History Main / DoorToBefore

** In the first ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', the "normal" path to Kraid has you descend the leftmost shaft of his hideout, through the false acid pool, bomb the floor in the purple hallway to reach the green hallway with the fake Kraid, then drop through a false floor to the antechamber of the real Kraid's room. To exit, you climb the rightmost shaft via a column of respawning blocks, which leads you through a missile door to an out of reach ledge back in the central shaft. With the Ice Beam, however, you can use frozen Rippers [[DungeonBypass to reach the door from the opposite side for a shortcut]]. The hideout also has two one-way Morph Ball passages exiting from the lower halls.

** ''Fallout 3'' and ''New Vegas'' also allow you to "fast-travel" to any location, skipping traveling around the world -- as long as you've been to said location at least once.

* ''VideoGame/{{ICO}}'' starts out deep within a castle's catacombs, then works its way into an EscortMission that takes [[KidHero Ico]] and [[FallenPrincess Yorda]] through a game-long flight across a full-scale island fortress. They navigate [[BrokenBridge inconveniently gaping chasms]], [[DeathTrap death-rigged rooms]], [[BlockPuzzle puzzle-based chambers]] and basically tour the whole building - ramparts, gardens, cemeteries - to [[LockedDoor unlock the one escape door]]. When you finally open the doors, [[spoiler: [[SavethePrincess she gets kidnapped]]]], so you have to climb your way back to where you started out at the catacombs for [[FinalBoss one last fight]].

** Many levels in the ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' trilogy, particularly ''[[VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon Year of the Dragon]]'', are structured like giant circles; there's always a wall you can now smash, or an elevator that can only be activated from the far side of the level, or a Whirlwind that's now active at the start of the level.

[[folder:Film]]

** The most blatant comes early in the original, where you're forced to do the 'We've Got Hostiles' chapter just because one security guard who could have opened a door didn't think to grab a shotgun while being attacked. Oh, and there is a scientist near this shotgun who could've helped, or at least pushed a button while his buddy scientist screamed at him to do it. [[SpeedRun Speedrunners]] have managed to skip the chapter entirely just by glitching themselves into the room with the button.

* The ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' series has made it a staple to include hidden shortcuts in dungeons that can't be entered when you first come across them, but, when after a lot of exploration you look at your map and see you ended up on the other side of the wall, you can "break open" the shortcut, not only offering a much faster way back but more importantly giving a much quicker way forward the next time you enter the dungeon. These conditional 2-way shortcuts were fairly uncommon in the first game, but by the third game, having a shortcut between the entrance and exit of a dungeon floor is almost guaranteed and most floors have 3 or 4 other shortcuts. The first game also has a shortcut right before the TrueFinalBoss all the way back to the entrance of the dungeon, giving the player a chance to save the game before plunging in.

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBlackFlag'': A couple of the pirate dens which can only be entered through underwater caverns have this. The exit is clearly visible from outside but can't initially be reached due to its higher elevation.

->''"Oh no. Not THIS room again! I don't understand! Why do we make rooms that can't be accessed connect to OTHER rooms that can't be accessed?"''
-->-- ''Machinima/FreemansMind''

* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Double Agent''

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

** Many levels in the ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' trilogy, particularly ''[[VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon Year of the Dragon]], are giant circles; there's always a wall you can now smash, or an elevator that can only be activated from the far side of the level, or a Whirlwind that's now active at the start of the level.
** Every level in ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' is designed similarly. If there isn't a door, there's a teleporter, or a taxi, or some elaborate underground pod system. The large variety of ways the player can get back to the start is part of the fun in the earlier games, even when you know full well why it exists in the first place.

* In the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' trilogy you can usually destroy, lockpick and/or hack a door but if you don't have the firepower, resources, skills or it's simply inadvisable to do, there's usually a secondary path to the objective and when you backtrack to the door it is commonly unlocked from the other side.

* In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'', after exploring a large portion of the castle, you find yourself on the far side of a wall you passed very early in the game. There is a conveniently placed ''cannon'' that you can use to blast the wall down. There is no reason or use for the cannon other than blasting down this wall.

* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'':
%%** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'' forces you to fight a giant crab to get to the other side of a lighthouse. No explanation why you can't just ''go around the lighthouse.''
** In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'', after exploring a large portion of the castle, you find yourself on the far side of a wall you passed very early in the game. There is a conveniently placed ''cannon'' that you can use to blast the wall down. There is no reason or use for the cannon other than blasting down this wall.

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series just ''loves'' doors apparently only held shut by a simple latch on one side.

* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games have these in spades. In ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill2 SH2]]'''s hotel, to get behind the door to before, you have to first use a service elevator that requires you to leave all your items on the shelf, then to unlock it, you must use a lightbulb obtained from a tin can so you can see the lock.

* Used well in ''Film/NationalTreasure'' -- [[spoiler: when the BigBad leaves the heroes stranded in an underground mine shaft while he tracks down the next clue. Ben notes that the first thing the builders would have done after completing the first shaft would have been to cut a secondary shaft to promote air flow and decrease the danger of cave-ins. They quickly located the second and unguarded exit... which happens to be in the hidden Treasure Room]].

* One of the main tasks in ''Dragontorc'' is to retrieve the four crowns from various dungeons, and return them to Halgor's tomb where they can be destroyed. To make things a little easier, the ''return'' spell teleports the player to Halgor's tomb, so they don't have to navigate each dungeon in reverse. Except that ''return'' [[VancianMagic can only be cast four times]], and you have to make two visits to the last dungeon.

* ''VideoGame/Subnautica'' has a series of mysterious [[spoiler:alien]] arches that can teleport you around the map. Of course, the ones that connect the surface with the deep can't be activated until you reach the deep arch by another means.

* VideoGame/{{Subnautica}} has a series of mysterious [[spoiler:alien]] arches that can teleport you around the map. Of course, the ones that connect the surface with the deep can't be activated until you reach the deep arch by another means.