Portable hole

In various works of fiction, such as cartoons and Dungeons & Dragons, a portable hole is a device that can be used to contravene the laws of physics. It generally resembles a circular cloth which is placed on a surface to create a hole. If placed on a wall, for example, the user could crawl through the hole and come out on the other side of the surface. In another instance, if the hole was placed on the ground, the user might be able to insert objects into it or allow others to fall in, as if he or she had dug a hole. The exact method in which the device works is largely dependent on the work of fiction.

Dungeons & Dragons

Early Editions

Portable holes were categorized by the circumference of their opening and their depth. Thus, a hole with a 1 foot circumference and 3 foot depth wouldn’t be suitable for breaching a wall, but perfectly fine for burying or extracting some small treasure.

Some Dungeon Masters allowed them to be used as weapons, saying that if the hole was affixed to a living being it would cause whatever innards it covered to spill out. Also, a living being put into the ground via a portable hole would be buried alive and die of suffocation.

Like a bag of holding, other portable holes, bags of holding or extra dimensional spaces placed in it would cause catastrophic results at the DM’s discretion. For example, a portable hole placed in a bag of holding might tear the bag, turning it into a bag of devouring.

In 1995, [http://paizo.com/dragon/products/issues/1995/221 Issue 221] of Dragon magazine included an article "(More Than) 101 Uses for a Portable Hole" that discussed various approaches to the physics of a Portable Hole as well as listing innovative uses (a telescoping tower, portable apartment or workshop, connecting two to form a "tunnel," etc.) to which such a device might be put.

Third Edition

In D&D 3.0 and 3.5, a Portable Hole placed on a flat surface did not open into the space behind it, but rather an extradimensional space 10 feet deep and as wide as the Hole (generally 6 feet in diameter). Every Portable Hole has its own particular extradimensional space. Anything placed inside this space remains there when the Hole is closed, and can be retrieved when the Hole is again placed on a flat surface. The extradimensional space when closed contains enough air for one Medium creature to survive for 10 minutes.

If a bag of holding is placed inside a portable hole, a rift to the Astral Plane is formed. This rift sucks in the bag and the hole, and they are lost forever.

If a portable hole is placed within the bag, it instead opens a gate to the Astral plane, sucking in every creature in a 10 foot radius, and destroying both the bag and hole. The contents of the bags are either scattered throughout the Astral Plane or destroyed.

Appearances in literature, games, and other media

In the computer game Disney's Toontown Online, players can move to a new location by pulling holes from their pockets and jumping into them.

Portable holes are sometimes created and used in Looney Tunes cartoons, including such variations as foldable doorways. One entire cartoon ("The Hole Idea," directed by Robert McKimson and released in 1955) depicts the invention of the portable hole by one Calvin Q. Calculus. One Roadrunner cartoon involved the use of "liquid hole," a black tar-like substance that came in a bottle. When poured on a surface, it dried into a portable hole with the consistency of a circle of cloth. On an episode of "Tiny Toon Adventures", Montana Max runs a factory that creates "donut holes," i.e. portable holes, which he and Plucky Duck (as "the Toxic Revenger") use in a battle until spillage of "the donut hole formula" creates a hole so large that the factory itself falls into it.

Portable holes is one of the "hazard" weapons in the game Cel Damage. They are essentially land-mines - when someone drives over one (at any speed, so long as they are technically on the ground), they fall in (keyword: "in", as opposed to "through and out the bottom"), and the hole then disappears after claiming a single victim.

In the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", rather than a cloth, portable holes seemed to be made of a rubber-like material, and have the thickness of a gramophone record while being manipulated or held. The hero uses one at a critical moment to create a gap in a giant horseshoe magnet which is pinning him down.

A portable hole plays a key role in Jack Vance's "Liane the Wayfarer", published in "The Dying Earth" in 1950.

Various devices in Doraemon act as portable holes.

In Prince Alexander solves many problems with the use of a 'hole in the wall' he finds on the Isle of Wonder.

In "Yellow Submarine", Ringo picks up a hole he finds in the "Sea of Holes", stretches it, places his head and climbs into it, then folds it up (which apparently deactivates it until unfolded) and puts it in his pocket, leading to his classic line of dialogue "I've got a hole in me pocket". He later uses the hole to save Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from an anti-music globe that they are trapped in, and, according to the live-action epilogue, gave half of the hole to the Nowhere Man.

One of Terry Gilliam's cartoons in Monty Python's Flying Circus has the police using a large portable hole in the road to catch criminals, they "fall-in", then the hole is taken to the lockup and thrown upon the ceiling causing the criminals to "fall-out".

There is a comic character called Horrible Hole which is a living portable hole. Similar characters include The Spot (a Spider-Man villain) and Doorman, a mutant member of the Great Lakes Avengers.

In episode 695 of the "Final Fantasy"-based comic "8-Bit Theater", Fighter, after buying some items and a portable hole with Red Mage, decides to work "smarter, not harder," and put all the items into the portable hole. He then proceeds to fold the portable hole into itself. [http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=060513]

In the 1988 film "They Live", directed by John Carpenter, the hero Nada (Roddy Piper) is saved from certain death by an assault of riot police/aliens when his sidekick Frank (Keith David) accidentally activates a temporary and portable escape portal with an alien's wristwatch.

In the anime and manga series One Piece, a villain known as Blueno has the ability to create doors on any surface, including the air.

In Kingdom of Loathing, a combat item called a "plot hole" is captured from probability giants, a portable hole which is used as a land mine, reducing an enemy's health by twenty, and confusing them. It is a play on both a pot hole and a literal plot hole.

In an episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy entitled "1+1=Ed", Eddy falls through a hole in the ground which causes him to appear in the sky off-camera, where he then falls through the hole in a recursive loop. This continues until Ed picks up the hole, leaving Eddy is to crash onto the now-solid ground. Ed uses the hole for a couple gags then eventually rolls it up and keeps it. Later in the cartoon, Edd and Eddy fall into a manhole, and Ed, believing it to be another portable hole, says "Don't worry guys! I'll just pick up the hole!" and proceeds to excavate the entire manhole entrance tube from the ground.

In R. A. Salvatore's novel "Servant of the Shard", the character Jarlaxe uses a portable hole to escape a tavern brawl, directly through the wall.

In Alan Cox's AberMUD, a portable hole could be used to carry equipment.

In the novelizations of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", the lead characters' mother hears them discuss a portable hole. At first she thinks it might be some sexual reference, but when she realises what it is, she thinks that it might be good to hide in one sometimes.

The video game Portal features a gun that shoots portals similar to holes.

Some of Tom Holt's books about the J. W. Wells company and its staff feature a Portable Door, which is similar to a portable hole save that passing through it takes you to where (and when) you want to go as you step through it.

The cartoon series "Channel Umptee-3" features a character named Holey Moley, who carries several portable holes and uses at least one in every episode.

In the Disney series around Winnie-the-Pooh, Gopher has portable holes.

ee also

*Wormholes allow for transport through non euclidian space.
*Portals are a similar concept used in science fiction and fantasy.