# MacGuffins **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764 "2025-06-17T12:48:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/1 "2025-06-17T12:48:41Z")
As most of you probably know, a “MacGuffin” or “McGuffin” is the item – treasure, prize, limitary secret, piece of a puzzle, map, etc. – that drive the plot of a thriller. Its main importance is as the motivator that everyone makes a fuss over and is either seeking or using. The term was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, although apparently it was invented by British screenwriter Angus MacPhail. Pearl White, the silent screen actress, had earlier called such a device a “weenie”. I only know all of this because of the Wikipedia article on it.(see below) Of course, there are tons of MacGuffins the movies and TV shows we watch, and in the books we read. You wouldn’t have to work hard to name quite a few of them: **The Maltese Falcon The One Ring The Holy Grail The Ark of the Covenant The ATAC Machine The Lector Decoder** etc., etc., etc. ad nauseum. I’m not interested in just a listing of MacGuffins. I want you to give us a relatively obscure and interesting MacGuffin. My suggestion: **The Arms of the Venus de Milo** These feature in the obscure and virtually forgotten Allen and Rossi comedy **The Last of the Secret Agents?**. The Bad Guys want to steal the original sculpture the Venus de Milo so they can re-attach them. About the only other notable thing is that Nancy Sinatra sang the title song (and appears in the movie) a year before she sang the title song for the James bond film _You Only Live Twice_ > **[The Last of the Secret Agents?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Secret_Agents%3F)** > > The Last of the Secret Agents? is a 1966 American comedy film that spoofs the spy film genre, starring the then-popular comedy team of Allen & Rossi. > Two Americans in Paris (Allen & Rossi) are reluctantly recruited by the Good Guys Institute (GGI) led by J. Frederick Duval (John Williams) to thwart the plans of the evil crime and espionage organisation THEM led by Zoltan Schubach (Theo Marcuse). Already with a cache of stolen priceless international art treasures, THEM plots to steal the Venus... > **[MacGuffin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin)** > > In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. The term was originated by Angus MacPhail for film, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock, and later extended to a similar device in other fiction. > The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually, the MacGuffin is revealed in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It ... ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/2 "2025-06-17T13:06:52Z")
Is the Loc-Nar obscure? 😁 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/3 "2025-06-17T13:30:40Z")
To most people, probably. Not on this Board, I’ll bet. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/4 "2025-06-17T13:42:36Z")
John Huston’s [The Kremlin Letter (1970)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065950/). The “Letter” is obviously the MacGuffin. A group of fossil spies,with interesting \*names get together for one last caper to retrieve the letter. George Sanders as a drag queen. Gay art collectors, including a high-ranking Soviet official. Patrick O’Neal as a chain-smoking hyperthymesic spy. It’s on youtube if anyone is interested. The poster reads: “If you miss the first five minutes, you miss one suicide, two executions, one seduction, and the key to the plot.” \*The Whore, The Highwayman, Warlock, Pupper Maker, Erector Set, Ditto Machine, Sweet Alice, Pepper Pot, and Richard Boone as Uncle Odd credits note: The actor who plays “Pepper Pot” is uncredited and has a very significant speaking role at the beginning of the movie. On the other hand, the actor playing Ditto Machine is seen only from the side in a scene lasting about 10 seconds, but he does get a credit. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/5 "2025-06-17T14:45:49Z")
The Oscillation Overthruster. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/6 "2025-06-17T14:59:44Z")
On the one hand, I’m gong to fight the hypothetical. I don’t believe in the concept of the MacGuffin as described. For example, the Maltese Falcon, whatever it is (The stuff dreams are made of) is not “insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant”. Just because the movie doesn’t care, the characters do. They know what it is. And they are willing to kill to get it. Given that, in the spirit of the thread, I nominate the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Not only do we never know what they are, the movie deliberately deceives us into thinking it is something more than just vulgar money or diamonds or whatever. (Maybe even Marcellus’ literal soul, if you will). Plus, since the film is sort of an anthology of different characters interacting at different points, it isn’t the kind of movie where the briefcase is relevant. It doesn’t drive Mia, or HunnyBunny, or Butch, or Zed, or Jimmy. And then the movie moves on and forgets and we even stop caring. But people still wonder, all these years later. hey maybe the watch was the true MacGuffin! ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/7 "2025-06-17T15:05:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Given that, in the spirit of the thread, I nominate the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Which was an homage to the briefcase in _Kiss Me Deadly_, which contained radioactive material. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/8 "2025-06-17T15:34:49Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Just because the movie doesn’t care, the characters do. They know what it is. And they are willing to kill to get it. That’s pretty much the definition of a McGuffin. The entire point of the term is that, for the story, it could be changed to any other thing, and the story would be exactly the same. It exists in the story solely in service to the plot. > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Which was an homage to the briefcase in _Kiss Me Deadly_, which contained radioactive material. My memory of that movie is that it was a heavy, thick and square lead-lined box with a leather carrying case, not a briefcase. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/9 "2025-06-17T15:37:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I want you to give us a relatively obscure and interesting MacGuffin. Less obscure than interesting: Godot. He serves primarily as a plot device, not as a character. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/10 "2025-06-17T15:41:08Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Less obscure than interesting: Godot. He serves primarily as a plot device, not as a character. And before him, Lefty. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/11 "2025-06-17T15:48:12Z")
The bike in _Peewees big Adventure_ always cracked me up. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/12 "2025-06-17T15:49:09Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > The entire point of the term is that, for the story, it could be changed to any other thing, and the story would be exactly the same. It exists in the story solely in service to the plot. That’s why I think the Ring doesn’t count as a MacGuffin, its properties and powers do matter for the story. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/13 "2025-06-17T15:50:28Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I don’t believe in the concept of the MacGuffin as described. For example, the Maltese Falcon, whatever it is (The stuff dreams are made of) is not “insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant”. Just because the movie doesn’t care, the characters do. They know what it is. And they are willing to kill to get it. I think you’re missing the point of what they mean by saying the MacGuffin is irrelevant. Obviously the characters care about it, it’s driving the plot, but you could replace the MacGuffin with just about anything and the plot remains the same. The Maltese Falcon might as well be a wheel of cheese from Maltese for all the difference that would make to the plot. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I don’t think they ever recover the falcon in the movie. i.e. The fate of the falcon isn’t resolved, which is fine because it doesn’t matter to the narrative. What matters is is Spade has cleared his name. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/14 "2025-06-17T17:12:44Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > That’s why I think the Ring doesn’t count as a MacGuffin, its properties and powers do matter for the story. Agreed. Things like: - the difficulty Bilbo has in leaving it behind; - Gandalf’s insistence not even to touch it; - The failure by Gimli to break it; - Its power to signal to the Nazgûl, leading to the attack on Bilbo; - The power it gives to Frodo to command Gollum; - The whispering tempting sounds at various times in the movie; - The destruction at Mount Doom, which saves the world Unlike the Maltese Falcon, when they discover at the end that the one they’ve got is a fake, and Caspar Guttman just shrugs and says “Let’s find the real one.” ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/15 "2025-06-17T17:21:02Z")
What about the dead aliens in the trunk in “Repo Man”? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/16 "2025-06-17T17:38:19Z")
In _The Lady Vanishes_ (guess what, a Hitchcock), the tune that’s a coded description of a secret treaty the dictator wants to keep secret ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/17 "2025-06-17T17:42:57Z")
Oh, I love that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/18 "2025-06-17T17:51:28Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I nominate the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. I learned the word MacGuffin when Roger Ebert used it in one of his books in reference to that briefcase. It was the first time I heard it and I remember myself and my brother wondering if was a typo and meant to be McMuffin. The way the sentence was worded, it still made sense. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/19 "2025-06-17T18:04:09Z")
Too many of you are obsessing over the definition and properties of the “MacGuffin”. To me, it’s the item everyone is searching for that moves the plot forward, Hitchcock and others to the contrary, it’s not necessarily unimportant or not cared about, or only important t the villains, or whatever. The One Ring, which Sauron’s goons are searching for (and Frodo is desperately tryi ng to get rid of) is definitely a MacGuffin by my lights. Stop obsessing over this and find some interesting MacGuffins. So far most of what you’ve all turned up are pretty obvious and straightforward cases. Find me a WEIRD MacGuffin with an interesting backstory. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764/20 "2025-06-17T18:08:29Z")
Here’s an example – in the 1992 movie **Sneakers** (which has one of the weirdest and wildest casts I’ve ever seen) the MacGuffin is clearly the “black box” called “Setec Astronomy”. It turns out to be a super code-breaking device whose name is an anagram for “Too Many Secrets” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macguffins/1019764.md?page=2)