Coming from the mind of Dan Trachtenberg is Portal: No Escape. It debuted at Comic-Con and, for reasons you’ll soon see, was given a standing ovation by almost a packed room. The video was officially posted only recently, hitting YouTube on August 23rd and has since amassed over 200k views. No Escape features a female protagonist who may or may not be Chell (played by the kick-ass Danielle Rayne) who finds herself trapped in a cell with no way out. In a very stubborn Chell-like manner though, it doesn’t stop her from biding her time until she finds one.

The short also features some great visual effects, what feels like a dash of Half-Life 2, and some action that shows just how well it knows its source material. There’s usually a lot of companion cube and other visual cues that say ‘Hey, this is Portal!’, but No Escape takes it to the next level. I don’t want to spoil anything, so check out the video below.

Danielle Rayne also mentioned on her blog that she had to keep Portal: No Escape a secret for a year and a half. Now that’s some Chell-like willpower! It also means that this was made before Portal 2 released, which is very interesting.