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alt title(s): Mc Guffin MacGuffin (a.k.a. McGuffin or maguffin) is a term for a motivating element in a story that is used to drive the plot. Unlike Chekhovs Gun, it actually serves no further purpose — it won't pop up again later, it won't explain the ending, it won't actually do anything except possibly distract you while you try to figure out its significance. In some cases, it won't even be revealed. It is usually a mysterious package/artifact/superweapon that everyone in the story is chasing. It is the most famous kind of plot coupon.
An easy way to determine if the story is using a MacGuffin as opposed to another form of plot device is if the item itself is interchangeable, requiring relatively little differences to the core plot. For example, in a crime story, the Mac Guffin could be the Mona Lisa, a large diamond, a bank's vault/central computer, or even a museum artifact, and the story would be exactly the same in each case. The key is that it doesn't matter what specific power or value the item possesses, only that there is a desire for the characters to possess it.
The term was coined by Alfred Hitchcock to refer to his version of the traditional mystery story Red Herring. The perfect example is the "government secrets" that motivate the action in North By Northwest (1959). Many detective and spy stories revolve around such lost or found secrets, from Sherlock Holmes to Alias. Another typical MacGuffin is The Maltese Falcon. It gets the characters together, pits them against each other, but turns out to be worthless.
A modern variation of the classic MacGuffin has it being actually valuable and/or being used somewhere near the end of the story.
The word Mac Guffin comes from a school-boy joke, where two men discuss an item, and one says it's a Mac Guffin, a tool used to hunt lions in the highlands, but when the other points out that there are no lions in the highlands, the other states "Well, then it's not a Mac Guffin".
In Academic circles, the term The Golden Fleece is sometimes used in place of Mac Guffin, after the artifact from Jason And The Agronauts, which is a very traditional Mac Guffin.
Compare Magnetic Plot Device.
Mac Guffin sub-tropes:
Examples:
Live Action TV
- Due South: The two-part first season episode "Chicago Holiday" features a matchbook that supposedly will give the owner control of the entire Chicago west side (whatever that means). The list is passed from hand to hand, but we never learn what is actually written on it, nor is it really important except to further the plot. There is also a hotel cleaning woman named "Mrs. MacGuffin", and a store security guard "Niffug, C. M.", whose name tag we conveniently see in a mirror, both an obvious Shout Out to Hitchcock.
- Lana Lang (more often than not) in the series Smallville.
- The Prize for being the last Immortal standing in Highlander.
- In a rare example of a Mac Guffin that actually does something and serves a very important purpose in the story: the Traveling mirror of The Tenth Kingdom. Unlike Chekovs Gun, it is introduced at the very start of the story, and remains a key element until the very end, as it is the only means by which the heroes can return home (or so they think). But its theft and subsequent passage from one set of hands to another is what drives the plot of the whole movie, forcing the heroes to journey across the Nine Kingdoms and setting everything else in motion, landing it firmly in Mac Guffin territory. This is even lampshaded twice: once, just after its disappearance from Little Lamb Village, Wolf thinks to himself in the novelization that "magic liked to move around". The second time, even more blatantly, after the heroes have sneaked into the Evil Queen's chambers to find the other Traveling mirror, Virginia exclaims, "We've been led here all along! It was never the mirror. It was just a way to bring us here, to meet her!" (The Evil Queen)
- Season 2 of Prison Break has the characters chasing a Mac Guffin all season: Charles Westmoreland's money. It briefly ends up in the hands of T-Bag and Bellick, but aside from an insignificant amount being spent, it only serves to move the plot along. Many things happen because of it, but it ends up as nobody's prize.
- Done to the point of extreme irritation in Alias as it's obvious by the end of season two that the writers can't come up with a satisfactory explanation for the prophet Rambaldi but are still going to drag out one tired Mac Guffin for the rest of the series.
Anime
- In One Piece, the titular treasure is a MacGuffin; nobody knows exactly what it is, but everyone wants to get their hands on it. This is even more evident in the earlier drafts for the manga called "Romance Dawn", where there was no mention of One Piece, and Luffy was a pirate just for the hell of it.
- The Dragon Balls in, well, Dragon Ball start off as MacGuffins in the first season, but move away from this later as the specific nature of the balls and the dragon they summon becomes important.
- In Piano, Miu's self-composed piano piece is the MacGuffin. Theoretically, the entire series is built around it. In actuality, it takes a back seat to the "slice of life" drama that makes up the story. The audience only really gets to hear it in the first episode, and even then, it's just an extract. The series finishes just as Miu walks on stage to perform it, a source of snarling frustration if the viewer's been wondering just what the heck she's been working on all this time. Still, at least no-one tried to kill her to get their hands on it.
- In Pokemon the entire Orange League episodes are caused by Ash trying to get the mysterious GS Ball to a Pokeball expert named Kurt. No one knows what's in it. By the end of the Johto League episodes, it's simply forgotten. In the games, the GS Ball contained Celebi. However, Celebi has appeared in the anime/movies since then, with no known connection to the GS Ball. One wonders that if they wanted to know what was in the GS Ball, why they didn't just throw it.
- After running into Mewtwo, this troper would be wary of opening strange pokeballs, too.
- Apparently the GS Ball was going to have Celebi in it and lead to some big arc, but when Celebi got the head role in the Fourth movie, the arc got scrapped. They dumped the GS ball with Kurt and hoped fans would forget.
- A far better example, Pikachu itself is a living Mac Guffin. Half of the plots involve Pikachu getting lost or stolen and needing to be rescued, especially by Team Rocket (Who, might I add, have been chasing this specific Pikachu for over ten years just because it is "special" for reasons which have never even been described). Possibly this frustrates Ash.
- It's considered "special" because Team Rocket, in their first appearance, mistook the Power Of Friendship for just plain power.
- Maybe it IS just plain power. Ash has been training that Pikachu for ten years straight, it's bound to be level 99 by now...and let's not forget, it regularly beats Pokemon against which it has a Type Disadvantage.
- Every single episode of Get Backers revolves around one of these. Somewhat justified, as the characters retrieve, transport, protect, etc. things for a living.
- The Steam Ball from the movie Steamboy is another MacGuffin whose function and purpose are both made explicit over the course of the film, without ever quite reaching Artifact Of Doom level.
- Ojamajo Doremi: In the first ep, Doremi Harukaze's crush on a certain school soccer player eventually results in her becoming a witch apprentice, before being completely discarded at episode's end.
- The Imperial Seal and the Dragon Jade from Ikki Tousen.
- Definitely true with the Key of the Twilight in .hack//SIGN Everyone chases after it for the entire series, and yet no one has the slightest idea what it's supposed to be, often questioning its existence, what it is, what it's supposed to do, and why they're chasing after it.
- This troper is still somewhat confused about what it was supposed to be.
- Its Aura the floating girl above the bed, she's morgana's replacement A.I.
- The Crystal Flowers from Petite Princess Yucie, giving the Platinum Princess candidates an excuse to visit each other's worlds.
- In Tokyo Godfathers by Satoshi Kon the baby, Kiyoko, found by the titualr homeless people rests between this and Magnetic Plot Device to the point where the characters start considering the baby to be literally blessed. Also she is technically a Macguffin Girl.
- This troper remembers a certain episode of Lupin III in which Goemon and Lupin are both trying to get an ancient document from police headquarters, which turns out to be the laws and regulations guide of Japanese policemen...circa 1885 or so, and another such episode where Goemon is up against his former rival-what-killed-his-master, searching for a secret scroll with the final technique. Turns out the scroll is blank and on top of that, the scroll is another one of those Be Yourself metaphor things. Considering the nature of this show, there's probably more.
- The series played with it at one point - Lupin is captured by a Rich Idiot With No Day Job and strapped with a bomb; the guy takes Fujiko hostage as well and sends Lupin to steal a file from the police. The file is the rap sheet for a minor criminal, and none of the heroes can work out why he'd want that. Turns out the rich guy is the criminal, with serious plastic surgery.
- Barring a scant handful, every... single... movie revolves around a Mac Guffin, which is inevitably lost by the end.
Film
- Also used by in the movie Pulp Fiction in the form of the suitcase with the mysterious glowing contents, which is an homage to the 1955 movie Kiss Me Deadly, whose suitcase originally housed a superweapon — a nuclear device. Fans speculated that its Pulp Fiction counterpart held Marcellus' soul. Tarantino called a MacGuffin a MacGuffin, and has made it very clear that he neither knows nor cares what was in the case.
- To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson, the case contained a couple of heavy-ass batteries and some lights.
- The silver case in Ronin. In fact, the film's final scene goes slightly out of its way NOT to reveal what's inside it.
- One could cite the ATAC from the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only in this. Although part of the device is eventually used to deal with a bad guy, its real purpose is to drive the plot. It doesn't stop the movie from being a good one.
- The stoner-flick Dude, Where's My Car? has two; first, the titular car, which serves primarily as a plot device to lead our half-baked heroes into zany misadventure after zany misadventure, and second, the Continuum Transfunctioner, an incredibly powerful device being covertly fought over by two different alien races (which represent themselves as hot chicks and creepy Germans, respectively), a fight that the protagonists slowly find themselves caught in the middle of.
- Mission Impossible III features Ethan Hunt trying to keep a nasty weapons dealer from acquiring "The Rabbit's Foot", a small cylindrical kajigger that's assumed to contain some sort of biological weapon (though it's never explicitly stated as such). At the very end of the film, as Hunt leaves to enjoy his honeymoon, he asks his boss just what "The Rabbit's Foot" was, but his boss says he'll only tell him if he stays with the IMF. They all have a good laugh about it, and the movie ends. Shockingly some film reviewers (professional critics!) expressed outrage that they didn't get to find out what the all-important item was, suggesting unfamiliarity with the trope.
- In Castaway, the one box that Tom Hanks never opens, even delivers at the end. We never know what was in it. However, in an Easter Egg on the DVD, it reveals a press conference by the director who, when asked what was in the box, said it was a solar powered, satellite phone
- The Cube from the 2007 Transformers movie is little more than just an object sought by both robot factions.
- The title train of 3:10 to Yuma is a classic MacGuffin.
- The titular Twelve Monkeys organization is a monumental MacGuffin.
- More of a Red Herring, as the fact that it's not important turns out to be important.
- Rosebud? Anyone?
- The Spanish Prisoner revolves around a secret and valuable industrial "Process" its protagonist has invented.
- Each Indiana Jones film involves the search for a MacGuffin. Harrison Ford even used this term when discussing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on The Late Show with David Letterman. Not quite the Hitchcock definition, but still works.
- The titular Third Man gives Holly Martins a reason to delve into postwar Vienna's underworld. He wants to find out why his friend had been killed. He hadn't been.
- When the screenplay for Good Will Hunting was published as a book, director Gus Van Sant wrote a preface in which he admitted that Will's math talents were a Mac Guffin: he doesn't solve a math problem the details of whose solution affect the plot (otherwise, the movie would be more a science-fiction story about the invention of fusion power, or whatever).
- For that matter, there's the titular proof in the movie Proof. What it is doesn't matter, only whether Anthony Hopkins or his daughter Gwyneth Paltrow was the one who proved it.
- Escape From New York: the tape with the secret of nuclear fusion.
- Pretty much every Alfred Hitchcock movie. The already mentioned briefcase from North By Northwest. The stolen money in Psycho. The reason the birds are attacking in The Birds.
- In Mel Brooks' High Anxiety, which contains parodies of numerous Hitchcock films, the lead character (who is terrified of heights) is checking into a hotel when the receptionist informs him that though the hotel had reserved him a lower-level floor, "a Mr. Mac Guffin called and requested we change it to the 17th floor." Though Mac Guffin is probably a reference to the villains stalking the main character, the name is never mentioned again.
- Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is based around a bunch of fools trying to locate and claim a hidden stash of $350,000.
- Lampshaded in The Departed: "Our target: microprocessors. Yes, those. I don't know what they are, you don't know what they are, who gives a fuck?"
Literature
- Mythical example: the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, revolves around various people searching for and fighting over the Sampo, which is eventually lost at sea. The standard Kalevala compilation by Elias Lönnrot describes it as a mill which produces gold, wheat and salt, but he made this up - his original sources never specified what it was.
- The sole purpose of Angus Mcguffin in Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear.
- Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov's vast fortune in The Brothers Karamazov is said to exist, but even the narrator casts aspersions as to how much money he really has, if any. The sons' owed inheritance is the MacGuffin which gets the plot moving in the beginning, but it is only brought up past the middle of the book in passing. The argument could also be made that the sub-plot involving the schoolboys, which is almost entirely unrelated to the main events of the novel, is a MacGuffin to explore some other themes of spirituality.
- Anthony Horowitz parodied The Maltese Falcon in a children's book called The Falcon's Malteser, which had the MacGuffin (a package containing what turned out to be a box of Maltesers chocolates) actually introduced by a character called MacGuffin.
- In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations: The Great Expectations themselves. They are used to drive Pip's actions and ambitions, but are never specifically described or realised in the end
- Lampshaded in Walking On Glass by Iain Banks. At the end of Steven's story, Steven finds a box of McGuffin's Zen Brand matches, on the back of which is written the answer to Quiss and Ajayi's riddle. Quiss and Ajayi have forfeited all future attempts to answer the riddle, because Quiss has destroyed the Game Table, but we know that their current attempt, earned by completing a game of "Tunnel", will be correct because Ajayi finds a copy of Walking On Glass in the remains of the Game Table.
- The plot of the classic satirical novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov revolves around a treasure hidden in a chair. Of course, by the time the main characters find it, the treasure is long gone
- Debatable is the One Ring from The Lord Of The Rings. While it is mostly an Artifact Of Doom that needs to be destroyed, it does grant the ringbearer certain "gifts" and corrupts even good men into desiring its power.
- The Ring's "personality," its jumping from owner to owner and trying to corrupt people to its will leads this troper to see the Ring as more of a Captured Super Entity.
- More so are the eponymous Silmarils in the Silmarillion. They engender psychotic possessiveness in most of the characters and thus drive most of the plot of the second part, but they don't do anything.
- And it's not so much magic as just greed, because they're SHINY.
- Actually, the Silmarils Glow In The Dark, with a light that is somehow different than sunlight. And when Melkor seizes one, it burns his hand bad. And when that wolf-thing eats one... Ouch. Remember, Power Glows.
- Gravitys Rainbow has at least half of it's characters searching for a super rocket called the 'Schwarzgerät' or '00000'
- Issac Asimov's Black Widower mystery stories have the out of print books in Sunset on the water, a lucky coin in The Lucky Piece, and the data in The Alibi. The data is a somewhat lampshaded macguffin, as the government agent telling the story points out that the details are unimportant, but still secret.
- In 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' by Robert Ramkin, the main characters find and use a vital object called 'The Maguffin'.
Western Animation
- Every other Uncle Scrooge Comic Story, and to a lesser extent, Ducktales, is essentially a search for a historical MacGuffin. It matters not whether the already-ultra-rich Mc Duck searches for the Golden Fleece, Solomon's Mines, the remnants of the Trojan Horse, the Crown of the Crusader Kings, the Candy-Striped Ruby etc. so much as it's something valuable for both him and Glomgold to get involved.
- An episode of the Sam And Max Freelance Police cartoon revolved around the heroes chasing an FDA inspector, trying to feed him a sample of their favorite snack food so that he'll realize how delicious they are and lift the ban he's placed on them. That snack food: "Glazed MacGuffins".
- Codename Kids Next Door, "Operation Report" refers to its MacGuffin as The Goods until practically the end of the story, where it turns out to just be a pizza they were suppose to get. But at least they actually reveal it... the mysterious ice cream flavor that Numbuh 5 and the Delightfuls were fighting over in "Operation Flavor" gets "name-cancelled" the only it's going to be mentioned when the others have phoned Numbuh 5.
- In an episode of GI Joe, Shipwreck finds himself conscripted into entertaining a group of children while the other Joes guard a machine actually called "The Macguffin Device".
- In a nice touch, it's a Mac Guffin in the trope sense as well; neither the Joes nor Cobra knows what the thing does, they just don't want the other side to have it.
- A Wacky Races-inspired episode of Teen Titans involves Robin's high-security suitcase. Its opening at the end is, of course, a textbook use of The Unreveal.
- Taz-Mania did a story in the same vein, with secret agents chasing two Tasmanian Devils with a certain orange juice box, right down to ending on the opening of the container without revealing what's in it.
- The Golden Disk in Transformers: Beast Wars started as a MacGuffin... but in the second season, it evolved out of that status, with Megatron demonstrating exactly what it was and why it was so dangerous in his hands.
- The Anti-Life Equation in the Diniverse. Several villains, most notably Darkseid, want it, and the chase for it is a recurring plot point. The equation itself, on the other hand, is not: What it does remains undefined and the two who finally get their hands on it promptly vanish from this reality. (The comic book version, on the other hand, does define the Equation, and some of those seeking it have been able to use it. Basically, it is an empirical scientific formula which demonstrates the meaninglessness and futility of existence, which allows one to control the will of others entirely. Its ominous name comes from the idea that "if someone possesses absolute control over you - you're not really alive." Scott "Mr. Miracle" Free has known the Equation all along but chooses not to use it.)
- The titular Black Cauldron
- In the book, on the other hand, the Cauldron was very much its own thing. Hen Wen, on the other hand, basically served to be chased and clashed over until finally doing something in the final book.
- In an American Idol parody episode of The Simpsons, the prize winner gets to star in their own "Itchy and Scratchy" episode. After that, it is never brought up again in the episode.
- The entire plot of Kung Fu Panda, to an extent, revolves around the Dragon Scroll—who gets it, who deserves it, how and when it will be used. Tai Lung went to the Dark Side because he was not granted it, then spends twenty years in prison thinking of nothing else, escaping only when he learns it will be given to someone else. The Furious Five, meanwhile, all want it so they can stop the Big Bad and prove their worth to their master, while everyone from Shifu on down to Po believes the panda needs it and its ultimate power to win. And the final battle is literally an endless series of hot potato tosses back and forth around the village square, with Tai Lung and Po constantly in pursuit of each other to get the scroll back.
- The kicker? ''The scroll is blank, without any special secret written on it. The double kicker? What seems a worthless artifact is actually a reflective parchment geared to make Po gain the confidence to believe in the Be Yourself lesson. Tai Lung doesn't get it at all, and thinks it really is a worthless Mac Guffin which he has wasted his whole life pursuing. The rage this discovery produces contributes strongly to Po's victory.
- At least two episodes of Kim Possible revolve around a pure Mac Guffin: in "Sick Day" it's "Ray X" which is repeatedly stolen and recovered when the players are incapacitated by a cold they pass to each other (and "Ray X" is revealed to be a cure for the common cold, after it has been destroyed). "Adventures In Rufus-Sitting" sees the Non Human Sidekick Rufus swallow a microchip - pursed by three villains and protected by Kim.
Video Games
- Every single Tomb Raider game involves Lara on a quest to collect some kind of artifact, except for Unfinished Business.
- This trope is sort of subverted in Tomb Raider Legend when the Mac Guffin is the legendary sword Excalibur, which Lara uses as a weapon in the final boss fight.
- The BMW M3 from Need For Speed: Most Wanted counts as a MacGuffin: the entire career mode is about climbing through the Blacklist until you defeat Razor and recover he took away from you, it's pretty much as powerful as a fully tuned Ford Mustang, you only get to use it at the very beginning and at the very end, and also doubles as a Bragging Rights Reward for clearing the game.
- Nobody's mentioned Chrono Trigger yet? It both uses it straight and subverts it, formerly with the Gate Key (which gets stolen once, but is only mentioned twice in the context of the story as a convenient device to open Time Travel gates. It's subverted with Marle's pendant, which seems to be just as much of a MacGuffin at first, but later becomes vital and useful after its upgrade. Not only is it used to obtain the Cool Ship, but it allows you to open the closed boxes that are scattered everywhere in the game world.
- The Chrono Trigger example can be extended to many console RP Gs. As soon as the Rebellious Princess or Mysterious Waif joins the party, odds on you'll get their pendant/gem/other valuable heirloom too. The object's relevance varies wildly between actually useful in game (generally opening magical seals or an equippable item), ultimate cosmic plot power, true MacGuffin style object that everyone wants which is actually just junk, mentioned a handful of times in conversation, and an utterly irrelevant item that just clogs up your inventory. Of course, whichever it is, there's no way you'll avoid chasing after the damn thing if it gets lost or stolen.
- In fact, the sequel to Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, is perhaps an even better example than its predecessor: The Frozen Flame, a mystical artifact which grants its owner ultimate power, is used to drive the plot up until Chronopolis. However, it turns out that instead of an "artifact" it's a giant honkin' rock which is neither frozen nor a flame, and while it does technically posess great power, it requires a huge lab and tons of futuristic equipment to use it. Which, by the way, you don't get to... it appears as a background graphic before a boss battle, and then you never see it again. And then you kick yourself and realize that if you hadn't been chasing the Frozen Flame, you'd be back in your home world, living the idyllic (and very boring from a gameplay standpoint) life you led in the first 15 minutes of the game.
- Then again, everyone would still think you were dead. And probably worse: Kid would still be around to butcher the English language.
- The Seal of Metatron from Silent Hill 3 is a MacGuffin of the Maltese Falcon kind: you have to pound your way through a rotten hospital in Dark Silent Hill to get it, you can't use it during normal gameplay, it's supposed to kill God, and in the end, Claudia says it's just a piece of worthless crap.
- The firespawn Blaze in the game Mortal Kombat Armageddon has been accused of being a living MacGuffin; the quest to defeat him originally meant to prevent The End Of The World As We Know It, but the added side-effect of gaining godlike power inspires the other characters besides those intended on beating him to go after him and provide the basis of the game. As per the nature of the MacGuffin, Blaze's power in relation to whoever defeats him changes with the person, and is never solidly defined.
- Also, Earth itself could be considered a MacGuffin in the entire series, as any other realm could've been used as the main conflict (and, in fact, battles with other realms have been featured, though the Earth/Outworld one is the focus of the series). Beyond "ultimate power", it's unknown just what specifications Earth has over other, more powerful realms (like Edenia) as a prime target for conquest.
- Finally, Shinnok's Amulet was the MacGuffin for at least three games in the Mortal Kombat series, even though the most we ever learn about it is that it can only be created once (proven false by Quan Chi making a fake one), and that it's used to fuse the Kamidogu (yet another MacGuffin in Deception) and, thus, all of reality together.
- The eleventh level quest in the sarcastic MMORPG Kingdom Of Loathing is, literally, the Quest for the Holy MacGuffin.
- The arch-villain in Bioshock turns out to be a diversion (thought not a Dragon) from the real Big Bad.
- The Chaos Emeralds of Sonic The Hedgehog can be considered this, as their full capabilities haven't been explained beyond "turn fast-moving hedgehogs Super Saiyan".
- Actually, it's been stated that the reason Robotnik wants them so badly is that they serve as an excellent power source: Tails uses one to power the Tornado 2, Chaos uses them to upgrade his abilities, and Robotnik himself needed them in Sonic 2 and 3 to power the Death Egg. The reason that they're needed together is that the level of energy they provide increases exponentially when they are. As for their full capabilities...well, just look at Sonic Adventure 2. Even when they weren't all together, they were able to power a cannon strong enough to blow a large chunk out of the Moon.
- The Water Chip and GECK from the Fallout games, are both classic examples of a Macguffin, both of whoms main purposes is to get the player out of the starting area.
- Dracula, in the Castlevania Series of video games. The reason Dracula keeps coming back is mainly, excluding the crazies who resurrect him, because of a stone that contains his soul; ironically, it is also what gives him his vampiric powers, a result of another soul residing with his.
- The Ankharan Sarcophagus from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines; prince LaCroix's obsession with it, and the effect it has on the various vampire factions of the city, drives much of the plot. Subverted in a most satisfying fashion in the anarch and independent endings, where it turns out it contained a bomb planted by your Trickster Mentor intended to kill said prince — even the fact that you were the Xanatos Sucker that allowed the plan to succeed was worth it for the sight of LaCroix opening the casket and finding out what his 'gateway to infinite power' contained...
- The assassins in the "Tribunal" expansion pack for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind are essentially an army of living Mac Gruffins. The player is attacked by them in his or her sleep, and has to find their base. Ultimately, this serves only as an excuse for the player to enter the area added by the expansion—why the assassins actually attacked you is never explained (though the question of who hired them is.)
- The Amulet of Kings in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The entire main quest line revolves around getting the Amulet and the Emperor's son to the same place. Once you do, you get to see the ending sequence but not to participate in it.
- Isabella in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is a living Mac Guffin. Completely amnesiac except for mysterious knowledge concerning where the protagonists should go next, her return is eventually demanded by the game's Big Bad on pain of aerial bombardment... after which it's revealed that nothing about her is particularly special (literally since she's a clone); the bastard just wanted to see what would happen if he held the last settlement of man Hostage For Mc Guffin.
- The optical disc from Metal Gear Solid. Snake gets it early on and doesn't really know what it's for, but unbeknownst to the player, almost the entire plot revolves around that disc.
- Master Li in Jade Empire is somewhat of a Mac Guffin ... first you are on a lengthy expedition to rescue him, only to find out that he has used you as a Mac Guffin, kills you, thus furthering his use as a McG - as you must then get revenge against him and "fulfill your destiny".
- Crysis Warhead, the entire game is chasing a Mac Gruffin. But with more explosions.
- The entire plot for Threads of Fate involves the main characters questing after the [relic] of ultimate power, capable of granting any wish. It winds up getting transported to another dimension right after the final boss fight, and just short of the opportunity to really begin abusing that sucker's power. C'est la vie.
- Kingdom Hearts has multiple Macguffins, from the Keyblade itself, to the Search for first Kairi/her heart, to the search for Riku, then they have to search for Kairi again in KH 2, did i mention Kairi yet? and each of these is played from different angles. Riku is after the Keyblade and Kairi, Sora already has the keyblade, but is searching for Kairi, hell Sora serves as a Mac Guffin of sorts for Donald and Goofy during the first time at traverse town.
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has Nate searching for the titular fortune throughout most of the game.
- In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Guybrush Threepwood begins his quest to find the "Big Whoop", a legendary treasure known and craved by all pirates, even when no one knows what it is.
- Frankly, due to the unreliability of the source (the Voodoo Lady is an obvious liar if you ask her about events in previous games, though Guybrush never notices), and due to the creator of the game having no input on the subsequent sequels, the player still doesn't know for sure what Big Whoop is.
- Averted with the Secret of Monkey Island itself. Although mentioned frequently across the series, the task of finding it is never used to drive the plot. Guybrush does find it accidentally in the fourth game, but it happens so randomly that the player would never know they found the Secret, if it weren't for the FMV movie named such.
- The Index in Halo, which is the firing key needed to activate Halo. Later becomes a Chekhovs Gun, as Cortana uses the exact same Index from the first Halo to fire the unfinished one in the Ark, wiping out the Flood.
- Wing Commander 2 lampshades this with Specialist Mac Guffin, the poor soul who first spots the traitor aboard your ship radioing a Kilrathi commander. He's promptly shot for his efforts, though not before he grabs the traitor's flight insignia.
Webcomics
- In Kevin And Kell, the original Danielle has disks with all the important data for "Rabbit's Revenge", an underground group with terroristic tendencies. The disks are shown in the June 21, 2003, strip, labeled "McGuffin disks".
- In Absurd Notions, The Legendary Rock of Rama Lama is initially a MacGuffin (illustrated by Warren's remark), but ceases to be that when the players refuse to accept that.
- On the cast page of Erfworld, the Arkenhammer's occupation is actually listed as "MacGuffin". (Strictly speaking, it isn't one: the Arkenhammer — or more precisely, the dwagons that have been tamed with its power — are critically important to the plot.)
- The print version of Nodwick once did this while simultaneously parodying The Lord Of The Rings. The title character finds "This One Ring" and his employers force him to go on a long quest to destroy it. When they give history of the ring, it is remarked that ring does absolutely nothing, but they act as if the ring had infinite power.
- Ancient sacred relic #7 in Hellbound.
- Parodied in Megatokyo. Early on, Largo blows all his cash on a mysterious "cool thing". The exact extent of its abilities is never revealed, but it apparently at least has the power to call forth a legion of cardboard robots Largo created. Also joked about in one of the books, where author Piro comments that even he doesn't know what it does, and "Shirt Guy" Dom comments that the instant they figure it out, it'll be sold at the site's store within two weeks.
- Lampshaded in Order Of The Stick, right after the battle in Azure City, where Xykon informs Redcloak that all he cares about is the Mac Guffin, referring to the Snarl.
Comic Books
- Every alien race in Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire gets into a holy war at the same time to get "The Winslow", a furry alligator-like creature that has extreme religious significance for no reason whatsoever.
- What do you mean, "no reason whatsoever"? It's the Winslow. That's more than reason enough.
- Not to mention that it's immortal, one of a kind, indestructible, all good things to be if your're a religious icon. And the Winslow is capable of speech, at least the word "Hi".
- Lampshade Hanging in the rather atrocious Tenchi Muyo comic by Pioneer, in which Sasami has a special delivered package from Jyurai, which turns out to be Macguffins, a light and tasty delicacy. In fact, they're so good "why else would people chase after them?"
Tabletop RP Gs
- The Paranoia adventure ''The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues". The title Black Box.
Web Original
- The Project Orwell software in series 1 of KateModern, which is mysteriously absent from the second series.
Mythology
- The Golden Fleece in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. By that same token, many of the tasks performed by Hercules.
- The Fleece was actually full of gold, an behalf of being used repeatedly to filter water from a river containing gold dust. Worth it's weight in gold, in other words.
Real Life
- While we rarely think on this in our everyday lives, money is actually a fictive entity of value. Basically, the only reason money can be worth a slice of pizza is that the pizza-guy is willing to accept it in exchange. The materials money is made from could make kindling, insulation, or weapons and electronics, but still. Money is a Mac Guffin. And I'll be damned if I'll let you anywhere near mine.
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