Worst McGuffin in a Movie?

The Sith dagger in Rise of Skywalker

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The Sith dagger in Rise of Skywalker

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Super easy. Barely an inconvenience

The stupid knife / map from The Rise of Skywalker was pretty damn lame.


(no, I didn't see that one either)

Re Nice Guys. Watched it again recently. I love that movie as well but it is a good example.

8mm with Nick Cage had a reel of film as the McGuffin as well.

STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

Plans for a new super weapon, the Death Star, are in the hands of the rebels uploaded to a quirky droid by the name of R2-D2. The plans (McGuffin) reveal a flaw in the design of the Death Star where one carefully placed shot can destroy it in a massive explosion.

The problem: What moron would design a super-weapon with such a flaw? Family Guy in its spoof had an Empire General questioning it, "Can we fix it?" "It'll cost." "Maybe just put some plywood over it."

This flawed McGuffin was course corrected decades later in the brilliant ROGUE ONE, which explained the Death Star designer put in the 'flaw' as a feature in his own act of rebellion.

Rogue is my 3rd fave SW after (1) Empire (2) New Hope. Forth, of course, is the Star Wars Christmas Special.

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Problem with this McGuffin: Why do these damning pieces of evidence still exist? Why not, say, sell them? Melt down the ring or just sell it. Destroy the evidence chain forever. Make a few bucks in the process. It's like keeping the gun after a murder - the one thing that ties him to his crimes. But the film is entertaining and you may not ask that other than to say to yourself, "Because they wouldn't have a movie if he'd done that."

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They explicitly talk about this in the film. Pride as the downfall of the powerful is a major theme of the movie. He keeps it around because he’s proud of it, he protects it, he thinks it’s safe

Not to mention it doesn’t fit your own definition of a McGuffin. Most of the characters in the story either don’t even know if it’s existence for most of the film or care when they find out about it. Jody Foster doesn’t care about it, she just wants to make her money and increase her power, Denzel is in pursuit of the truth behind what’s going on and to get out from under the gun of an internal investigation- it’s only until the end he finds the diamond and starts to pursue the bank owner. Most of the bank robbers even have their own motivations for being involved in the robbery, although their POVs aren’t really the focal point of the movie so it doesn’t go too deeply into that one

If you didn’t think it was realistic that’s a different argument than it being a McGuffin. The entire third act is intrinsicly tied to the diamonds, their meaning/history, and they affect each character in the plot with its reveal

In comparison to a more direct McGuffin example, the briefcase in Pulp fiction. Which drives the character motivations of multiple people in the story, while never revealing its contents or even what effect the contents would have on the person who obtained it. We just know it’s something of high value that everyone wants. Its only purpose is to move the plot forward. In Inside Man, the diamonds don’t necessarily move the plot forward, they just give meaning and context to the plot that you’re already invested in. It’s like saying the Aliens in Signs are McGuffins

Galaxy Quest is a classic. Holds up well.

The Movies That Made us series or it may have just been a documentary on it had a lot of good info on the film.

Marcellus Wallace brief case? Does that qualify?

ETA: Dammit, Hodson!

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Marcellus Wallace brief case? Does that qualify?

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Absolutely. It’s one of the worst, because you never find out what it is. Same problem with the ice skates container in Ronin. It’s very frustrating.