| “ | You know the worst part about inventing teleportation? Suddenly, you're able to travel the whole galaxy, and the first thing you learn is, you're the last guy to invent teleportation |
| — The Rickshank Rickdemption |
Portals allow travel between two different locations. Usually, these locations exist in the same dimension/universe. The only known groups that have been known to use intradimensional portal technology are the Ricks and the Galactic Federation (Interdimensional Customs in "Pilot "). Some organizations and people have knowledge of interdimensional portal technology, but it is unclear whether they possess it or not (e.g. Time Court, Morty Smith (304-X), and The people of "Fart").
The Portal Gun is a gadget that allows the user(s) to travel between different universes/dimensions/realities. The Gun was likely created by a Rick, although it is unknown which one; if there is any truth to C-137's fabricated origin story, then he may not be the original inventor.
Portals
Types of Portals
- Intradimensional Portals which seem to appear blue ("Pilot" & "The Rickshank Rickdemption")
- May be commonly used by advanced civilizations
- Interdimensional Portals which appear green
- Interdimensional travel seems more difficult to accomplish in a controlled manner
- There are also naturally occurring interdimensional wormholes as seen in Mortynight Run
Portal Gun
History of C-137's Portal Gun usage
The device was destroyed by a Gazorpazorp in "Raising Gazorpazorp" and as result, Summer and Rick had to return to Earth via space craft. Rick made a replacement one, but that one was destroyed when Rick rigged it to explode during the battle between Federation agents and the wedding guests at Birdperson's wedding reception in "The Wedding Squanchers." Another portal gun was found by Summer in The Rickshank Rickdemption when she unearthed the corpse of the Rick that was killed in the replacement dimension but that gun was destroyed by the Jerry Smith that lived in the cronenberged dimension. Given the fact that Tammy Gueterman demanded that the portal gun was not to be damaged when she demanded that Rick drop it, combined with the fact that the Galactic Federation set the brainalyzer in Rick to get the details on how to build the gun strongly implies that the Galactic Federation wanted to use Rick's portal gun design for their own personal use and that the reasons for it were probably so that the Federation could expand their control into other dimensions.
Features of Portal Guns
- Portal Gun History - memory to record the locations portaled to
- Can interface with computers via the muzzle of the gun
- Council of Ricks can detect when a portal gun of one of its members is compromised as seen in The Rickshank Rickdemption. C-137 is not a member, so when Morty steals the portal gun in Get Schwifty, the Council is not alerted.
- Self-destruct
- Rick has mentioned that the portal gun has a limited charge. However, in two circumstances, Rick used it as a means to ignore requests that Morty had made (Going to back to school in "pilot" and running away in "Get Schwifty"), so it is unknown how limited if at all, the portal gun's charge is.
- Requires some kind of portal fluid, as shown in "Tales from the citadel". A Rick is seen working with "bootleg portal fluid", presumably called that because portal guns are illegal or restricted at the Citadel. This scene also shows that portal guns require some sort of math, as Cop Morty mentions that the Rick disintegrated because "his math was off".
- The event horizon of a portal may be some form of membrane rather than energy. The portal created by improperly formulated portal fluid collapsed around the Rick trying to use it to escape, causing him to dissolve.
Weaponization and Tactics
Although the primary function of a portal gun is for travelling. It has and can also be used offensively or defensively, usually by transporting a hazard to the location. It can also be used to create obstacles, or quickly run away. A portal does not need to be on a solid surface, so if a portal opens inside of a person or object, it will cut said object (as seen in "Mortynight Run" when Rick rends a Gromflomite). Speed does not seem to be conserved through portals, so they can be used to break falls as well.
Escape From The Council of Ricks
Appearance
It is a metal grey gun-like controller with a black dial which is used to select a destination as shown on a red LED display. There is a red display on the bottom of the parallelepiped muzzle which has an unknown function. It is also unknown whether or not the dial also functions as a button. A small hatch on the handle opens up to reveal the self-destruct button. When shot, it displays a green portal which acts like jelly when touched.
- In The Rickshank Rickdemption, the Rick that appears to C-137 in his fabricated origin story carries a portal gun of a different design, possibly an earlier prototype.
Bottom of portal gun
The underside of the gun in Get Shwifty, where the red screen is mysteriously not present
Origin story gun
Questionable Limits
It seems like and it is assumed that the Portal Gun can be used to portal to another location in the same universe, however, based on the gun's design (the use of only a dial) and the coloration of its portals, an argument might be made that the Portal Gun can only be used to transport a traveler to a location that is, in some sense, the same location in a different universe. However, that would imply that anyone or anywhere that Rick visits via portal technology exist in a different universe.
Appearances
| ! | This section requires expansion. |
- "Pilot"
- "Meeseeks and Destroy"
- "Raising Gazorpazorp"
- "Rixty Minutes (post-credits)"
- "Rick Potion #9"
- "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind"
Portal Technology
In the Galactic Federation, interdimensional portal travel, like air travel on earth, is regulated and restricted. This might be because of the oppressive nature of the Galactic Federation, however, such regulations also imply that interdimensional travel is very costly and/or difficult to accomplish (as regulating an action which can be easily done is nearly impossible). As the Galactic Federation already possesses interdimensional portal technology, it is unclear specifically why they want Rick's Portal gun, but some possible reasons include: their own technology may be overly cumbersome, whereas Rick's is handheld; Rick has rebelled against the Federation and his portal gun is a great source of power for him; The portal gun works by inputting a destination into the gun and firing an entry portal whereupon an exit portal is created, the Federation's portals are created by a stationary terminal, perhaps they can only create a portal between two terminals, limiting their destinations.
It is also possible that The Galactic Federation doesn't have interdenominational technology at all, and instead just has regular teleportation technology, as it is shown several times that blue represents being able to teleport in-universe, while green represents out of universe travel. And because The Galactic Federation portal was blue before Rick changed it green, this could mean that they don't know how to travel between universes, but they know how to travel in universes and with the right modifications, their technology could be used to travel out of universe.
In The Rickchurian Mortydate, the U.S. Government uses portal technology Rick describes as "ghetto-ass", "off-brand", and "deficit-tripling". The government teleporter is unlikely to be able to allow travel to another dimension as it requires the military to arrive at the destination for set-up before the teleporter can be used.