The ACTUAL most iconic film MacGuffins of All Time

[Mark Trail]

Contrary to this list, there were many incredibly iconic MacGuffins in film prior to the year 1989. The greatest are:


The Maltese Falcon
The Ark of the Covenant
The plans for the Death Star
Rosebud
and, of course, the granddaddy of them all:
The silent plane engine in The 39 Steps

Any other suggestions for iconic MacGuffin's not on the list?

[DrNewGod]

Prior to 1989:
North By Northwest's Microfilm (we didn't even know it was the source of all the fuss until the penultimate scene)
A Christmas Story had two: the Red Ryder BB Gun and the Captain Midnight Decoder Ring
Brewster's Millions' Inheritance Clause
Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan's Genesis Device
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre's Gold Mine
It's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World's Buried Loot Under The Big W
Treasure Island's Buried Treasure
ETA:
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly's Stolen Army Payroll
(may be stretching it a bit, but) Mr. Smith Goes To Washington's Willett Creek real estate.
Each of the husbands in A Letter To Three Wives

[AndrewCrossett]

Indy also searched for the original McGuffin... the Holy Grail.

[Surf]

[sunofdarkchild]

The Wayfinder and the Sith Dagger. The two greatest movie Macguffins of all time.

In all seriousness, the best are the One Ring from Lord of the Rings and the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders

Other good ones are the money from No Country for Old Men, the Death Star Plans from A New Hope and Rogue One

[Jcogginsa]

The Briefcase from Pulp Fiction is definitely up there

Others I'd mention

The Briefcase of Money in Fargo

[DrNewGod]

The list of pictures based on lost hidden loot/treasure could populate a whole thread by itself. Even if we do confine it to pre-1989.

[Mark Trail]

The list of pictures based on lost hidden loot/treasure could populate a whole thread by itself. Even if we do confine it to pre-1989.

Good point. In fact, I'd definitely put the Treasure of Sierra Madre on a list of "most iconic."

[Riv86672]

The Key in DIAL M FOR MURDER

[AnakinFlair]

Spock from Star Trek III

[j9ac9k]

I'd throw in the "intercostal clavicle" from "Bringing Up Baby."

Doug from "The Hangover"

[Largo161]

The Key in DIAL M FOR MURDER

Is this really a macguffin, though? You couldn’t replace it with anything and tell the same story.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Since Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin, he's probably the king of MacGuffins.

I'll add the wine bottles filled with uranium ore from NOTORIOUS.

[DrNewGod]

Since Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin, he's probably the king of MacGuffins.

I'll add the wine bottles filled with uranium ore from NOTORIOUS.

That's a good one.

Moving from thrillers to romantic-comedy, the sugar/view-screen technologies in each version of Sabrina.

[DrNewGod]

...the One Ring from Lord of the Rings...

I guess that meets the pre-1989 standard since there is an animated feature way back when. However, I almost think of the One Ring as a malevolent character that just had no lines, a silent clone of Sauron, as opposed to a McGuffin