History Main / JustEatTheMacguffin

* In the live-action ''[[TransformersFilmSeries Transformers]]'' film, Optimus Prime says that if there's no other way to keep the Allspark out of Megatron's hands, he'll shove it into his own [[OurSoulsAreDifferent spark]] to destroy it. This option is a last resort because it would also kill Optimus. [[spoiler:In the end, Sam shoves it into ''Megatron's'' instead]]. But as the sequel shows, turns out that doesn't ''quite'' work.

-->'''YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'''

* Played with in the season 6 finale of ''StargateSG1'' when the team is pinned down by Anubis's forces in the temple on Abydos. O'Neill attaches a block of C4 with a remote detonator to the MacGuffin, then trades it for safe passage to the gate.

* Jackie tries this in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' by destroying the talismans rather than allow the BigBad to take them. Uncle then yells at him, by destroying the talismans he's released their power into the world and now they GottaCatchEmAll all over again.

** In this case, there is a good reason not to destroy it. It produces the only known cure for, among other things, old age. Without it, Nicholas Flamel would be doomed to die. The same goes for everyone else, but I guess they don't matter.

** Justified in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', where one of the partners suggests that they might not want to gather the Crystal Stars ([[spoiler:which sealed away the Shadow Queen]]), in case they got them together only to have the villains steal them to use them to open the door and take over the world, but Frankly says that as the seal on the Thousand-Year Door is weakening over time, they need to use the Crystal Stars in order to seal [[spoiler:The Shadow Queen]], which would also preclude destroying the stars.

** Fina was under explicit orders to retrieve them, not destroy them.
* Justified in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', where one of the partners suggests that they might not want to gather the Crystal Stars ([[spoiler:which sealed away the Shadow Queen]]), in case they got them together only to have the villains steal them to use them to open the door and take over the world, but Frankly says that as the seal on the Thousand-Year Door is weakening over time, they need to use the Crystal Stars in order to seal [[spoiler:The Shadow Queen]], which would also preclude destroying the stars.
* ''MegaManZX Advent'' ''actually'' demonstrates the GenreSavvy use of this trope. In the Quarry, Grey/Ashe have an encounter with Aile/Vent, and the two get in a fight over what to do with the Model W in its depths. The former finds the Model W fused to a Spidrill and are forced to destroy both. It turns out that destroying the Quarry's Model W ''was the whole reason Aile/Vent were there in the first place''! Unfortunately, just its destruction wasn't enough to keep Ouroboros from forming, but you have to give the gang credit for trying.

* The Infinity Gauntlet -- an artifact that grants literally unlimited power when assembled -- cannot be used to will itself out of existence. The best the Marvel heroes can do is remove and scatter its six component gems, with mixed results.

* In ''TheIncredibleHulk'' (2008 film), Bruce Banner eats the flash drive containing the information he needs to cure his condition. However, in this case it's not to protect it from the military so much as from the Hulk, as Bruce realized he was about two minutes away from Hulking out.

* The whole plot of ''HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' wouldn't have happened if Dumbledore had just destroyed the stone in the first place ''like he did at the end''.

** ''HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' is centered around the heroes trying to eliminate [[BigBad Voldemort]]'s seven {{Soul Jar}}s. Unfortunately there's very little that can actually destroy them, so they wind up having to carry one around for months before they find a way to do so.

[[AC:{{Television}}]]

* Used literally in ''TheGuardiansOfChildhood'' when Ombric's bookworm Mr. Qwerty eats his whole library in order to keep it's knowledge out of Pitch's hands.

* Subverted in Lloyd Alexander's The Black Cauldron, where the good guys would like nothing better than to eat the titular MacGuffin, and half of the plot of the book is them trying to figure out how to destroy the damned thing. As it turns out, [[spoiler: to destroy the Cauldron, you have to willingly jump into it, sacrificing yourself in the process.]] The climax of the book is the good guys [[spoiler: all running for the Cauldron, attempting to throw themselves in it before the bad guys can get it, or before [[FromBadtoWorse one of their friends jumps in]], instead.]] It also includes a {{Tearjerker}} and CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, when [[spoiler: one of their former foes reaches the Cauldron first]].

* In [[Literature/KnownSpace ''World of Ptavvs'']], the characters are chasing after a powerful alien MindControl device. The Earth and Belter agents trying to get to it before its alien owner do have a mutual understanding that it must be destroyed because neither trusts the other with [[JustThinkOfThePotential something that dangerous]].

* In ''VideoGame/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'', nearing the end of the first case, Phoenix attempts this with a crucial piece of evidence... That piece of evidence being a glass vial that was once ''full of poison.''

* Justified in VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor, where one of the partners suggests that they might not want to gather the Crystal Stars ([[spoiler:which sealed away the Shadow Queen]]), in case they got them together only to have the villains steal them to use them to open the door and take over the world, but Frankly says that as the seal on the Thousand-Year Door is weakening over time, they need to use the Crystal Stars in order to seal [[spoiler:The Shadow Queen]], which would also preclude destroying the stars.

* In the third ''AceAttorney'' game, nearing the end of the first case, Phoenix attempts this with a crucial piece of evidence... That piece of evidence being a glass vial that was once ''full of poison.''

* Part of what ''makes'' the [[spoiler:Winslow]] the [=MacGuffin=] in the Gallimaufry arc of ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire is the fact that it's explicitly indestructible. Even the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Prime Movers]] don't seem to have found any better way to deal with it than to hand it to some promising species or other and let ''them'' hide it.
* In CucumberQuest, [[OnlySaneMan Cucumber]] wants to destroy the [[SealedEvilInACan Disaster Stones]], thereby [[DefiedTrope Thwarting]] [[YouCantThwartStageOne Stage One]], however his [[ContractualGenreBlindness contractually genre blind]] allies deliberately prevent him from accomplishing this on more than one occasion.

** Though to be fair, in the process he condemns a friend to death. Though the friend [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld is over 600]], so he's okay with that.

** And in ''DragonBallZ'' during the Freeza saga, when the Ginyu Force manages to steal most of the Dragon Balls from the heroes, Vegeta tells Krillin to destroy the last remaining one they have to prevent them from delivering them all to Freeza. Krillin attempts to smash it to pieces, but Guldo freezes time long enough to get the final ball from him.

** In the original ''Manga/DragonBall'' manga and anime, [[SealedEvilInACan Piccolo]] [[CardCarryingVillain Daimao]] actually swallows two of the titular [[MacGuffin Mac Guffins]] to prevent the heroes for stealing them, though he's able to spit them back up with ease.

** Entirely a SenselessSacrifice, as he doesn't destroy it, he just warps it to the center of the Earth where it's easily retrieved with the [[IntangibleMan Serpent's Tail]] several seasons later by Omi himself.

** Entirely a SenselessSacrifice, as he doesn't destroy it, he just warps it to the center of the Earth where it's easily retrieved with the [[IntangibleMan Serpent's Tail]].

** The film plays with the idea. Gimli just decides to deal with the One Ring right ''now'' and takes his axe to it -- only for the ''axe'' to wind up shattered into itty-bitty pieces.

* In ''Westernanimation/RobotBoy'', Dr. Kamikazi would not be able to take over the world if you destroy the show's title character.