A portal in fiction is a magical or technological doorway that connects two distant locations. Portals are a common concept in sci-fi and fantasy fiction. They can be of two forms: either you must step through the frames of an object (a mirror, a cupboard, a picture frame, a gateway etc.) which serves as a portal or, when they stand alone, the portal will commonly appear in the form of a vortex of energy. Places that a portal will link to include; a different spot in the same world (in which case it might be an alternative for teleportation); a parallel world (inter-dimensional portal); the past or the future (time portal); and other planes of existence, like heaven, hell or other afterworlds. Portals are similar to the cosmological concept of a wormhole. Portals play a primary role in:
- Army Men
- His Dark Materials series
- Doom 3
- Half-Life (normal and one leading to a world at the edge between universes named Xen)
- Harry Potter series
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
- Mighty Max
- Planescape
- Portal (video game)
- Prey (video game)
- Sliders
- Spyro Series
- Stargate
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Timeline
- The Dark Portal
- The Legend of Zelda (series)
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series)
- Through the Looking-Glass
- W.I.T.C.H
- World of Warcraft
