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Near the beginning of the game, when Wheatley (your companion, the robot personality sphere) jumps off his rail, what happens if you manage to catch him? I slipped and missed him, and I'm a little worried I missed an achievement or something.

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    I tried a number of times. I don't think you can.
    – badp
    Apr 19, 2011 at 14:15
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    I found a way to balance him on my head for a few good seconds, after he pops off his rail. He was like "AAAH! Wait, what?" I LOL-ed for a long time.
    – user12598
    Sep 19, 2011 at 22:56
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    From what I remember he doesnt have a catch prompt, but it is possible to balance him on your head for a few seconds instead.
    – Alex Spencer
    Jun 22, 2016 at 9:00

6 Answers 6

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You can't catch him there: he will always fall to the floor. You can however pick him up after that happens.

Standing ready to catch! enter image description here

Failing miserably... enter image description here

But he's still alright! enter image description here

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    The reason that they scripted it this way is because Chell is suffering from physical and mental problems as a result of being years in the statis after she survived the explosion in the first Portal game. She thus undergoes periodical mandatory physical and mental wellness exercise(s) so she is no longer tired and tenacious as seen on Page 27 in Portal: Lab Rat. For the same reason, Chell is unable to talk and thus jumps instead...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Apr 20, 2011 at 0:45
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    @Tom I thought Chell is unable to speak for the same reason that Gordon Freeman never speaks, which is that they're player characters... Pretty sure the reason they decided Chell would drop Wheatley is so that he'd whine about it later.
    – Rei Miyasaka
    Apr 21, 2011 at 7:14
  • @Rei: No, Gordon Freeman is never asked to speak and there is enough indication why Chell should not be able to speak. That they are player characters has nothing to do with it, the co-op bots proof this by having a line of dialog in the game and they are listed in the credits. QQing about it is a consequence. A story has a beginning and an end, the end makes no sense if you haven't read the beginning...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Apr 21, 2011 at 10:43
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    @Tom Actually, Alyx makes note of this in the elevator ride, saying "man of few words, aren't you?" I read in an interview or something somewhere that they didn't want the co-op bots to speak, but they still wanted them to have character, so they made them chirp emotively instead as a compromise. The purpose of Wheatley's whining in the end from what I understand is to explain his change of heart when he goes mad.
    – Rei Miyasaka
    Apr 21, 2011 at 12:17
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I have reloaded this save so many times and in many times Wheatley was on my head for good 3~5 seconds while I was mashing the E button... but they disable it so he always falls :(

It's kinda funny to hear all the lines that Wheatley says after he falls and if you leave him alone without picking him up :) You can also roll him around the floor while listening.

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The first time I played I got right under him. You can't catch Wheatley, no matter what you try. You actually get a bit more “catchmecatchmecatchme” dialog if you balance him a lil'. Try it!

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    Did so on first playthrough too! Managed to catch him onto head almost perfectly and stared into his blue eye for around a minute of total silence. That felt so weird...
    – val is still with Monica
    Jul 1, 2019 at 16:26
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you can catch him using the developer console.

when he starts falling of his rail, open the console and enter this command:

ent_fire !picker enablepickup; ent_fire !picker use

then you will be holding him, but when you plug him into the "stick", he acts like he fell to the ground. then you can pull him out, but if plug him back, he will do nothing.

and his dialog at the end doesn't change because catching him at this point was intended to be impossible.

(sorry for my bad english)

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It's impossible to catch Wheatley. When he changes his charakter to evil, he talks about that moment you haven't catched him. I think it's a solution to why we can't do it - it would change his dialoug, and maybe he wouldn't be so evil, because you helped him.

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I actually did catch him, I don't know why you all think it's impossible... I did it twice and know other people who did so it's obviously possible. After you catch him he says something like

"I thought I was going to die! Thank you"

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    Could you provide some kind of proof? Screenshots or a video, perhaps? A video disproving every other answer is a good way to get upvotes...
    – John the Green
    Jul 31, 2012 at 2:45
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    This video clearly disagrees, until he hits the ground it is not possible to catch him. youtube.com/watch?v=rxHAFvCtp5w&feature=related
    – Halfwarr
    Jul 31, 2012 at 4:42
  • I thought I caught him the first time I ever did it on PS3, but now I'm not sure I really did. I'm pretty sure I must have just balanced him and had him roll against something. When I thought I was putting him down, he probably just fell.
    – Peter Cordes
    Jan 1, 2018 at 19:36

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