Wormholes in fiction

A wormhole is a postulated method, within the general theory of relativity, of moving from one point in space to another without crossing the space between. Wormholes are a popular feature of science fiction as they allow faster-than-light interstellar travel within human timescales.
A related concept in various fictional genres is the portable hole. While there's no clear demarcation between the two, this article deals with fictional, but pseudo-scientific, treatments of faster-than-light travel through space.
A jumpgate is a fictional device able to create an Einstein–Rosen bridge portal, allowing fast travel between two points in space.

In franchises

''Stargate'' franchise

Wormholes are the principal means of space travel in the Stargate movie and the spin-off television series, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, to the point where it was called the franchise that is "far and away most identified with wormholes". The central plot device of the programs is an ancient transportation network consisting of the ring-shaped devices known as Stargates, which generate artificial wormholes that allow one-way matter transmission and two-way radio communication between gates when the correct spatial coordinates are "dialed".

''Babylon 5'' and ''Crusade''

In television series Babylon 5 and its spin-off series Crusade, jump points are artificial wormholes that serve as entrances and exits to hyperspace, allowing for faster-than-light travel. Jump points can either be created by larger ships or by standalone jumpgates.
In the B5 universe, jumpgates are considered neutral territory. It is considered a violation of normal rules of engagement to attack them directly, as the jumpgate network is needed by every known spacefaring race. However, in wartime, it is common for powers to program their gates to deny access to opposing sides, thus forcing enemies to use their own jump points.

''Farscape''

The television series Farscape features an American astronaut who accidentally gets shot through a wormhole and ends up in a distant part of the universe, and also features the use of wormholes to reach other universes and as weapons of mass destruction.
Wormholes are the cause of John Crichton's presence in the far reaches of our galaxy and the focus of an arms race of different alien species attempting to obtain Crichton's perceived ability to control them. Crichton's brain was secretly implanted with knowledge of wormhole technology by one of the last members of an ancient alien species. Later, an alien interrogator discovers the existence of the hidden information and thus Crichton becomes embroiled in interstellar politics and warfare while being pursued by all sides, as they want the ability to use wormholes as weapons. Unable to directly access the information, Crichton is able to subconsciously foretell when and where wormholes will form and is able to safely travel through them, while all attempts by others are fatal. By the end of the series, he eventually works out some of the science and is able to create his own wormholes and shows his pursuers the consequences of a wormhole weapon.

''Star Trek'' franchise

Early in the storyline of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, an antimatter imbalance in the refitted Enterprise (NCC-1701)|Enterprise] starship's warp drive power systems creates an unstable ship-generated wormhole directly ahead of the vessel, threatening to rip the starship apart partially through its increasingly severe time dilation effects, until Commander Pavel Chekov fires a photon torpedo to blast apart a sizable asteroid that was pulled in with the starship, destabilizing the wormhole effect and throwing the Enterprise clear as it slowed to sub-light velocities. Near the end of the film, Willard Decker recalls that "Voyager 6" disappeared into what they used to call a "black hole". At one time, black holes in science fiction were often endowed with the traits of wormholes. This has for the most part disappeared as a black hole is not a hole in space, but a dense mass and the visible vortex effect often associated with black holes is merely the accretion disk of visible matter being drawn toward it. Decker's line is most likely to inform that it was probably a wormhole that Voyager 6 entered, although the intense gravity of a black hole does warp the fabric of spacetime.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A [Matter of Time (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|A Matter of Time]", Captain Jean-Luc Picard acknowledged that since the first wormholes were discovered students had been asked questions about the ramifications of accidentally changing history for the worse through knowledge obtained by traveling through wormholes.
The setting of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a space station, Deep Space 9, located near the artificially-created Bajoran wormhole. This wormhole is unique in the Star Trek universe because of its stability. In an earlier episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was established that wormholes are generally unstable on one or both ends – either the ends move erratically or they do not open reliably. The Bajoran wormhole is stationary on both ends and opens consistently, bridging the Alpha and Gamma quadrants and enabling starship travel across vast distances. It serves as a strategic gateway that introduces the Alpha quadrant to the threatening Dominion and provides one method of communication with the non-physical entities, known as the Prophets, who inhabit it. Discovered at the start of the series, the existence of the wormhole and the various consequences of its discovery elevate the strategic importance of the space station and is a major factor in most of the overarching plots over the course of the series.
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Counterpoint", an alien scientist explains that the term wormhole is often used as a layman's term and describes various spatial anomalies. Examples for those wormholes in Star Trek are intermittent cyclical vortex, interspatial fissure, interspatial flexure or spatial flexure in episode "Q2" respectively spatial vortex in episode "Night". In the episode "Inside Man" an artificially created wormhole was named geodesic fold.
In the 2009 Star Trek film, red matter is used to create artificial black holes. A large one acts a conduit between spacetime and sends Spock and List of [Star Trek characters (N–S)#N|Nero] back in time.

''Doctor Who''

The Rift which appears in the long-running British science-fiction series Doctor Who and its spin-off Torchwood is a wormhole. One of its mouths is located in Cardiff Bay, Wales and the other floats freely throughout space-time. It is the central plot device in the latter show.
In "Planet of the Dead", a wormhole transports a London double-decker bus to a barren, desert-like planet. The wormhole could only be navigated safely through by a metal object, and human tissue is not meant for inter-space travel, as demonstrated by the bus driver, who is burnt to the bones on attempting to get back to Earth.

It is discussed that the Time Vortex was created by the Time Lords to allow travel of TARDISes to any point in spacetime.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

In the 2011 film Thor, the Bifrost is reimagined as an Einstein–Rosen Bridge which is operated by the gatekeeper, Heimdall, and used by Asgardians to travel between the Nine Realms.
In the 2012 film The Avengers, Loki uses the Tesseract to arrive on Earth and summon the Chitauri to invade New York.
In the 2013 film Thor: The Dark World, the Bifrost Bridge is repaired using the Tesseract, and is once again used by Asgardians for space travel. Additionally, Jane Foster and her associates encounter a wormhole in London which teleports her to Svartalfheim.
In the 2017 film Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is teleported to the planet Sakaar via a wormhole, where he learns that Bruce Banner and Loki had both landed on the planet via wormholes as well. The largest one, referred to as the "Devil's Anus", is described by Banner as "a collapsing Neutron Star within an Einstein-Rosen Bridge".
In the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos acquires the Space Stone from the Statesman and uses it to generate wormholes and travel between different points of the Universe.

In literature

In some earlier analyses of general relativity, the event horizon of a black hole was believed to form an Einstein-Rosen bridge.

Title	Author	Year	Description
The Forever War	Joe Haldeman	1974	In the classic war novel interstellar travel is achieved through gateways located at collapsars. This is an early word for a black hole, and the novel refers to the theory that black holes may contain Einstein–Rosen Bridges.
"Mrs. Todd's Shortcut"	Stephen King	1984	In the fantasy short story, an elderly woman is obsessed with finding shortcuts through her hometown stumble upon a wormhole to another dimension, which makes her younger with every trip she takes.
Contact	Carl Sagan	1985	In the novel, a crew of five humans make a trip to the center of the Milky Way galaxy through a transportation system consisting of a series of wormholes. The novel is notable in that Kip Thorne advised Sagan on the possibilities of wormholes. Likewise, wormholes are also central to the film version.
Vorkosigan Saga	Lois McMaster Bujold	1986	In the series naturally occurring wormholes form the basis for interstellar travel. The world of Barrayar was isolated from the rest of human civilization for centuries after the connecting wormhole collapsed, until a new route was discovered, and control over wormhole routes and jumps is the frequent subject of political plots and military campaigns.
Xeelee series	Stephen Baxter	1989	In the fictional world, humans use wormholes to traverse the Solar System. A wormhole is also used in this universe to put a probe into the Sun. In his book Ring, the Xeelee construct a gigantic wormhole into a different universe which they use to escape the onslaught of the Photino birds.
Honorverse series	David Weber	1994	In this fictional universe, wormholes have an important impact in the economy of the different star nations, as it greatly reduces travel time between two different points. The Star Kingdom of Manticore, to which the main character belongs, is a powerful economic entity thanks to the Manticore Junction, a set of six wormholes, close to Manticore's binary system, that ensure much travel goes through their system. It also can play a role in the military side of things, but usage of the wormhole destabilizes it for a time proportional to the size of the starship using it.
His Dark Materials	Philip Pullman	1995	Wormholes are an immensely important plot device in the trilogy, with one first discovered by protagonist Will Parry, when fleeing from his home after an accidental murder; he finds a window in the air in an Oxford street which leads to a totally different universe, the town of Cittagazze. In the rest of the trilogy, the other main characters use wormholes in the form of these extradimensional windows in order to travel "between worlds" and thus speed their journeys.
Einstein's Bridge	John G. Cramer	1997	The novel features travel via wormholes between alternate universes.
Diaspora	Greg Egan	1997	The novel features scientifically well founded depictions of wormholes.
Timeline	Michael Crichton	1999	In the novel traversable wormholes are used for time travel along with the theory of quantum foam.
The Light of Other Days	Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter	2000	The novel discusses the problems which arise when a wormhole is used for faster-than-light communication. In the novel the authors suggest that wormholes can join points distant either in time or in space and postulate a world completely devoid of privacy as wormholes are increasingly used to spy on anyone at any time in the world's history.
Commonwealth Saga	Peter F. Hamilton	2002	The series describes how wormhole technology could be used to explore, colonize and connect to other worlds without having to resort to traditional travel via starships. This technology is the basis of the formation of the titular Intersolar Commonwealth, and is used so extensively that it is possible to ride trains between the planets of the Commonwealth.
The Algebraist	Iain M. Banks	2004	In the novel traversable wormholes can be artificially created and are a central factor/resource in the stratification of space-faring civilizations.
House of Suns	Alastair Reynolds	2008	The novel features a wormhole to Andromeda. One main character also alludes to other wormhole mouths leading to galaxies in the Local Group and beyond. In the books, all wormhole-linked galaxies are cloaked by Absences, which prevent information escaping the galaxy and thus protecting causality from being violated by FTL travel.
Palimpsest	Charles Stross	2009	An original story in the 2009 collection Wireless: The Essential Charles Stross – which won the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novella – the protagonist creates and uses temporary wormholes to travel through both space and time.
The Expanse	James S.A Corey	2012	A virus shot at the Solar System millions of years ago constructs a ring in space that creates a wormhole to another dimension which is a "hub" of 1373 wormholes that lead to other solar systems.