A (sometimes '''McGuffin''' or '''Maguffin''') is a Plot Device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story itself.
The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot devices is that it is not important what object the MacGuffin ''specifically is''. Anything that serves as a motivation will do. A true MacGuffin is essentially interchangeable. Its importance will generally be accepted completely by the story's characters, with minimal explanation. From the audience's perspective, the MacGuffin is not the point of the story.
The technique is common in Film s, especially Thriller s. Commonly, though not always, the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first Act , and then declines in significance as the struggles and motivations of the characters take center stage. Sometimes the MacGuffin is all but forgotten by the end of the film.
Because a MacGuffin is, by definition, ultimately unimportant to the story, its use can test the Suspension Of Disbelief of audiences. Well-done works will compensate for this, with a good story, interesting characters, talented acting/writing, and so on. Poorer works, which fail in those areas, often only highlight a MacGuffin, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness. MacGuffins may be acceptable to the general audience, but fail to be believable for experts in the subject matter (such as a particular technology, or historical detail).
According to film historian Kalton C. Lahue in his book ''Bound and Gagged'' (a history of silent-film serials), the actress Pearl White used the term "weenie" to identify whatever physical object (a roll of film, a rare coin, expensive diamonds) impelled the villains and virtuous characters to pursue each other through the convoluted plots of '' The Perils Of Pauline '' and the other Silent Serial s in which White starred.
Director / Producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique. According to the '' Oxford English Dictionary '', Hitchcock explained the term in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University :
:In regard to the tune intelligence encoded in music , we have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin'. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers.
Interviewed in 1966 by François Truffaut , Hitchcock illustrated the term "MacGuffin" with this story:
:It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks 'What's a McGuffin?' 'Well' the other man says, 'It's an apparatus for trapping Lion s in the Scottish Highlands .' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers 'Well, then that's no McGuffin!' So you see, a McGuffin is nothing at all.
Hitchcock related this anecdote in a television interview for Richard Schickel 's documentary ''The Men Who Made the Movies''. Hitchcock's verbal delivery made it clear that the second man has thought up the McGuffin explanation as a roundabout method of telling the first man to mind his own business. According to author Ken Mogg, screenwriter Angus MacPhail may have originally coined the term. MacPhail was friends with Hitchcock. {Link without Title}
More succinctly, on TV interviews from time to time, Hitchcock defined the MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves, and as to what that object ''specifically'' is, "The audience don't care!" (sic)
In '' Notorious '' ( 1946 ), the uranium hidden in wine bottles is a MacGuffin. It is the reason the story takes place, but could just as easily have been diamonds, gold, or rare wine. In fact, during production, there was discussion of changing it to diamonds to be more believable [http://sc.essortment.com/alfredhitchcoc_rvhd.htm .
In '' North By Northwest '', the MacGuffin is the unspecified secret information known by a man for whom Roger Thornhill ( Cary Grant ) is mistaken. Thornhill spends the course of the movie trying to find the man, without realizing that he does not exist. Both the hero and the villains of the movie are chasing nothing more than a puff of hot air, making this a true MacGuffin.
In '' Psycho '', the money that the character of Marion Crane has stolen from her employer is a MacGuffin. After Marion's subsequent disappearance, her sister and boyfriend suspect Norman Bates has murdered her for the money. However, it is revealed that Bates killed Marion without even knowing the money existed. In the end, it could have been jewelry or any number of things. The money was simply a plot device to get her to the Bates Motel.
- Ronin (film) is an action/thriller that tells the story of a group of former intelligence agents who team up to steal a mysterious metal case which is a MacGuffin. The contents are never shown; the entire plot is not about the contents so much as what happens because of it.
- In Mel Brooks' '' High Anxiety '', there is an explicit reference to the MacGuffin: Dr. Thorndyke is told that a "Mr. MacGuffin" changed his room reservation. ''High Anxiety'' was a deliberate parody/homage to Hitchcock.
- One particularly famous early movie example of a MacGuffin is the titular statuette in '' The Maltese Falcon ''.
- Roger Ebert defines the term in his Commentary Track for '' Casablanca '', where he points out that the "letters of transit" {Link without Title} in the film are a MacGuffin.
- The briefcase in Quentin Tarantino 's '' Pulp Fiction '' is a MacGuffin. The contents are never shown; that section of the plot is not about the briefcase so much as what happens because of it. When the briefcase is briefly opened, we do not see its contents, only a yellow glow coming from the case; this is probably itself a homage to the glowing car trunk in '' Repo Man '', or to the mysterious attaché case (containing "The Great Whatsit") in '' Kiss Me Deadly ''.
- The contents of the safe deposit box in Spike Lee's '' Inside Man ''.
- A similar homage is the surreal, glowing car trunk in '' Repo Man ''.
- In the film '' Diva '', the MacGuffin is a cassette tape.
- The gold that is the target of the heist in '' The Italian Job '' could just have easily been many other things (in a sense, gold is usually a MacGuffin in real life, too).
- In the James Bond movie '' From Russia With Love '', the MacGuffin is the Lektor device which everyone seems interested in getting but is otherwise irrelevant to the plot as it never really does anything and could have been easily replaced with a variety of other things.
- In the movie '' Barton Fink '', Barton is given a box to hold on to by John Goodman's character but the contents of the box are never revealed, though there is reason to believe that it is a human head.
- The Zeppelin Tube of Firesign Theatre 's '' Giant Rat Of Sumatra ''—an improbable scientific device, explained by goofy scientific sounding babble, around which the plot revolves, is also a MacGuffin.
- David Mamet 's '' The Spanish Prisoner '' revolves around a "process" contained in a notebook which is never revealed to the audience. Similarly, the amount of money at stake is written on a blackboard at the beginning of the film; all characters appear impressed by the dollar number, but the amount is never shown to the audience. Both are MacGuffins.
- In '' The Big Lebowski '', the rug that "really tied the room together" is a MacGuffin.
- In '' Dude, Where's My Car? '', Jesse and Chester encounter two groups of aliens who are trying to find a MacGuffin called the Continuum Transfunctioner . Jesse's car also serves as a MacGuffin.
- In '' Raise The Titanic! '', Dirk Pitt attempts to locate the world's supply of byzanium, a Fictional Chemical Substance .
- The comedy film '' My Favorite Blonde '', starring Bob Hope and Madeleine Carroll , is largely a parody of Hitchcock's film '' The 39 Steps '', in which Madeleine Carroll had previously appeared. The MacGuffin in ''My Favorite Blonde'' is a piece of information which Carroll (portraying an international spy) must convey cross-country to her spymasters' headquarters, at great physical risk to herself. When Bob Hope sensibly asks her why she doesn't just phone them the information, Carroll replies that it's a diagram that can't be explained verbally. So, if this movie were remade today, she could simply send a fax!
- The microfilm in '' Pickup On South Street ''. This is one of many Cold War films which would have us believe that a simple mathematical equation (or a diagram) contains some top-secret knowledge which could blow up the planet. Other such films are the dialogue-less movie '' The Thief '' and Hitchcock's '' Torn Curtain ''; in all such cases, the formula is a MacGuffin.
- In Darren Aronofsky 's sci-fi movie '' Pi '', the number Pi , as well as the mysterious 216 digit pattern ostensibly derived from it, are arguably MacGuffins, although this view may overlook some of the deeper themes of the film.
- In the 1998 film '' Last Night '', the MacGuffin encapsulates the details regarding an Extinction Level Event that will apparently wipe out all life on the planet. They are hinted at (notice the significance of the Sun , in particular), but the film relies on contradictory information as an attempt to draw attention away from it, and instead focus on how the characters' react to it.
- The Enigma Machine in '' U-571 '' is a textbook example of how a MacGuffin loses its importance halfway through a movie. At its core, U-571 is essentially a story about US submariners trapped on a German U-boat which they do not really know how to operate, and trying to get back to the USA and safety. The Enigma machine is simply the MacGuffin used by the scriptwriters to get the movie's characters into the U-boat in the first place. Once the characters are there, the true engine of the story takes over, and the Enigma machine gets forgotten.
- The "box", supposedly a code-breaking device in '' Sneakers (film) ''.
- The cold war film Mirage (film) included a MacGuffin which was something most desirable, yet something quite impossible: a means of withstanding a nuclear explosion.
- In "Citizen Kane," the motivating force for the entire film is the meaning of Kane's last word, "Rosebud." In search of its meaning, a reporter meets all of Kane's still living friends and lovers and in a series of flashbacks learns his entire story, from cradle to grave. Only in the final sequence do we learn that "Rosebud" is the name of Kane's childhood sled. The ultimate MacGuffin.
- '' Cheers '' : Sam Malone's Corvette is a MacGuffin that lasts throughout the entire television series' time. The audience rarely sees this Corvette but it is the focus of several episodes and is of the highest importance to Sam, often talked about in relation to Sam's own relationships, as it is revered by all characters, especially women in Sam's life. As far as the audience is concerned though, the fact that this object is a Corvette or a car in general, is entirely irrelevant.
- '''' cartoon of the late 1980s in which the "MacGuffin Ray", a dummy weapon, is used exclusively to lure the evil Dr. Scarab out of hiding.
- '' episode of '' G.I. Joe '', ''Once Upon a Joe'', features a MacGuffin Device which "alters the fabric of reality" by projecting as solid hallucinations the imagination of the user.
- '', the investigation itself is a MacGuffin as the show primarily focused on the pecularities and duplicities of small town life in the rural Washington town.
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