History Main / MacguffinTitle

* ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'': Each playthrough of the game is a dangerous journey through an unforgiving post-nuclear wasteland to reach the titular Nuclear Throne. You will die many, many times trying.

* ''Franchise/{{The Legend of Zelda}}'' series has several of these as subtitles, to various extents:

* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' and ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' qualify. ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' was originally going to be ''Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail'', but director Steven Spielberg thought it sounded too much like ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

%%* ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle''

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Something of a pet trope for fantasy novels and video games, (especially those with {{Mad Lib Fantasy Title}}s, but can occur elsewhere. Sometimes results in an ArtifactTitle if the series moves on. Can involve a CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase title, especially if the Noun Phrase in question is nothing more than a [=MacGuffin=] itself.

* [[Literature/WingsOfFire ''The Brightest Night'']] is not an example, but the name of its third part is ''The Eye of Onyx'', referring to a MacGuffin that the protagonist is looking for to end the continent-wide war.

* ''Film/TheBox'' is about a kid finding a box in the woods, and the consequences of opening it.

* In a surprising twist, ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' is this in the original Japanese. "Shingeki no Kyojin" was intentionally mistranslated to hide the fact that it actually refers to [[spoiler: Eren, the current host of the "Attacker Titan"]].

* Phillip Pullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' is a trilogy of MacGuffin titles. ''The Subtle Knife'' is a particularly good case of this. In the UK, however, the first book is titled ''Northern Lights''.
* Crops up in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. The first book is definitely one, but the best example is ''A Crown of Swords'' for combining this with ProphecyTwist - even some of the {{Title Drop}}s seem to be symbolic.
* Creator/JackVance's ''[[Literature/DyingEarth The Eyes Of The Overworld]]''.
* ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheDark'' by Creator/TimPowers references not one but two [=MacGuffins=].
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' has ''Literature/TheSilverChair'', which doesn't turn up until quite late in the book, but still counts.

* ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' by Creator/NickPerumov is kinda like that. It sounds like a word salad at first, but later you learn that the eponymous Swords are the MacGuffin. The first book in this series, ''Literature/DiamondSwordWoodenSword'', plays the trope completely straight.

%%* ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon'' by Dashiell Hammett.

* InterstellarPig by WilliamSleator. The title refers first of all to the fictional board game titled "Interstellar Pig," and second of all to an entity called The Piggy which is central to both the board game and the plot as a whole. The board game Interstellar Pig wouldn't seem extremely important when it first appears, but of course the title is something of a giveaway that [[ThisIndexWillBeImportantLater it is important]].
* The ''Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote'' series often has titles of this type; the first three books that has an AnimatedAdaptation are ''The Missing Bicycle Knows'', ''The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows'', and ''The Backyard Knows''.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords Four Swords]]'', the sword the main character uses to fight this game's specific antagonist. Well, sort of -- it's actually named the "Four Sword", singular, but it splits the hero and itself into four, so there are in fact four of them.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap The Minish Cap]]'' refers to Ezlo, who is a Minish turned into a Minish-made cap. Which ends up cementing Link's iconic hat.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' strangely has three separate things referred to by the series title. The MindScrew here is whether the first two examples to be shown are just cases of mistaken identity.

%%* Several titles in the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series, such as ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheDiabolicalBox The Diabolical Box]]'', ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter The Last Specter]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheMiracleMask The Miracle Mask]]''. They all overlap with CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase, of course.

* ''VideoGame/TheCabinetsOfDoctorArcana'' crosses this with TheXOfY.

* In '''Webcomic/UndeadFriend''' the series focuses on the characters who are stuck in the supernatural game, Undead Friend.

* In a surprising twist, ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' is this in the original Japanese. "Shingeki no Kyojin" was intentionally mistranslated to hide that it actually refers to [[spoiler: Eren, the current host of the "Attacker Titan"]].

* The framing device of ''Film/{{VHS}}'' is centred around a group of criminals trying to find a certain VHS tape.

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAndTheDeadlyNecklace'', the necklace refers to Cleopatra's Necklace which was stolen from a archaeological dig in Egypt and which turns up in England.
* ''Film/NineQueens'' refers a block of rare stamps that sits at the heart of the elaborate con being planned by the protagonists.

* ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' by Creator/NickPerumov is kinda like that. It sounds like a word salad at first, but later you learn that the eponymous Swords are the McGuffin. The first book in this series, ''Literature/DiamondSwordWoodenSword'', plays the trope completely straight.

%%* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' include ''The Book of Three'' and ''The Black Cauldron'', and also the MacGuffinLocation ''The Castle of Llyr''.
%%* The books in Literature/TheElenium trilogy by Creator/DavidEddings ''sound'' like they're this trope, but only the third book in the trilogy - ''Literature/TheSapphireRose'' - actually fits the bill.

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%% * ''Anime/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife''

* ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'': After the King of England, Uther Pendragon, dies, leaving no heir to the throne, a sword magically appears inside an anvil in London.

* ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'': The Horned King is searching for a mystical relic known as the Black Cauldron, which is capable of creating an invincible army of undead warriors, the "Cauldron-Born".

* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' says almost nothing about the movie, [[ItWasHisSled but we kinda know what it's talking about]].

* [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker TheodorFontane's]] novel ''L'Adultera'' doubles as a ForeignLanguageTitle; on the surface it refers to a painting by Tintoretto ("The Adulteress before Christ").

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' strangely has three separate [[BuffySpeak things]] referred to by the series title. The MindScrew here is whether the first two examples to be shown are just cases of mistaken identity.

* The central object of ''Literature/TheAffix'' is a gem that throws probability completely askew, [[GlowingGem glows by night]] when it's "awake", and chooses a keeper that it will repeatedly return to.

%%* Several titles in the ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'' series, such as ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheDiabolicalBox The Diabolical Box]]'', ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter The Last Specter]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheMiracleMask The Miracle Mask]]''. They all overlap with CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase, of course.