We love a good MacGuffin and in an article for Script Lab, Britton Perelman takes a look at 10 of the best.
Simply put, a MacGuffin is something that everyone wants. Many writers will put serious effort into creating a complex MacGuffin with an intricate history, but really, the item itself is beside the point. For your novel, the major factor is your characters’ desire for the MacGuffin and what they’ll do to win it. The Maltese Falcon is a great name for a statue that people will kill to possess, but it’s the killing and possessing that make the movie great.
Some of film history’s greatest MacGuffins include:
- The Military Secrets — In 39 Steps, the protagonist becomes involved in a plot to steal military secrets, but the nature of the secrets is incidental to the plot.
- Letters of Transit — In Casablanca, everyone wants the letters of transit that will allow two people to leave Morocco. They suspect that Rick has them and converge on his bar to beg or bully them from him.
- The Briefcase – Do you remember what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction? You don’t, because the contents are never revealed.
- White Castle — Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, but really, any hamburger joint would have sufficed.
You can find more at the jump, including jewelry, robots, secrets, human beings, and one MacGuffin that’s appeared in multiple popular films.
