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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.
Rick Prime to Rick Sanchez C-137, The Rickshank Rickdemption

Portalgunny

Background[]

The Portal Gun is a gadget that allows the user(s) to travel between different universes/dimensions/realities. The device was first created by Rick Prime[1]. After leaving his reality, Prime began visiting his alternate selves and gifted them the technology. When he came to Dimension C-137, his counterpart rejected the offer. Insulted, Prime sent a bomb to Dimension C-137, killing its versions of Diane and Beth. After grieving for some time, Rick C-137 built his own Portal Gun, the only Rick other than Prime to actually invent the device [2] and began hunting Rick Prime.

It is an amazing gun, but has its limits. Only mass heavier than air may pass through the portal. In earlier episodes, it appears to be powered by some type of green plasma ball inside of the dome shaped glass vial on the top of the device. In later episodes, we learn the portal gun utilizes a special fluid that Rick calls "Quantum Transport Solution" in Forgetting Sarick Mortshall

In the same episode, we learn from Morty that Portal Fluid is made from rare green-glowing crystals that Rick buys illegally. In The Ricklantis Mixup, we learn that Portal Fluid is restricted on the Citadel of Ricks, which led to the rise of "Bootleg Portal Fluid" that when made correctly, will likely act the same way as real Portal fluid. However, when Bootleg Portal Fluid is made incorrectly (Such as by messing up the math involved) it can have disastrous effects. This is seen in The Ricklantis Mixup when a Rick making Bootleg Portal Fluid gets busted and attempts to use his portal gun to escape a Police Rick and Morty, which results in him dissolving upon contact with the portal he made, likely killing him, to which Police Morty responds to by saying "I guess his math was off".

History of Rick C-137's Portal Gun[]

The earliest observed instance of the gun is during a memory (depicting Rick in his home dimension tinkering with the concept of teleportation) extracted by Federation Agent Cornvelious Daniel while Rick was willfully imprisoned. It shows a bulky handheld prototype device seemingly edging on the capabilities of practical interspatial teleportation, though Rick C-137 is shown clearly having difficulty getting it fully operational. After failing to work out errors inherent to his invention, an interdimensional version of himself traveled into his garage hoping to implore him to shift his focus into traveling between realities instead, even alluding to a thinly veiled reference of the Central Finite Curve's existence in the process.

After his counterpart explains what awaits the titular protagonist if he accepts the offer, Rick C-137 decided to reject the knowledge of any further secrets on the basis it all sounded lonely and later claimed to be completely giving up on science as an occupation to his wife Diane. However, shortly after standing his ground against the Rick Prime, the alternate version swiftly left the dimension for good, and likely sent back a bomb in his place as a final gesture of his disapproval. These events led to the untimely death of his wife and child which ultimately sent him down a path of vengeance to find the party responsible. After grieving from the trauma, the Rick we've followed throughout the series pulled himself together and jury-rigged a much smaller prototype variant, now seemingly capable of interdimensional travel and used it to travel to the Phone Universe on his search, among countless others on the Curve. After relying on this newly constructed and unique version of the portal gun for several years, gradual improvements were made which eventually culminated in the result of the modern iteration typically shown in Rick and Morty's adventures.

During the present-day events shown in the series, the modern version was destroyed by a Gazorpazorp in Raising Gazorpazorp and as result, Summer and Rick had to return to Earth via space craft. Rick acquired a replacement gun, but that one was also 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 Dimension C-131 but that gun was later destroyed by the Jerry Smith that lived in the Prime Dimension. Given the fact that Tammy Guterman demanded that the portal gun was not to be damaged when demanding that Rick dropped it, combined with the fact that the Galactic Federation used a brainalyzer on Rick to get the details on how to build their own strongly implies that the Federation wanted to use his portal formula for their own personal use and that the reasons for it were likely to exert their control onto other dimensions.

Morty eventually helped himself to the Portal Gun to repair the damage Rick had done to the galaxy only for Rick to discover his meddling and dissolve their partnership. When Rick briefly left the Smith Family to travel with the Two Crows, he repentantly gifted the Portal Gun to Morty. Eager to have Rick back, Morty used the Portal Gun to follow him around and eventually go to the Citadel to buy an aging serum. While there, Morty refilled the gun with Evil Morty's tainted Portal Fluid, the tainted Fluid trapping the denizens of the Citadel when Evil Morty enacted his plan. When Rick and Morty managed to escape, Rick depressingly regarded the useless Portal Gun.

Functionality of Portal Guns[]

  • Portal Gun History - data storage to record the locations teleported to and from recently. In Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind when the Council of Ricks confiscate C-137's portal gun, It is mentioned that the portal gun logs down every place it has teleported the user to.
  • Device Location Ping - The Council of Ricks can detect when a Citadel member's portal gun is compromised (destroyed) as seen in The Rickshank Rickdemption. C-137 is not a member, so when Morty steals the portal gun in Get Schwifty, the Council was not alerted. This detail suggests it is an opt-in feature.
  • Self-Destruction - Activated via a hidden button in the handle, the self-destruct causes the gun to implode, creating a short-lived portal that drags in its immediate surroundings.
  • Fluid Reservoir - Rick has mentioned that the portal gun has a limited charge and requires some kind of portal fluid. It is unknown if any conventional energy source is present, but the attached portal fluid vial which acts analogous to a fuel tank holds a supply of "Quantum Portal Solution" appears to be a reliable visual indicator of portal availability.
    • In Forgetting Sarick Mortshall, Rick revealed that this fluid is extremely toxic, This is physically shown in the following episode, where waves of the fluid is launched out of underground tunnels on the Citadel, dissolving most solid objects it came into contact with, implying the fluid is some kind of nucleic acid.
  • Fluid Validation Mechanism - 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 the authorities, causing him to seemingly dissolve after brief contact.
    • A Rick is shown in The Ricklantis Mixup concocting bootleg portal fluid, presumably called that because genuine portal fluid is costly or highly regulated at the Citadel. This scene also shows that the production of portal fluid likely requires some applied precision and is lethally dangerous if mixed improperly, as Cop Morty mentions that the Rick disintegrated because he assumed his math was off. This is possibly an intentional safeguard mechanism to prohibit unauthorized usage of portal fluid outside of the accepted tolerance range.
      • The LED display and auditory cue will warn the user if it has been filled with a foreign substance as seen in Forgetting Sarick Mortshall when Morty attempts to secretly replace some of the fluid with a soft drink after nearly exhausting the gun's reserves.
  • Control Input - Can interface with computers via the muzzle of the gun, and also seems to be telepathically controlled via a protocol which can be used by authorized cybernetically augmented users to adjust the portal coordinates with ease.
  • Variable Portal Emitters - As shown in Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri, the Portal Gun can open multiple portals of varying size at once.

Weaponization and Tactics[]

Although the primary function of a portal gun is for traveling, 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.

The topside LED display.

The top LED screen showing the user a message.

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-green LED display. In earlier episodes there is also 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 generates an opaque green portal, acting 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. This prototype is shown once again in Forgetting Sarick Mortshall when Morty and Nick trash Rick's garage, and find the device in a box labelled "Prototype" Albeit, with a slightly different design. The slightly different design is likely how the device always looked, and it's design in Rick's fabricated memory may have been a mistake on Rick's part.

Questionable Limits[]

It's unclear how exactly the Portal Gun is controlled. Rick at multiple times can be seen instantly reconfiguring it as he sees fit, without any visible action or effort, so it might be controlled telepathically; however, Morty has to manually adjust its controls on the handle to tune it to select an exit destination.

The portals work in both directions until the portal collapses, which takes varying amount of time (presumably regulated by user). Portals can be created under any angle, not just vertically, across a solid surface or in thin air. Portals are opaque, and the user cannot see the other side until they actually enter, as seen with the Blender Dimension portal.

Larger devices of similar design are used on the Citadel, either as portals to transport large objects (like trash), or to teleport the entire Citadel if needed without creating an actual portal. Gaseous compounds cannot enter through the portals as stated by Rick, which prevented them from escaping with Fart.

Properties of the liquid:[]

If combined with any soda that has the acidity of Mountain Dew, it becomes a volatile and toxic substance that creates unstable portals on anything it touches.

When a portal passes through its own other end, the two ends will violently implode into each other out of existence, bringing any objects that they are attached to with them. This happened to Nick when Morty dropped his own severed hand into the portal on Nick's hand in the episode Forgetting Sarick Mortshall.

Can dissolve things if in large enough quantities.

Can also be used to teleport without portals instantly, but appears to require a specialized reactor to do that.

Can create much weaker version of black hole in enormous quantities.

Can cut things if it is in a free flowing state.

It's shown in Rick and Morty's Rushed Licensed Adventure that if one were to drink portal fluid, a portal would open inside them and suck them in. However, Jerry was able to drink Doofus Rick's portal fluid and was completely fine, though his fluid might've had different properties.

Appearances[]

! This section requires expansion.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Trivia[]

  • In Close Encounters of the Rick Kind, Rick says Don't look at another man's portal gun history. We all go to weird places. This is a joking reference to looking at another person's internet browsing history, where strange pages may have been visited, which generally refers to pornography.
  • According to Rick, Evil Morty is the only person to have ever hacked his Portal Gun.
  • A more advanced portal gun called the "Portal Pistol" has appeared in Juricksic Mort.
  • The Portal Gun wasn't used for the first four episodes of Season 5, which caused fan speculation until it turned out to be just a coincidence.

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