Why doesn't the military just close the portals in Doom 1?

[Shikamaze]

 Give your best answers. 

[D4NUK1]

They made a resonance cascade without knowing 

[heliumlamb]

it will be good for their stocks in the arms manufacturers!

[Splatter]

UAC wasn't expecting any hostiles to come through the gates, yet alone literal demons from hell. The enemy hit too fast and too hard and in short order, everyone was too dead to shut them down

[Shikamaze]

1 minute ago, Splatter said:

UAC wasn't expecting any hostiles to come through the gates, yet alone literal demons from hell. The enemy hit too fast and too hard and in short order, everyone was too dead to shut them down

They did though. They had the time to send a bunch of UAC soldiers to the base (they were on the planet already, but the orders came from somewhere), and even if the demons killed everyone there instantly, the people at earth would have been able to shut down their way of the portals, trapping the monsters on Mars.  

[Splatter]

The UAC facilities were on Phobos & Deimos, the marine base was on Mars. All anybody on the moons had time to do was scream "something evil's comin out!" into the radio. The marine base on Mars picked up the transmission and sent up their infantry.

 

Don't know why you'd think anyone on Earth had a remote control shutdown. McDonald's HQ in Chicago can't flip a switch when a restaurant in Beijing has a grease fire

[SaladStream]

They were the ones behind it all and secretly wanted the invasion to continue as a way of justifying increased military funding in the next budget.

[Murdoch]

Because janitor broke the off button when cleaning up and didn't tell anyone.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Murdoch

[ＤΞＬＴΛ]

The hell energy that spewed out of the portal would be too much for the UAC to handle and the portal would become unstable, if they decided to close it... It would just make it worse.

 

 

 

 

That's just my personal theory that I made up when I happened upon this thread.

[nolongeramnion]

[blanked]

Edited October 24, 2023 by amnion

[Doomkid]

I love the idea that these inter-dimensional portals don’t take a while to warm up and cool down or anything like that, and can just be flicked on and off willy-nilly like a light switch 😄

[sophsoph316]

didn't they try closing demon portals, and the demons just made more? (this is according to Plutonia lore, idk if it's canon)

[Dexiaz]

53 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I love the idea that these inter-dimensional portals don’t take a while to warm up and cool down or anything like that, and can just be flicked on and off willy-nilly like a light switch 😄

Sounds like an idea for jokewad, there are scientists in panic, but you're just closing the switch and you win. And the ending picture is edited Daisy pic (existing meme edit with blue sky and alive rabbits) with text "Everything went well"

[Solmyr]

Because the machinery the UAC/Military used for creating portals is still experimental, and also these portals could sustain themselves for a while, slowly decaying to the point they colapse after an unspecified ammount of time.

 

It sort of makes sense because in PLUTONIA's backstory the Military developed a "Quantum Accelerator" (whatever that is) to close demonic portals, so the portals themselves could sustain themselves on their own but need an external influence to de-stabilise them and force their colapse.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Solmyr

[DaAndroid614]

because one of the scientists remembered this cool game he played back in the 90's and thought it would be neat if he could make it happen in real life

[Mr. Freeze]

The portals, once opened, risk engaging in a feedback loop and swallowing all of reality. The UAC knows this, which is why the portal technology is really just a containment shield around a small area the portal is allowed to exist. This unfortunately results in a big problem with turning it off- you don't turn off the portal, you turn off the device containing it. Actual portal closing is done gradually, by a separate switch that has it's own energy flow and mathematical calculations than the "On" switch would. But with the UAC's on-side scientists struck with a bad case of Dead, it's up to the Doomguy to switch the thing off. 

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Mr. Freeze

[Sena]

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I love the idea that these inter-dimensional portals don’t take a while to warm up and cool down or anything like that, and can just be flicked on and off willy-nilly like a light switch 😄

Switches are serious business, there's a reason the Black Mesa complex demands a PhD in theoretical physics for people whose entire job is to push big red buttons.

[Kinsie]

tvtropes, cinemasins and their ilk have ruined storytelling for the next three generations

[VoanHead]

they didn’t feel like doing it

Edited July 11, 2022 by VoanHead

[XLightningStormL]

Most likely before the invasion the demons had no method of gaining the location of the "human Doom universe" Once the portals punched through, incorporeal hell priests likely snuck through during a later experiment, made some beacon, caused minutes amount of chaos (i.e full body explosions) and waited (before an invasion there is always recon, it's tactically stupid to jump a massive invasion based on a hunch) for another experiment whilst the "borders between spaces were closest" 

From there on, shutting down any man made gates were pointless, the demons already had the location of where to go (like a stalker finding where his victim lives) throw in some old information from the middle ages (i.e old Doom 2016 lore before the rewrite stated they were floating about circa 1316) and they know where Earth is too. It's most likely there is some sort of master portal the demons set up some where, or they are just keeping the "borders between spaces" as close as possible through some fucked up shenanigans...as long as that is open, they can easily keep setting up portals.

[Gez]

First, why would there be an off switch? Once you create a wormhole, the hole just is there.

 

Secondly, assuming there is an off switch, who says that it wasn't flicked and the demons just open their own portal anyway? Once they have acquired the moonbases' IP address (interdimensional portal) they can open their own just fine. Have you noticed that all the teleporters have pentagrams on them by the time you get there? Plus the giant pentagram in E1M9: Military Base. And there are a lot more teleporters in the levels that are taking place in Hell (Deimos included) than on those that are still on Phobos.

[Edward850]

Doom 3 already had the answer for this; once the demons broke through, the UAC portal was irrelevant, they just open their own. Doom2 also had this as subtext being "bringing their reality with them", and an implication that they already did this in Doom1 given they teleported a whole moon.

 

For a thread based on the concept of over thinking this, there sure is a lack of reading between the lines, or not reading at all. :V

Edited July 11, 2022 by Edward850

[K_Doom]

It seemed more interesting for scientific advancement to sacrifice a few thousand lives for the sake of knowledge from another dimension. Curiosity is stronger.

[K_Doom]

5 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

Doom 3 already had the answer for this; once the demons broke through, the UAC portal was irrelevant, they just open their own. Doom2 also had this as subtext being "bringing their reality with them", and an implication that they already did this in Doom1 given they teleported a whole moon.

 

For a thread based on the concept of over thinking this, there sure is a lack of reading between the lines, or not reading at all. :V

Bruh... maybe he forgot ¬¬

[Mr. Freeze]

38 minutes ago, Edward850 said:

Doom 3 already had the answer for this; once the demons broke through, the UAC portal was irrelevant, they just open their own. Doom2 also had this as subtext being "bringing their reality with them", and an implication that they already did this in Doom1 given they teleported a whole moon.

 

For a thread based on the concept of over thinking this, there sure is a lack of reading between the lines, or not reading at all. :V

 

Are you saying this man should suffer through Doom 3's story? You monster. 

[Dark Pulse]

Too busy staring at juicy Cybie ass before they rode his rocket.

[Edward850]

19 minutes ago, Mr. Freeze said:

 

Are you saying this man should suffer through Doom 3's story? You monster. 

Nothing wrong with Doom3's story. Sorry you had to learn this from me.

[out_of_service]

Because everyone was killed by the demons and then brought back as zombies. Except for you! 

[7Mahonin]

The military, as in the space marines, were more like a security force. Their mission was to protect UAC assets and personnel, not to get involved with or to intervene on the work and research of the UAC. 
 

By the time demons came out of the portals, it was too late for any sort of military intervention. There wasn’t even a resistance force on Earth in Doom II. That’s how fucked we were. Only Doomguy had the willpower to fight the demons and send them back to where they belong. 
 

In other words, it’s a game and if they just closed the portals it would be lame and boring of a game. Instead of fighting demons you would be standing at a post for 12 hours a day with nothing to do but wish you weren’t there. 

Edited July 11, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

5 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I love the idea that these inter-dimensional portals don’t take a while to warm up and cool down or anything like that, and can just be flicked on and off willy-nilly like a light switch 😄