GAME · 2011 · USA
Portal 2
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 3
35 archived facts 5 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026
35 Interesting Facts About Portal 2
Interesting Facts (4)
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Valve kept the details of F-Stop undisclosed because it considered reusing the idea later; in 2020 the developer LunchHouse Software revealed it had found the mechanic's code in the Source branch used for its game PUNT and, with Valve's permission, shared it through the documentary webseries Exposure.
- #004
In the 'Escape' chapter, Chell can find a defective turret being taken away for disposal. If she manages to take it, the turret talks about the myth of Prometheus, who was buried beneath Olympus to be pecked by birds as eternal punishment. It also says disjointed lines such as 'Make lemonade!', 'Go crazy!' and, most importantly, 'Her name is Caroline' and 'The answer is beneath us'. All of this connects to the next chapter, 'The Fall', in which Chell and GLaDOS (in a potato battery) are sent by Wheatley to the abandoned lower depths of the old Aperture facility, and GLaDOS is grabbed and pecked by a bird. Chell also discovers Caroline, Cave Johnson's secretary and GLaDOS's human trace.
Production Story (11)
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Originally, Wheatley was supposed to be killed off by GLaDOS when she was mistakenly reawakened. Chell would then come across multiple Personality Cores throughout her journey across the facility who would help her escape from Aperture and beat GLaDOS, who would serve as the main antagonist afterwards. However, playtesters demanded Wheatley be brought back as they loved him. Accordingly, the latter half of the game was rewritten to include Wheatley back in, while leaving his original death scene as is. He was also turned into the secondary antagonist.
- #007
When the developers were experimenting with different ideas for how the game could end, one thing they tried was having the player press the middle mouse button to get Chell to speak for the first time, saying "yes" to resolve the core transfer stalemate. This idea was scrapped, however, simply because the developers found it disappointing.
- #008
Initially the game was going to be a prequel to Portal rather than a sequel. The character Chell would be replaced with a character named Mell and Cave Johnson would appear rather than just be heard in a series of audio recordings and a new style of game play would have been invented with no mention of the portals. Negative feedback from play testers changed development focus from a prequel to making the game a direct sequel.
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Behind the Scenes (9)
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Cave Johnson's face is based on the appearance of Portal 2's Lead Animator, Bill Fletcher, and his assistant Caroline's was inspired by that of Valve Visual Designer, Laura Dubuk. In a hidden room you can see a portrait of the two of them created by Jeremy Bennett, another artist at Valve (Caroline's appearance was artistically aged because Dubuk is a good deal younger than her in-game counterpart).
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Easter Eggs & References (9)
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In the lead up to the game's release, numerous edits were made to the original Portal, to both accommodate Portal 2, and to embed teasers for it, right inside the original. These edits were automatically patched into all copies of the game by the Steam software. The most notable change to Portal was that the ending was retconned so that now Chell doesn't escape the facility, but is instead dragged back inside by a robot, right after defeating GLaDOS (hence explaining her need to escape all over again in this game). Another significant change was that radios were added to all the original test chambers. Each one of these radios, if placed in a certain location, will emit SSTV sounds, a primitive form of television broadcasting, which if decoded, provide users with various teaser images associated with Portal 2. Incidentally, a similar SSTV easter egg is hidden somewhere within Portal 2.
- #027
In the chapter "The Escape", Chell can find a defective turret on its way to decommission. If she manages to take it, the turret will mention the legend of Prometheus with him being buried under Olympia to be pecked by birds as an eternal punishment. It will also sprout out broken sentences like "Make lemonade!" and "Go mad!" and most importantly, "Her name is Caroline" and "The answer is beneath us". These all happen in the next chapter "The Fall", where Chell and GLaDOS (in a potato battery) are sent down deep underground in the abandoned parts of the old Aperture facility by Wheatley, and GLaDOS is taken away and pecked by a bird. Chell also discovers GLaDOS' human imprint, Caroline who was the secretary of Cave Johnson. Originally, Chell and GLaDOS were meant to get separated by Wheatley kicking them down to the shaft, and Chell would chance across the defective turret who would tell her GLaDOS' whereabouts cryptically. Sometimes during development, the setup was changed to both of them ending up underground together.
- #028
In the chapter "The Fall", if Chell approaches the abandoned Aperture Science testing facilities underground, the background music changes to a similar tune to the main theme of the Spider-Man trilogy. Shortly afterwards, Cave Johnson's voice speaks up from the speakers. Cave Johnson was voiced by actor J.K. Simmons, who played J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films.
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Deeper Meaning (2)
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Contains a major spoiler — show
It's not exactly clear how much time Chell has spent in stasis between the events of Portal and Portal 2. At the beginning of Portal 2 she's woken up for the first time after 50 days of sleep, for a mandatory set of physical and mental exercises. The next time she wakes up, the announcer fades out (or stutters) after uttering 5 nines, which could either mean that Chell was sleeping for at least 273 years or that the announcement system reached a maximum. It may alternatively have broken after much of the facility fell into disrepair after the defeat of GLaDOS at the end of Portal, which could also mean that she might have been sleeping for less time than announced. However, reading it in a different way, since the computer was stuttering over only the number nine, but had in fact been able to properly convey the number fifty, it could simply be that Chell was in stasis for any number beginning with the actual word 'nine', thus giving her a possible range of stasis anywhere from three months to many, many years. Later, in "The Final Hours of Portal 2", the time span is revealed to be 50,000 years.
Related pages
- Cyberpunk 2077 — Portal 2 comes up in the facts on that page
- Pacific Rim — Portal 2 comes up in the facts on that page
- Portal — Portal 2 comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Portal 2 — Wikipedia
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work