History Main / MundaneMacGuffinPerson

* The plot of ''Film/Poetic Justice'' has four friends go on a road-trip from Los Angeles to Oakland, California to visit Lucky's cousin, Kalil. [[spoiler: They find out he's been shot and killed once they arrive.]]

* Kee in ''Film/ChildrenOfMen''. She's the first woman to get pregnant in almost 20 years. The main characters have to try to keep her (and the baby) alive and out of the wrong hands.
* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' is centered entirely around Willard's mission to travel to the compound of an insane colonel and to kill him. He becomes even more determined to find and confront the colonel as he learns more about him from previous military reports.
* The plot of the film ''Poetic Justice'' has four friends go on a road-trip from Los Angeles to Oakland, California to visit Lucky's cousin, Kalil. [[spoiler: They find out he's been shot and killed once they arrive.]]
* Roxanne from ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' is the reason Max is traveling. He wants to show off to her at a place opposed to his father's destination.
* ''Film/{{Elysium}}'': Max becomes one when [[spoiler:all the security coding for Elysium gets uploaded into his brain, coding that would basically let the user do anything they want. Spider and co. want the information to disable the Elysium security systems and make everyone on Earth register as a citizen, Delacourt wants it to overthrow Elysium's current leadership, and Kruger wants it to take over Elysium and do... unpleasant things.]]

* ''VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagicaSideStory'' has Iroha Tamaki looking for the mysterious 'Ui' Tamaki, a girl that she is certain is her little sister, but Ui seems to have disappeared completely off of the face of the earth and become an {{Unperson}}. Nobody can remember that Ui ever existed, leading to Iroha eventually arriving in Kamihama city, eager to find her. [[spoiler:Ui's body and soul were separated into the former locked into Embryo Eve's necklace and the latter into the Li'l Kyubey wandering Kamihama. Act 1 ends with Ui's body and soul, as well as the two sisters, reunited.]]

* Private Ryan in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', the search for him in the warzone is the plot.

* In ''Literature/CookingWithWildGame'', a village of mostly-NobleSavages adopts a chef who is ''really'' good at making money. Most villagers don't care about the latter, because they take great pride in living off the land, but one particular family is greedy enough to try kidnapping him. Cue awesome battle scene as the other villagers team up to free their golden goose.

* [[IAmNotShazam Princess Zelda]], most notably the original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda''. She is usually [[BarrierMaiden the key]] to saving the world and is kidnapped by the BigBad in order to give him whatever power he needs for the game's plot. Traditionally, this is her segment of the Triforce, but not always. Zelda herself lampshades this in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'', saying that being a distressed damsel is a family tradition. While she's usually a MacGuffinSuperPerson, there are a handful of games that fit this trope as she's kidnapped for her beauty or status as a princess, not her magic powers.

* In ''LightNovel/CookingWithWildGame'', a village of mostly-NobleSavages adopts a chef who is ''really'' good at making money. Most villagers don't care about the latter, because they take great pride in living off the land, but one particular family is greedy enough to try kidnapping him. Cue awesome battle scene as the other villagers team up to free their golden goose.

People who are sought after due to their status go under HostageMacGuffin. People with some with a supernatural trait like a BarrierMaiden are examples of MacGuffinSuperPerson, while ones who were originally literally objects go under MacGuffinTurnedHuman.

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/HumanTarget'', episode "Victoria", the ''Queen's'' daughter is targeted as she wants to drop her husband for an EMT, which would bring great shame to her family.

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* From Part 5 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': Trish Una is the recently discovered illegitimate daughter of the local mafia boss. All of the boss's enemies want to capture and/or kill her, so she ends up under the protection of the heroes, thus driving most of the plot.

A LivingMacGuffin sought after for some mundane ability or quality they have. In terms of traits, they are usually "desirable" or "questable" for any of a hundred reasons. Common ones include: [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman great beauty]], [[IncorruptiblePurePureness great goodness]], kindness and [[LoveInterest loving or being loved by the hero]], [[RoyalBlood being royalty]], [[AncientKeeper knowing the answer to an urgent problem]], etc. Thus, they can ''easily'' cross over into MarySue territory. Alternately, they may carry the negative trait of having [[KickTheDog kicked the hero's dog]] at one point, and so they want to find them (or a way close to them) for {{revenge}}.

* Princess Charlotte from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' while being one of the [[SpoiledSweet kindest and sweetest]] people in the story, is only sought after for her position as being the sole heir to the throne of Midland, a kingdom that everyone wants for some reason.

[folder:Fan Works]]

* Princess Charlotte from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' while being one of the [[SpoiledSweet kindest and sweetest]] people in the story, is only sought after for her position as being the sole heir to the throne of Midland, [[TheKingdom a kingdom]] that everyone wants for some reason.

* [[IAmNotShazam Princess Zelda]], most notably the original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda''. She is usually [[BarrierMaiden the key]] to saving the world and is kidnapped by the BigBad in order to give him whatever power he needs for the game's plot. Traditionally, this is her segment of the Triforce, but not always. Zelda herself lampshades this in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'', saying that being a distressed damsel is a family tradition.

* ''HumanTarget'', episode "Victoria", the ''Queen's'' daughter is targeted as she wants to drop her husband for an EMT, which would bring great shame to her family.

* Laura in ''{{Literature/Perfume}}''. She is the driving force of much of Grenouille's plot - by dint of nearing sexual maturity and smelling ''really'' nice. And that's about it. She has a larger role in the film version but in the book she does literally nothing except get moved from place to place, [[spoiler: and then get killed.]]

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' had Ashley, the president's daughter. Unlike most examples, the bad guys had a pretty good reason for picking her beyond the ransom. [[spoiler:They plan to infect her with the Las Plagas parasite and send her back home to daddy.]]

* 'Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':

People who are sought after due to their status go under MacGuffinHostage. People with some with a supernatural trait like a BarrierMaiden are examples of MacGuffinSuperPerson, while ones who were originally literally objects go under MacGuffinTurnedHuman.