The Portal games have an aesthetic which is definitely influenced by other media, but which in my view at least, have also themselves become the influence for aesthetics in other media.
This is a little thread I've been thinking about for a while; I've done no research here, so I'll apologise upfront if this is all obvious.
Would also though love to see other examples as I'm sure there are many I haven't experienced.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Not sure if anyone expected to start here, but I think this movie has clear influence on a great many movies thereafter, and I think you can draw a line between it and the Portal franchise.
Firstly we have to start with HAL 9000, the robotic cyclops who goes rogue. Ther's an obvious GLaDOS connection here:
In my view if you combine the space pods in 2001 with the single unblinking eye, you end up with something very similar to Wheatley:
I also think the clean-white, used-but-not-dirty, panel-constructed craft and spacestations in 2001 bear a striking resemblance to Portal's assessment rooms:
There must be thousands of other examples of influences on Portal which you could pull on, many of which were doubtless influenced by 2001: ASO itself.
However, this movie came out in 1968 - before we went to the moon, no less - and I struggle to find earlier examples which carried a similar aesthetic.
Games and other media influenced by Portal
To be clear, these are not just Wheatley and GLaDOS lookalikes, but also things which share the aesthetic of the games environments, other characters such as the turrets, etc.
This is where I need your help Era - there will be so many of these that I want this thread to become a repository for them.
However here are a few to kick things off:
Destiny's Ghosts:
Deliver Us The Moon's ASE units:
Iron Man's early suit up sequences:
The early ones remind me so much of the panels moving around in Portal 2 especially:
The Talos Principle's robot and laser puzzles:
AUTO, the villain from WALL-E:
I will stop there for now (and will let someone else compare a PS5 to one of Portal's turrets), but I do encourage people to post their own examples when they occur to you!
This is a little thread I've been thinking about for a while; I've done no research here, so I'll apologise upfront if this is all obvious.
Would also though love to see other examples as I'm sure there are many I haven't experienced.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Not sure if anyone expected to start here, but I think this movie has clear influence on a great many movies thereafter, and I think you can draw a line between it and the Portal franchise.
Firstly we have to start with HAL 9000, the robotic cyclops who goes rogue. Ther's an obvious GLaDOS connection here:
In my view if you combine the space pods in 2001 with the single unblinking eye, you end up with something very similar to Wheatley:
I also think the clean-white, used-but-not-dirty, panel-constructed craft and spacestations in 2001 bear a striking resemblance to Portal's assessment rooms:
There must be thousands of other examples of influences on Portal which you could pull on, many of which were doubtless influenced by 2001: ASO itself.
However, this movie came out in 1968 - before we went to the moon, no less - and I struggle to find earlier examples which carried a similar aesthetic.
Games and other media influenced by Portal
To be clear, these are not just Wheatley and GLaDOS lookalikes, but also things which share the aesthetic of the games environments, other characters such as the turrets, etc.
This is where I need your help Era - there will be so many of these that I want this thread to become a repository for them.
However here are a few to kick things off:
Destiny's Ghosts:
Deliver Us The Moon's ASE units:
Iron Man's early suit up sequences:
The early ones remind me so much of the panels moving around in Portal 2 especially:
The Talos Principle's robot and laser puzzles:
AUTO, the villain from WALL-E:
I will stop there for now (and will let someone else compare a PS5 to one of Portal's turrets), but I do encourage people to post their own examples when they occur to you!
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