History Main / Hellgate

[[quoteright:350:[[ThePrincessAndTheFrog http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/patfhellgate.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Understatement}} Doesn't look too inviting, does it?]]]]

A Hellgate can be a permanent fixture of the setting, in which case it will function as a MagneticPlotDevice, putting the "adventure" in AdventureTown and providing [[MonsterOfTheWeek a new monster for the protagonists to fight every week]].

* A portal to hell briefly opened up in ''ScaryGoRound'''s [[AdventureTown Tackleford]], and was only shut down by some [[http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20070705 quick legal beagling]] on the part of Shelley. At a cost.

* Crops up at one point early on in ''{{Bleach}}''. Ichigo purges a Hollow but because his sins before becoming a Hollow were so great he could not go on to Soul Society (which is saying something considering it's inhabited by the likes of [[ManipulativeBastard Aizen]], [[BloodKnight Zaraki Kenpachi]] and [[CompleteMonster Kurotsuchi]] [[MadScientist Mayuri]]) a {{Hellgate}} opens up and pulls him in.

* In [[Minecraft]] , you can create portals to the Nether and back, which despite being a terrifying experience full of fireball-shooting Ghasts and savage zombiepigmen that will scare the living daylights out of the most jaded gmaer, is actually an efficient means of transport. Every step in the Nether equals eight in the normal world, so one can travel very quickly from island to island, allowing the creation of a large, interconnected empire.

** In the fifth season finale, rings taken from the Four HorsemenOfTheApocalypse are used to create a portal to Hell [[spoiler:through which Sam (possessed by Lucifer) and his little brother Adam (possessed by Michael) fall, trapping the two Archangels and ending the immediate threat of the Apocalypse).]] Appropriately enough, this occurs in a cemetery in Stull, Kansas, near the boys' hometown of Lawrence and, according to real life urban legend, home of a hell gate of its own (see Real Life, below).

** The fact that it was basically created by Jesus possessed by Satan may have something to do with its permanency.

-->''"All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"''
-->-- Writing on the Gates of Hell, ''The DivineComedy''

--> ''"All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"''
->-Writing on the Gates of Hell, ''The DivineComedy''

[[ThePrincessAndTheFrog http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/patfhellgate.jpg]]
[[caption-width:350:[[{{Understatement}} Doesn't look too inviting, does it?]]]]

* LucioFulci did three films that deal with the concept of "The Seven Gates of Hell": ''{{City of the Living Dead}}/The Gates of Hell'', ''TheBeyond/Seven Doors of Death'', and ''{{The House By the Cemetery}}''. The first one involves a gateway located in New England town of Dunwich, which resurrects the dead within the town which is opened when an evil priest hangs himself within the confines of a cemetery. The second deals with another of the Seven Gates of Hell, in an abandoned hotel in New Orleans which was opened when a local warlock trying to seal the doorway is killed by a lynch mob of dumb locals, turning their would-be protector into the head zombie in the process. The third involves the home of a mad scientist/ghoul named Doctor Jacob Freudstein as one of the Gates of Hell.

* ''{{Mass Effect}}'': The characters are actually pretty GenreSavvy about the [[OurWormholesAreDifferent mass relays]] and refuse to open them until both entrances are discovered normally, for fear that something horrible and unknown might be waiting on the other side. The galaxy has learned this from bitter experience, as some hundred years before the game starts, when they blindly opened a mass relay, they got invaded by [[BeePeople rachni]]. In fact, the First Contact War started because humans were just opening mass relays whenever they found one, and this caught the turians' attention. [[spoiler: There is indeed [[EldritchAbomination something out there]] - [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Reapers]]. The cornerstone of [[LivingShip the Reapers]]' plan was the fact that the Citadel itself, basically the centre of galactic civilisation, contains a mass relay. Every few millennia, species reach the Citadel, then Reapers invade and [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong somehow breed]] using said species. [[ViciousCycle Rinse and repeat]].]]

* At [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]] in the WhateleyUniverse, there's a hellgate in the school sewers. Some genius thought it would be a great place to dump all the school sewage into. Stuff ''leaks'' in around the edges of the seal. Bad stuff.

* ''{{Mass Effect}}'': The characters are actually pretty GenreSavvy about the [[OurWormholesAreDifferent mass relays]] and refuse to open them until both entrances are discovered normally, for fear that something horrible and unknown might be waiting on the other side. [[spoiler: They are correct.]]
** The citadel races learned that lesson some hundred years ago, when they blindly opened a mass relay - cue invasion of the [[BeePeople rachni]]
** In fact this starts the First Contact War: Humans were just opening mass relays whenever they found one, which caught the turians' attention.
** The most dangerous gate is still closed, and unknown to everybody but the main protagonist and his/her friends: [[spoiler:The Citadel Relay which doubles as the seat of the galatic government and center of its civilization, but is actually a Mass Relay that leads to the dark space beyond the galactic rim where vast fleets of [[LivingShip Rea]][[EldritchAbomination pers]] [[ViciousCycle wait to destroy every spacefaring civilization in the galaxy]].]]

** Subverted in the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion, where a gate opens to said location but nothing comes out of it. The gate's purpose instead is to attract an adventurer capable of assisting the Daedric Prince Sheogorath defend his realm.

** The most dangerous gate is still closed, and unknown to everybody but the main protagonist and his/her friends: [[spoiler:The Citadel Relay which doubles as the seat of the galatic government and center of its civilization, but is actually a Mass Relay that leads to the dark space beyond the galactic rim where vast fleets of Reapers wait to destroy every spacefaring civilization in the galaxy.]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
*''TheSalvationWar'' does this literally, with portals crossing dimensions are the only way for anyone to move between Heaven, Earth, or Hell. This means that the only way for either side in the massive three way war to attack any of the others is through the portal, but a portal big enough to move an army through is impossible to close. This really fucks the daemons over when [[spoiler:the humans capture the Hellgate in Iraq]]. Smaller portals are commonly used for rescues or surgical strikes.