Line #1 Main/MacGuffinLocation


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10	[[quoteright:349:[[WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eldorado_4.png]]]]
11	[[caption-width-right:349:All will be revealed at a golden shrine.]]
12
13	->''"THE TOWER DRAWS CLOSER..."''
14	-->-- Every blurb for ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' books
15
16	Alice wakes up one morning, only to hear screams. Rushing outside, she spots the love of her life, Bob, being stuffed into Charlie's car. Failing to catch them, Alice promptly [[LockAndLoadMontage suits and loads up]], and starts trekking. Her goal? [[DistressedDude Rescue Bob]] from the dark Castle Charlie, which is [[EiffelTowerEffect always looming eerily on the horizon...]]
17
18	While {{MacGuffin}}s tend to take the form of things or even [[LivingMacGuffin entities]], a common alternative is to use a setting or location -- where the driving force is instead a place where everyone's trying to get to (or get there first), but when reached doesn't have any significant impact on the plot.
19
20	Most commonly found in media centering around TheQuest (which, more often than not, contains another MacGuffin they desire). The other most common occurance is media that involves races -- it often doesn't matter whether the finish line is in UsefulNotes/{{Cairo}}, UsefulNotes/NewZealand, or [[FlyoverCountry Omaha]], just that they arrive first or on time.
21
22	Compare with GoingToSeeTheElephant.
23
24	----
25	!!Examples
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
29	* The land of fairies in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' is reputed to be the only place safe from the demonic legions that want the protagonists dead as well as the location of the only one who might be able to cure Casca of her insanity.
30	* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
31	** In addition to housing the titular treasure, the actual island of Laugh Tale is also sought after, mainly due to the Rio Poneglyphs.
32	** The personal goal of Sanji, one of the protagonists, is to find the mythical All Blue, a sea that supposedly has fish from all four of the world's seas.
33	* ''Manga/OutlawStar'' has people searching for the location of the fabled Galactic Leyline, presumably a giant stash of valuable minerals or other treasure. Actually, [[spoiler:it's a repository of knowledge, and after it's found ''it runs away again'' so that the chase can start all over.]]
34	** Technically the place seems to be a [[spoiler:LiteralGenie GeniusLoci, capable and willing to fulfill any wish that a person reaching its core chooses to make. A person wishing for knowledge will be swallowed in its datastream, however.]]
35	* Shinzo in, well, ''Anime/{{Shinzo}}''. It's the last human city several centuries into the future, and ChosenOne Yakumo must reach it. In the original Japanese version it's called "Mushrambo", after the main character's [[FusionDance fusion form]]. Well, in the first season, it turns out [[spoiler: Shinzo is long since destroyed, wiped out by the original, evil Mushrambo, and there are no humans left.]] In season two, it is again the destination, but it turns out that [[spoiler: Shinzo is long since ''abandoned'', because in the new revised timeline (an encounter with a time-controlling villain gave us Good Mushrambo vs. Bad Mushrambo, with the bad Mushrambo getting taken down before he could go back and finish off the last humans) humans and Enterrans have made peace and there's no need for a "last refuge of humanity".]] Either way, "Shinzo the city full of the last humans" is [[spoiler: not a thing at all]], but the search for it is what makes everything happen!
36	* The ''true'' Clair Bible in ''{{Literature/Slayers}} NEXT'' turns out to be this, as it was previously assumed that the bible was a book.
37	* Paradise in ''Anime/WolfsRain''.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
41	* The titular castle in ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle''.
42	* El Dorado, a city supposedly made entirely of gold somewhere in South America, from films such as ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado''.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
46	* ''Film/FiveWeeksInABalloon''. The heroes and a band of slavers are trying to get to a piece of territory that no nation owns in order to claim it for their respective governments.
47	* ''Film/TheGoldenVoyageOfSinbad''. Sinbad and Prince Koura both try to reach the Fountain of Destiny first in order to gain its rewards.
48	* ''Film/TheGreatRace'': the title New York to Paris race.
49	* ''Tarzan and the Valley of Gold''. The title valley (and the city of gold therein), which both Tarzan and the BigBad are trying to reach.
50	* The Big W in ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld''. Parodied after a fashion by the Big Why (Y) in ''Series/TheNewAvengers''.
51	* ''Film/{{Mandalay}}'': The city of Mandalay serves as this for both Tanya and Dr. Burton. Tanya wants to start a new life without scumbag lovers who force her to be a sex worker. Dr. Burton is on a suicide mission to help the Black Fever patients because he wants to atone for being a terrible medic due to his alcoholism.
52	* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. "Camelot! Camelot! Camelot! It's only a model. Shh!" … "Well, on second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place."
53	* ''Film/RatRace'': The train station in Silver City, UsefulNotes/NewMexico.
54	* In both the ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'' and ''Film/CannonballRun'', the destination of the cross country speeding isn't important other than that's where they need to be to get paid/win the race.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Literature]]
58	* ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' has...well...
59	** King lampshades this at the end. [[spoiler: He stops to say it should be enough to just get there, but since some of you will insist, he'll also provide the ending that actually tells what happens there... which when read makes it no less a MacGuffinLocation.]]
60	** The poem that inspired the series is all about the existential meaninglessness of searching for a place for so long, "Childe Roland" has pretty much forgotten why he's searching for it.
61	* The Chamber of Secrets in ''Literature/HarryPotter''.
62	* The Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago, from ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials''.
63	* Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' and all of its adaptations.
64	* ''Literature/TheMalloreon'', by Creator/DavidEddings, features a MineralMacGuffin (the 'Sardion', a rock) and a MacGuffinLocation, "The Place Which Is No More".
65	* Tanelorn in several stories by Creator/MichaelMoorcock.
66	* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' has its titular island. So, too, does its RecycledInSpace counterpart ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet''.
67	* The Tomb Of Sephotic in Creator/RobertWestall's ''Literature/UrnBurial.'' Somewhere on Fiend's Fell in Cumbria, there's a hidden tomb to an alien weapons maker, that's filled with weapons he built that no one knows how to build or counter any more.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
71	* Every location on ''Series/TheAmazingRace''.
72	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The eponymous "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]", a mysterious place out in the stars where humanity can supposedly outlive the end of the universe. [[spoiler:[[SarcasmMode That turned out well, didn't it?]]]]
73	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles The Trouble with Tribbles]]", the Federation and the Klingon Empire are disputing the right to colonize Sherman's Planet. That's why the Enterpise receives a Priority One distress call to protect grain storage.
74	* Similarly, the finish line of nearly every ''Series/TopGear'' Car v. Something Else race challenge.
75	* UsefulNotes/{{California}} in ''Series/ZNation''.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Music]]
79	* A major strand of Music/TheKLF's mythology was their supposed quest to discover "The White Room".
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Religion]]
83	* {{Heaven}} for Christians.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
87	* The ''TabletopGame/{{Crimestrikers}}'' episode seed "In Search of Ancient Secrets" [[PlayingWithATrope plays with this trope]]. The Unthinkable Archive is [[GreatBigLibraryOfEverything a secret storehouse for art, literature and artifacts]] that have been considered dangerous by oppressive governments over the centuries. Created by a BenevolentConspiracy of artists, scholars and PersecutedIntellectuals who wanted to preserve the knowledge, the Archive's ever-changing location was lost to history until just recently. The story has the Crimestrikers helping to explore the Archive--and protect it from those who still seek to destroy it.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Video Games]]
91	* The Vault in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. Somewhat unusual in that it's a string of such locations, with a different Vault being the focus of each game.
92	* "Your Sanctuaries" in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', the locations where Earth's power is at its strongests and which hold the PlotCoupons in the form of the Eight Melodies.
93	* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' revolves entirely around the biggest landmark in Nevada, the Hoover Dam. It provides clean water and free electricity to the entire state. He who controls it controls the future of the entire Mojave desert, so it's actually a pretty damn good justification of this trope. It's not magical, it's not full of unobtanium, it just provides what you need to live.
94	** The [=DLC=] ''Dead Money'' features the infamous Sierra Madre casino, a perfectly preserved and wickedly deadly pre-war casino with an untouched vault full of goodies, attracting treasure hunters from all over the Mojave. Even getting into the casino itself takes roughly half of the [=DLC=], and reaching the vault itself takes most of the rest. And once the courier does reach the vault, [[spoiler:barring certain glitches and tricks, there's no way to get most of the most valuable loot -- the thirty-seven gold bars that finance the casino -- out of the vault. This is intentional; the running theme of the [=DLC=] is that the hardest part of the Sierra Madre is letting go of it.]]
95	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', Shinra's main motivation is to find ThePromisedLand. It's also Sephiroth's main motivation, though while Shinra wants it for the "endless" source of Mako, Sephiroth wants it because [[spoiler: he knows Jenova is sealed there, and wants to release her (later on, he just wants Mako as a limitless energy source instead)]]. As it turns out, [[spoiler:the Promised Land never actually exists; it's merely a part of the Cetra's beliefs.]]
96	* Zanarkand from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''.
97	* The artificial island Paradise and the Cardinal Shaft in ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}''.
98	* The titular location of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' is said to be a source of ultimate knowledge and power, and is thus sought after by various villains who seek to rule the universe using it. Muddying the waters initially is that several villains manage to assemble smaller copies of Kingdom Hearts, usually serving as TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. The franchise initially makes no clear distinction between the copies and the real thing, but it's eventually established that the ones the characters have visited are inferior replicas of the true location.
99	* Ilos in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', a planet only accessible via a lost mass relay only [[spoiler:the last Rachni Queen kept in captivity on Noveria]] knows the location of, and which [[PlayerCharacter Shepard]] and [[BigBad Saren]] are racing to get to first.
100	* A slightly odd example is Releeshahn in ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile''. Releeshahn is a book that is an access to a location, and you have to retrieve the book.
101	* The Tower in the ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon'' series.
102	* ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediSurvivor'' has Tanalorr, a mythical ParadisePlanet hidden from the rest of the galaxy due to being located amidst a nigh-inaccessible spatial anomaly called the Koboh Abyss. The heroes and the villains spend the game racing each other to reach Tanalorr first since the planet offers a safe haven from the Galactic Empire. The ''Stinger Mantis'' crew seek to use the planet as a base of operations for the [[UndergroundRailroad Hidden Path]] and their rebel allies. The main villain Dagan Gera wants to reclaim Tanalorr for himself, having been the one who originally discovered the planet during the High Republic era [[spoiler:and fell to the Dark Side from growing dangerously attached to it.]] Bode Akuna also wants Tanalorr because he sees it as a place where he and his daughter can live in peace. [[spoiler:Problem is that Bode is a KnightTemplarParent unwilling to share the planet with anyone else to the point where he betrays the heroes to the Empire and later tries to kill Cal and Merrin when they manage to follow him to Tanalorr.]]
103	* ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}''
104	** While the Cintomani Stone is the item that Nate and his friends want in ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', it's located in Shangri-La, which they spend most of the game looking for. [[spoiler:BigBad Lazarevic wants to find it as well, but because he knows of the life-restoring sap of the Tree of Life.]]
105	** ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'' inverts this: Nate and his friends are looking for Irem of the Pillars, also known as the Atlantis of the Sands, for the place itself rather than anything within it. [[spoiler: And the BigBad wants to find it because it's the source of an incredibly powerful hallucinogen and mind-control agent.]]
106	* ''Videogame/Yakuza0'' has the Empty Lot, a small piece of land that is potentially interfering with a renovation deal backed by the Dojima clan, with the primary goal of the various factions being finding the deed to the property so they can take control of the deal. Much to-do is made over the tragedy of so many people dying and suffering over an empty plot of land the size of a small apartment. The epilogue reveals that the Empty Lot would eventually become the area where the Millennium Tower (a very important location in the series) is built
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Webcomics]]
110	* ''Webcomic/DarkWings'' has the fabled lost city of Eryl, home of scholars/demons/angels/mages/insert-exalted-group-here, where they had everything and knew everything and yada yada yada.
111	* ''Webcomic/FamiliarGround'': [[http://www.familiar-ground.com/2009/03/13/short-term-memory/ The cave]]. [[spoiler:because they do not, in fact, get any answers]]
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Web Originals]]
115	* ''WebAnimation/CharlieTheUnicorn'': "Candy Mountain, Charlie!"
116	* In the LetsPlay/{{Yogscast}}'s modded [[WebVideo/YogscastMinecraftSeries Minecraft series]] ''WebVideo/MoonQuest'', the idea is that they start from scratch and have to collect the resources to build a facility, equipment, and a rocket ship to travel to the Moon, with a space race going on between Team J.A.F.F.A (LetsPlay/LewisBrindley, LetsPlay/SimonLane and LetsPlay/DuncanJones) and Sipsco (LetsPlay/{{Sips}} and LetsPlay/{{Sjin}}). After 45 episodes of distractions, setbacks, misadventures, and general shenanigans, Team J.A.F.F.A finally send Simon to the Moon [[spoiler:and then have to build another rocket to go there again after he crashes and is stranded there]].
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Western Animation]]
120	* Candied Island in ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack''.
121	* The Crystal Empire in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. It's explicitly said to be able to invoke FisherKingdom on the rest of the world, and it also appears to be the main source of obscure magic in the series. So is it any wonder why [[SorcerousOverlord King Sombra's]] so obsessed with controlling the place in Season 3?
122	* Every single episode of ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' features one of these.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Real Life]]
126	* Shangri-La, a Himalayan paradise where people live far longer than the normal human lifespan, was invented by James Hilton in his 1931 novel ''Literature/LostHorizon''. The novel and subsequent movie inspired many people to believe that Shangri-La was real; the Nazis sent an expedition to Tibet in 1938 to look for it.
127	* {{Atlantis}}, a powerful island nation destroyed by earthquake, was written about by Creator/{{Plato}}. Even though he [[WordOfGod starts the narration]] by pointing out that Atlantis is '''not''' a real place, but an hypothetical example of how governments ''should'' be run, to this day treasure-seekers continue to search for the location of the "real" Atlantis.
128	* Until the real thing was discovered near Istanbul, UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, many scholars thought that Troy was one of these as well. The same is true of many other locations in ancient lore (and sometimes even people).
129	* Many different exploratory goals of the past. The races to reach the North and South Poles, Mt. Everest, The Moon...
130	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MacGuffinLocation