12 Wildly Disappointing Cop Outs and MacGuffins in Movies
Look, we know that “MacGuffin” is this weird old Hollywood term, but it’ll be a thing in movies forever! It can be a physical object like the treasure in The Goonies, a person like Doug (the groom) in The Hangover, or even an idea or goal like defending the house in Home Alone. If the characters want something and spring into action for it, you best believe it’s a MacGuffin.
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Coined by Alfred Hitchcock to quickly describe the wants of his characters, it is said that he got the term from an old story about a man’s large, strange-looking package containing a “MacGuffin.” The man explains that it’s used to catch tigers in the Scottish Highlands, and the ol’ Hitchcockerino thought it was a good way of explaining every “package” going forward. ‘Round here we call our packages “the MacGuffin” too. Sorry. And how did tigers get to the Scottish Highlands?!
Anywho… This all seems like a pretty interesting and engaging way to grab our movie-going attention. So messing that up is pretty anticlimactic, and downright “un-movie.” There, we can coin terms too. Just sayin’, if you’re gonna get us all drooly over an object or whatever it happens to be, don’t cop out at the last minute and make it the afterthought. Like these 13 wildly disappointing cop outs and MacGuffins right here.
We don’t want to think of something. That’s your job!
Just ask the droid nicely. We’re sure he’d give it to you.
He was such a diehard FedEx employee that he just had to deliver it. Gimme a break!
Follow that ship!
Oh my god, just tell us what it is already!!!
But it sounds so cool, right?
Action movies are all about amping up the drama. But we need more!
Even Ralph Macchio agreed… Daniel clearly broke the rules.
Leaving things a mystery is good… For much smaller plot points.
One of the many reasons to shit on this movie.
So instead of the futuristic computers in Minority Report, we get this?!
It’s hard to care if we don’t know who or what is on the tape!
What’s in the box?! We’re guessing this one wasn’t Gwyneth Paltrow’s head.
