Rabbit holes, dreams, mirrors, train stations, chiffarobes…all have been ways to get protagonists into other worlds.
I don’t think we can gather a complete listing, but what are some other interesting portals to other worlds in literature or film? What hasn’t been tried that you’d write about or like to read about?
Are we including planets as well? Because there’s the Stargate from…Stargate (Movie, SG-1, and Atlantis), which uses a wormhole. Also the weird wormhole device from Contact.
In Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, characters can
cut holes into other worlds using a knife. There are constraints, like being careful to end up above ground, but not way up in the sky, etc. Also, you can choose the world you want to go to by feeling around for it with the knife, and you can close the holes with your hands.
It’s a pretty neat idea.
The Myst Universe was quite interesting. By learning “The Art”, people can write special books that either create or open doors to new worlds. Of course, if you want to come back, you need to write and take a book with you. Otherwise, you’re stuck.
There’s the gate to the Secret Garden.
And the tornado to OZ.
The wardrobe to Narnia, obviously, and the looking-glass to Wonderland.
In Inkheart there is also a book that is used to transfer people from one world to another. For each person that comes from the world in the book, one from this world is transferred to that.
Oh, wow… deja vu…
Does Platform 9 3/4 count? It’s still the same “world”, but a very different aspect of the world.
And I once read a book as a kid (obviously inspired by Narnia, though not nearly as good) where there was a magic turnstile in the middle of a marsh (in the Everglades, I think) which transported those who went through it into a magical world.