10 of the Greatest Movie MacGuffins

By Britton Perelman · June 12, 2024

Popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, MacGuffins are a handy plot device that can help motivate the protagonists and propel a story forward. Hitchcock described a MacGuffin as the “thing that the spies are after,” and that’s a good, easy way of thinking about it.

MacGuffins are the thing that the action of a story is contingent upon. They can be anything—as solid as a physical object or a human person, or as intangible as an idea.

There are MacGuffins in stories as far back as Arthurian legend and Greek mythology, but modern movies are full of them as well. As you’ll see in these 10 examples, the form the MacGuffin takes is far less important than the fact that it exists at all.

Scripts from this Article

Casablanca

Citizen Kane

Pulp Fiction

Titanic

The Big Lebowski

The Hangover

Avatar

The Military Secrets — 39 Steps (1935)

Screenplay by: Charles Bennett and Ian Hay

This 1935 Hitchcock film may not be his most well-known title, but it does feature the first of his many MacGuffins. In this spy thriller, the protagonist gets entangled in a plot that revolves around very important military secrets. What exactly those secrets are is far less important than their role in getting the protagonist involved in the espionage drama.

Letters of Transit — Casablanca (1942)

Screenplay by: Murray Burnett, Joan Alison, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch

The plot of this 1942 classic hinges upon the letters of transit, which just so happen to fall into Rick’s hands and cause a woman from his past to come back into his life. The best part of this MacGuffin? There’s no such thing as letters of transit in real life—the Epstein brothers needed something for the plot of their movie, so they concocted the perfect MacGuffin.

Rosebud — Citizen Kane (1941)

Screenplay by: Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles, and John Houseman

Most of the time MacGuffins are physical objects, but this 1941 classic features a fantastic example of one that’s intangible. A newspaper magnate’s dying word is the thing that kickstarts the story. A reporter is tasked with figuring out what “Rosebud” means, and the movie is his investigation into Charles Foster Kane’s life.

The Briefcase — Pulp Fiction (1994)

Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino

In Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus, the action hinges on a briefcase. More specifically I suppose, it’s all about the contents of said briefcase, which seem to emanate a golden glow when the case is opened. By the time the ups and downs of the non-chronological narrative have concluded, the audience still doesn’t know what is actually inside the briefcase. It’s a true MacGuffin and that’s all that matters.

The Heart of the Ocean — Titanic (1997)

Screenplay by: James Cameron

James Cameron’s romantic epic Titanic opens with a frame story. A team of researchers scour the sunken underwater ocean liner in the hopes of finding a large diamond necklace called “The Heart of the Ocean.” When they find a sketch of a young naked woman instead, it is her story that becomes the heart of the entire movie. By the end, the large diamond necklace is an afterthought in the wake of the emotional impact of Rose’s heartbreaking story.

The Rug — The Big Lebowski (1998)

Screenplay by: Ethan and Joel Coen

When Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski is mistaken for someone else and attacked, the worst part of the whole ordeal is that one of the thugs ruins his rug. The Dude then embarks on a journey that has nothing to do with his rug at all, but what else was he supposed to do? That rug really tied the room together.

White Castle — Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)

Screenplay by: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg

It may be easy to dismiss this buddy stoner comedy, but it features a truly delicious MacGuffin—and it’s basically in the movie title! After getting high and seeing a commercial for White Castle, friends Harold and Kumar become obsessed with obtaining some hamburgers. The road to White Castle is fraught with obstacles and the journey they end up on in pursuit of their munchie meal is far more entertaining than the burgers they so badly desire.

Doug — The Hangover (2009)

Screenplay by: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

This R-rated comedy features what is probably the best example of a human MacGuffin in recent history. After a bachelor party in Las Vegas, no one can remember, three friends wake to find a tiger in the bathroom and a baby in the closet. But they don’t find one important thing: The Bachelor, Doug. The rest of the movie is a hilarious romp to try to find Doug before the bride-to-be discovers that he’s missing.

Unobtanium — Avatar (2009)

Screenplay by: James Cameron

We should probably name James Cameron the official King of the MacGuffin.

Cameron’s second MacGuffin on this list is Unobtanium, a fictional mineral that is the entire reason humans find themselves on the planet of Pandora, where a paraplegic former Marine must infiltrate the native people using an avatar body. Unobtanium, while critical to the plot, matters not at all to the audience — some of whom may catch wind of the MacGuffin early in the film because of the clever (or painfully obvious, depending on your perspective) name Cameron chose for the mineral.

The Moon and a Shrink Ray — Despicable Me (2010)

Screenplay by: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, and Sergio Pablos

Typically, movies with MacGuffins are about the good guys trying to stop the bad guys from getting their hands on whatever the MacGuffin happens to be—government secrets, a briefcase of money, some unknown device with a ridiculous name. But Despicable Me is all about the bad guys and, incredibly, has not one but two MacGuffins.

A supervillain named Gru hatches an epic plan to steal the moon (MacGuffin #1) so he can outshine his rival supervillain, Vector, but to do that, he needs to first acquire a shrink ray (MacGuffin #2). When Vector manages to get the shrink ray first, Gru adopts three young orphan girls in a seemingly ridiculous scheme to steal the weapon from Vector. The scheme works, but Gru’s growing fondness for the girls and his overall character development steal the show away from both MacGuffins. I mean, who really cares about the moon, after all, right?

Many, Many More MacGuffins

The jewel-encrusted statuette in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings (2001)
The Holy Grail in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Microprocessors in The Departed (2006)
Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The briefcase of money in Fargo (1996)
R2-D2 in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
The $40,000 Marion steals in Psycho (1960)
Te Fiti’s heart in Moana (2016)
The NOC List in Mission: Impossible (1996) and the Rabbit’s Foot in Mission: Impossible III (2006)
The Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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MacGuffins—and plot devices in general—often have a reputation for being a sure sign of lazy storytelling. But as you can see in the examples above, plenty of incredible movies feature MacGuffins. As with any writing technique, if used effectively, a MacGuffin can elevate a story to the next level.