Empire (2010) - So, what is a MacGuffin?

Details

• article: So, what is a MacGuffin?
• journal: Empire (01/Aug/2010)
• journal ISSN: 0957-4948
• publisher: Bauer Metro Ltd
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Angus MacPhail, MacGuffin

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Article

So, what is a MacGuffin?

According to Wikipedia, a MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The name leads to Hitchcock associate Angus MacPhail and a story he used to tell. There are two men sitting on a train to Scotland. As Hitch continues, "One man says to the other, 'What's that package you have on the luggage rack?' 'Oh,' says the other, 'that's a MacGuffin.'" apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' 'But,' says the first man, 'there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands.' 'Well,' says the other, 'then that's no MacGuffin!'"

Hitch defined it as "the unknown plot objective which you did not need to choose until the story planning was complete", i.e. it doesn't matter what it is. rather what it does. Hitchcock used them liberally, as does cinema in general.