MacGuffin
Encyclopedia
A MacGuffin is "a plot element
that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are (at least initially) willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.
The MacGuffin is common in film
s, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act
, and then declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out. It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the MacGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the film. Multiple MacGuffins are sometimes—somewhat derisively—referred to as plot coupons.
The term is also used by a game development studio as a reference to a design object which forces interactivity on to a narrative.
in a segment of the Finnish epic Kalevala
. However the specific term MacGuffin appears to be limited to recent use in film making.
and producer
Alfred Hitchcock
popularized both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique, with his 1935 film The 39 Steps
, an early example of the concept. Hitchcock explained the term "MacGuffin" in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University
: "[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 almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers".
Interviewed in 1966 by François Truffaut
, Alfred Hitchcock illustrated the term "MacGuffin" with this story:
Hitchcock related this anecdote in a television interview for Richard Schickel
's documentary The Men Who Made the Movies and for Dick Cavett's
interview. Hitchcock's verbal delivery made it clear that the second man has thought up the MacGuffin explanation as a roundabout method of telling the first man to mind his own business. According to author Ken Mogg, screenwriter Angus MacPhail
, a friend of Hitchcock, may have originally coined the term.
, writer
and director
George Lucas
describes R2-D2
as "the main driving force of the movie ... what you say in the movie business is the MacGuffin ... the object of everybody's search". In TV interviews, Hitchcock defined a MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves, but, as to what that object specifically is, he declared, "the audience don't care". Lucas, on the other hand, believes that the MacGuffin should be powerful and that "the audience should care about it almost as much as the dueling heroes and villains on-screen".
s film High Anxiety
, which parodies many Hitchcock films, a minor plot point is advanced by a mysterious phone call from a "Mr. MacGuffin".
In the movie Léon
(aka The Professional), when Léon and Mathilda check into the hotel, Mathilda tells Léon she's filling the form out with "the name of a girl in my class who makes me sick." Following with "If things get hot, she'll take the heat". Later in the movie we hear the Hotel manager banging on the hotel room door exclaiming "Mr. MacGuffin?!"
In the TV show Due South
during the episode Chicago Holiday, the MacGuffin is a matchbook that makes its way around the episode going from character to character. The hotel maid in this episode has the name of Mrs. McGuffin and earlier in the episode, a mall security guard's name is Niffug C.M.. This is an ananym
of the hotel maid's surname, McGuffin. Also, the basement janitor in the hotel in part 1 is named Mac Guff.
(1941), the titular Maltese Falcon
, the Rabbit's Foot in Mission: Impossible III
(2006), the briefcases in Pulp Fiction
and Ronin
, and the mineral unobtainium
in Avatar (2009).
Examples in television include the Rambaldi device
in Alias
, the "orb" in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
, and Krieger Waves in the Star Trek: The Next Generation
episode "A Matter of Perspective".
Examples in literature include the television set in Wu Ming
's novel 54
and the container in William Gibson
's Spook Country
.
In the game Kingdom of Loathing
the player must go through a series of sub-quests to obtain the "Holy MacGuffin". It is never really explained what this MacGuffin is, only that "You're not really sure what this is, but it seems really, really important. Better get it to the Council right away."
In discussing the critical failure of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Steven Spielberg
said, "I sympathize with people who didn't like the MacGuffin (the crystal skull) because I never liked the MacGuffin."
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are (at least initially) willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.
The MacGuffin is common in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act
Act (theater)
An act is a division or unit of a drama. The number of acts in a production can range from one to five or more, depending on how a writer structures the outline of the story...
, and then declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out. It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the MacGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the film. Multiple MacGuffins are sometimes—somewhat derisively—referred to as plot coupons.
The term is also used by a game development studio as a reference to a design object which forces interactivity on to a narrative.
History and use
Objects that serve the plot function of MacGuffins have had long use in storytelling, for example, the SampoSampo
In Finnish mythology, the Sampo or Sammas was a magical artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder...
in a segment of the Finnish epic Kalevala
Kalevala
The Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature...
. However the specific term MacGuffin appears to be limited to recent use in film making.
Alfred Hitchcock
The directorFilm director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
popularized both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique, with his 1935 film The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (1935 film)
The 39 Steps is a British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll....
, an early example of the concept. Hitchcock explained the term "MacGuffin" in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
: "[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 almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers".
Interviewed in 1966 by François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
, Alfred Hitchcock illustrated the term "MacGuffin" with this story:
- It might be a ScottishScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
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 lionLionThe lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s in the Scottish HighlandsScottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
". 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
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
's documentary The Men Who Made the Movies and for Dick Cavett's
Dick Cavett
Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues...
interview. Hitchcock's verbal delivery made it clear that the second man has thought up the MacGuffin explanation as a roundabout method of telling the first man to mind his own business. According to author Ken Mogg, screenwriter Angus MacPhail
Angus MacPhail
Angus MacPhail was an English screenwriter, active from the late 1920s, who is best remembered for his work with Alfred Hitchcock....
, a friend of Hitchcock, may have originally coined the term.
George Lucas
On the commentary soundtrack to the 2004 DVD release of Star WarsStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
, writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
describes R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
as "the main driving force of the movie ... what you say in the movie business is the MacGuffin ... the object of everybody's search". In TV interviews, Hitchcock defined a MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves, but, as to what that object specifically is, he declared, "the audience don't care". Lucas, on the other hand, believes that the MacGuffin should be powerful and that "the audience should care about it almost as much as the dueling heroes and villains on-screen".
Filmmakers’ jokes
The term lent itself to several "in" jokes: in Mel Brooks'Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
s film High Anxiety
High Anxiety
High Anxiety is a 1977 comedy film produced and directed by Mel Brooks, who also plays the lead. This is Brooks' first film as a producer and first "speaking" lead role...
, which parodies many Hitchcock films, a minor plot point is advanced by a mysterious phone call from a "Mr. MacGuffin".
In the movie Léon
Léon (film)
Léon is a 1994 French thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson...
(aka The Professional), when Léon and Mathilda check into the hotel, Mathilda tells Léon she's filling the form out with "the name of a girl in my class who makes me sick." Following with "If things get hot, she'll take the heat". Later in the movie we hear the Hotel manager banging on the hotel room door exclaiming "Mr. MacGuffin?!"
In the TV show Due South
Due South
Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...
during the episode Chicago Holiday, the MacGuffin is a matchbook that makes its way around the episode going from character to character. The hotel maid in this episode has the name of Mrs. McGuffin and earlier in the episode, a mall security guard's name is Niffug C.M.. This is an ananym
Ananym
An ananym is a word whose spelling is derived by reversing the spelling of another word. It is therefore a special type of anagram. There is a long history of names being coined as ananyms of existing words or names for entities related to the thing named by the ananym.-Examples:...
of the hotel maid's surname, McGuffin. Also, the basement janitor in the hotel in part 1 is named Mac Guff.
Examples
Examples in film include the meaning of rosebud in Citizen KaneCitizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
(1941), the titular Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
, the Rabbit's Foot in Mission: Impossible III
Mission: Impossible III
Mission: Impossible III is a 2006 spy film, the third based on the spy-themed television series Mission: Impossible starring Tom Cruise who reprises his role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt....
(2006), the briefcases in Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction
Pulp fiction may refer to:* pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper* Pulp Fiction, a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino...
and Ronin
Ronin (film)
Ronin is a 1998 action-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by J.D. Zeik and David Mamet. It stars Robert De Niro and Jean Reno as two of several former special forces and intelligence agents who team up to steal a mysterious, heavily guarded suitcase while navigating a maze of...
, and the mineral unobtainium
Unobtainium
In engineering, fiction, and thought experiments, unobtainium is any extremely rare, costly, or impossible material, or device needed to fulfill a given design for a given application. The properties of any particular unobtainium depend on the intended use...
in Avatar (2009).
Examples in television include the Rambaldi device
Mueller device
A Mueller device is a mysterious piece of technology in the US television series Alias. It usually appears as a hook-shaped armature which levitates a red-orange liquid-filled sphere. It is named for Oskar Mueller, a chemist who was believed to have invented it, though it is later revealed to have...
in Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
, the "orb" in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., often referred to as just Brisco or Brisco County,The series is referred to as just Brisco or by Brisco County by the creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse, actors involved with the show, and by many critics. Some examples include:* Cuse, Carlton, DVD extra...
, and Krieger Waves in the Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
episode "A Matter of Perspective".
Examples in literature include the television set in Wu Ming
Wu Ming
Wu Ming is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna.In their pre-Wu Ming days, the group wrote the novel Q ....
's novel 54
54 (novel)
54 is a novel by Wu Ming first published in Italian in 2002.Wu Ming is a collective of five authors founded in 2000. The members were formerly associated with the Luther Blissett Project, and four of them wrote the international best-selling novel Q....
and the container in William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
's Spook Country
Spook Country
Spook Country is a 2007 novel by speculative fiction author William Gibson. A political thriller set in contemporary North America, it followed on from the author's previous novel, Pattern Recognition , and was succeeded in 2010 by Zero History, which featured much of its core cast of characters...
.
In the game Kingdom of Loathing
Kingdom of Loathing
Kingdom of Loathing is a browser-based, multiplayer role-playing game designed and operated by Asymmetric Publications, including creator Zack "Jick" Johnson and writer Josh "Mr. Skullhead" Nite. The game was released in 2003...
the player must go through a series of sub-quests to obtain the "Holy MacGuffin". It is never really explained what this MacGuffin is, only that "You're not really sure what this is, but it seems really, really important. Better get it to the Council right away."
In discussing the critical failure of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
said, "I sympathize with people who didn't like the MacGuffin (the crystal skull) because I never liked the MacGuffin."
See also
- Alien space batsAlien space batsAlien space bats is a neologism for plot devices used in alternate history to create a point of divergence that would otherwise be implausible.-Definition:...
- Big Dumb ObjectBig Dumb ObjectIn discussion of science fiction, a Big Dumb Object is any mysterious object in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder just by being there; to a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates this...
- Chekhov's gunChekhov's gunChekhov's gun is a literary technique whereby an apparently irrelevant element is introduced early in the story whose significance becomes clear later in the narrative. The concept is named after Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, who mentioned several variants of the concept in letters...
- The Double McGuffinThe Double McGuffinThe Double McGuffin is a 1979 children's film directed by Joe Camp. It starred Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy, alongside a group of young actors, some of whom later became quite famous, including Lisa Whelchel, who would go on to star in the sitcom The Facts of Life. Elke Sommer and NFL stars...
- The SampoSampoIn Finnish mythology, the Sampo or Sammas was a magical artifact of indeterminate type constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder...
- Red herring
Further reading
- Francois Truffaut. Hitchcock
- Slavoj Zizek. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock)
- Slavoj Zizek. The Sublime Object of Ideology
External links
- http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffinMacGuffin at TV TropesTV TropesTV Tropes is a wiki which collects and expands on various conventions and devices found within creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has gone from covering only television and film tropes to also covering those in a number of other media such as literature, comics, video-games,...
] - A.Word.A.Day — McGuffin, from Wordsmith.org
- FAQs Page of the Hitchcock Scholars/'MacGuffin' website
- The MacGuffin Film Podcast