What is a MacGuffin and how can it ruin a film?

Conflicts, misunderstandings, wars, dilemmas, dramas, fights and Manichaeism shape stories. And what triggers them? MacGuffins. Just like in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction".

But what are they all about?

This is what reader Anonymous wrote following my article on the mysterious contents of the briefcase in "Pulp Fiction":

Anonymous refers to the suitcase referred to in Quentin Tarantino's film: its contents seem to glow, but we viewers never get to see it. All the characters in the film want it at all costs. It's a MacGuffin par excellence. And a badass one at that. But I'll come back to that later... First, let me explain what a MacGuffin is...

.and why films that contain one can be ruined by it.

Alfred Hitchcock's definition of a MacGuffin

The term "MacGuffin" was coined by screenwriter Angus MacPhail, Alfred Hitchcock's right-hand man. Or so says the book "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock". The term is therefore a combination of MacPhail's name and the English word "Guff", meaning nonsense or absurdity.

In a 1962 radio interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock explains the MacGuffin in these terms:

Ten years later, and in more detail, Alfred Hitchcock explains the MacGuffin in "The Dick Cavett Show" as follows:

On "The Dick Cavett Show", the Stage Manager adds that MacGuffins often feature in spy films, probably because the plot - at least for the 70s - goes like this: the bad guy wants something with which he can dominate the world or even destroy it. The spy must stop him by getting ahead of him and being the first to retrieve the object,

the MacGuffin what.

It could be a poison capable of wiping out humanity, a bomb, secret plans, a powerful weapon that makes its holder invincible, something that triggers or paces the action. We, the viewers, don't really care about the fate of this "thing", we only care about the consequences and the decisions it requires the protagonist to make in order to reach, protect or even destroy it.

In other words, the hammer is to the craftsman what the MacGuffin is to storytelling, a tool in short, necessary, even fundamental. But not for us, the viewers. For us, it's not the tool that counts, but what is built with it, the story.

The problem with the MacGuffin is the risk that it makes the narrator and scriptwriters lazy.

When MacGuffins ruin movies

A story needs conflict. The easiest way to trigger it is a MacGuffin.

In "Justice League", Batman and co. must prevent the invasion of Earth by the villain Steppenwolf, which could happen if Steppenwolf got his hands on the three "Mother Boxes" hidden on Earth. Bottom line: the Mother Box is important, the villain can't have it.

This is typical of a MacGuffin, we're kept evasive about these mother boxes. And that's okay. They're simply magic boxes with a certain universal power that mustn't fall into the hands of evil. The superficiality of the MacGuffin makes the conflict in the film just as superficial. And thus the whole plot in the process. "Justice League" doesn't break the bank if audiences and critics are anything to go by.

Proof that MacGuffins, however effective they may be in storytelling, can ruin a film. They encourage lazy storytelling that lacks any real conflict and runs the risk of being far-fetched: quite often, a MacGuffin and the premise that everything happens because of that one important thing is enough to throw the whole thing off course, to the detriment of a compelling story and engaging characters.

Other examples? The mutagen in the 2014 film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". The Allspark in "Transformers". The ether in "Thor: The Dark World". They all perfectly meet the requirements of Alfred Hitchock's MacGuffin, but also reveal its weakness: it's interchangeable, and therefore boring.

On the other hand, there are tricks that make the MacGuffin more than just an "artefact" with a funny name.

Correct use of the MacGuffin

Sage Hyden, who talks cinema on his YouTube channel Just Write, explains how to use the MacGuffin wisely. In conclusion, he makes four recommendations:

1. a MacGuffin should not be a versatile weapon of destruction;
2. the more mysterious a MacGuffin, the better;
3. the MacGuffin must be given emotional value;
4. a MacGuffin can also have a symbolic value;

To work, the MacGuffin does not have to fulfil these four conditions, not even one for that matter. Sage Hyden's aim is not to contradict master director Alfred Hitchcock, but rather to offer some advice on how less talented storytellers can avoid the pitfalls of generic MacGuffin.

Get your paws off the weapons of mass destruction

As a reminder, the MacGuffin is an object that piques the interest of the character in the story, but not the viewer. The story should not give the MacGuffin more attention than is necessary for the plot.

But what if the MacGuffin is a threatening super-mega-weapon from a higher parallel dimension?

The resulting story would then inevitably take a back seat. It would probably end with a final battle for the super-weapon, the MacGuffin. Boring and predictable. The MacGuffin takes over the narrative, at the expense of the characters and the conflicts that interest us much more. That's what happened in "Justice League" and its ubiquitous mother boxes.

A good MacGuffin, however, is distinguished by its ability to drive the action without taking up too much space. Take "Citizen Kane" directed by Orson Welles and released in 1941. The film begins with the last words uttered with a dying breath by American newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane: "Rosebud"

The word "Rosebud" is a MacGuffin.

The idea is to find the right angle for a report on Kane's death. So reporter Thompson is tasked with finding out what's actually behind the riddle of Kane's last word. Although it is the MacGuffin that triggers and directs the action, it is the reconstruction of the life of Charles Foster Kane, a complex and multi-faceted character, that captivates us.

The more mysterious, the better

The MacGuffin, in itself not very captivating, can be made exciting by wrapping it in secrets and mysteries; as long as you have a MacGuffin that determines the plot, it might as well arouse curiosity.

For example, the suitcase from "Pulp Fiction" that all the protagonists covet in the film. In the first version of the script, it contained diamonds. Boring, in the eyes of Quentin Tarantino, who therefore decided to make the contents secret. We, the viewers, see nothing but a golden, possibly supernatural glow emanating from the contents. And whoever opens the suitcase is literally transfixed by the golden reflection that is then projected onto their face.

This MacGuffin is anything but boring.

What's also exciting is the rabbit's foot in "Mission Impossible 3", an object - the exact nature of which will never be revealed - worth $850 million and capable of triggering a war between the United States and Russia. Or the Ark of the Covenant in "Indiana Jones", which the Nazis are tracking down and which we only discover at the end just how devastating its powers really are. One more thing about the word "Rosebud", in the film "Citizen Kane": it is indeed a MacGuffin, because the question of its real meaning not only triggers the plot, but arouses our curiosity right to the end.

The emotional value of a MacGuffin

At the premiere of "Star Wars" in 1977, George Lucas contradicted Alfred Hitchcock's definition of a MacGuffin. In fact, he believes that viewers should care about the MacGuffin.

In his film, the Death Star plans are the MacGuffin. These could reveal to the Rebel Alliance the weaknesses of the planet-destroying space station. At the start of the film, the plans are hidden in the droid R2-D2, so that he can escape from the Galactic Empire and return safely to the secret Rebel Alliance base where he must deliver them.

George Lucas has just turned one of his main characters into a MacGuffin.

That's super clever. If you're watching "Star Wars" for the first time, you don't really care who gets the plans in the end. But the fate of the small and friendly droid Astromech is not indifferent to us, the viewers, for a single second.

This is also a trick that director J. J. Abrams also uses in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" where the droid BB-8 hides the map to finding Luke Skywalker within himself. Director Todd Phillips also uses it in "Very Bad Trip" where the three wedding witnesses find themselves in Las Vegas with a hangover looking for the missing bride and friend Doug.

MacGuffin with symbolic value

If a MacGuffin is neither mysterious nor emotional, then it must at least have some symbolic charge to prevent it from being too much fun, or even downright boring. A bit like in the film "Lego's Great Adventure"

where the evil Lord Business wants to destroy the Lego universe with the "Kragle", a machine for gluing all Lego figures together. But up against him is the resistance, the Master Builders and the power of their thoughts, pure chaos in Lord Business's eyes. The legendary Piece of Resistance is said to have helped destroy the "Kragle".

The MacGuffins: the "Kragle", in fact a simple superglue, and the Piece of Resistance, the cap of the glue tube. Both represent the main Lego ideologies, one advocating building according to instructions, the other, fun giving free rein to the imagination.

Compare it to "Justice League" in which the MacGuffins were three boxes of unimaginable power. It could just as easily have been a paperweight, a flower pot or a toaster. What's different about the Lego Movie is the symbolic power of the MacGuffins. Lord Business wants conformity, resistance does not.

Thus, in "Lego's Big Adventure", the MacGuffins, who are not particularly haloeds of mystery and have no emotional value, become very effective and also reflect the theme of the plot.