History Main / CoolGate

** The original [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100221045633/stargate/images/b/bf/Stargate.JPG SG-1 gate]] is the most iconic. [[MadeOfIndestructium Made of a nigh-indestructible stone-like material]] inscribed with a ring of constellations, at first glance it looks like a [[LandmarkOfLore mysterious ancient construct]] along the lines of Stonehenge or the Easter Island heads. When given power however, the inner ring is [[SpectacularSpinning able to spin]], the chevrons light up, and the gate can be dialed like a rotary phone.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': When activated, the doors connect the monster's world to children's bedrooms throughout the human world. When inactive, they are ordinary doors connecting the bedrooms to closets, etc. That is why the monster is never there when your parents open the door to check.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''. Apart from the titular portals, there is the "Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill." In order to prevent you from carting useful (and possibly game-breaking) objects into other levels or putting portals across levels, each level end is blocked by a shimmering particle field that dissolves unauthorized objects as they pass through it, and closes all portals. It may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth, as well as ear tubes. It is especially gratifying to drag the robot turrets through it.
--> '''Robot turret''': Ow! Ow! Ow!

** The [[{{Hellgate}} Gates of Hell]].

* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', it's surrounded by CreepyCrows, [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04-10.html it has to be dug up]], it's [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04-47.html an ordinary door—flat in the ground]]; and [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04-49.html when they open it]], [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04-50.html it draws November and Clare in]].
* The five Gates in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', though you're [[ContainmentField not meant to walk through them]] -- they're built on [[spoiler:holes in the fabric of the universe leading to a demiplane containing an EldritchAbomination.]]
** [[RunningGag What gates?]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Thunderstruck}}'''s take on [[http://talesfromthevault.com/thunderstruck/comic427.html magical portals]].

* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'': [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/001228 The portal]]
* The portal cloth of ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'' is interesting [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/youllberightback/ on its own,]] but it really becomes a cool gate when it is [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/atattoo/ attached to Shelly.]] If you enter it, you come out the other cloth, but you have to be able to teleport on your own to use it. It still does have its uses though.
* ''Webcomic/{{Underling}}'': Portal travel is common. [[http://underlingcomic.com/page-one-hundred-fifteen/ Like this one.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' Each game planet has seven gates, which teleport players to far-off regions of their planets and to other players' planets. There are also return nodes which, predicably, return the player to their house. Finally, there are defence portals used by Skaia to teleport approaching meteors away to the players planet (most of them land [[TimeTravel before the players start playing]]).
* In ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'', the Eternity Spire [[http://endstone.net/2011/02/14/5-09/ let you create them.]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130506 monolith gate]] inside the Red Cathedral in Mechanicsburg.
* Deus, in ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'', combined two pieces of alien/magical technology into something of a "reality cutter"; one of the pieces could do it already, but the combination allows the "cut" to be formed and guided better. After mounting the combination on a (powered) circular frame, an assistant accused him of having a rip-off ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}''; Deus just responds there's no patents on a circle. The first use is to go to a space station for [[MundaneUtility a shopping trip]].
* The portal in ''Webcomic/BetweenTwoWorlds'' doesn't look like much, because it's camouflaged. It only opens [[FunctionalMagic whan the moon is visible and where it leads exactly depends on the moon phase]]. But it will get you transported to another planet, which is pretty cool.

* It's a fairly big plot point that the [[spoiler:Citadel]] in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' is one of these, linking the known galaxy to wherever the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]] are.

*** There's a portal to [[WarriorHeaven Sovngarde]] in an ancient ruin named Skuldafn. After you defeat [[BigBad Alduin]] the first time, he uses it to [[DirtyCoward escape to Sovngarde]] and [[YourSoulIsMine devour the souls of the dead]] to replenish his strength. Unfortunately it cannot be reached on foot, something Odahviing neglects to mention until you decide to keep him imprisoned until your return, upon which he quickly offers to fly you there in exchange for his freedom.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'''s aptly-named Gates.

* The Franchise/StargateVerse. ''Series/StargateSG1'', ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', and ''Series/StargateUniverse'', all four of 'em had the title gates be as cool as possible. While the details vary between gates, all of the gates activate with an [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/stargate/images/9/98/Kawoosh.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20090301185649 unstable vortex]] that destroys anything in its path, before settling into a rippling event horizon with the appearance of standing water.
** The original [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100221045633/stargate/images/b/bf/Stargate.JPG SG-1 gate]] is the most iconic. [[MadeOfIndestructium Made of a nigh-indestructible stone-like material]] inscribed with a ring of constellations, at first glance it looks like a [[LandmarkOfLore mysterious ancient construct]] along the lines of Stonehenge or the Easter Island heads. When given power however, the inner ring is [[SpectacularSpinning able to spin]], the chevrons light up, and the gate can be dialed like a rotary phone.
** The [[http://i.imgur.com/o5WN83b.jpg Atlantis gate]] is like a digital counterpart to the original gate's analogue. Just as indestructible as its predecessor, these gates don't spin at all. Instead, the spinning is replaced with the glyphs lighting up like [=LEDs=], and the sound of stone grinding against stone is replaced with distinctly electronic humming. Additionally, unlike its Milky Way counterparts, many of these gates are in orbit around planets, requiring a ship capable of flying through the gate to traverse safely.
** In stark contrast to the Atlantis gate is the [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091115192114/stargate/images/c/c5/DestinyGateEarth.jpg Universe gate]], the prototype to the Milky Way gates. These gates may not be as indestructible as its successors, but they're still just as cool. Instead of just an inner ring spinning, the ''entire gate'' spins, and instead of the more familiar watery blue event horizon of the other gates, this gate's event horizon is silver.
** Last but certainly not least is the [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100221050230/stargate/images/7/75/Supergate_vortex.jpg Supergate]] from SG-1, an absolutely massive Stargate designed for use by starships. Since making these gates in one solid piece would be extremely impractical -- especially in a new galaxy -- it's instead build of individual segments sent through a standard Stargate which then assemble themselves in orbit. Due to the astronomical power requirement for these gates to function, they eschew any sort of traditional power source to [[PoweredByABlackHole draw energy directly from a nearby black hole]].

* In the ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'' episode "[[ShoutOut Stargate]]", a "Gate of Chaos", through which "the worst possible creatures" are going to arrive, is opened in Kaamelott. Arthur and Lancelot investigate, Bohort panics until... Perceval steps through. And then a chicken flies through. It turns out the gate leads to another part of the castle.
* First, you see something like shattered glass floating in the air. Next thing you know, you are being chased by a velociraptor. Welcome to ''Series/{{Primeval}}''.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has portals to Pylea. They can only be opened at [[LeyLine psychic hotspots]] and can't be opened too many times.
* ''Series/TheLegendOfDickAndDom'' has an episode, "Valley of the [[MyBrainIsBig Bigheads]]", where the heroes want to use a gate guarded by the Bigheads; to be allowed to use it, they need to prove they are geniuses, which is rather [[IdiotHero difficult]] for them. It turns out the gate [[spoiler: only transports you ten yards further along the road, and the Bigheads only bother to guard it]] [[LaughablyEvil for lulz]].
* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' has an ''ordinary school locker'' which connects to a base on the moon.
* ''Series/{{The Librarians|2014}}'' has The Door. A globe connected to the closet door in the Annex which can magically connect to any other door on the planet.

* The Necrons of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' use portal technology to teleport with impunity. Chaos forces occasionally use portals of their own to access the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Warp]] without waiting for a NegativeSpaceWedgie.
** Creator/SandyMitchell's Literature/CiaphasCain[[note]]'''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!'''[[/note]], cornered by Necrons and wounded, took the [[RefugeInAudacity one route they had not expected]]: he jumped through their gate, having seen a wounded Necron come through it and guessing there were friends on the other side.
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' has spells that create Gates through time or space.

* ''Fringeworthy'' (1982) was built entirely around this trope: PlayerCharacters were members of a UN military exploration force, walking from world to world through circular portals left by an alien race millions of years before.
** Rumor has it that a copy of the game was given to the writers of [[Film/{{Stargate}} a certain motion picture]] on the assumption that "Tri-Tac is out of business, and besides, our lawyers are bigger."
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has bits of First Age technology called the Gates of Auspicious Passage, allowing one to cross vast distances with a single step (although only to a similar Gate). They require truly monstrous amounts of power to function even for brief periods however, and are extraordinarily difficult to build, repair and program.
* Similar to the ''Call of Cthulhu'' example, ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' has gates to other universes that the players must close in order to win.

* ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty 3'' gives us big swirly holes with [[https://youtu.be/cN7eE3pNzAs?t=5s blue (or red, in the case of nightmare gates)]] lightning scything out of it. They can send you to various video game worlds. Such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9mD5Gq5m4A&index=22&list=PLSQLREUw9vwlhzS9yaZ0PTWL7w2IwkcET Castlevania]], The [[https://youtu.be/DlOV0u2Fd9Q?t=26m28s Legend of Zelda]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9RiPCbYQ8U&index=2&list=PLSQLREUw9vwlhzS9yaZ0PTWL7w2IwkcET Mario]], just to name a few.

*** A certain door only opens when you have a White Mage, a Red Mage, and a Black Mage stand on their respective panels
*** One dungeon has doors which require a certain amount of 'weight' to be placed on sensors (determined by the amount of player characters, and what race they belong to)
* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'s'' dimensional gates warp the user to the selected location.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' has the Phobos and Deimos anomalies, two ancient, connected portals discovered on each of the Martian moons. Unfortunately for the researches studying the anomalies, they work by teleporting matter [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace straight through Hell]]. When an experiment goes out of control, Deimos is pulled completely through its anomaly and ends up drifting above Hell, forcing the SpaceMarine to use the Phobos Anomaly to reach it. The anomalies also serve as the basis of the in-game teleporters, which work like a PortalNetwork and, if the player's not careful, can lead to the trope-naming TeleFrag.
** The ContinuityReboot sequel ''Doom 3'' changes the story to remove Phobos and Deimos. Instead, the portals that cause all the current trouble were built by the UAC colonists and based on the Martian civilization's ancient schematics (the schematics were actually meant as a warning, but the scientists missed the fine print). The original ancient portal that [[{{Pun}} doomed]] the Martians does become a plot point late in the game as, once the human portals have been shut down and the DemonicInvaders seemingly stopped, they blast open the original Martian portal instead.
* It's a fairly big plot point that the [[spoiler:Citadel]] in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' is one of these, linking the known galaxy to wherever the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]] are.
* As mentioned in the Tabletop [=RPG=]s section above, ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has a ton of these. It's part of the setting, after all.
** Not just for transport, too: They provide [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZZEPoVb4c a handy solution]] if your {{BFG}} is too big to carry.
* ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'''s teleporters and chronoporters (that facilitate mass teleportation and mass time travel respectively) look like cool spinning stargates. Which is a bit [[RuleOfCool unnecessary]] since no unit actually ''walks'' through them.

* ''VideoGame/FarGate'''s wormholes. Basically a combination of this and SwirlyEnergyThingy with DNA-shaped pink and blue strands coming out from the middle.
* The Arkonians of ''VideoGame/TheCrystalKey'' used simple arches activated by the titular key to provide direct transport between their colony planets. The number of places you can go is determined by the number of "planes" attached to the key. They recently perfected the ability to design portable portals as well, from small remote-controlled ones you can carry around - and which go with you when used, to huge rods mounted on spaceships, which the Arkonians used to deter the malevolent psychic warlord, Ozgar.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is possible to build nether portals with obsidian, obsidian being the most time consuming resource to acquire.
** As of Beta 1.9Pre4, End Portals are also available. These are even more difficult to find since they are only found in strongholds and only 128 of those spawn on the entire map. Also, the Enderdragon is on the other side of End portal.
*** As of 1.9, after you kill the Enderdragon, yet another Cool Gate spawns in the sky. There is no way to enter it without using an ender pearl, and if you do enter it, you are taken about a kilometre away from the central FloatingContinent in the End, where you find endless seas of islands with purple trees and strange castles, sometimes with a CoolAirship docked at them.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations''. Star Gates were once used for interstellar travel, but they suppressed exploration of other parts of the galaxy because they could only move ships between any two of them, plus it took quite a while for them to transport ships. The rise of Humanity gave rise to Hyper Drive, which allowed ships to travel great distances on their own, rendering the Star Gates obsolete and setting the stage for the game's plot.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** The Door of Time in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' is ''[[SubvertedTrope not]]'' a portal to the Sacred Realm, but it does bar access to the Master Sword, which in itself acts as the final key to the Sacred Realm. [[spoiler:Because Link is too young to fulfill his destiny when he first draws the Master Sword, he is kept in stasis in the Temple of Light within the Sacred Realm, allowing Ganondorf to attempt to seize the Triforce unopposed.]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Functionally]], however, Link uses the Master Sword to travel between the past and the future by placing or removing it from the Pedestal of Time.
** The Mirror of Twilight, a gate to the [[DarkWorld Twilight Realm]] in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]''. By the time Link and Midna find it, however, Zant has already broken it into four pieces, and the duo have to retrieve the three missing pieces before they can travel to the Twilight Realm. [[spoiler:Midna shatters the Mirror completely during the epilogue, completely sealing off the Light World and the Twilight Realm from each other forever.]]
*** There's also the door to the past in the Sacred Grove. Passing through the door sends Link to the Temple of Time from back when it wasn't a forgotten, nameless ruin.
** The Gate of Time in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''. After Impa and Zelda use the first gate to travel to the past, Impa destroys it to ensure [[BigBad Ghirahim]] cannot follow them. Link then has to reforge the Goddess Sword into the Master Sword in order to awaken the second gate and reunite with Zelda. [[spoiler:Once the Imprisoned is destroyed and Zelda [[TheSlowPath awakens in the present]], [[DontCelebrateJustYet Ghirahim interrupts the reunion]], kidnaps her and uses the gate to travel to the past, where his master still lives, so he can restore his power by sacrificing Zelda.]]
* ''VideoGame/SunlessSea'' gives us the Avid Horizon, a creepy portal ornated with two reaperesque figures located at the northernmost point of the Neath. Stars can be seen twinkling above it ''despite the whole Neath being buried underground'', [[BrownNote Correspondence]] sigils are everywhere and the seafloor around it glows an eerie red light. While what lies behind it is never disclosed in ''Sunless Sea'', its sequel ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'' revealed that [[spoiler:it leads to the High Wilderness, located deep in space.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/EscapeVelocity EV Nova]]'' has a network of LostTechnology hypergates that serve as a WarpWhistle of sorts. Once you get a license to use them via the [[MegaCorp Sigma Shipyards]] questline, they allow you to travel between certain star systems instantaneously, whereas using your hyperdrive causes the InUniverseGameClock to increment between 1 and 3 days depending on your ship's mass. A smart player will memorize the hypergate network, as it's sometimes the only way to get rush jobs done by the deadline.
* ''VideoGame/EarthAndBeyond'' had a few varieties of gates. [[{{Precursors}} Ancient]] [[LostTechnology Gates]], which according to some in-game material may have been sentient, and could send a ship as far as 100,000 light years. Reverse engineered [=InfinityGates=], far less powerful with only a few light year range. And the singular Tada-O Gate, also reverse engineered from the Ancient Gates, but thought to connect to another galaxy... [[AlienInvasion oops]].
* In ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', the victory conditions for the [[NoTranshumanismAllowed Purity]] and [[{{Cyborg}} Supremacy]] affinities involves building the Exodus and Emancipation Gate, respectively. They are so huge that they require a whole game cell to build. They look identical, except the Exodus Gate generates a red portal in which the energy appears to flow outward, while the Emancipation Gate flows inward and glows yellow. The former is used to bring in refugees from the building faction's territory on Earth to settle on the new world. The latter is used to send troops back to Earth to undergo UnwillingRoboticisation.
* ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' has these at mysterious alien temples, which can take players who find them across the universe almost instantaneously (after briefly covering them in a liquid-like substance)... Without their ship, of course; but there's no such thing as a free lunch.
* In ''VideoGame/FindTheCure!'' the player character travels through one of these in search of a cure to a plague that will wipe out humanity within 25 years.
* One of the ways to get to new locations in ''VideoGame/WitchesLegacy''. They are often both ways, sometimes they lead to some form of EldritchLocation and other times just somewhere new.
* The conspiracies' agents in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' travel using Agartha, a network of portals in and around the branches of enormous biomechanical trees located in [[HollowWorld the Hollow Earth]]. (It's that kind of game.) Only a handful of others can use Agartha without ... [[GoMadFromTheRevelation consequences]].
* The [[RealityWarper Conduit]] from ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' has the power to create wormhole gates between two points, no matter how distant. Wormholes are stable enough to march an army through - which is usually exactly what Conduits want them for.
* ''VideoGame/GeometryDash'' has these. Enter the blue one, and you come out of the orange one, placed somewhere above or below the blue one. It doesn't work the other way around, though.
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'' features the Bifrost, which is connected to the WorldTree and puts down roots to link realms, as seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bG8VmIOBRA here]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' has mysterious arches strewn about the map that heavily resemble a Stargate. Aside from one pair, they're only activated in the endgame as a DoorToBefore.
* ''Videogame/{{Splitgate}}'' has ''Videogame/{{Portal}}'''s portals wholesale, with the caveat that now you ''also'' have actual guns to shoot through them. This opens up a lot of trickery depending on the map and your reflexes.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': When activated, the doors connect the monster's world to children's bedrooms throughout the human world. When inactive, they are ordinary doors connecting the bedrooms to closets, etc. That is why the monster is never there when your parents open the door to check.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBFG'': In this version of [[Literature/TheBFG the story]], the titular Big Friendly Giant, whilst running through the sky, reaches Giant Country through some kind of [[OurWormholesAreDifferent swirling ethereal tunnel]]. In Giant Country, a hollow mountain houses a towering column of light, jumping into which leads to Dream Country.

%%* ''Film/{{TRON}}'': The Digital Gate.

* ''Film/BladeRunner'': The TannhauserGate was merely mentioned once, and its function not even described, but MemeticMutation has made it a dimensional gate nonetheless.
* In ''Film/TheNeverendingStory'', Atreyu passes through a mirror that serves this purpose.

* Wrestling/ElSanto's time machine (of ''course'' he can build a time machine!) in ''Film/SantoEnElTesoroDeDracula'' is basically a cheaper-looking version of TV's ''Series/TheTimeTunnel''.
* There are nine gates in the title sequence of Polanski's ''Film/TheNinthGate'', made all the more portentous by Wojciech Kilar's score.

* In the ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' novels, the Deryni can use "Transfer Portals" to travel instantly from one place to another. However, there are several drawbacks to Portals: it takes a lot of power to create one; you have to know the 'signature' of the Portal you want before you can travel to it, which means visiting it mundanely first; [[PortalNetwork their positions are fixed]], so you can't travel to someplace that doesn't have an existing Portal; and Portals can be "trapped", so that once you transfer to it, you can't leave again until someone with the key comes along and releases you.

* The door in Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/{{Ravenor}}'', a plain wooden door that opens through space and time. Originally, it used by special trained operators, to let the questions of those who came to them direct it; when the house was broken, Ravenor operated it to put his powerful psionic abilities into play.
* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''His Last Command'', Chaos warp gates open up in boulders to let out monsters. When Maggs is thrown through one, and [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind Mkoll jumps after him]], they find a [[EvilIsDeathlyCold frigid]], [[AlienGeometries impossible landscape]] with [[AlienSky the stars all wrong and blocks of stone floating in the sky]]. They stagger to another gate, which lands them at the foot of another boulder, both of them covered with frost (on the other side, they communicate back through the vox, though it finds them both out of range and within ten kilometers at once).

* Creator/LewisCarroll's ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Through the Looking Glass]]''. Mirrors are frequently used as portals to other realms. There's just something about mirrors...
* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/MorgaineCycle'', the planet-based gates allow both interstellar and TimeTravel. Not to mention [[GrandTheftMe body-switching]]. Also, any TimeTravel leading to a TimeParadox triggers a TimeCrash which wipes out civilization on every planet containing a gate, which is why Morgaine is on a quest to shut down the PortalNetwork.
* Susan Cooper's ''Literature/TheDarkIsRising'' series. Powerful Old Ones (such as Merriman Lyon) are able to summon a magical gate (which looks like a pair of doors) that allows travel through time and space.
* John [=DeChancie=]'s ''Literature/CastlePerilous'': The titular cstle has 144,000 doors, each leading to an AlternateUniverse, and they don't just wait for you to walk through—the portals wander, and actively seek out those who want to travel or get away. His ''Skyway'' series has "Tollbooths" (no doubt named as a ShoutOut to ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'') which use miles-tall columns of virtual particles to create [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormholes]] linking a vast Road across thousands of planetary surfaces.

* Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's ''Literature/WorldOfTiers'' series. Inter-dimensional machines/gates.
* There's a magical hole in the wall of some sort in ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'', by Creator/NeilGaiman.

* In P.C. Hodgell's ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'', Mother Ragga (an [[ElementalPowers Elemental Personification]]) has a house whose doors can open, it seems, anywhere in the world.
* The door leading out of the title castle in Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle''.

* Norman Juster's ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'': The title tollbooth.
* ''Literature/TheForgottenDoor'' by Alexander Key has an inter-dimensional machine/gate.
* In Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, the Gate Spell reaches across the VoidBetweenTheWorlds in order to provide instantaneous travel from one physical place to another. The spell has a number of important limitations; each Gate is a single-use construction created by a powerful mage [[CastFromHitPoints using his own life force]], must be built with both ends in a doorway or similar structure (frames often used for Gates are attuned to the proper energies and are easier to use), and can only go somewhere said mage has been to and knows well. The ancient Adepts of the Mage Wars, on the other hand, knew the secrets of Permanent Gates, which once created are simple to activate and use. From what we see of the mysterious [[TheEmpire Eastern Empire]], it has overcome all the limitations of Gates, to the point of building them into a {{Magitek}} society and using them to control vast swaths of territory. This poses a major problem for the Empire when TheMagicGoesAway.
* ''Literature/DarknessVisible'': Reality Thresholds are the driving force behind the plot. Venturers can tear holes in the fabric of reality with their bare hands and, if they're focusing properly, simultaneously open a second Threshold in another location, allowing them to step instantly between the two places. If they aren't focusing properly, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation bad things]] happen... Deliberately abusing Thresholds may lead to even worse things [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt happening]].
* In Lee Lightner's ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel ''Sons of Fenris'', Cadmus's BloodMagic lets him open a portal to a Chaos SpaceMarine.
** In ''Wolf's Honour'', they conclude that [[spoiler:the entire planet is riddled with gates, allowing the Chaos {{Space Marine}}s to invade at will]].
* In Creator/PatriciaAMcKillip's ''Literature/TheBellAtSealeyHead'', Emma keeps opening doors and finding Princess Ysabo. She never dares go in for fear that she can't come back. And one day when she opens the door to her grandmother's room, it shows the princess in a different room. She closes it, reopens it, and finds her grandmother's room.
* In Creator/GrahamMcNeill's ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', when Sergeant Ellard confesses to having actually seen the rumored daemon on a battle field, he explains that in the end, it summoned up a black gate and vanished into it.
* In the ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' novels ''The Unremembered Empire'' and ''Pharos'', the Pharos device can connect two locations directly via quantum entanglement. While it primarily functions as a SubspaceAnsible, it can also be used to instantly transport people from one planet to another, and is even used to save several characters from [[spoiler: [[TheDreaded Konrad Curze]]]].

* Creator/JamesHSchmitz's ''Literature/TelzeyAmberdon'': ''The Lion Game'' is set on a planet in the Hub where all transportation was done by gates. The villains in that story have another gate -- the Vingarran Gate is too long-range to be useful on the planet surface, but it's ideal for them to transfer people to and from their spaceships hiding in the outer reaches of the solar system.
* ''Literature/{{Once}}'': An ancient book, kept by successive acquaintances of the ''[[OurFairiesAreDifferent faerefolkis]]'', can be used by smaller faeries as a portal.
* Looking glass bosons, in the Creator/JohnRingo (and later Creator/TravisSTaylor) series ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass'' (with {{shout out}}s a-plenty to the other looking glass portal, mentioned above).
* The Manticore Wormhole Junction, and similar junctions elsewhere, in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels.
* ''The Green Door'' in Creator/HGWells' short story of the same name.
* In Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''[[Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles Talking to Dragons]]'', Morwen has one door to all the rooms in her house. When it keeps giving Daystar the wrong ones, she tells him he has to be firm.
* The novelization of the ''Literature/{{Doom}}'' series had the Gate to "Hell" actually be a matter transmitter leading to aliens who used psychological warfare, by imitating feared images from humanity's collective unconscious. But, unlike most fictional interstellar teleportation, it was ''not'' faster than light.
* The Veil in the Department of Mysteries that claimed [[spoiler: Sirius]] is an example of such a portal from ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Maybe. It's in the Department of Mysteries because they're not really sure exactly how it works, except that no-one who passes through ever comes back. [[spoiler:And the shade of Sirius is later able to be summoned by the Resurrection Stone.]]
* In Sergey Lukyanenko's ''Literature/RoughDraft'' series, the portals to {{Alternate Universe}}s are shown as regular doors, although they can only be opened by the customs officer-Functional who lives at the customs office. This, as well as the abilities of the Functionals, is explained by their advanced understanding of quantum physics.

* One means of getting around in the endless world of ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Temple of a Thousand Doors]] (Der Tausend-Türen-Tempel) which contains an infinite number of hexagon-shaped rooms with three doors each. Every door different in colour, shape, material etc. To get to the place you wish to go, you only need to pass through the rooms until you find the door that reminds you strongest of the thing/place/person you're looking for. This may take some time.
* In ''Literature/{{Spin}}'' there is the Arch, a gigantic structure connecting to another planet.
* The portable door in ''Literature/ThePortableDoor'' by Tom Holt. A door-shaped sheet of something that can be rolled up, but when put against a wall will open to the desired location.
* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', Roland discovers a series of doors which allow him to look into other worlds, possess a specific individual on the other side when he steps through the door, and pull that person back through the door into his own world. This is how he eventually gathers his three traveling companions who follow him in the later books.
* In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'', Door opens doors. All doors. Her family house had its locations all over the place because they could open the doors between them.
* The Farcasters connecting the [=WorldWeb=], in Dan Simmons' ''Literature/HyperionCantos''.
* ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'': Doors that open to distant locations, times, and/or realities are a dime a dozen, and one minor character even operates a business where people can pay to pass through any of the hundreds of gate doorways he's stocked his shop with.
* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': The Great Door of Time.
* In Creator/DevonMonk's ''Literature/DeadIron'', what [=LeFel=] is trying to build.
* The Flumes in "Literature/ThePendragonAdventure".
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/DreadCompanion'', Bartare opens one to transport them from the planet.
* ''Literature/ThePowerOfFive'': The Gates that keep the Old Ones at bay are kinda cool, once you look past how terrifying the entire concept is.
** On a considerably less scary note, there are also the 25 doors with blue star symbols which allow the Five and up to one other each to travel to any one of their choosing.
* The whole ''Kadingir'' saga revolves around this, what with the characters being able to open dimensional portals between their world and Earth. The main title itself, Kadingir, means "The Gate of the Gods" in old Sumerian.
* Twilight gates from the setting of ''[[Literature/{{Somewhither}} A Tale of the Unwithering Realm]]''. They're golden ring-shaped portals whose rims have the form of three-dimensional Mobius strips, and when they are active a rainbow of colors and a spherical light-bending interdimensional rift appears in the middle.
* Stonemover's portals from ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', which connect the Rain kingdom and Sand kingdoms with each other [[spoiler:and also with the Night kingdom.]]
* ''Literature/PrincessesOfThePizzaParlor'': The Wayhouse network PortalNetwork is referenced multiple times:
** In the first episode, ''Princesses Don't Do Summer School'', a network failure is why the titular princesses can't go home for the summer.
** One of their installations are seen in the seventh episode, ''Princesses in the Darkest Depths'', and some TeleportationSickness is indicated:
---> The Wayhouse of Bargoczy was among the newest wave of civic construction to wash over the city, [...] it was solidly built of quarried chalkstone fitted with dark mortar, then stained with strong primary colors. [...] the Wayhouse network's convenience was hampered only by its range. In order to go any appreciable distance, one had to suffer through a daisy chain of transfer points. Few people were willing to pay the cumulative costs, and a larger number of stomachs were unwilling to deal with the stress of so many transfers.
* ''{{Literature/Gate}}'' that is about a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin gate]] from Japan to a medium-fantasy world.
* In Creator/DouglasAdams's unfinished novel ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt'', one chapter that takes place 1.2 million years into the future mentions a mysterious ''"Way of the Nostril"'', and his own planned plot summary for the finished book talks about Literature/DirkGently travelling ''"through the nasal membranes of a rhinoceros, to a distant future dominated by estate agents and heavily armed kangaroos"''. The implication of this being that someone apparently discovered a method of time travelling that somehow involves passing through a rhino's nose.

* The Flower Gate in ''VideoGame/PaperMario'''s Toad Town led to Flower Fields—but only when the four Bub-ulb seeds had been planted in the garden.
** The titular gate in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor''.

* The Gate of Time in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''.
** The very similar-looking Gate to the Twilight Realm in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', as well as the door to the past in the Temple of Time.

** The Gate To Hell.

* The ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game happens to have multiple takes on this, including 'Different Dimension Gate', 'Monster Gate', and even a card meant to restrict attacks, "The Dark Door", which takes the form of a CoolGate (or at least a door out of a very freakish universe).

** ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Under Themyscira is a gate to Hades, at least in ComicBook/PostCrisis [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 continuity]], in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' cartoon and in ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth''. Though just what dimension or pocket dimension Paradise Island/Themyscira is in has always been subject to the whims of the writers. The place has consitantly been host to and guardian of Doom's Doorway, a rift which leads to the outer realms of Hades and the Underworld, ever since the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Post-Crisis Reboot]].

*** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl1972 Supergirl (Volume 1)]]'' issue #5 a villain uses a dimensional gate resembling a normal door to drag the Girl of Steel in another dimension.
*** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Good-Looking Corpse]]'', a group of villains use portals to find and harass heroes.

** In the ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', [[AlternateDimension Quarrm]]'s life-forms slip in Earth through several translucent "holes" in the air.
** In ''ComicBook/ThePhantomZone'', Superman and Quex-Ul go through several dimensional portals during their journey: an energy wall surrounding the Phantom Zone, a sun which works as a gate when it is glowing yellow, a whirlpool, the flames of a hearth...

* In the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''/''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5779581/1/The-Lion-the-Cat-and-the-Turtles The Lion, the Cat and the Turtles,]]" after Leonardo travels through a ‘random’ portal to Narnia in the New York sewers, his family, April and Klunk track down the now-elderly Susan in New York, where she is able to open a door to Narnia using a photograph of the wardrobe and invoking her status as a Queen of Narnia.

-->''Asuka’s rest did not last long undisturbed. Shinji was just rising from replacing his cello in its padded trunk when the sun rose in their tent.''\\
''Shinji whirled around. “What?” He blinked his eyes repeatedly against the sudden blaze of gold. A perfect seven-foot circle of seeming daylight stood on the far side of the tent, filling the tent with noontime brightness. Shading his eyes with his hand allowed Shinji a slightly better look at it. Almost too bright to look at directly, it seemed for all the world like a floodlit pool stood on its side. Shinji had only a moment to stare in confusion when the light dimmed as a man stepped out of it. This did not diminish his puzzlement.''\\
''“Pilot Ikari Shinji-san?” The man inquired in Japanese.''\\
''“Third, what’s th---” Asuka blinked awake in her suddenly brightly lit sleeping bag, then bolted upright. “Who the hell are you?! What is that?”''\\
''“Fräulein Pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu? I’m sorry to interrupt your rest, but this is the earliest I could arrive.” Shinji still could hardly see the backlit figure, just a caped silhouette. The figure noted his squint. “Ah, my apologies for the brightness of the portal. Rather a large energy differential between here and home. Let me get that.” He snapped his fingers and the glowing mini-sun shrank to a point and vanished. The near-daylight illumination dropped to just the solitary camp lantern hanging at the tent’s entryway.''

* The door leading out of ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', which has multiple selectable destinations.

* When activated, the Doors in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' connect the monster's world to children's bedrooms throughout the human world. When inactive, they are ordinary doors connecting the bedrooms to closets, etc. That is why the monster is never there when your parents open the door to check.

%%* The Digital Gate in ''Film/{{TRON}}''.

* The TannhauserGate was merely mentioned once in ''Film/BladeRunner'', and its function not even described, but MemeticMutation has made it a CoolGate nonetheless.

* ''Film/WarCraft2016'' has the appropriately-named Portal, which is a gate through which MassTeleportation can be conducted.

* John [=DeChancie=] likes this trope; his ''Literature/CastlePerilous'' has 144,000 doors, each leading to an AlternateUniverse, and they don't just wait for you to walk through—the portals wander, and actively seek out those who want to travel or get away. His ''Skyway'' series has "Tollbooths" (no doubt named as a ShoutOut to ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'') which use miles-tall columns of virtual particles to create [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormholes]] linking a vast Road across thousands of planetary surfaces.

* The title tollbooth of Norman Juster's ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth''.
* ''Literature/TheForgottenDoor'' by Alexander Key. An inter-dimensional machine/gate.

* Reality Thresholds are pretty much the driving force behind the entire book in ''Literature/DarknessVisible''. Venturers can tear holes in the fabric of reality with their bare hands and, if they're focusing properly, simultaneously open a second Threshold in another location, allowing them to step instantly between the two places. If they aren't focusing properly, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation bad things]] happen... Deliberately abusing Thresholds may lead to even worse things [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt happening]].
* In Lee Lightner's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Sons of Fenris'', Cadmus's BloodMagic lets him open a portal to a Chaos SpaceMarine.

* In Creator/GrahamMcNeill's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', when Sergeant Ellard confesses to having actually seen the rumored daemon on a battle field, he explains that in the end, it summoned up a black gate and vanished into it.

* Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/WitchWorld'' has dozens of these.

* ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', as if to fight back against Narnia listed above, has a knife that can make a gate anywhere by ''cutting holes in the fabric of the universe''. Unfortunately, it has the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild nasty side effect]] of unleashing soul-eating beings of nothing whenever it's used.
* Creator/JamesHSchmitz set ''[[Literature/TelzeyAmberdon The Lion Game]]'' on a planet in the Hub where all transportation was done by gates. The villains in that story have another CoolGate -- the Vingarran Gate is too long-range to be useful on the planet surface, but it's ideal for them to transfer people to and from their spaceships hiding in the outer reaches of the solar system.

* Doors that open to distant locations, times, and/or realities are a dime a dozen in the {{Literature/Nightside}} series, and one minor character even operates a business where people can pay to pass through any of the hundreds of CoolGate doorways he's stocked his shop with.
* The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Great Door Of Time]] in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap''.

*** "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever The City on the Edge of Forever]]": The Guardian of Forever is a sentient stone ring that can send people pretty much anywhere and anywhen.

* ''Series/TheLegendOfDickAndDom'' has an episode, "Valley of the [[MyBrainIsBig Bigheads]]", where the heroes want to use a CoolGate guarded by the Bigheads; to be allowed to use it, they need to prove they are geniuses, which is rather [[IdiotHero difficult]] for them. It turns out the gate [[spoiler: only transports you ten yards further along the road, and the Bigheads only bother to guard it]] [[LaughablyEvil for lulz]].

* In ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', the victory conditions for the [[NoTranshumanismAllowed Purity]] and [[{{Cyborg}} Supremacy]] affinities involves building the Exodus and Emancipation Gate, respectively. They are so huge that they require a whole game cell to build. They look pretty much identical, except the Exodus Gate generates a red portal in which the energy appears to flow outward, while the Emancipation Gate flows inward and glows yellow. The former is used to bring in refugees from the building faction's territory on Earth to settle on the new world. The latter is used to send troops back to Earth to undergo UnwillingRoboticisation.

* ''Videogame/{{Splitgate}}'' has ''Videogame/{{Portal}}'''s portals pretty much wholesale, with the caveat that now you ''also'' have actual guns to shoot through them. This opens up a lot of trickery depending on the map and your reflexes.

* The ''WesternAnimation/WheresWaldo'' cartoon (possibly a video-only series) utilized Waldo's "hiding" aspect by making his cane magical—he traced a ring with its tip in the air in front of him to create a portal to anywhere. It was his EvilTwin [[SdrawkcabName Odlaw's]] desire to steal this cane and use it for nefarious purposes.
* In the ''Comicbook/DoctorStrange'' animated movie, the Sanctum Sanctorum contained a gate to Dormammu's realm.

* The portal in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' that [[spoiler:Stanford Pines]] built and fell in.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2006'', we see a PortalNetwork's [[PortalCrossroadWorld hub]], with some very Franchise/StargateVerse-esque gates.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E91LittleGirlLost Little Girl Lost]]". The title character accidentally falls through a spontaneously appearing gate in the wall of her room and ends up in another dimension. Her parents and a family friend try desperately to get her back before the gate closes.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Wall", a group of scientists were researching wormhole physics when a freak accident resulted in the creation of a portal, which is dubbed "the Gate" for lack of a better name. Four volunteers (2nd Lt. Emilio Perez, Sergeants Evelyn Marx and Glenn Sinclair and Captain Henry Kincaid) were sent through the Gate to determine what was on the other side but they failed to return. When the fifth volunteer, Major Alex [=McAndrews=], goes through, he discovers that it leads to a ParadisePlanet where the people live a simple, agrarian existence free of the social problems that plague Earth. The US government hopes to use the Gate in order to launch preemptive strikes on its enemies. Although the Gate is constantly visible on Earth, the refraction of light on the other planet means that it can only be seen at night.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'':
** The wardrobe in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' is (sometimes) a passageway from Earth to Narnia.
** The {{Portal Pool}}s in the Wood Between the Worlds in ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', the door to the Telmarines' original home at the end of ''Literature/PrinceCaspian'', the PortalPicture in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', the door that normally led to the open moor in ''Literature/TheSilverChair'', and the door that normally led to the stable in ''Literature/TheLastBattle''. '''All''' the books except the one that took place exclusively in Narnia needed magic gates, because the characters were from another universe (the real one).

** Last but certainly not least is the [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100221050230/stargate/images/7/75/Supergate_vortex.jpg Supergate]] from SG-1, an absolutely massive Stargate designed for use by starships. Since making these gates in one solid piece would be extremely impractical -- especially in a new galaxy -- it's instead build of individual segments sent through a standard Stargate which then assemble themselves in orbit. Due to the astronomical power requirement for these gates to function, they eschew any sort of traditional power source to draw energy directly from a nearby black hole.

* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': The shrine Matsuri and Suzu have hung out at [[ChildhoodFriends since they were children]] has a ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihashira_Torii mihashira torii]]'', a gateway with three pillars, creating three different openings. It's important enough that the gate is the only feature in Suzu's MentalWorld, where it symbolizes the ayakashi medium's spirit being split into three pieces.