Portal (series)



This article is about the video game entitled Portal. If you are searching for portal-related tropes, please refer to Teleportation Tropes.

Describe Por0

The most fitting description you can have for Portal is "first-person puzzle game." Essentially, it is a Puzzle Game made in 3D with a First-Person Shooter engine, which can serve as a somewhat misleading combination.

The player character is Chell, who wakes up in a seemingly uninhabited facility. GLaDOS, the facility's AI robot voice, sends her through a series of puzzles as a test subject for the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, which is capable of opening portals on flat surfaces (only two at a time), creating a link between them. The tests are deadly and require quite a bit of creativity for Chell to get through, navigating the bizarre twists of geometry and gravity that are exploited for all they're worth.

There are no other characters to interact with, no enemies to kill (except for gun-turrets), and no items to find (other than the portal gun itself, which is given to the player right away and upgraded shortly after). The challenge comes from progressing through the test chambers, as it becomes increasingly clear that GLaDOS might not be all there and displays an alarmingly cavalier attitude to your safety and sanity. But hey, you're promised cake.

The game nominally takes place in the Half-Life universe, but there's nothing connecting them so far other than random hints on walls referring to Black Mesa and the fact that Aperture Science is mentioned in the Half-Life 2 episodes. Black Mesa is also mentioned in the credits song, and GLaDOS herself makes vague references to the events of Half-Life during the final confrontation.

Released as part of The Orange Box in October 2007. It was patched in March 2010 with an updated ending through Steam, a rarity for such an old single-player game.

Portal appears to have revitalized a somewhat stagnant industry; instead of being a confusing 'me-too' clone of the big sellers, the game was relatively short, used easily-understood mechanics, and featured a premise that was clearly spelled out, easy to grasp, continually challenging as new puzzles were introduced and didn't bog the gameplay down.

The sequel, Portal 2, was released April 2011. Chell is awakened an uncertain but very long time after the events of Portal by an AI core named Wheatley, and in an attempt to leave the facility, they accidentally awaken GLaDOS. Now, please enter your local Aperture Science Enrichment Center for further testing.

0tal here. Wha? Who put that there?

"Cave Johnson:...well, it’d be like, I don't know, something that would help with the shower curtains I guess. I haven’t worked this idea out as much as the wish-taking one."
 * Abandoned Laboratory: Ain't no one in the Aperture Science labs except you and GLaDOS.
 * Adorable Evil Minions: The gun turrets.
 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A pleasant, amusing, physics game is turned into a brilliant story demonstrating the power of the medium merely by the judicious application of an Insane Killer Disk-Operating System. And cake.
 * All There in the Manual: The Aperture Science website revealed much of the backstory. Then GameInformer's Portal 2 hub listed an updated version of the history as stated in the Aperture website. The Combine OverWiki can also help.
 * The names of GLaDOS and Chell are never stated in-game, except in the optional developer commentary. However, Chell is listed in the credits, and GLaDOS has her name on her side.
 * Alternate Reality Game: On March 1, 2010, the game received a surprise patch, featuring a new achievement and a load of seemingly innocuous sound files full of static. Until someone savvy enough to know old-school technology (SSTV) found images hidden within them and oh bloody hell.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Chell.
 * Arc Words: *warping sound* "" To an extent, anyway. "The Cake Is a Lie" fits the bill. (Even though it's never actually spoken in-game -- the Rat Man has scrawled it repeatedly on the wall of one of his dens ). For Science! is also repeatedly thrown around.
 * Ascetic Aesthetic: The Enrichment Center...most of the time.
 * ASCII Art: Used in the credits to Portal as well as in the Portal 2 ARG.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
 * Audio Erotica: GLaDOS, after her morality core is destroyed. The subtitles note her voice gets lower in pitch, and sexier.
 * Badass Abnormal: Doug Rattman, a schizophrenic Deadpan Snarker scientist
 * Badass Normal: Chell, of course.
 * Bad Liar: GLaDOS
 * Bag of Spilling: The Emancipation Grill (also called "the fizzler") is a forcefield which is harmless to Chell and her Portal Gun, but prevents her from taking foreign objects like cubes through it, and there's one at the end of each level, which prevents you from cheating or breaking the game. Additionally, you can't shoot portals through one, and passing through erases all current portals. Many puzzles force you to circumvent Emancipation Grills creatively.
 * Black Comedy: Aperture Science's approach to anything is steeped in this. So is GLaDOS's sense of humor.
 * Blatant Lies: GLaDOS attempts to convince you that at the end of the testing procedure was just another test "". She then claims that there's a big party being thrown in your honor if you'll just stop right there and lie down. She's not terribly convincing when her test subjects go Off the Rails.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: At the end of a test chamber that involved momentum, GLaDOS says, "Weeeee." In the German version, she says, "Wiiiir," which is the translation of the pronoun "we."
 * Bloodless Carnage: Like in Half-Life, there is a cheat (one that doesn't invoke No Fair Cheating) that disables blood. Specifically, the cheat is violence_hblood 0.
 * Body Horror: GLaDOS mentions offhand that the Emancipation Grill may, ""
 * Boss Arena Idiocy: GLaDOS' arena has everything you need to beat her, but it's Hand Waved as being out of her control. The room was designed so that the Aperture Science employees would have a way to deal with her if she went insane.
 * Boss Banter: Part of the attraction of this game is GLaDOS' hilarious banter while you're trying to destroy her.
 * Brain Uploading: GLaDOS claims to have a backup of Chell on file, which she later claims to delete. Of course, she is a lying liar who lies, so who knows.
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Listen to the cake recipe... At least the less savory ingredients are just garnishes. The cake recipe is legit too, so long as you know the baking instructions.
 * Also,
 * Brick Joke/Call Back:
 * The patch added one to the ending of Portal.
 * A lesser Brick Joke comes in the form of one of the radios you can collect for the Transmission Received achievement.
 * Briar Patching: Near the end of Portal, GLaDOS tells you not to touch a certain object and, for once, it would probably be for the best if you complied (but Stupidity Is the Only Option in order to beat the game). GLaDOS actually bets on the player not trusting her and doing the opposite of what she says. Despite her double use of Reverse Psychology, her intention is still pretty obvious.
 * Brutal Bonus Level: The Advanced Test Chambers. Especially Advanced Test Chamber 18.
 * BSOD Song: "Still Alive" is a rather weird, villainous version of this.
 * Canon Immigrant: GLaDOS will star in the Defense Grid the Awakening DLC Defense Grid: You Monster!.
 * The Cast Showoff: Ellen McLain is an operatic singer, which means she sings one hell of a credits song.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The radio in Chell's room/cell/pod, a seemingly innocuous prop (which played an uptempo version of "Still Alive"), was given an upgrade into a myth arc/ARG prop status two years after release.
 * Cleveland Rocks: Apparently, Portal takes place in Cleveland. Specifically, it takes place in the massive, miles-deep remains of the real-life salt mines near Cleveland that were, in-story, purchased by Cave Johnson back in the 40s and expanded into a gigantic labyrinth of testing and production facilities. The sequel, however, apparently retcons this by placing the mine in Michigan.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson, according to the company's Backstory. His many questionable acts include founding a shower curtain manufacturing company named Aperture Science, believing time was flowing backwards as he laid on his death bed, and deciding that developing a Heimlich Counter-Maneuver and creating a Take-A-Wish Foundation were two important plans for Aperture Science's future (or past, as he saw it). Even the portal project was originally developed because, in Johnson's own words:

"GLaDOS:"
 * Collision Damage: Mostly averted, with a Hand Wave thanks to Chell's heel springs. Played straight with the toxic floors and energy orbs. GLaDOS even lampshades it:

{{quote|GLaDOS: {{smallcaps|It was a {{spoiler|Morality Core}}}} {{smallcaps|they installed after I {{spoiler|flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin}}}} {{smallcaps|to make me stop {{spoiler|flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin.}}}}'''
 * Combat Stilettos: Played with. Chell wears a pair of heel springs in the first game to cushion very fast, very high falls in order to prevent her legs from being crushed. They're also very similar to prosthetic running feet of similar purpose.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: GLaDOS' is much of what makes the game so hilarious.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: The incineration room from Test Chamber 19 doesn't appear to burn Chell or suffocate her as it really ought to.
 * Cool Gate: Portals.
 * Cores and Turrets Boss: GLaDOS
 * Creepy Monotone: Or at least very passive-aggressive. And then when and GLaDOS switches from robotic monotone to an emotive, described by the subtitles as seductive, and more obviously female voice, the contrast is actually creepier than the robotic monotone that you've been listening to all game. Listen for yourself
 * Creative Closing Credits/Credits Gag: The ending song plays over a text screen that displays the lyrics in the form of a computerized personnel file report, accompanied by some rather hilarious ASCII art.
 * Crossover: With Defense Grid the Awakening, complete with levels that look like the Enrichment Center.
 * Cute Machines: The turrets, as well as GLaDOS' curiosity core.
 * Cyber Cyclops: If Aperture made it, it has only one eye. Even with no depth perception, the turrets are annoyingly good at aiming for you if given the chance and a few seconds of your now-ended life.
 * Deadly Neurotoxin
 * Death Trap: GLaDOS tries one on you in the final test chamber, leading to your escape.
 * Department of Redundancy Department: GLaDOS is all over this.

Thank you for helping us help you help us all.
}} "GLaDOS:"
 * Development Gag: The first Brick Joke example above was meant to be in the game from the beginning, but, they couldn't, so they added it in a patch later.
 * Diabolus Ex Machina: Added to the ending to set up the sequel.
 * Distinctive Appearances: The white tile surfaces you can attach portals to are significantly different in color and texture than surfaces you can't use the portals on. This is so you can view things from a distance and know what your options are.
 * Disturbing Statistic:

"GLaDOS: "
 * DVD Commentary: The game has an alternate play mode in which speech-bubble-shaped objects appear that are triggers for audio clips of commentary. Most of the clips are the designers talking about the process of making the game.
 * Elaborate Underground Base: The Enrichment Center. The sequel shows how astoundingly elaborate it really is, and even then we don't directly see all of it. Aperture is huge.
 * The End - or Is It?: Both the original last scene and the updated ending make it clear that GLaDOS is not really dead, and that Chell's ordeal in the Enrichment Center is far from over.
 * Energy Ball: The Aperture Science High Energy Pellet.
 * Escape From the Crazy Place
 * Everything Is an iPod In The Future: Or more accurately, about the time the iPod came out. The similarity between Aperture's aesthetic and Apple's has been noted and was even exploited for one of Valve's teaser pictures when they were about to release Steam for the Mac.
 * Eternal Engine: The facilities behind-the-scenes. Taken to further extremes in the sequel.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: After the, GLaDOS voice deepens and becomes much smoother and, dare we say it, sexier.
 * Exact Words: GLaDOS claims that she will stop lying to Chell in 3...2...(cut to static)
 * Exact Time to Failure: The Deadly Neurotoxin  will kill you as soon as the timer runs out, no sooner or later. Chell will start to choke as the clock approaches zero.
 * Expository Theme Tune: Unusually, this one is an Ending Theme rather than an opening theme.
 * Expospeak Gag: The "1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super-Button" and "Aperture Science Thing-We-Don't-Know-What-It-Does", among others.
 * Foreshadowing:, , and  Guess what GLaDOS attempts to do later?
 * Now go get to The Reveal in Portal 2.
 * Flat Joy: "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee".
 * For Science!: Aperture Science doesn't seem to be too good at considering the future implications of the gadgets they make. As the theme tune says, "We do what we must / Because we can."
 * Gaiden Game: To the Half-Life series. Of course, given that it involves completely original characters and the sequel has been confirmed to have nothing to do with Episode Three or Half-Life 3 after all, you could also consider it a Backdoor Pilot.
 * Game Breaking Bug: When you're portalling your way onto the platforms over the water that will eventually lead to the incinerator room, the game saves as you go. If you fall off one of the platforms in the middle of one of the game's auto saves, you'll end up in an endless loop of respawning and dying.
 * Gas Chamber: Makes completing the final Boss Battle more urgent.
 * Genius Loci: The Enrichment Center is alive, and reshapes itself according to the whims of the AI in charge. This becomes much more apparent in the sequel.
 * Genre Blind: Aperture, you guys gave the sentient supercomputer the ability to release neurotoxin through the air vents, in your own facility. How did you think that would turn out?
 * Genre Busting
 * Genre Savvy: Aperture Science gets a mention for having a red phone in the chamber GLaDOS is in, just in case she goes berserk. The rescue was interrupted by the whole Black Mesa thing, so it didn't work.
 * Gone Horribly Wrong: The only thing Aperture Science has made that hasn't (yet) had terrible repercussions or just been a flat-out terrible idea? The Portal Gun, and that's only until the singularity inside it destabilizes.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Only a few things in the game with glowing eyes won't try to kill you.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here:


 * The portal gun costs as much as "the collective income and vital organs of everyone in ".
 * Parodied in the audio commentary where the introduction says: "Welcome to "
 * Heroic Mime: Lampshaded by GLaDOS, naturally. Chell's lack of response to her monologues leads her to say "" Word of God is that Chell won't offer her the satisfaction of speaking; she's just that stubborn.
 * Hot Line: Just inside GLaDOS' chamber, prior to entering the main arena, you see a red phone. In the commentary, the developers explain that it was a hotline for scientists to use in case of an emergency with the AI. They point out that the connection cord is cut, hinting at just how effective it was.
 * Humble Goal: Played for Laughs. If GLaDOS is to be believed, all Chell wants is cake. It's never revealed what she really wants, but since the game leads her to (temporarily) kill GLaDOS and escape Aperture's testing chambers, we'll assume it's that.
 * Incompetence, Inc.: Aperture was not a well-run research center. They were great at inventing innovative things and making profound scientific breakthroughs, but also seemed almost willfully ignorant of the uses to which said discoveries could be put and tried to shoehorn them into products for which they were completely unsuitable. See Inventional Wisdom below.
 * Industrialized Evil: The whole maze is one giant example, with however many test subjects came before.
 * Infant Immortality: Judging by the fact that GLaDOS' initial rampage took place during "Bring Your Daughter To Work Day", it's safe to assume this trope was averted.
 * Interface Spoiler: Averted -- the New Game level selection menu shows all of the test chambers. But that's only half the game.
 * Inventional Wisdom: The actual functions of Aperture Science's inventions are almost entirely tangential, if not antithetical, to their ostensible purpose. GLaDOS and the portal gun started as a fuel system de-icer and a shower curtain, respectively... at least until the retcon established in the sequel.
 * I Was Told There Would Be Cake: Indeed, Chell is told this. Frequently.
 * Justified Tutorial: Chell is a test subject, who is supposed to be learning how to use the portal gun from scratch. The developer's commentary discusses how the flow of the test chambers in all of the games is designed explicitly to train the player for each new feature and make sure they get it before incorporating it into the more complex puzzles later.
 * Karmic Death: The method GLaDOS chooses to dispose of the Companion Cube and the player is.
 * Kill All Humans: Apparently, GLaDOS spearheaded a Human Annihilation Studies program.
 * Kill It with Fire: The faithful Companion Cube. GLaDOS almost does this to the player. Then
 * Kick the Dog: You as Chell get to do this when  You Monster!.
 * Layman's Terms: Portals preserve momentum, or as GLaDOS puts it:
 * Layman's Terms: Portals preserve momentum, or as GLaDOS puts it:


 * Law of Inverse Recoil: The android turrets are easily knocked over and picked up as if they are quite light, however their guns don't seem to have much recoil - they don't tip back when they fire.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: GLaDOS tells the player, ""
 * Level Goal: In each of the test chambers, the elevator to the next test chamber.
 * Long List: One of GLaDOS's cores lists an awful lot of "garnishes" for cake, most of which have to do with fish shapes and rhubarb. Some on fire.
 * Lost in Transmission:
 * GLaDOS's introductory greeting.

"*power drain*"
 * Subverted later on. The (somewhat inaccurate and probably to-the-script) subtitles say, "...you will be baked *static* cake". But the audio track clearly says "...you will be baked, and then there will be cake."
 * Also, when you get the portal gun...

"*static*"
 * Levels where the player uses flinging.
 * After the level where GLaDOS admits she lied to you:


 * Lyrical Dissonance: "Still Alive" is certainly upbeat for a gloating song or a song about how the singer
 * Madness Mantra: The Cake Is a Lie
 * Mad Science: One kind of gets the sensation Aperture was run a little like this even before GLaDOS took over; the test rooms don't really seem to be built with "safety" or "sanity" in mind. The sequel plays this for all it's worth.
 * Meaningful Name: Aperture means opening, hole, or gap.
 * Minimalist Cast: A Heroic Mime and a disembodied voice. That's it, besides an absent nutcase who wrote messages on the walls, an inanimate box and some automatic turrets with cute voices.
 * The web comic "Lab Rat" establishes that Rattman, the "nutcase", was actually still there. He but a particularly creepy Easter egg in the second game implies that he's still alive: the sixth and final Rattman Den you can find is just like the others. When you leave, any and all portals you made inside the den mysteriously vanish and the wall closes so you can't get back in...
 * Misapplied Phlebotinum: The Portal Gun originated as an "improved" shower curtain. GLaDOS originated as an "improved" fuel system de-icer. Aperture developed wormhole teleportation and artificial intelligence, yet used them for nothing more than to run hapless subjects through mazes like lab rats.
 * Mission Control Is Off Its Meds
 * Morality Core: Even with it installed, GLaDOS still tries to kill you -- and it's the only core you find that's completely silent, implying that it's not working correctly anymore (if it ever was). And of course there's the fact that it was programmed with Aperture Science morality in mind.
 * Morality Core: Even with it installed, GLaDOS still tries to kill you -- and it's the only core you find that's completely silent, implying that it's not working correctly anymore (if it ever was). And of course there's the fact that it was programmed with Aperture Science morality in mind.


 * Lampshaded in the Lab Rat comic. The scientist who developed it refers to it as a conscience. Rattman cynically points out that a conscience can be ignored.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: Although Memetic Mutation has made it hard to remember, the bloodstained message indicating that "the cake is a lie" is actually this.
 * Murder by Cremation
 * Never Live It Down: In-Universe, GLaDOS never quite lets Chell forget about the time she incinerated the Weighted Companion Cube.
 * In one test chamber in Portal 2, she spits out another Companion Cube for you to use for the puzzle, only for it to disintegrate as soon as you touch it. She "apologizes," and gives you another one. Which also disintegrates. The third one can be used, and after the puzzle is solved she even tempts you to try and save this Cube by taking it through the (disabled) Emancipation Grill, explicitly warning you not to try and remove anything from the test area.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: In one trailer, a spike plate descended from the ceiling while the path was blocked by a pit of fire. Neither actually shows up. Although, it can still make sense since the "Real Life" footage came from a time when the game was in extreme beta.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When you destroy GLaDOS' Morality Core. She names the trope shortly thereafter.
 * No Fair Cheating: The steps, portals, and time challenges. Also, you can't get achievements with cheat mode on.
 * No Kill Like Overkill: Referred to in the credits song.

"GLaDOS:"
 * No Medication for Me: Inverted in the Lab Rat comic. Doug Rattman has been saving the last of his anti-psychotic medicine so that he'll have a clear head when Chell destroys GLaDOS and he can escape, even if the Companion Cube tells him he doesn't need it.
 * No OSHA Compliance: Lampshaded in-game.

"GLaDOS:."
 * Noodle Incident: The android tests Aperture was running, involving the non-specific idea of an "android hell" to keep the subjects in line.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: Despite the humor, the sheer stark emptiness of the test chambers, accompanied by understated ambient music, does create an effectively unnerving atmosphere.
 * Off the Rails: For the first half of the game you're stuck following GLaDOS' game plan, but when you find out there is no cake waiting for you, it's time to improvise.
 * Ontological Mystery
 * Overdrawn At the Blood Bank: Chell can take tons of turret shots, and leaves large blood smears on walls when hit. 5 seconds, and you're okay again, ready to lose another three pints.
 * Peace and Love Incorporated
 * People Jars: Implied in the Relaxation Vaults.
 * Plea of Personal Necessity: GLaDOS asks Chell, ""
 * Point of No Return: Within some levels, there are doors that close once the player goes through. (The divisions between each Game Level are also points of no return, of course, as they prevent players from putting portals across levels.)
 * Portal Cut:
 * Averted: The developers wanted players to feel safe, so if the player tries to put a portal elsewhere when the player or an object is in the middle of a portal, the player or object gets pushed out. Most of the time.
 * Inverted: Opening a portal pops off security cameras.
 * Portal Slam: Gets completely averted, at considerable programmer effort.
 * Pressure Plate: The 1,500-Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super-Button.
 * Puzzle Game: One of the only genres in which Portal readily fits.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot:
 * Among other things, beta testers caused the creation of the Companion Cube. Chamber 17 was designed for players to take the cube provided at the start of the level with them through the entire chamber, but at this point players had been well and truly trained that cubes were to be used once and then discarded, and another would be provided next time. What to do? Paint tiny hearts on each of its sides and call it a Companion Cube. Then have GLaDOS repeatedly tell you that the cube was your best friend and you should look after it. That worked!
 * Beta testers asked why Chell could survive multi-story falls through recursive portals and still land on her feet without being smashed into the floor. Once she was given leg-springs to absorb the shocks, no one ever asked again.
 * "A lot of people like cake." That was sufficient enough reason to put the cake in the game. More accurately, during a design meeting about what sort of philosophy to drive the game with the answer was the above. Of course, the dev team did not expect the reactions from the fans, which is why there is absolutely no cake in Portal 2.
 * Hoopy the Hoop was what the devs thought would become the meme for the game (apparently having it become the focus of the last cutscene and appear throughout the levels). instead "The Cake is a Lie" took that spotlight and Hoopy ended up more or less as an office joke.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: All throughout the final battle.

"the cake is a lie the cake is a lie the cake is a lie the cake is a lie"
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: The turrets.
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: The portal gun could revolutionize the world: Perpetual Motion Machines, Casual Interstellar Travel, resolve all supply and transportation problems, but there's no suggestion that it was ever used for anything other than testing.
 * Required Secondary Gadgetry: Chell wears a pair of ankle-springs in order to ensure her legs aren't shattered when she comes flying out of a portal. The commentary bubbles indicate early on that the reason was that playtesters complained that Chell could survive falls that would kill Gordon Freeman. Despite the fact that the springs are patently insufficient to realistically protect her, they stopped the complaints, so mission accomplished!
 * Restraining Bolt: GLaDOS' Morality Core was installed in an attempt to curb her psychotic tendencies.
 * Revision: Prior to the release of Portal 2, Valve released an update which adds a few seconds to one of the final cutscenes, revealing a significant event just after the point where that scene originally ended. This, of course, ties into the sequel.
 * Robo Speak
 * Room Full of Crazy: I <3 Companion Cube.


 * Rouge Angles of Satin: Several, including one at the final boss fight: if you turn on the closed captions (at least for the 360 release) there will be a grammatical error of GLaDOS saying "I don't want to tell you you're business" instead of the correct "I don't want to tell you your business." This can dampen the gravity of the situation quite a bit.
 * Sarcasm Mode: ""
 * Sarcastic Confession: "Do you think I'm trying to trick you with Reverse Psychology? I mean, seriously now."
 * Science Is Bad: Exaggerated and Played for Laughs. GLaDOS and Aperture Science in general regard science with a three-way combination of Comedic Sociopathy, Crazy Awesome and For the Evulz.
 * Sequel Hook: In the form of Then the official patch to the end sequence itself, as part of a Viral Marketing announcement of the sequel.
 * Second-Hour Superpower: You originally start out with the ability to just shoot blue portals, but a little bit into the game, and you can shoot both orange and blue.
 * Secret Test of Character: Or at least, that's what GLaDOS proclaims.

"GLaDOS:"
 * Sentient AI Warning Signs: GLaDOS hits something like 80% of points on the list.
 * Shaped Like Itself:
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
 * Shout-Out: Has its own page.
 * Slept Through the Apocalypse: "I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even I'm not sure what's going on outside."
 * Soundtrack Dissonance
 * Spell My Name with an "S": The Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill at the end of each level caused controversy after the first game. It's not a "Grid". Portal 2 pronounces it and has its subtitles clearly as "Grill", putting the argument to rest.
 * Spikes of Doom:
 * Portal's trailer showed a room with a Descending Ceiling with these, presumably from a testing room that never got into the game. This very room (and the next one in the trailer) was recreated in a mappack named Hetzchase Nailway (Video here) and later in Portal: Project-Beta.
 * The Descending Ceiling is present (with spikes) in one of the extra challenge levels of the Xbox Live Arcade version of Portal.
 * Spiritual Successor: To Narbacular Drop.
 * Stupidity Is the Only Option: Subverted, in that the only way to progress is to escape from an apparently inescapable trap. Even more so since, if you get killed there, the game reloads an automatic save point just before you enter that area, allowing you to try to escape again.
 * Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids:
 * GLaDOS was originally designed to be a "fuel-injection system de-icer". Someone went just a tad overboard.
 * The turrets don't really need to have independent thought and the ability to feel pain.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial:
 * A subversion, but then that just makes it funnier. ""
 * Played straight with the Morality Core -- GLaDOS' attempts to get you to destroy it with Reverse Psychology are blatantly obvious.
 * Tactical Suicide Boss:
 * Take That: In-universe example: take a look at GLaDOS's screens as she says, "... the dumbest thing...," and you'll see the Black Mesa logo.
 * Teleport Gun: The Portal Gun.
 * Teleport Interdiction: Portals can only be created on certain types of surfaces (e.g. white tile, yes; bare metal, no). Navigating through areas with few or no portal surfaces becomes an increasingly common puzzle element in the later stages.
 * The Tetris Effect: You will start thinking with portals.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The radios in the game default to playing a short jazzy loop based on "Still Alive". The latter even made its way into the jukeboxes in Left 4 Dead 2.
 * Totalitarian Utilitarian: In the credits song, GLaDOS claims her actions were for the greater good of mankind...at least, what's left of it. Also, she fully intends to keep killing innocent people For Science!. See page quote.
 * Unwinnable By Mistake: Some of the autosaves are placed over toxic waste. Oops. Also, if you really try, it's possible to exploit the physics to trap yourself or otherwise make the level unwinnable. Thankfully, much of the time the game will notice when you've trapped yourself in a place you can't get out from, and will let you out.
 * The Xbox 360 Arcade re-release, Portal: Still Alive, has an achievement for getting stuck.
 * Unreliable Narrator: Keep in mind what computer appears to be working as the Aperture web server. (Before its December 2010 change which removed the site's viral advertising features.) This also applies in the actual game; you can't really trust what you're being told.
 * Villainous Breakdown:

"GLaDOS:"
 * Visual Pun / Stealth Pun: As the effects of GLaDOS's morality core begin to wear off, her monitors display a small pile of screws. . Also, when GLaDOS mentions "violent behavior", a picture of a violin with a knife on it flashes on the screens.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Darkly subverted in the sense that GLaDOS somewhat treats Chell in this manner, as one-sided as it is.
 * Why Don't You Marry It?:
 * Wreaking Havok
 * You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!:

"GLaDOS: You euthanized your faithful Companion Cube more quickly than any other test subject on record. Congratulations."
 * You Monster!: Combined with a liberal dose of Sarcasm Mode:


 * You Wake Up in a Room: The game begins with Chell waking up in a Relaxation Vault.