McGuffin : An object or device in a film or a book which serves merely as a trigger for the plot.
- Alferd Hitchcock referred to ‘the thing that the spies are after’ in spy films as a ‘MacGuffin’. The MacGuffin is, in Hitchcock’s own words: ‘The thing that the characters on the screen worry about but the audience don’t care.’
- The thing can be unspecified government secrets, papers or information – it really doesn’t matter what it is as long as the characters want it and are prepared to kill other characters or risk their own lives to obtain it!
- In Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest, the main character is the victim of mistaken identity. He’s pursued across the USA by agents of a mysterious organisation, who try to stop him interfering in their plans. It finally turns out that the spies are attempting to smuggle microfilm containing government secrets out of the country. But the precise object everyone wants doesn’t really matter.
Some of the movies with McGuffin:
- Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan
- The plans for the Death Star in Star Wars
- The briefcase in Pulp Fiction
- The Maltese Falcon in The Maltese Falcon
- The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings
- The Holy Grail in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, etc
- The Necronomicon in The Evil Dead franchise
- The Military Secrets in The 39 Steps
- The Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Rosebud in Citizen Kane
- Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects
What are your favorite movies with McGuffin, do mention in the comment section. Happy filming.
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