Portal – No Escape

Did You Know?

• The film was produced on a few thousand dollars.
• Production wrapped in early 2010, and post-production took an additional year and a half.
• Trachtenberg discussed the budget in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Plot

Chell (Danielle Rayne) awakens in a room with no memory of her identity or how she arrived. She breaks a mirror and uses a shard to see a barcode on the back of her neck. Noticing tally marks on a wall, she spends hours or days decoding them, exercising, and eating food provided by guards while a security camera watches. She eventually deduces the meaning of the scribblings and finds a Portal Gun hidden behind a wall panel. After learning to use it, she drops her bed on an intervening officer and escapes. Chell runs from pursuers, reaches a rooftop in an industrial area, and jumps through a portal to another building. Walking away, she realizes giant screens surround her, creating the illusion of an open world.

Reception

The short film debuted on July 22, 2011, at San Diego Comic-Con, following a live podcast for The Totally Rad Show. It was warmly received, racking up 800,000 views within its first day. VentureBeat later placed it on their "Top 10 Best Gaming Videos of 2011" list. The positive response prompted New Line Cinema to first approach director Dan Trachtenberg about helming a film adaptation of Y: The Last Man. Trachtenberg has noted that Bad Robot took an interest in him after the short's release. When offered the chance to direct 10 Cloverfield Lane, he recognized parallels with Portal: No Escape, especially the opening scene of a woman trapped in captivity with no memory of how she arrived, which drew him to the project.