Narrative technique · used in 20 films
Giving the characters an object, secret or goal that everyone chases. What it actually is barely matters, because its job is to set the characters against each other.
Examples
Alfred Hitchcock · 1935
Everyone is chasing the plans for a silent aircraft engine. You never see the plans or learn how the engine works. It doesn't matter, since the secret only exists to keep Hannay running.
Where to see it: Mr. Memory's last words. Shot on stage, Mr. Memory recites the engine design as he dies, and that's all you ever learn about it.
Alfred Hitchcock · 1938
Miss Froy turns out to be a spy carrying a coded message in a folk tune. You never learn what the message says. All that matters is that the tune gets to London.
Where to see it: The Foreign Office. Gilbert forgets the tune in the waiting room, then hears it played on a piano and finds Miss Froy at the keys.
John Huston · 1941
A MacGuffin is the object everyone in a story is chasing. The Maltese Falcon, the jewel-encrusted statuette, drives the entire plot. Every character has killed or will kill to own it. When the falcon turns out to be a fake, Spade calls it 'the stuff that dreams are made of'. No line defines the MacGuffin better. Wanting the object was the point all along. Huston and Hammett pinned down the MacGuffin before the term existed.
Where to see it: The final revelation. The falcon is a fake. Gutman barely loses his composure before he turns to the next scheme. The object is worthless, which shows that the chase itself was always the prize.
Carol Reed · 1949
Harry Lime is the film's MacGuffin, the thing everyone in the story is chasing. Holly is searching for him, Anna is grieving for him and the military police are investigating him. What I find remarkable is that the film actually delivers its MacGuffin. Harry appears, speaks and explains himself. Then you see the real subject: Holly's romantic naivety, and what happens when the myth you built your world on turns out to be a monster.
Where to see it: The Ferris wheel conversation. Harry delivers his 'cuckoo clock' speech. He stops being a mystery to solve and turns out to hold a real philosophy of his own.
Alfred Hitchcock · 1955
The stolen jewels draw everyone in, but they matter less than who is stealing them. Robie wants to clear his name, the police chase him and the insurance man helps him. The jewels give everyone a reason to be at the same parties.
Where to see it: The jewel list. Robie asks the insurance agent for a list of tourists on the Riviera with the most expensive jewelry, and it leads him to Jessie and Frances.
Alfred Hitchcock · 1959
A MacGuffin is the thing everyone in the plot is chasing. Here, it is government secrets being smuggled out of the country, and the film never says what they are. What they are doesn't matter, as long as everyone believes they matter. The Professor openly admits that 'George Kaplan' doesn't exist. Hitchcock treats the MacGuffin with open contempt. The thing driving the plot is empty, and he wants you to notice.
Where to see it: The Professor's explanation. He admits that Kaplan is made up. The film owns up to how empty the MacGuffin is and doesn't apologize for it.
Alfred Hitchcock · 1966
The anti-missile equations of Professor Lindt are what everyone wants. The film never explains the math, and the equations matter only because both sides want them. Armstrong goads Lindt into revealing them by making Lindt think he has made mathematical mistakes.
Where to see it: The classroom duel. Armstrong angers Lindt over what Lindt thinks are mathematical errors, and Lindt gives away his equations.
Francis Ford Coppola · 1979
For most of the film, people describe Kurtz, quote him and fear him before he ever appears. By the time Willard reaches the compound, Kurtz is a legend the film cannot fully live up to, and it deliberately doesn't try. Brando plays him as a man who falls short of the myth, because the myth was always bigger than any man.
Where to see it: Kurtz's first appearance. He comes out of the shadows, and he already falls short of the legend built up before him.
Terry Gilliam · 1981
Everyone wants the map. The dwarfs steal it, the Supreme Being demands it back and Evil schemes to take it. What the map does matters less than the chase it starts.
Where to see it: Kevin's bedroom. Six dwarfs spill out of the wardrobe with the stolen map, and the floating head of the Supreme Being demands it back.
John Carpenter · 1981
Everyone chases a cassette tape said to contain a plan for nuclear fusion. What matters is that the characters fight over it, and that the President will use it at the peace summit. The film never lets you hear what is really on it.
Where to see it: The final trick: the President plays the tape for the summit and it plays only Cabbie's favorite song, Bandstand Boogie. Snake had the real one.
Robert Zemeckis · 1988
Everyone is chasing Acme's missing will. The paper looks blank, and the plot depends on it. In the end, the blank page is the key.
Where to see it: The blank will: Eddie realizes the will was written in invisible ink, confirming the toons own Toontown.
Roman Polanski · 1988
Everyone wants what was inside the switched suitcase, which turns out to be a krytron hidden in a souvenir Statue of Liberty. Walker only cares about trading it for his wife. What it does matters much less than who is chasing it.
Where to see it: The suitcase: Walker learns that the smuggled item is a krytron, a detonator trigger for nuclear weapons, hidden in a souvenir replica of the Statue of Liberty.
Ridley Scott · 1989
Everyone in the story chases the same thing: a pair of printing plates for counterfeit American money. Sato takes one half in New York and uses it to bargain with the older boss, Sugai. The plates barely matter as objects. Their job is to set the cops, the yakuza and the American mob against each other.
Where to see it: The gift box at the end: Nick says goodbye to Matsumoto and hands him a dress shirt in a box. Underneath it, Matsumoto finds both plates.
Roman Polanski · 1999
Everyone wants the book, and the collectors are willing to kill for it. What the book actually says matters far less than how it pits Balkan, the widow Telfer and Corso against each other.
Where to see it: The Telfer manor ritual: Corso and Green Eyes track Liana to her family's manor, where a cult is using Balkan's copy in a rite until Balkan storms in and takes it back.
Danny Boyle · 2000
Daffy's map sets the story in motion and keeps stirring trouble. What matters is who has a copy. Richard shares it with the surfers, and later Sal orders him to destroy theirs.
Where to see it: Daffy's map: Richard finds that Daffy has died and left him a map to the island. He gives a copy to the American surfers.
Ron Howard · 2006
Everyone wants the Holy Grail, and the film never has to show you a cup. What matters is that the Grail sets the heroes, the police and the secret societies against each other. The chase is the story.
Where to see it: The hunt for the keystone. Langdon follows the clues from the Louvre to a cryptex and on to Rosslyn Chapel.
Christopher Nolan · 2010
The 'inception' itself (planting an idea in Fischer's mind) is the MacGuffin, the goal that drives the plot. The real subject is Cobb's unresolved grief over Mal.
Where to see it: Cobb's scenes with Mal's projection. They appear in the snow fortress and in Limbo.
Steven Spielberg · 2011
Three model ships each hide a piece of a clue that leads to a treasure. Everyone chases the pieces. What the scrolls are matters less than how they push people together.
Where to see it: The model ship: Tintin buys a model of the Unicorn at a market, and a secret scroll hidden in it sets off the chase.
Ethan Coen · 2024
Everyone chases the briefcase, and what is inside matters less than the chase. It holds plaster casts of powerful men, and it ties the women, the gangsters and a senator together. The silly contents keep the whole film comic.
Where to see it: The briefcase. Jamie and Marian find it in the car, and the 3 criminals follow them to get it back.
Darren Aronofsky · 2025
Everyone wants a key that Hank finds hidden in the apartment, and no one will tell him what it opens. It sets the mobsters, the cop and the brothers against each other. When you learn it opens a storage unit with more than $4 million, the answer matters less than the chase it caused.
Where to see it: The storage unit. Russ returns and explains that the key opens a unit holding over $4 million.
Questions
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