PLOT DEVICES

MacGuffin: coined by screenwriter Angus MacPhail, this is a plot device, a goal, usually in the form of an object, popularized by Alfred Hitchcock for The 39 Steps. What it is isn’t necessarily important to the audience but it is vitally important to the characters.

• Mission: Impossible III: the Rabbit’s Foot, a mysterious doomsday device that the villain, Owen Davian, tries to attain.
• Casablanca: the letters of transit. great example that plot devices do not have to be factual. The letters of transit make no sense. If they were stolen, the Germans would invalidate them. Moreover, Victor Laszlo is a known fugitive from a German POW camp. They allow him his freedom around Casablanca but there’s no reason that acquiring Letters of Transit would magically grant him passage out of Casablanca.
• Escape From New York: The President of the United States and the audio tape and a cure for the explosive devices put into Snake Plissken’s neck.

The Ticking Clock:

• Armageddon: the asteroid coming to destroy the earth (18 days)
• Angels & Demons: the draining battery
• Back to the Future: the lightning strike (10:04 pm)
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: three lives
• A Most Violent Year: 30 days to close the deal
• Speed: the bus can’t go below 50 miles/hour
• D.O.A.: Dexter Cornell is poisoned with 36 hours to live

Deus Ex Machina: literally God from the machine. A convenient, sometimes magical plot device brought in at the last minute to bring about an often happy resolution.

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: the stone appears in Harry pocket. Touching Harry will destroy Voldemort
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Fawkes suddenly appears with a hat where the sword of Gryffindor suddenly appears
• The War of the Worlds: the aliens die from Earth’s bacteria
• Saved by the cavalry (Western cliché)
• The Return of the King: the eagles save Sam and Frodo
• Superman: The Movie: flying around the world to turn back time

Red Herring: something that deliberately misleads the audience away from the relevant plot. Be careful you don’t alienate your audience with these.

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: the opening musical number
• Aliens: suspicious-looking android
• The Da Vinci Code: the Bishop
• The Usual Suspects: the entire movie

Chekhov’s Gun: an object given to a character that is used by the character later in the story when it’s most needed. A shortcut to counteract deus ex machina.

• Any James Bond movie where Q gives Bond a gadget.
• When a character finds a gun or other object that they keep
• A character who appears to deliver pertinent plot information
• Technology specifically created for the character to overcome a plot obstacle