How to Fix Alan Wake 2’s Projector Room Door Bug

While Alan Wake 2 may be a fantastic game, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some bugs that are giving players strife. If you’ve fallen victim to the Projector Room door glitch in Alan Wake 2, here’s how to free yourself from the theater.

What Is the Projector Room Glitch in Alan Wake 2?

Toward the end of Alan’s campaign, in Initiation 8: Zane’s Film, you’ll be tasked with heading to Thomas Zane’s theater and watching his film “Nightless Night” while stitching together another murder scene to advance the story. You’ll eventually reach a point where your objective is to head into the projector room to watch the film. If you’re anything like me, you first looked at your map, went into the theater, jogged all the way to the back, and switched the light either off or on with the Angel Lamp. A door on the left then appears, tempting you to go through it. Given what the map indicates, it’s clearly the way into the Projector Room… right?

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As it turns out, it’s actually the exit from the Projector Room that’s meant to be accessible to players at this point. The door appears because the texture of the red curtain that’s meant to be blocking it takes too long to load, allowing Alan to run through the door. The problem is, once he’s in the stairwell, he can’t open the door at the top nor retreat through the entrance from which he came. You can loot a container at the top of the stairs, but what’s the point when you can’t go anywhere? So, let’s fix this problem.

Unfortunately, the only way to escape the room is by loading an older save, so hopefully you made use of the Break Room in the theater’s lobby before progressing to this point. I spent ages trying to figure out what to do until I gave up and realized the entrance was located elsewhere.

While Alan Wake 2 does have quite a few technical issues, the Projector Room bug, in particular, was a real bother since it doesn’t look like a glitch of any kind, leaving players to bash their heads against a door that will never open. How appropriately poetic for a game about a writer trapped in a limbo of his own creation.