What is a MacGuffin?

The term "MacGuffin" as used by Alfred Hitchcock was first recorded in a lecture given by him at Columbia University on 30 March 1939. It was inspired by writer Angus MacPhail, whom Hitchcock had known since the beginning of his film career in the 1920s and Hitchcock used it to describe the object of desire that sets off a story.

It comes from a story about two Scottish men in a train. One man asks the other what is in a package in the overhead luggage compartment. The man responds:

"It's a MacGuffin."

"What's a MacGuffin?"

"A device for hunting tigers in Scotland."

"But there are no tigers in Scotland."

"Well then, it's not a MacGuffin."

A MacGuffin can be anything that everyone wants--the uranium filled wine bottle in th Hitchcock film Notorious or the black statue in the Hammett's Maltese Falcon. It's purpose is to set off the action. It may be mythical or material, but it must be desired by opposing forces--the more the merrier.

Once the story is in motion, the MacGuffin loses its importance and may be completely forgotten. It is in this sense we named the MacGuffin the MacGuffin. It is composed of all the lists and bits of information that completely lose their importance once you have found the story you want.

Definition courtesy of

at http://www.macguffin.net/Lists/index.htm