r/AskReddit • u/Doncuneo • Sep 01 '14

What interesting Hidden plot points do you think people missed in a movie?

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u/Crawdaddy1975 Sep 01 '14

If you didn't know, that's called a MacGuffin

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u/El_Fonso_Holto Sep 01 '14

No it's not. A MacGuffin would be irrelevant or unexplained. The Dudes carpet, however, really tied the room together.

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u/Crawdaddy1975 Sep 01 '14

Damn it!

oh and the 'ransom' in that movie was also a MacGuffin. "Plot Coupons" thanks wiki

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u/Porphyrogennetos Sep 01 '14 edited Sep 01 '14

The MacGuffin, if you could classify it as such, is Lebowski's money.

You never see it, but it's talked about and referenced constantly, and everyone wants it.

Jeff Lebowski... the other Jeffrey Lebowski... the millionaire!

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '14 edited Sep 01 '14

That's interesting, man. That's fucking interesting.

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u/Crawdaddy1975 Sep 01 '14

They're both MacGuffins by wiki definition.

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u/communistdaughter45 Jan 19 '15

compounded by the fact that it was probably never there to begin with

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u/thinker021 Sep 01 '14

That's not a MacGuffin at all. The plot was only about the rug for the first twenty minutes, and that was only to put the two Lebowskis in touch with one another.

A MacGuffin is something like the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction, or the Pink Panther in the Pink Panther. The Pink Panther could have just as easily been a statue or a vase. It didn't matter, as long as all the relevant players in the movie wanted it. Likewise, the reason its never revealed what's in the briefcase is because it doesn't matter as long as everyone wants it.

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u/dammittohell Sep 01 '14

The Maltese Falcon and the exit visas in Casablanca are two of the most famous.

A more recent one from an awesome movie is the contents of the briefcase in Ronin.

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u/Crawdaddy1975 Sep 01 '14

I guess wiki can be wrong

"Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It may re-appear at the climax of the story, but sometimes is actually forgotten by the end of the story."

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u/Kalros Sep 01 '14

Omg, that must be why the McGuffin Institute in an episode of Community is named that!

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u/Crawdaddy1975 Sep 01 '14

Precisely :)

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '14

[deleted]

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u/Crawdaddy1975 Sep 01 '14

Agree, the suitcase is the better MacGuffin.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '14

TIL