The Macguffin
Created | Updated Mar 5, 2009
Contrary to popular belief, the Macguffin is not a flatulent Scottish seabird; it is the mysterious object used solely as a plot device in various story-telling media. The name 'The Macguffin' is itself slightly mysterious; many attribute its coinage to Alfred Hitchcock who himself claimed to have first overheard it on a train as part of a highly dubious exchange between two Scots.
So, what actually is it?
This is the thing. To qualify as a Macguffin, the actual form of the object is irrelevant. What is important about the object is that in itself, or in its potential, it is a source of motivation for the characters. Be it the priceless jewels hidden beneath the black enamel of the statue in The Maltese Falcon, the infinite power of the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the mysterious contents of Marsellus Wallace's briefcase in Pulp Fiction or the radioactive Chevrolet in Repo Man. What is important is how these objects cause the characters to act, and in fact, that these objects could be swapped freely between films without changing the plot.
It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers
Alfred Hitchcock
I want one!
Don't we all. Although many films from a diverse list of genres contain Macguffins, those who seek an easy Macguffin would do worse than to familiarize themselves with these famous genres of film and literature.
- Crime Fiction and Film Noir
- Science Fiction1
- Espionage/Spy Fiction
- Practically any Coen Brothers film
Strange Macguffin!
Macguffins can be practically anything and may not even be defined as an object. It is this flexibility that has allowed the Macguffin some strange incarnations over the years. For example R2D2 in the Star Wars films is described as a Macguffin by George Lucas. The meaning of the word 'Rosebud' is the Macguffin in the film Citizen Kane 2. Some films, like Jewel of the Nile and Twelve Monkeys, use a person as a Macguffin or can deliberately distort, swap or misrepresent a Macguffin. Some films share a Macguffin, the best example of this is probably the Holy Grail, as sought by everyone from King Arthur to Indiana Jones's dad, followed closely by GOVERNMENT SECRETS.Happy hunting!
1 See also: Big Dumb Object2Which doesn't makes sense. How could anyone know what his last words were if he died alone?
