Why Lucas and Hitchcock Disagree on MacGuffins

The MacGuffin was a term popularized by late director Alfred Hitchcock, and basically refers to a plot device, such as an object or a goal, that kicks in the third act.

Hitchcock's thoughts were that the more vague the MacGuffin, the better. Someone who may agree is Quentin Tarantino - whose 1994 film Pulp Fiction had a fantastically vague MacGuffin in the form of a suitcase that everyone was hunting down, though the audience was never made aware of exactly what it was in the case. Other examples of Tarantino's MacGuffins include the suitcase full of diamonds in Reservoir Dogs, and the "Five-point-palm exploding heart technique" in Kill Bill.

Another obvious MacGuffin would be in American Pie, in which case the MacGuffin is goal of the main characters - to lose their virginity.



The vagueness of the MacGuffin works, apparently because it allows audience members to imagine and project their own wants and desires into the object - thereby making the MacGuffin a guaranteed justifiable reward for all the the characters trouble in the film.

Where Alfred Hitchcock and George Lucas disagree is that Hitchcock believed the MacGuffin to be a gimmicky device that gets things rolling, where George Lucas thinks of it more as the final goal. Something incredible and powerful that matters as much to the audience as the stars of the film.

The original Indiana Jones had it. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy was in a race against Nazis to capture the Ark of the Covenant which held not only the ten commandments, but also functioned as an apparent "radio to God".


If that's not enough to get your audience emotionally vested in your film, then what is?

Lucas wasn't quite so happy with the Indiana Jones follow up MacGuffins. Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2008 he said, “The Ark of the Covenant was perfect. The Shankara Stones (Temple of Doom) were way too esoteric. The Holy Grail (Last Crusade) was sort of feeble—but, at the same time, we put the father in there to cover for it. I mean, the whole reason it became a dad movie was because I was scared to hell that there wasn’t enough power behind the Holy Grail to carry a movie."


The trick with the new Indiana Jones film was to find a new, perfect MacGuffin. Something that would not only work perfectly to hook those audiences in, but also fit with the chronological time that has passed in the Indiana Jones universe. Indy is now 20 years older, so the new MacGuffin and story would now have to position him squarely in the 1950's.

And just what is this new MacGuffin for 2008's latest Indy film? A crystal skull of course. A plot device which is rumoured to throw the main characters in all kinds of situations involving Area 51 and aliens. Something that definitely fits with the 1950 era considering the Roswell incident (in which the Government issued a press release stating it had recovered a crashed 'flying disc' at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico) happened in 1947.


Scheduled for release later this year, only time will tell if this new MacGuffin will cause audience members to be spellbound and amazed at the Indy legend once again.

Other Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull Posts at Quickflix:

• Indiana Jones 4 Trailer!
• Indiana Jones 4 Shots and Spoilers