This is disturbingly haunting. Cave Johnson’s consciousness, trapped within a near indestructible head, falls from the top floor all the way down to the lowest sub-basement where he’ll likely NEVER be found, even without a Resonance Cascade or GLaDOS killing all the humans that even *might* know he’s down there. Imagine coming so close to eternal rest, and then getting served with eternal life stuck singing to a bunch of toilets.
@@_.ElbEto I’m not sure. The way he just ominously hums might indicate he’s “broken” somehow vs being “injured”. But in his case it’s like he’s somewhat *mentally* broken due to being *physically* broken. Like dropping a high-end PC, it might run afterwards, but all the jumbled up bits inside must be screwing something important up as it runs.
if you look closely at cave's mouth he slightly opens his lip after hearing one of the drones saying "a" back at him and then closing it after the second one
At first it sounds like Cave is just moaning, but after the first toileturret sings, you can see Cave's jaw jump in surprise a little, and the next time he sings, he actually sounds like he's putting some heart into it.
That not the only thing in the portal 2 game you can hear voice recordings of cave and Caroline what if it wasn’t a recording but them actually being able to communicate
I mean, one could interpret this as his A.I. leaking into pretty much every other appliance in the facility. It would explain why even the door mainframe had a personality.
Doomed to live for eternity, Cave Johnson hums himself a song. The Manntis core (I'mma just call it that) powers the Turlets... though, I believe that Cave is controlling the Turlets for his opera. At last, he is freed from his prison and given eternal peace.
@Nam Gge it's one thing that makes me hope for a new game in the series in which the player comes across cave Johnson like this, it could be really cool Who knows, that might be their plan
@@Phobie_2008 No, no. We're mutually agreeing here that these are "Turlets" as to not confuse them with the actual "Turrets". Turret + Toilet = Turlet.
@@cappunocci9211 Exactly, they aren't turrets since we even saw the oldest turrets, and those aren't them. These are literally an accidental project, that we accidentally made happen.
Confirmed by the lead writer of Portal 2, Erik W. has said that this game isn't really canon to the main universe, but said that if Valve ever does a Portal 3, he would want this stuff to be canon.
@@Immortal-Dude "I don't think Valve will ever actually give us Portal 3 or HL3" Do some digging, look up a video about the end of HL:Alyx and look up a video about recent leaks like the ones found in files of the above 'experience' ;)
I'd also love to see it referenced in Half Life if Valve ever does HL3. Just imagine it: Gordon, Dr. Kleiner, Barney, and Eli Vance, in a bid to find the Borealis, locate the old Aperture headquarters, hoping that Cave Johnson kept some records in regard to the Borealis and its disappearance, and hoping that they contain a clue to its location. After their encounter with GLaDOS, and explaining their reasons for setting foot on Aperture property in the first place, GLaDOS relents and lets them locate Cave's office, warning them to try and avoid some of the lower vaults "unless they want their individual molecules instantaneously split apart." In the process, they find the massive hole in Johnson's office, and then travel down, finding out that, contrary to public reports, Cave Johnson was alive-ish, now spending eternity as a giant mechanical 🗿 singing with a choir of mechanical toilets. Upon seeing what has become of Johnson, Kleiner comments: "This is either the greatest scientific discovery of the last century, or just a science experiment gone horribly wrong."
one thing I always liked about Valve is how they credit their staff. Noones higher than the other or specifically mentioned as 'writer' or 'lead' or anything. You can even see the name of Valve's co-founder, Gabe Newell, among the credits just like everyone else. They acknowledge that everyone contributes to every aspect of the game, many people other than the writers help influence the story - so as such they're all grouped together in the credits with no special titles
Quite a sad and haunting melody at the beginning. Cave Johnson gained immortality only to be trapped deep in the depths of Aperture Science facility, forgotten, left to rot for who knows how long. Bet by the time we see him again his mind is completely gone, just a shell of his former self, with the only hint of his conscious still there being this tune he and the toilet turrets hum.
We don’t know that yet and literally in the thing talking about this they said this isn’t portal 3 this is a tech demo and kinda teasing the future of the series
@@thebomb45tyle86 In an age where Valve is still moving ever-further from it's past and they are becoming more of a service and a tech company than a game developer. In an age where we have waited well over a decade for a new Half Life game and all we got was a Half Life VR game, and it wasn't the Half Life game or story we expected from them or wanted after all that waiting. In an age where TF2 reaches peak players twice since a global pandemic and made more money (despite the state TF2 is in) than Valve's first real release in many years (Half Life Alyx) on it's RELEASE DAY. And yet they STILL neglect and ignore TF2 and let it stay in a zombie-like state with a lack of updates or communication. The fact that 2 games, Back 4 Blood (an attempt at making a cash-grab successor to Left 4 Dead) and the Anacrusis (a true spiritual successor), were made in light of the fact that we will really just NEVER have another Left 4 Dead game. The list goes on but the point is there is no future of the series, or any Valve series.
@@Zladnyl Im sorry but have you been living under a rock? the whole "kekw valve doesnt make gayums anymore such wow much lol plz like/upvote my meme i need validation in life" shit was stale years ago, now its just sad. - HL:Alyx actually has the story we expected to have heard about for the past 15+ years, shame on you for claiming to be a fan but apparently not having paid any sort of attention throughout HL2 or its episodes, its constantly hinted at that Alyx is the important person in the story, and its also known fact that the real reason for making the game was so they could retcon the cliffhanger that gave them 15+ years of writers block, you should pay more attention to the company you claim to be so interested in. - HL:Alyx was given away for free to most of the VR gamers on steam, why are you talking about profits?!?! yikes bro 🤣 - Hat sim has gotten old for a lot of players and for the developers years ago, maybe just accept it instead of being so anal about it. Its not like we dont already know about TF3, but i guess you have not paid any attention? - Back4Blood is a spiritual successor, with 0 link to Valve, not sure how you consider it a cash grab seeing how it didn't do so well, also once again you just show how you love to think of yourself as a massive fan but really you dont know much about the subject(s) at all, there have been many leaks about L4D3 including recently, and nothing about Back4Blood means that Valve can no longer make a L4D3, PAY ATTENTION!!! - The list goes on but the point is there's no pleasing random haters like yourself, maybe dont go looking for video's like this just to complain because you have not been paying attention. Did i tell you to pay more attention yet? because you really should, you are making yourself look like a uninformed crybaby while the actual Valve fans are gearing up for more Source2 releases soon, well done bud, you totally showed us, we hate Valve now just like you! oh wait lmao.
It’s most likely that this is just demonstrating that Cave H.(ead) Johnson is just stuck forever singing to a bunch of turlets. But I have this ominous feeling that the mantis core is working to spread Cave’s influence, at first he is just humming to himself but when the first turlet responds to his vocalizations he acts with surprise by opening his mouth. He then starts to actually form a song more complex in order to test how much influence he has over the other machines. If you’re wondering where I am going with this, yes I am indeed imagining a future where the giant immortal Cave Johnson head fights GLaDOS for control of the facility using turlets, toasters, and every other rejected aperture invention, all while being powered by the miraculous mantis power source.
I also did notice that the song got more triumphant as more turrets joined the song, that could possibly symbolize how Cave is finding new hope as he finds out he can control other technology using this mantis core.
It would be a bit difficult for the scenario since this Cave Johnson never made it past the 70s, and if I remember correctly Apeture prime started working on what would become GLaDOS sometime between the 80s and 90s after the moon rock purchase.
The fact that even the founder of apertures became stuck in its depth is kind of poetic. As far as we know, the only one who made it out alive of aperture is shell.
I'm going to assume that the mantises were once the people who were experimented on by Aperture from Portal 2 or just literal lab rats that gained extreme intelligence, seeing as they show no mantis like behavior. They somehow discovered how to use electricity, which over time lead to them discovering the holy grail of a wireless energy device. It's why aperture will never ever truly be destroyed/shut down. Aperture really planned for absolutely everything that could go wrong but not mantises inadvertently creating a power source that would give immortality to not just Cave but the whole facility.
that actually pretty smart, now make sense that Aperture always has electricity EVEN in "the fall" chapter of Portal 2 every chamber test has energy. this like "reactor mantis" has truly powered the entire facility
It’s like Cave said. He gave people a blank check to make him immortal, and in some sense they succeeded. The fact that they made him a Moai statue meant that they ether had a sense of humor equivalent to someone living in our time, or that they just hated the guy
@@crimblr if portal 3 did happen most likely we won't play as chell again from both portal 1 n 2 I think we would play cave Johnson or Caroline or some other character with deeper back story or how aperture actually came to be and how the incident happen after glados was born it be a great take on the series as a whole
the scientists wanted to put him in a robot body but the brain for the robot wasnt big enough to store human thoughts and stuff so they kept making the head bigger and bigger until all of Cave was in it, creating a massive head the body of the robot was still the same and it was just junder the head the comically large 🗿
@@benonaru well, yes. Looking at the model it's segmented into body, legs, and head, and the head is the two mashed together turret bodies. They move and function in unison.
Hopefully they will always have it. There isn’t really a company like Valve. They are the only team that has made a corporation look like a cult-following, and it’s a surprise that these other greedy mega companies are too lazy to show what Valve has shown us all for decades.
@@lugnut59 Facts. Valve really is one of a kind and I don't think any other gaming company will ever come close to their level of quality they put both in their products and games.
I'm in love with the detail that with the stone exterior looks like him from the 70s, but the metal interior looks like how he did in the 60s, probably suggesting that robot took a while to build.
So, now we actually know how Everything in Aperture has Sentience, the ending for this game is pretty gloomy, but it's a huge Lore Drop, one of the longest unanswered Portal/Portal 2 questions has finally been answered.
@@noahgalvin8772 Not really, though. It actually seems to work fine with the existing Portal 2 lore if you think about it. Cave recorded all of his messages in batches, and it’s totally feasible that the company would want to cover up the failed AI conversion, hence why they still play the recordings of him talking about his poisoning and about wanting Caroline to be uploaded in the 1980s levels. It’s likely Desk Job takes place sometime between 1978 and 1981 based on the Enrichment Sphere dates in Portal 2, and GLaDOS (the only functional brain upload-based AI known to exist in Aperture) wasn’t completed until 2000 or 2001 (it’s canon that GLaDOS came online one month before the events of Half-Life 1, and items found in Half-Life: Alyx narrow the latest possible year for that to 2001). Aperture loves to bury their failures and keep trying similar concepts (both blue and orange gels started as defective dietary aids, for example) until they find something that works, so it makes since that they’d bury the failure of the Cave Johnson AI and then pretend he died naturally sometime around 1986, rather than around 1976 or so as is implied by Desk Job. Coincidentally, 1986 is also the year that work began on GLaDOS, as it’s when they discovered that Black Mesa had begun work on teleportation technology. (As an aside, this game actually deconfirms the popular theory that all personality cores were created from brain uploading, since Aperture definitely had the tech for fully artificial cores that are seemingly very lightweight (Grady floats in the toilet!) working by this time, while Cave’s brain upload required an immense multi-ton computer in a giant head.) There’s also nothing I can find indicating Valve intended Desk Job to be treated as non-canon. It was even advertised as a “playable short”. In fact, the exact plotline of Cave uploading himself and then wanting to die was planned to be used in Portal 2 (a few lines are still in the subtitle files, although none of them were ever recorded like the partially finished Caroline brain upload scene that had some full voice lines found) and part of it was ultimately reused in LEGO Dimensions’s Portal level (notably, he uploaded himself into a personality core with prominent 1970s Aperture branding in LEGO Dimensions, which also contradicts the timeline given in Portal 2 proper since Aperture had fully transitioned to the modern logo by 1986. tl;dr - Yes, Desk Job technically contradicts the timeline for Cave’s death given in Portal 2, but there’s enough wiggle room with how it’s presented that a death and brain upload in the late 70s followed by a partial cover up is definitely workable. Cave having his brain uploaded is also a plotline that Valve has hinted at for years anyway, and was almost included in Portal 2 itself.
I noticed when the first turret sings. His mouth opens a little, as if surprised. The mantis core giving them a sentience that surprised him, then accepted them as they’re all souls trapped inside a metal shell, and shared their joint pain the one way they knew how, in song
And now every time when I will play Half-life or Portal, I will know that somewhere in the depths of Earth, there are a Cave Johnson statue, perpetuum mobile thing and alive toilets with bullets, singing together infinitely
The fact that this is basically canon to the Portal universe. While GLaDOS is living with the bots and the humans found by the bots, Cave's just down here... singing to the turrets, for God knows how long
@@SikerScrapyard i assume the actual turrets existed before this (hence the ammunition that created the toilet turret) the core guy probably just ripped off the turret design to be honest lol
This feels like volvo is taking the piss on us by making the original verison of portals most ionic enemy being a toilet, but the turrets learning to sing from Cave Johnson is absolutely beautiful and touching moment of humanity in the entire franchise. When the oracle turret wasn't talking about Glados but Cave.
I feel like it fits for Aperture Science though, remember that the Portal Gun was originally made for shower curtains or something like that. They make these wonderful items and machinery but do so as just mistakes.
Wheatley is out in the depths of space. Glados sits in the center of the facility. Cave is in the depths. Aperature Science is NOT a safe place to work at.
Another obvious thing supporting the theory that cave johnson is being kept alive through the mantis core forever, is that this song is called "Requiem Ad Immortali", which translates to "Requiem For Immortals".
I wonder if this is an alternative timeline / paralel dimmension considering theres actually a praying mantis universe and an universe where was Cave the one put into GLaDOS. On this universe apparently Cave noticed his moon rock sickness waaaaay earlier on the 70s and thus they "GLaDOS" him but on a 70s era computer (aka. a massive garage) making him unable to move and unable to supervise and connect to the rest of Aperture leaving all the cores and bots up to their luck and duties. The game may happens during the mid 70s considering at the start of the game you can see human workers and active 1970s Aperture enviroments (same ones than in Portal 2 were decomisioned already), you don't see anywhere the 80s decaying Cave portrait (even Mecha-Cave was made with a 70s haircut) and the Houseware fight its full of old washing machines, operator machines and LP players
its been a while since ive gone deep into portal lore but where was the universe where cave was put into glados mentioned? i dont remember it from the game at least
@@kyovalye5942 considering that between the 50s and 70s almost any houseware equipement that needed to produce electric heat was insulated with asbestos, plus that the 50s Aperture spheres were build and coated with asbestos could be correct that this Cave succumbed to asbestos' poisoning before even buying moon rocks and blaming them.
And now, if canon or not, there is now a big robotic head of Cave Johnson, which has his consciousness still, at the bottom of a pit with a bunch of mechanical singing toilet turrets. Portal shares the same universe with Half Life-
I know that sounded pretentious, but…it does speak to me. Somehow. Singing “Woe” back and forth to each other, because that’s life, their lives, that’s the world. They can’t change it, but then it turns into this bittersweet uplifting triumphant note - they can’t change, but they can endure, that is their hope.
@@HandsomeRU-vidBrowser I didn't hear anything in the video. I've looked through the files before too and the only humming I can find is of GLaDOS. That sound could be playing in the video, but I couldn't hear any.
One little detail I just notice is you can see the Cave head about to sing, but then stop when the first Toilet Turret started singing. Like he genuinely didn't expect it
The fact this is so ominous just gives of the feeling that there is more to come Despite clearly, no, valve doesn't make games anymore, they make experiences, hardware and steam Right?
@@16caldwellj95 Still an experience, a one off thing, a shot in the dark, a spinoff, its based on hardware and tech they have faith in (VR). They didn't do it for the game and it isn't the game we expected. It was also to show off Source 2. Sure it was a game, but not the right one, a random one, not the one we have waited well over a decade for. It is also barely a game based on how many people ever will play it considering not everyone has or uses VR for many reasons not just due to the costs. TF2 (another game they have neglected) made more money than HL;A itself for quite some time after the release of HL:A and its reached peak players a couple times in recent memory. HL:A was just as much an experience (and nothing more) as this game was. A tech demo, and the only reason it was bigger than this new Portal experience is due to it showing off both Source 2 and VR. Do not get me wrong, this Portal experience is nice, but it also echoes of the same awful truth that the Valve of old is dead, it is something new and it isn't bad either. Like most other companies that would sour over time, Valve didn't, they just ascended to some new plain. Perhaps though one day we will have revivals of the content we loved from Valve, we won't see them abandoned or neglected, series left with no new entries and online games without updates or even fixes.
2:06 not gonna lie, the resolution here is beautiful. The somewhat sporadic tempo of the song ceases and what comes through in its stead is a graceful, *powerful* harmony. High class stuff from valve.
I feel that’s a bit fiery of a statement. Yes it’s amazing, but on the other hand it’s 30 minutes long. I don’t think it’s fair to make a statement like that.
If you truly think that, you should play more games. The game is ok. The only thing that's fantastic is the story, and just because Portal 1 and 2 were awesome. Overall, is a great demo for the Steam Deck, but nothing more.
@@DEM94 I’m not quite sure id say “and nothing more.” This whole Cave Johnson head thing has lore implications, which as you said is really important regarding Portal games.
@@braadsnumber1fan790 that's why I said that "Is a great demo" hahaha. The story and the lore implications are the only thing that is remarkable about this demo. It's enjoyable, but I won't consider it a "game"!
And so ends the story of Cave Johnson. Doomed to an eternity stuck at the bottom of a hole kept alive by (what I assume) a perpetual energy source invented by mantises surrounded by singing toilets.
Considering what he did to all of those people including (but probably not limited to) astronauts, olympians, war heroes, homeless people, all of his office workers, and Caroline--Caroline especially, it feels earned.
Am I the only one who found this a bit creepy? I mean, Cave is now stuck god knows how deep under Aperture and is now singing with turret toilets for all eternity...
@@unfortunately774 well the idea of the core is that is probably the power source Probably a mini-star, so if guess some few hundreds or thousands years
Each time the green Mantis device pulses, Cave seemed to get a bit more control/awaken more Turrets. A potential setup for a future title if he can apread that influence to some bots to come rescue him.
I like how when a turret first sings it's almost as if cave pauses in shock, his mouth even opens slightly as if he's like :o Maybe in that moment he found some solace to his immortality.
i dont know why but 1:41 makes me tear up, to me it feels like the last breath or a send-off of an intangible but incredible thing with a refusal to be forgotten. but 2:09 always cheers me back up
First the creator of portal 2’s story says he wants to make a third game Then Geico has a portal commercial Then portal 1 and 2 get ported to the switch Then a portal “controller tech demo” comes to steam, claims its not portal 3 in the description Valve acting pretty sus
I think that the mantis core had imbued Caves consciousness into each turret and sentient piece of machinery in aperture. Making him do everything glados requests but unsure on how to effectively carry out the tasks. Switching their power dynamic in death.
I like to think that this is why the turrets sing in the first place. The mantis reactor, as it seems to be called by others, not only powered the turrets and the facility, but projected Caves consciousness across all the turret production lines. He was spread thin, however, so they’d never know their own name, but they’d know song and they’d carry it within their programming forever
@@plexyglass429 sorry for late response, during development for Portal 2, the originally wrote for Cell and Caroline to eventually come across an obstacle too tough to pass: a room with an exit slightly too high to jump. The only other thing in the room would be a Companion Cube plugged into an outlet with Cave Johnson's mind. He'd recognize Glados as Caroline and give a quick info dump about who she is. Unlike her who had an entire facility, he's been trapped in the room alone and asks Chell to kill him by unplugging the box. Given its the only way through the room, it's inevitable the player has to. Wed get funny dialogue about how he's made up his mind and this is assisted suicide. After escaping Glados takes a moment to ask we never talk about that again. Here. Found it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3BfZETS_kgY.html
Cave Johnson was a kinda funny, brilliant but also cruel and cold hearted man. But be honest: No one deserves to live an eternal life as a motionless object in the darkness at the bottom of a long forgotten place. I couldn't imagine that the story of Portal could end this sad and filled with sorrow. But I guess it's one way of Valve telling us that all great and exciting things need to end at some point, sooner or later.
He spoke about him giving a check to make him immortal, but as it turns out, that even HE was confused. Carolin was his apparent replacement for the "immortal" project however he was either lied to or misunderstood just what GLADOS was for. He perhaps thought the chassis was for him, but as it turns out that it in reality was not, and the idea to place his assistants conscience was purely by mistake because he was within the understanding that a mind was meant for GLADOS... Now all we need is one of those "woah wtf is going on here?" moments where Portal 3 is actually made, and the story revolves around a looming evil that poses a threat to GLADOS's controll over the facility as this "antagonist" creates almost like an Avatar for himself to walk around the facility while the main mind stays hidden deep under the newer facility. That would be kinda cool to see tbh. Like, GLADOS being the powerful being that she is, in controll of everything that happens in Aperture, but then suddenly detecting "some" other mechanical being somewhere hidden.. Maybe while GLADOS has controll of the top newer parts of the Facility. Cave would figure out a way the gain controll of his older facility. Though it wouldn't be much, he would however have controll of ALL the core systems that were built in the lower levels and extended to the new facility.
I see so many people saying he's still alive, but look at the way he shuts down at the end. all his lights go out, which probably means a complete and total shutdown. he's gone. at least until someone finds him and somehow powers the giant head back on.
Erik Wolpaw, one of the creators of Portal, said that Aperture Desk Job isn't canon for now. That means this happens in a different universe to Portal 1 and 2. Who knows what repercussions this event would've had on this universe?
I think the most haunting part of this is: This is Cave Johnson. His conscience is stuck in a metallic head, at the bottom of aperture. He’s given up. The person who talked about burning houses down with lemons, is now humming to toilets, and most importantly, himself.
It does seem a bit stupid to call this one of the best games in recent memory, but fr, you can feel the passion in the game. It has a soul. Which is so fucking rare nowadays, it just elevates it so much. IT'S A DAMN 30 MINUTE TECH DEMO FFS, WHY IS IT MORE ENGAGING THAN THE ENTIRETY OF CYBERPUNK
It is because the internet of things move much faster than, anything really. Video games and their developers soar by much quicker than the legends of Hollywood and film-making. It is due to this that gaming is dying (or becoming as out of whack as modern day Hollywood) at a much faster rate. It just grew faster and bigger and the rate of decay increased too, and when it comes to many titans of the industry in gaming "The bigger they are the harder they fall" is VERY applicable. Sadly the best days of gaming are behind us, as series die off and we get shitty little things like Borderlands 3, GTA Definitive Edition, Cyberpunk 2077, and more. All while Valve continues to mostly neglect everything they once were. Sure, this new Portal experience is outstanding, I guess Half Life Alyx was too, but neither are the games we were expecting or waiting for. The original series will continue to be left in the past by Valve and further carve a hole into all of our hearts and souls. This goes for things like Left 4 Dead, Portal, Half Life, and the ever neglected Team Fortress 2.
This seems very similar to a scrapped concept where Cave was trapped in a storage cube trapped in the depths of aperture and you unplug him to use him as a stepping stone.
You know what would be amazing? Someday, in a far far future portal game, if you search hard enough trough I suppose the ruins of the old and first facility you can find a long tunnel which almost goes straight down to his old, rusted and yet unbroken head with his consciousness, then if you were to decide to break it in some way, you hear his last sigh of relief and get an achievement named "Freed Old Mind" ..
When I saw what happened to the mantis community I felt more sadness than ive ever felt from a movie or video game before. I watched an entire civilization built from scraps become a paradise. It was filled with hundreds of insects all of whom I had grown quite fond of. AND THEN I WATCHED IT BURN
