Could the FedEx box that Tom Hanks doesn’t open in Cast Away be a MacGuffin? It doesn’t exactly drive the plot, but it does take Hanks to the last scene in the movie…
Best example: Rosebud
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle: White Castle and its burgers, of course. It’s memorable to me because there are no White Castles here in California, and I’ve never tasted one of their burgers. H&K give them an almost mythic quality.
The first time this concept rang perfectly clear to me was when I watched Gilda, and the safe containing something like, misremembering exactly here, Tungsten futures or something like that. Clearly it could have been almost anything; what was important was that it was in a safe, not what it was specifically.
The box of money under "the big W’ in It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
No, that’s another movie cliche, called* product placement.*
Hee hee… Funnier still is that the “For Your Consideration” DVD of Cast Away was sent to Academy voters via DHL…
:eek:
You are better off keeping it a mystery. The truth will only disappoint.
The film in Ice Station Zebra.
*National Treasure * had a huge room full of Macguffins.
So, would the USDA report on the orange harvest from Trading Places be a MacGuffin?
I’d say no. It doesn’t drive the plot. What drives the plot is first the Duke brothers’ bet and then Louis and Billy Ray’s attempt to get revenge. The USDA report was simply a means to that end.
Obviously these are all matters of interpretation.
You know, we mentioned Hitchcock, but not any of his McGuffins. Some include:
The “Silent Airplane Engine” in The Thirty-Nine Steps
The musical phrase in The Lady Vanishes (one of the purest McGuffins in film)
The uranium in Notorious
The “A to G” lighter in Strangers on a Train (it could have been any object of Guy’s)
Bob’s Stickpin in Frenzy (a minor one, but it could also have been any identifying object)
The eponymous Pink Panther?
I think Kathy Griffin-McGuffin has made a decent career of it. You know, she was in Pulp Fiction. Coincidence? I think not.
Is the big diamond in Snatch a MacGuffin?
Not a McGuffin, because there aren’t a tremendous number of things that could be substituted for the box of money other than other forms of valuables (paintings, jewels, etc.). Same goes for the money in (either version of) Ocean’s Eleven.
I remember being surprised by that scene, and now I understand why. I was expecting the Ark to be a McGuffin, to be fought over but not to actually do anything. Then they open it and it turns out to be real, and powerful.
In the final scene (“top men”) it reverts to being a McGuffin.
Perhaps McGuffin-ness is a spectrum, rather than “yes” or “no”. Many works of fiction involve chasing or fighting over an inanimate object. How much do the characters talk about the object, as opposed to the chase? Do we or the characters see the object? Is it interesting and unique, or generic? Do aspects of the object tie into other plot points? Do the characters make use of the object after they possess it? The more of these that are answered “yes”, the less the object is a McGuffin.
The One Ring is zero on the McGuffin scale. Every aspect of its appearance, its history, and its powers gets discussed in exhaustive detail. It gets looked at, handled, and used, and it explains the history of everything.
The Maltese Falcon is perhaps 90. It’s disconnected from the plot, and of course fake, but Gutman explains enough about it (especially in the book) to make it interesting in its own right.
The microfilm of “government secrets” in North by Northwest is 100. We don’t know what the secrets are, and don’t care.
When money is involved, it’s harder to say. We know what money is and what it can do, so it doesn’t need to be discussed. I think money should be disqualified from being a McGuffin.
I tend to agree, but thought that perhaps the $40,000 that Marion Crane embezzled in Psycho might qualify as a rather low-level McGuffin. Of course the argument could be made that Marion herself is a low-level McGuffin.
Ah, good, you mentioned literature. I’ll therefore mention Grail, one of my favorite stories by Harlan Ellison. The basics: a man learns of the existence of a mystical object, a cup that shows you your one true love. The man spends many years and many thousands of dollars tracking it down, from owner to owner. In the end,
he finds the grail, which turns out to be a rather gaudy “loving cup”-type trophy. He gazes into it, sees his one true love, and immediately falls madly in love with her. Only then does he realize that, although he now knows what she looks like, he doesn’t have the slightest clue where to start looking for her, or even if she is still alive. He is therefore doomed to yearn for her forever, in misery.
I had an egg MacGuffin for breakfest.
In the medieval legends, the Holy Grail is your perfect MacGuffin. You’re supposed to look for it, but nobody’s sure exactly what it is, or what use it would be if found.