The MacGuffin

The MacGuffin is a plot device. Wiki: “The MacGuffin(McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.

Director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin and the technique with his 1935 film The 39 Steps, an early example of the concept. Hitchcock explained the term MacGuffin in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University in New York City:

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh, that's a MacGuffin'. The first one asks, 'What's a MacGuffin?' 'Well,' the other man says, 'it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers, 'Well then, that's no MacGuffin!' So you see that a MacGuffin is actually nothing at all.

Bob: But it is often something. In Pyscho, it’s the money stolen from the bank by a supporting character. In the Maltese Falcon, it’s the bird, which happens to be fake. In a romance, it could be a never-sent love letter, a lost charm, a mythical pearl. It drives the plot. Often it is a good substitute for horrible things happening to the hero or heroine, IMO. Why, because some stories are primarily interior driven. Since we need some action to propel the story and characters forward and something visual other than their pretty faces etc., the McGuffin serves as a focal point for the readers as an important reason to keep reading. There is some contention over whether the audience cares about the fate of the McGuffin. Hitchcock says no. Lucas says yes. I say it depends on how your story is written and what you hope to achieve. I like a novel in which there is a “b” story surrounding the McGuffin. In The Maltese Falcon, the bird represents greed and how far men will compromise their morals. So the “b” story is the corruption of men.

As my grandson informed me, it is important not to confuse the McGuffin with the McMuffin.

It’s a matter of taste.