The McGuffin

Mcguffin"
In his 1966 interview with director-film critic, Francois Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock said:

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two man in a train. One man says
"What's that package up there in the baggage rack?"
And the other answers, "O that's a McGuffin." The first one asks "What's a McGuffin?" "Well" the other man says, "Its an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands." 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.

In other words a McGuffin is a term for the device or plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives the logic of the plot, especially in suspense films. According to Hitchcock, the McGuffin can be ignored as soon as it has served its purpose. Examples are the mistaken identity at the beginning of North by Northwest (1959) and the entire Janet Leigh subplot of Psycho (1960).

Can anyone else give examples of classic "McGuffin's" in film?!

 

The Death Star plans in ANH seem like it could be a McGuffin.

 

Best example in recent cinema is the briefcase in Ronin.

 

The briefcase in Pulp Fiction is perhaps the most notorious macguffin in recent cinematic history.

There are all kinds of speculations as to what it is... some even say that it is Marsellus Wallace's soul, which he bought back from the devil.

Another notorious macguffin is a certain van in The Usual Suspects. I won't say why if you don't know yet.

 

YES!

Ronin is one of my favourite films... and have always wondered what was in the case.

Anyone care to speculate?

Also, can you please let us know about the Usual Suspects McGuffin?

 

See the movie... When Hockney finds the Van, you will understand why it's a macguffin. I can't let out such a humongous spoiler...

The van is not a spoiler... but understanding what makes the van a macguffin would be a huge spoiler for this film... one that would pretty much ruin the whole film for you.

So... see the film and quit askin'!

 

Snowdog, I have seen the film about 4 - 6 times, but can't remember the scene and the revelation you are talking about.

Can you please reveal, include spoiler space for others if you feel neccessary, or even PM me.

Thanks!

 

What about the Monolith in "2001" & "2010"? It could have stood for anything - or nothing at all.... But it looks cool, anyway!

 

Aah... my favourite word...

 

That's a good breakdown of the McGuffin: It could have stood for anything or nothing at all, but it looked cool anyway.

See: the briefcase in Ronin, the case in Pulp Fiction, the uranium in Notorious, the money in Psycho . . .

 

How about Rosebud?

 

Can anyone else answer 'The Usual Suspects' question?!

 

Ok, I thought I had posted this before... but somehow it completely disappeared on me or I posted it in the wrong thread.

*** WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD ***

If you read the following and haven't seen the film yet, the film will be entirely ruined for you. You hear me? ENTIRELY!

(highlight to read)

Macguffin: The Cocaine

We never see the cocaine. Even worse... there is none. No cocaine on the boat. Now, the cocaine itself isn't anywhere near as relevant as why it's not there. It's not there because the boat was carrying, in secret, the one man who could identify Keyser Soze.


Macguffin Squared: The Contents of the Van

When Hockney finds the van, we know pretty much that he thinks that's where either the cocaine or the money in exchange for the cocaine is stashed. Except we don't really know for sure... but that, too, isn't relevant. What's relevant is Hockney gets killed just then... and by Keyser Soze.

We also don't see Keyser Soze at that moment... but the way that shot is set up is just brilliant. Instead of seeing the killer, at that moment we know who it is... but there's a white flash of light on Hockney... not like a fade, but as if the light is shining on him... like it's not just a revelation to us, but a huge revelation to Hockney.

This sequence, along with several others, really paints Keyser Soze as some sort of mythical god... but we find out something very different, don't we...


Macguffin Cubed: The Entire Story

We forget somewhere in the middle of the film that the entire story is being told from the point of view of one man. Who? Who do you think?!

The entire story, as far as we know... could be a fabrication, with the exception of the bodies sitting on the dock and the boat fire... we really do not know if anything else Verbal said was true... but the bulletin board gives us the impression that the entire story is a fabrication. And it's been dangling in front of us the entire time... but the bulletin board is not a macguffin, because we see it (and it's not part of the fabricated story... the real events of which we never see... but are only told from Verbal) eventually do find out its signficance.


Macguffin to the Fourth Power: Keyser Soze himself

I was originally not going to mention this... but we really only see "Keyser Soze" as Verbal Kint. We never really see, other than the story he tells Kujan, anything Keyser Soze does... so the $64 million question is... Is there really a Keyser Soze? -or- Is Verbal really the mastermind criminal who simply fabricated the entire mythos of Keyser Soze to deceive and strike fear in the hearts of people to keep the truth so completely obscured that he can go about his business.

Yes, undoubtedly Verbal is a mastermind... but a mastermind of what... organized crime... or fabricating stories so hugely complex that no one really knows what happened. Maybe Kobayashi wasn't a lawyer and he didn't intervene... all we know is some guy who looks like the guy Kint says is Kobayashi comes and picks him up. Maybe the guy is his driver or butler or third cousin.. And as for the guy who can identify him as being Keyser Soze... how does that guy even know if anything "Keyser Soze" supposedly did was actually true... other than being simply another one of Verbal's pawns? Keyser Soze might just be an alter ego... and nothing more.


Or not...

Keyser = "king" in German
Soze = "talks too much" in Turkish

King Talks too Much... King Verbal... Verbal Kint. Hmmmmmmmmm...

 

Thanks for the info!

 

In a review of FOTR, Roger Ebert calls the One Ring as the McGuffin. I'd say the Greatest McGuffin of them all maybe???

 

Not really, as the Ring has a purpose, and drives the story, and we know what it is.

 

The way I've always understood it, the McGuffin is something the audience is aware of and will have an impact on the characters, but the characters themselves have little or no knowledge of its implications.

~PAd

 

Didn't Hitchcock call the uranium in Notorious a MacGuffin? In that sense, a MacGuffin is something that looks important to the audience and starts the ball rolling for the characters but soon loses importance.

Perhaps some of the murders in The Big Sleep could also function as MacGuffins using this defination.

 

macguffin as defined by The Internet Movie Database:

A term used by Alfred Hitchcock to refer to an item, event, or piece of knowledge that the characters in a film consider extremely important, but which the audience either doesn't know of or doesn't care about. Examples: the engine plans in The 39 Steps, the identity of the spy in North by Northwest, and the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

I whould sat that the Ark of the Covenat from Raiders of the Lost Ark is a McGuffin.

Whould Dr. Richard Kimbal from the Fugitive be consider a McGuffin?

 

And what is in the trunk in Repo Man?

 

The person who was supposed to work for Dante that day in Clerks

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

 

Hmm... I don't think that qualifies as a McMuffin... McGuffin. That is not something the viewer sees.

 

The Twilight Zone often used McGuffins since many of the episodes were founded upon the ironic stingers at the ending. Many devices needed to be created in order to get us up to those points. A few that I can recall off-hand:

1. the gold thimble in THE AFTER HOURS
2. the Perry Como record in IT'S A GOOD LIFE
3. the leg brace in THE FUGITIVE
4. the book in TO SERVE MAN
5. the harmonica in HOCUS-POCUS AND FRISBY
6. the subway religious fanatic in IN HIS IMAGE
7. Potts in A KIND OF STOPWATCH