History Main / WalkIntoMordor

** It's worth noting the logic of the Justification provided: the borders of Mordor consisted mainly of a series of large mountain ranges, with a few, well guarded routes through; it's not quite so much that Mordor was isolated, as that traffic was tightly regulated by people who greatly desired the ring, so the only way in was going by one of the less hospitable routes. Further, it was only Mordor's northwest quarter that was inhospitable... but that was the quarter with both Mount Doom and Sauron's headquarters in it, as well as being the part that was closest to Gondor and the main route of access to the rest of Mordor, so everything of relevance to the main story is there.
** In the end, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum end up circling Mordor, climbing up a huge mountain, going through a cave [[spoiler: or falling off a ledge, in Gollum's case]] and THEN walking into Mordor.
** A parody summary of one of the [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings LotR movies]] summed this up by saying that the Ring can only be destroyed by walking very slowly across all of New Zealand in real time.
** The worst offender is the kingdom of Gondolin in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', located in a caldera. The secret tunnel into the valley is guarded by not one but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondolin "seven gates, all constantly guarded;]] the first of wood, then stone, bronze, iron, silver, gold, and steel."
*** Gondolin is eventually captured... when Morgoth's armies come in through the back.

* The Great Wall of China was built for this purpose in order to keep the Mongols'...''horses'' out of China. The Mongols were perfectly capable of using ladders or steps to get up the wall if they really wanted to, but horses were too tricky to get through, and horses were as important to the Mongols in ancient and middle-ages Asia as fighter jets are to airforces today.

* If one is an American citizen, one does not simply fly into Cuba. One must go to Mexico to avoid those pesky embargoes.
** Or pay cash, fly from Canada, and bribe the customs official from making any passport stamps
** Or be a relative to a Cuban citizen; which all you need to do to get a visa is go to a travel agency that organizes flights to and from Cuba.
* The "Turkish Republic of North Cyprus" is only recognized as a state by Turkey. As such, the only way to get there is to fly from Turkey. Until recently, this applied even if you lived 50 yards away in Cyprus proper (the border has become a little more permeable of late, although long-term entry would be... complicated).
* And during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, we of course had the Iron Curtain stopping passage between the east and west.
** Sort of a subversion, getting into the east wasn't that hard for some people from the west, but for their people to get out... two words, "Berlin Wall".
*** Which again was a subversion, as in the 1970s and 1980s it was easier for West Germans and West Berliners to pass through the Wall between East and West Berlin than to get into the G.D.R. proper.
** During the Cold War there was an actual law passed that legally prevented people who held a security clearance above a certain point from entering Eastern Bloc countries except as part of an official delegation. The law was never repealed, so technically it's ''still'' illegal for people who possess security clearances to go into (for example) Hungary or Romania. Of course, no one is really bothering to enforce this law anymore, but it's still on the books.
* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea is the closest thing to Mordor that the present world has. One does not simply walk over their border.
** Notable in that in spring 2009, two American reporters (just two!) tried walking into North Korea in a relatively uninhabited sector of the border, investigating illegal trafficking of young women. It may as well have been the Black Gate as far as they were concerned; one of the reporters (after being released) remarked that they were set upon by a North Korean border patrol within ''thirty seconds'' of crossing the border.
** It is possible to ''fly'' into Mor...errr, North Korea. There are tour groups that will take you there. And while you do see what the authorities want you to see, it is not hard to glimpse into real life from the cracks. And the best way to learn about things is not to listen to what the guides say but ''how'' they say. [[WebVideo/WhereTheHellIsMatt Matt Harding]] got in there just fine.
-->'''Matt Harding''': I look forward to answering the "how did you get into North Korea?" question about a million times once the video is done. The answer, by the way, is "with baffling ease." You go to a site called {{Website/google}}.com. You type in "North Korea tour," and you click on the first thing that pops up. You fill out some forms, you pay some money, and you're in. It's amazing all the things we assume we can't do.
* The "travel guide" to ''TheWorldsMostDangerousPlaces'' by Robert Young Pelton features many entertaining story excerpts (the rest is a country-by-country guide). The author, an ex-Special Forces "travel writer", attempts to sneak into the most dangerous places he can and report on the accommodations, including Afghanistan in 2001 (Rating: Five skulls).
* In January 1925, when a diphtheria epidemic struck the children of Nome, Alaska, weather conditions made it impossible to fly in the nearest supply of antitoxin [[note]] this incident is (highly) fictionalised in the film ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' [[/note]]. Instead, twenty sled-dog teams relayed it across 674 miles of brutal Arctic wilderness -- in ''five and a half days''. The feat has never been duplicated despite a decades-running annual race on the same route commemorating the event.
* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, the French considered the Ardennes forest as impassable for the tank-heavy German army, which would force them to go the GradualGrinder route through the French defenses. The German army crossing the forest was a major factor in their rapid defeat.
** The Germans even tried it again for their grand 1944 counterattack (aka the Battle Of The Bulge), with less success.

* Creator/RoosterTeeth had A Simple Walk Into Mordor, where Kerry Shawcross and Chris Demairis actually tried to walk from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom (or at least their filming locations) in the span of five days. By the end of their journey, they're worn and blistered, almost in too much pain to keep walking. They were able to prove that one really doesn't simply walk from Hobbiton you Mordor.

*** however, those embargeos have now been lifted, and you can now take a cruise ship there straight from the USA.

** ''VideoGamne/{{Fallout 4}}'''s Mordor region, the Glowing Sea, which you must walk to and through to find Virgil in the main storyline, is in the far southwest corner of the map, has many craggy slopes to hike over, and is large enough that parts of it are outside the normal map boundaries.

* In ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands'', flying into higher-tier provinces will quickly result in your aircraft being shot down by SAM sites, so the preferred method of entry is sneaking in on foot.

* In ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands'', flying into higher-tier provinces will quickly result in your bird being shot down by SAM sites, so the preferred method of entry is sneaking in on food.

-->-- '''Boromir''', ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' (TheFilmOfTheBook)

* Another {{YouTube}}r referenced this with another meme for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8fndX_7PqQ Leo Strut]]".

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheStand'' (which he wrote as an "American ''Literature/LordOfTheRings"''), the last remaining heroes must Walk Into Las Vegas BecauseDestinySaysSo.

* Quite literally in ''VideoGame/LEGOTheLordOfTheRings'', as walking (or galloping if you picked up a horse) is the only way you can enter the place unless you [[Franchise/TheMuppets travel by map]]. Becomes a [[CrowningMomentofAwesome Crowning Moment of Awesome]] because you get a Trophy/Achievement for it titled "One does not simply", with the description being "Walk into Mordor" (the icon is even a Lego version of the original meme!).

* [[VideoGame/GuildWars Glint's]] home is located within a single grain of sand, somewhere within a ''massive'' desert.

* Another {{YouTube}}r referenced this with another meme for "[[www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8fndX_7PqQ Leo Strut]]".

* Also parodied in ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'', where the titular character refuses to use the hidden tunnel suggested by Smeagor on the grounds that he's GenreSavvy enough to know that this is a trap so that Smeagor can steal This One Ring. Instead he knocks on the front door, and passes through customs by bribing a guard with a bag of almonds.

** And the only reason they succeeded was because Aragorn [[WeNeedADistraction decided to aggro all of Mordor]] by letting Sauron know of the Return of the King, before rallying an army to lay siege to the Black Gates, drawing Sauron's forces away from Sam and Frodo.

* Every DragonQuest ever has the Sinister Continent Completely Surrounded By Mountains And Reefs that the regular [[GetOnTheBoat Boat]] can't get you to. Sometimes even the GlobalAirship can't get in, and it requires teleportation or traveling the deadly [[LockedInTheDungeon dungeon]] beneath the mountains.

Contrast with RiverOfInsanity, a.k.a. DoomedExpedition, which is the opposite sort of journey: wherein the voyage may be dramatic and increasingly perilous, but is also the most pragmatic means of getting there ([[ShootTheShaggyDog you don't make it]]). See also BorderCrossing.

* Quite literally in ''[[LegoAdaptationGame Lego The Lord of the Rings]]'', as walking (or galloping if you picked up a horse) is the only way you can enter the place unless you [[Franchise/TheMuppets travel by map]]. Becomes a [[CrowningMomentofAwesome Crowning Moment of Awesome]] because you get a Trophy/Achievement for it titled "One does not simply", with the description being "Walk into Mordor" (the icon is even a Lego version of the original meme!).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', owing to the fact that Syndrome's [[ElaborateUndergroundBase base]] is on an [[UnderwaterBase island volcano]], the heroes end up having to swim to get there after their plane gets shot down. Vehicular access seems to be a big no-no, there is no ferry, and only monorails are allowed on the island (accessibility on foot is not necessary for this trope to apply, if more grueling methods of transportation are available).

* In January 1925, when a diphtheria epidemic struck the children of Nome, Alaska, weather conditions made it impossible to fly in the nearest supply of antitoxin. Instead, twenty sled-dog teams relayed it across 674 miles of brutal Arctic wilderness -- in ''five and a half days''. The feat has never been duplicated despite a decades-running annual race on the same route commemorating the event.

* Usually the last world in a SuperMario game, whether it involves strolling through volcanoes or running straight through blockades of tanks and airships.

* Quite literally in [[LegoAdaptationGame Lego The Lord of the Rings]], as walking (or galloping if you picked up a horse) is the only way you can enter the place unless you [[Franchise/TheMuppets travel by map]]. Becomes a [[CrowningMomentofAwesome Crowning Moment of Awesome]] because you get a Trophy/Achievement for it titled "One does not simply", with the description being "Walk into Mordor" (the icon is even a Lego version of the original meme!).

* The ability of player characters to teleport in the ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series seems to short out right before the DeathCourse. Of course, other story-important characters seem more than capable of coming in and out. Enjoy Skull Castle (that means you too, X and Zero, assuming any part of ''VideoGame/MegaManX 5'' makes sense)!

** It is possible to ''fly'' into Mor...errr, North Korea. There are tour groups that will take you there. And while you do see what North Koreans want you to see, it is not hard to glimpse into real life from the cracks. And the best way to learn about things is not to listen to what the guides say but ''how'' they say. [[WebVideo/WhereTheHellIsMatt Matt Harding]] got in there just fine.

->"''[[MemeticMutation One does not simply]] walk into Mordor.''"

* [[GuildWars Glint's]] home is located within a single grain of sand, somewhere within a ''massive'' desert.