MacGuffin

 


A MacGuffin is known by other names, such as McGuffin and MaGuffin.
It is an object or device in a film that serves as a trigger for the plot. The audience doesn't care much for it but the characters do. The audience may care for it at first, they may wonder what it is for, and why the characters are so obsessed with it, but it is soon forgotten. This object drives the story forward, and it is of vital importance to the heroes and the villains even if it was an unimportant object or just mentioned and never seen. To the audience, they are seen as meaningless and easily replaceable.

“The main thing I’ve learned over the years is that the MacGuffin is nothing. I’m convinced of this, but I find it very difficult to prove it to others.” –Alfred Hitchcock

One big MacGuffin is in Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho," the supposed main character, Marion, is given $40,000 by her boss that she has to put in the bank, but she runs away with it so that she has the money she needs to marry her lover, Sam. But then she feels tired, so she pulls over to the side of the road and falls asleep. Then a policeman starts becoming suspicious, and she has to get away from him, and she switches cars and starts driving again, but then it is dark and she is caught in the middle of a storm so she pulls over to  The Bates Motel and stays the night. In the middle of the night she gets murdered; the owner finds her and puts her in the boot of her car along with her stuff, and the hidden $40,000 and then dumps the car in a lake where it sinks, along with the $40,000. So the audience would have forgotten the $40,000 after all of this; it showed once or twice whilst Marion was still alive, but not enough to be of importance.