reveals a personal vulnerability—she suffers from **night blindness**, which contrasts with her outward image of total control and professional foresight.
### 2. New York: The Secret Identity
* **Helmut Grokenberger (Armin Mueller-Stahl):** An East German immigrant whose secret is his former life as a **circus clown**. He keeps a red rubber clown nose in the taxi, which he puts on at the end of the segment. His current "secret" struggle is his total inability to drive an automatic transmission or navigate New York, which he admits to his passenger, YoYo.
* **YoYo (Giancarlo Esposito):** While YoYo is an open book, the ride reveals the "secret" of his **chaotic family life** when they happen upon his sister-in-law, Angela (Rosie Perez). The ride exposes the private, abrasive, yet loving nature of their family dynamic that isn't visible to the public on the street.
### 3. Paris: The Secret Perspective
* **The Driver (Isaach De Bankolé):** Like Corky, he has a physical marker of a secret—a **band-aid on his forehead**, hinting at a recent altercation or "wound" from the discrimination he faces as an immigrant from the Ivory Coast.
* **The Blind Woman (Béatrice Dalle):** Her "secret" is her **internal world**. She keeps her method of perception hidden from the driver’s prying, insensitive questions until she reveals that she doesn't "miss" sight; she "feels" things like films and sex with an intensity that the sighted driver cannot comprehend. She views him as the one who is truly "blind" to reality.
### 4. Rome: The Secret Sins
* **Gino (Roberto Benigni):** In a frantic, unsolicited confession, Gino reveals a series of bizarre **sexual secrets** to a priest. These include:
* Using **pumpkins** for sexual release as a teenager.
* A long-term "romance" with a **sheep named Lola**.
* A hidden affair with his **brother's wife**.
* **The Priest (Paolo Bonacelli):** He is keeping a literal and fatal secret during the ride: he is **having a heart attack**. He dies in the back seat while Gino is distracted by his own eccentric "confession," making the priest's silence the ultimate kept secret of the segment.
### 5. Helsinki: The Secret Tragedy
* **Mika (Matti Pellonpää):** Throughout most of the ride, Mika is a sullen, stoic observer of three drunken men who are mourning their friend Aki’s "worst day ever" (he lost his job, car, and wife in one day).
* **The Secret:** Mika reveals his own **tragic backstory** to silence them: the death of his **premature baby daughter**. He and his wife had struggled for years to conceive; the baby was born too early, lived just long enough to give them hope, and then died. This "secret" grief is so profound that it makes the passengers' problems seem trivial, shifting the tone of the film from comedy to existential melancholy.