History Main / PortalDoor

* This is how monsters are able to come out of children's closets and scare them in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''. The monster world has a copy of every child's closet door that when given power will connect to their bedroom. The titular factory has a vault filled with ''millions'' of them, and the climax features Sully, Mike and Boo, as well as Randall, giving chase, running back and forth through multiple doors in the vault, causing them to end up in different locations around the world.

* This is how monsters are able to come out of children's closets and scare them in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''. The monster world has a copy of every child's closet door that when given power will connect to their bedroom. The titular factory has a vault filled with ''millions'' of them, and the climax features Sully and Mike running back and forth through multiple doors in the vault, causing them to end up in different locations around the world.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has several.

* In the Creator/RobertAsprin ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series, the Deveel race has mastered interdimensional travel to the point that they build their house's front door in one dimension and the rest of the house in another. In addition to the obvious benefits of being able to build a house of any size anywhere you want, it allows the [[ProudMerchantRaceGuy Deveels]] to use their apparent poverty as a bargaining tactic. The customer sees you selling goods out of your "humble tent," never realizing the small door at the back opens up onto an otherworldly manor house.

* ''VideoGame/BitTrip'': In a cutscene, a door labeled "Broom Closet" takes the Commander to [[spoiler:[[NostalgiaLevel The BIT.TRIP]]]].

* In the final season of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', in the absence of the Waverider, the team's home base becomes an extradimensional duplicate of John Constantine's house, accessed by unlocking any door with a magic key John gives Zari. Unfortunately, opening the door reveals that the dimension in question is Hell.

* In the final season of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', in the absence of the Waverider, the team's home base becomes an extradimansional duplicate of John Constantine's house, accessed by unlocking any door with a magic key John gives Zari. Unfortunately, opening the door reveals that the dimension in question is Hell.

* In the final season of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', in the absence of the Waverider, the team's home base becomes a duplicate of John Constantine's house, accessed by unlocking any door with a magic key John gives Zari.

* In the final season of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', in the absence of the Waverider, the team's home base becomes a duplicate of John Constantine's house, accessed by unlocking any door with a magic key John gives Zari.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited "The Girl Who Waited"]]: A hallway full of doors connects all of the rooms in this facility.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'''s "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS1E13TheFirstDay The First Day]]": The secret room is full of magic doors that lead to other rooms in Hexside, which the detention kids use to peek on other classes and learn other types of magic. The doors don't need to open to other doors, instead creating doors out of whatever happens to be at the location (walls, lockers, etc.).

[[folder:Pinball]]
* The "transphazers" of ''[[Pinball/TXSector TX-Sector]],'' which are used to teleport pinballs across the playfield.
* ''Pinball/{{Varkon}}'' features a stone gate through which Varkon can be seen. Playing well on the main table allows players to attack Varkon on the other side.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries'', it is revealed that all the "[=PERSONNEL ONLY=]" doors in bars connect to Ian's bar in the Hub.

-->''That's weird, it's like something out of [[Series/TheTwilightZone that twilighty show about that zone]].''

How can this door bend space and time like a Dali painting? It may be a technological {{teleportation}} device, a TimeMachine (or both). It could also be made through magic (which usually justifies it being otherwise mundane looking), and may lead to the MagicLand, SpiritWorld or DarkWorld. Lastly, it may be some form of "naturally" occurring gateway of Eldritch origin that leads to an AlternateDimension.

* This is how monsters are able to come out of children's closets and scare them in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''. Each child has a door associated with them that when given power will connect to their bedroom. The titular factory has a vault filled with ''millions'' of them.

* This is how monsters are able to come out of children's closets and scare them in ''Film/MonstersInc''. Each child has a door associated with them that when given power will connect to their bedroom. The titular factory has a vault filled with ''millions'' of them.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/miraculous_world_doorman.png]]]]

* The door leading out of the title castle in Diana Wynne Jones' ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'' leads to four different places depending on what color its dial is set to. Three are The Wastes, Howl's shop in Porthaven, and Howl's shop in Kingsbury. The fourth [[spoiler:leads to another dimension - modern day Wales]].

* In ''Literature/MedusasWeb'', there is a corridor in the spooky old house that is lined with doors salvaged from other buildings, set into the solid wall with no openings behind them. At one point, the protagonist whimsically knocks on one -- and it opens, revealing the interior of the house it came from seventy years earlier.

* In the Creator/RobertAsprin ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series, the Deveel race has mastered interdimensional travel to the point that they build their house's front door in one dimension and the rest of the house in another. In addition to the obvious benefits of being able to build a house of any size anywhere you want, it allows the [[ProudMerchantRaceGuy Deveels]] to use their apparent poverty as a bargaining tactic. The customer sees you selling goods out of your "humble tent," never realizing the small door at the back opens up onto an otherworldly manor house.
* Creator/DerekLandy's ''Literature/DemonRoad'':
** ''Demon Road'': Dacre Shanks has a magic key that can link any door to the interior of his dollhouses. Anyone the goes through will shrink. Shanks claims he can use the key to travel from a doorway to any other doorway but only he can control where, even if someone else is using the key.
** ''Desolation'': Mayor Jesper has a key similar to the in Dacre Shanks had that links any door to the cavern where [[spoiler:Naberius is trapped]].
* ''Literature/HouseOfDoors'': The only way into the House of Doors is through one of its Doors, which function as portals, but only for those who are allowed.
* Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'': There is a door in the castle that Howl enchanted to lead to different places ([[spoiler: and times]]) depending on the color its dial points toward.
* Creator/DeborahDixon's ''{{Literature/Illuminated}}'': In ''Fiat Lux'', according to Roscoe, any door can lead anywhere if you're paying enough attention.
* Creator/CliffordDSimak's "Literature/TheBigFrontYard": Taine's house has been transformed, with the back and sides of his house on Earth while his front door acts as a portal to a different planet, which the aliens use to trade ideas (technology) between cultures.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/ItsSuchABeautifulDay": The Door is a device that can dial up any other Door in existence, and then allow you to step between the two places instantly. It is distinct from a normal door (which merely allows access through a wall) by [[CapitalLettersAreMagic the capital letters]]. Public Doors, like public telephones, [[TheLonelyDoor are free-standing structures instead]].
* Creator/TimPowers's ''Literature/MedusasWeb'': In the house, there is a corridor lined with old doors from other buildings, set into the solid wall with no openings behind them. At one point, Scott whimsically knocks on one -- and it opens, revealing the house it came from seventy years earlier.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' novel, ''{{Literature/Ravenor}}'': The Tri-Portal, a mystical wooden door that sends anyone who walks through it to anywhere in space [[TimeTravel and time]].
* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/RoughDraft'': Each door in the tower opens to an alternate world.
%%* ''Literature/TheTraitorSonCycle'': There are seven interdimensional gates in the world, leading to other spheres. The two we've seen directly so far -- in Lissen Carak and Daar As Salam -- look like large and ornate door.%%What are these doors part of? If they are not in a wall, then this should be TheLonelyDoor
* In ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries'', it is revealed that all the "[=PERSONNEL ONLY=]" doors in bars connect to Ian's bar in the Hub.

* The "transphazers" of ''[[Pinball/TXSector TX-Sector]],'' which are used to teleport pinballs across the playfield.

* The [[http://ritepublishing.com/dicelessroleplaying.html Lords of Gossamer and Shadow RPG]] is even more focused on this trope than Sigil. All the Doors in the game are actual doors, connected to an endless staircase called the Grand Stair.

* The "Doors" series of animations ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr5rDR4RVs 1]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSfKusgaEDU 2]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nxtWm5c3Qc 3]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9m1EEs1Wrs 4]]) features a long series of these as a framing device for a collaborative animation, wherein the black protagonist must overcome whatever each particular animator chooses to be their obstacle to reach the door to the next stretch of his journey. Ranging from elaborate fight sequences, strange spatial effects, others in need of aid, the avoidance of dragons, awkward social interactions, to even [[spoiler: his own past self]], each segment lasts from a few seconds to no more than two minutes.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The superhero Dean Gate/Doorman from the "Miraculous New York" special has the power to turn any door into a portal that leads to other doors, no matter the location.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded''. The doors that can open to different locations depending on which person or key opens them.

* In ''Film/TheAdjustmentBureau'', the Adjustors use any door to travel to any other door.

* ''Film/FromBeyondTheGrave'': In "The Door", the titular door begins to exert a strange fascination over Seaton, and he finds that when he finally opens it, a mysterious blue room lies beyond. There, he finds the notes of Sir Michael Sinclair, an evil occultist who created the door as a means to trap those who entered through it, so that Sinclair can take their souls and live forever.

* Creator/DanSimmons' ''Literature/HyperionCantos'' overcomes the problem of space travel and communication with two different systems. The space travel system is essentially portals. Some very wealthy homes consist of rooms on different planets connected by these portals.
* In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' (book and show), Door and her family can open up doors anywhere. Their home is a bunch of unconnected rooms.
* The tri-portal 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.
* 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.

* In ''Literature/TheRedemptionOfAlthalus'' by Creator/DavidEddings, the protagonists live in a house with as many rooms as they like, as large as they like (they occasionally have armies on the march through the corridors) and can open doors to literally anywhere on command. One of the protagonists attempt, out of curiosity, to open a door to "nowhere"—although they avert the attempt before they succeed, the concept is enough to freak out their patron goddess something fierce.

* The redstone doorways in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' look like empty doorframes, but walking through one will transport you to a dimension populated by weird aliens who see the future or grant wishes.
** ''The Wheel of Time'' has them in at least three flavors: the aforesaid redstone doorways, the Waygates built of finely carved white stone and having nice reflection visual effect, and the One Power-created Gateways for Skimming (travel via subspace) and Traveling (instant teleportation).
*** There are also Portal Stones, which are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. They link not only to other portal stones in the world, but also to Portal Stones in Parallel worlds. Very handy, if not well understood at all.

%%* ''Literature/TheForgottenDoor'' by Alexander Key. An inter-dimensional machine/gate.
* The appropriately-named Gates in Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series. They have a number of important limitations, in that they are single-use constructions created by a powerful mage [[CastFromHitPoints using his own life force]], and can only go somewhere said mage has been to and knows well. The ancient Adepts of the Mage Wars, as well as the mysterious [[TheEmpire Eastern Empire]], on the other hand, knew/know the secrets of Permanent Gates, which once created are simple to activate and use.
* 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.
* The aptly-named {{Literature/Gate}}, which was opened by a goddess of a LowFantasy world, straight into the heart of Ginza, Tokyo.
%%* ''The Green Door'' in Creator/HGWells' short story of the same name.
* One means of getting around in the endless world of ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' is The Temple of a Thousand Doors (Der Tausend-Türen-Tempel), which contains an infinite number of five-sided 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 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.
* 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.
* In the last volume of ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'', Max and Melifaro end up in a magical reality where ''all'' doors are this for them: stepping through any kind of portal or door (even self-constructed) transports them to another world (seemingly) at random. When they finally make it back to Echo, Max discovers all doors still continue to function like portals to random universes for him, so he has to condition himself to check every doorway he passes through for this effect.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' during the battle in the Department of Mysteries, Sirius Black gets pulled into an ominous veiled archway after being cursed by [[RoyallyScrewedUp Bellatrix]]. [[AnyoneCanDie And he hasn't been back since]]...
* Two and a half examples in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'':
** In ''Literature/PrinceCaspian'' when Aslan sends the four Pevensies home and some of the Telmarines to the deserted island their ancestors came from through a door made of 2 vertical sticks and a horizontal one on top.
** In ''Literature/TheLastBattle'', the door to the stable, which turns out to lead to Aslan's country (ie heaven) and not the inside of a stable that the Calormens are about to set fire to.
** Finally, the eponymous wardrobe in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' may qualify. It's a bit of an edge case, since the actual "portal" (when it's there at all) appears to be near the back of the wardrobe - rather than through the actual doorway.
* ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'':
** Professor Chronitis's time-traveling study in appears as a door in a convenient wall, or cliff face.
** Reg's time machine uses the door to his bathroom to move from one timframe to another.
* In Creator/RebeccaLickiss's ''Literature/EccentricCircles'', Grandma Dickerson's house leads to a MagicalLand.
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/TheBoyAndTheDarkness'', each world has three such doors that link it to a parallel world. In the novel, the Sunny Kitten takes Danny through one such door to a world perpetually covered in darkness. The door promptly gets destroyed by the [[HumanoidAbomination Flyings]]. Danny manages to find the other two doors, but they get destroyed as well, leaving him stranded in this world. He has a final chance to return to his own world but sacrifices it to save his friend. Finally, the Sunny Kitten explains that the doors directly to Danny's world are gone, but there are other doors leading to other parallel worlds. Thus, they may be able to find a door to Danny's world there.
** In Lukyanenko's ''Literature/RoughDraft'' duology, the protagonist is put in charge of a WarpZone with several doors, each one leading to a different world. Throughout the duology, he meets several other "customs officers", whose places of residence feature doors to different worlds.
* In ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'', within The Master's house, there are portals to all of the worlds that the Kencyrath had to abandon in their flight.

* The door to Brimstone's shop in ''Literature/DaughterOfSmokeAndBone''. If you enter it from the outside, it leads to a nondescript laundry room. If someone inside opens the door and lets you in, it leads to the shop. If you're going from inside to outside, you can choose to come out in any of several dozen cities around the world.

* In the ''Literature/ChaosGods'' series, the Four Realms are connected by the Gates, large portals which transport people from one Realm to another.
* In ''Literature/MedusasWeb'', there is a corridor in the spooky old house that is lined with doors salvaged from other buildings, set into the solid wall with no openings behind them. At one point, the protagonist whimsically knocks on one -- and it opens, revealing the interior of the house it came from seventy years earlier.

* ''VideoGame/MysteryOfMortlakeMansion'' has several small doors hidden all over the real-world mansion, each requiring a specifically-coloured crystal to unlock. Once unlocked, a colour/sequence/shape-matching puzzle must be completed in order to open a SwirlyEnergyThingy leading to the "shadowy" version of the room in which the door is found. The shadowy mansion in ''VideoGame/MysteryOfMortlakeMansion'' has the same rooms as the real-world one, but connected differently (and illogically), resulting in several isolated groups of rooms which are not accessible from each other. Travelling from one group of rooms to another can only be done by returning to the real world and using another PortalDoor.

* The title character of ''Mot'' has the power to turn any door into a PortalDoor that leads to any other door he chooses.

* ''Fanfic/WeirdIncidentShit'': The first page has "[[SecondPersonNarration You]]" from ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' break the window on their door. This transports them to ''{{Videogame/Touhou}}'''s Gensokyo, but there's no door leading back to the office. You are stuck in a strange and colourful world.

* In ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'', Jenkins uses the few magical artifacts he has in the Annex to build a "back door", a portal that connects a broom closet door to another door anywhere in the world. However, navigation is not easy and requires the use of sympathetic magic. Jenkins claims that it's a good thing he can even hit the target city. This allows the titular characters to travel the world without spending hours flying or driving. Unfortunately, it also leaves the Annex open to anyone who might stumble on the door from the other end ([[spoiler:such as [[Myth/KingArthur Morgan le Fay]]]]). Also, the pilot episode showed the Library itself having multiple doors leading to other parts of the world. In fact, the elevator that led to the Library was itself a portal, since the Library doesn't exist in our dimension. Later on, Jenkins manages to come up with a single-shot portable version, although that one appears to be used more as a link to the regular "back door".

* In the comic ''WebComic/{{Flipside}}'', creating a portal involves slapping a door-sized piece of enchanted paper on a surface.

* ''WebOriginal/DeeperUpTheTower'': The Tower seems to be full of these that take people from floor to floor, with yellow doors in particular being associated with Florian.