In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.
In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.
I’d say there are different classes of MacGuffin. Some are actually more important and notable in themselves, like the Holy Grail. The One Ring is not really a MacGuffin because it has character in itself. Mount Doom in some ways is the actual MacGuffin. In Mission Impossible 3 they are chasing this thing called the Rabbit’s Foot, but the movie never actually explains what it is (it’s classified)! In the newer movies they retcon it to be more important. The Infinity Stones are MacGuffins uniting multiple movies’ storylines together. The MacGuffin moniker can be pejorative, but it’s also part of the reductive aspect of storytelling. We only have so many ways to tell stories.