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Examples
“In The Bank Job, the macguffin was a set of photos supposedly showing the Princess having a beach affair; given the circumstances, the man involved would likely have been Bindon.”
“It is what Alfred Hitchcock called a "macguffin," a central plot-moving device.”
“Tales' attempts to bridge the gap by making the "macguffin" into a semi-sentient protagonist; in theory, we'll work up sympathy for Simon Garth and his plight as a zombie, enough so to get us through stories that jump from city to city as the amulet changes hands.”
“Oz, I don’t think the aliens really qualify as a macguffin, that is really more a vehicle to drive the plot in thrillers and tends to be ambiguous.”
“The great Alfred Hitchcock used the word "macguffin" to describe that object, the pursuit of which drives the plot of the story forward.”
“Wow, I had never heard of the word "macguffin" until today .... and I have encountered it twice.”
“An ensemble cast of gangsters, lowlifes, thugs, and junkies are all after a “macguffin” (this time: a painting we never actually the face of).”
“First, and less importantly, the Big Secret proves to be a macguffin.”
“However, I believe it is the subtle way in which Cameron introduces this to the audience that it works for the audience as a believable macguffin despite the name.”
“Ironically, “RocknRolla” had a b-i-i-i-g macguffin: a painting that drives the entire plot (and we never get to see), and it still sucked.”
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john “Dyson agrees with the prevailing view that there are rapidly rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere caused by human activity. To the planet, he suggests, the rising carbon may well be a MacGuffin, a striking yet ultimately benign occurrence in what Dyson says is still ‘a relatively cool period in the earth’s history.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009 Mar 26, 2009
teradome "Two men are in a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks 'What's a McGuffin?' '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 McGuffin!' " -- Alfred Hitchcock Mar 16, 2008
arby Good description on TVTropes. Oct 24, 2007