Dan Trachtenberg’s Portal: No Escape: A Live-Action Portal Fan Film

Posted by on August 24th, 2011   Filed under: Fandom, Games, Sci-fi

There isn’t a heck of a lot going on in the world of movie news today, but strangely enough the hot topic of discussion seems to be a Portal fan film of all things. While I normally don’t give most fan films more than a cursory glance, being a big fan of the Portal video game series, my curiosity was piqued. I was even more intrigued when I found out that the guy behind this short film was Dan Trachtenberg of The Totally Rad Show.

As it turns out, Portal: No Escape is a very well-made short from a technical standpoint, although that should come as no surprise since Trachtenberg is an established commercial director. That being said, I think all of the rave reviews for this fan film are yet another example of how gamers are too easily impressed by just a little bit of subtlety (see also: the Dead Island trailer). There’s not really much to this short, and certainly not enough to assume it would also make a great feature film. But either way, hats off to Trachtenberg for getting this out there and getting it noticed… I wouldn’t be surprised if it does lead to bigger things for him. Check out Portal: No Escape after the jump and see what you think.



  • Jonny Ashley

    It’s cool. It doesn’t achieve anything that the game doesn’t, but it’s cool in a “Hey good job” kind of way.

  • Not sure I agree that this doesn’t have the potential for a pretty awesome full length movie.

    The Portal is pretty interesting if you ask me. There’s a good amount of mythology now to draw from to support a longer movie and it looks to me like it wouldn’t be difficult to pull it off from a technical standpoint.

    It struck me more as a proof of concept video than anything. Using the gun to fight a bit was interesting to see considering you never really do that save the final boss fights.

    Anyway, I hope he gets a chance to make this something more than just a Youtube short.

  • Colin

    I agree with Sean. Technically, it’s the most proficient Portal short I’ve seen, but it’s overlong (several shots were reused in the training sequence) and underwhelming.

  • James

    why does everybody in Film Junk hate so much. Get off your high horse, its a nice short film

  • KeithTalent

    It was ok; kind of boring actually. I love Portal and think the idea could be interesting for a full length movie, but who knows. I thought the gun and portals looked great in this, but I did care much for the rest of it. I enjoyed his first short film a lot more than this one.

  • Jonny Ashley

    @James
    I don’t think anyone’s hating, our responses are just very lukewarm. If I squint my eyes I can kind of pretend its a real short film and not a complete reiteration of things you can do in the game.

  • alechs

    The short looks gaudy because of its production aesthetics. For a game that was bright and fun, this short is dripping with angsty, paranoia and cynicism. Not everything needs to be Nolanized/Fincherized for it to be cinematic. Seriously, it seems like every ‘progressive’ short by requirement has to have men in riot gear, lense imperfections and 90s techno.

    At least they didn’t use “Don and Alice” from 28 Weeks Later.

  • Bunyip

    I think what the film does very well is to introduce the concept and some of its possibilities to people (like perhaps STUDIO EXECUTIVES) who haven’t played the game.