Guy Reams (00:00.75)
Today is day 220. Your problem is that you need a McGuffin. When I was a child, I remember watching this film called Jason and the Argonaut. This was airing on a public broadcasting channel. You know, I only had about four channels to choose from on UHF and PBS was one of them. And they were replaying this film that had come out in 1963. This was the mid, the early seventies, right? So, or the mid seventies. So,
Now this film in 1963 was, the special effects were astounding. This was like the 60s version of the Lord of the Rings. They created this new technology called stop motion animation. And there's this one fight scene between the Jason and the Argonauts and the skeletons. And that fight scene remains pretty iconic. I mean, if you haven't seen that fight scene, you have to go watch it. It's life changing.
Okay, that was a little sarcastic, but it's definitely in the sphere of a cinematic film, it was pretty astounding. So anyway, the Argonauts go on this quest to go after the Golden Fleece. Now nobody really knows why the Golden Fleece was needed or what purpose it would obtain, but the Golden Fleece must be obtained. Now,
No spoil alert here. They go get the Golden Fleece. Now there's no spoil alert here because this story has been around for 3 ,000 years. This was a Greek mythology story. But the use of this Golden Fleece as the device that the characters must go after is known as a MacGuffin in the film industry. And now this...
So the idea of using a MacGuffin as a device to move the story forward and to give the protagonist something to go after has been around for a very long time. So.
Guy Reams (02:11.021)
person who we don't really know who coined the phrase MacGuffin but it probably became popular by the one of the greatest filmmakers of all time known as Alfred Hitchcock. He didn't I don't know if he coined the term or necessarily but he was definitely the one that we attribute to bringing it into the film industry and Alfred Hitchcock.
was obviously a great filmmaker. Now, we think that maybe I've read some articles on it today and they think that the MacGuffin was actually a joke from the Scottish joke about a man bringing this giant lion trap called a MacGuffin on a train and somebody asked him what it was for and he said it's to catch lions. And the guy says, well, there are no lions in Scotland. He goes, well,
The MacGuffin isn't real either. I don't know why that was funny, but that was the joke, I guess. Anyway, Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, definitely used MacGuffin devices commonly and frequently in his films. Everything from stolen jewels to uranium hidden in wine bottles to a mysterious key, stolen money, secret messages. He was very good at using this device.
to draw people into the story and continue the story along. Classic films that we all love use this all the time. You might remember Indiana Jones chasing the Ark of the Covenant and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I still remember watching that film with the plane going across the geography. So yeah, so here he's literally chasing the Ark of the Covenant around the globe.
So that is a perfect example of using a MacGuffin. So this leads me to this concept. I've often tried to try to view my life as a play that I'm directing. Most of the time it feels like a short comedic screenplay with fake -to -can laughter or perhaps a Greek tragedy. But I remain hopeful that my life will coalesce into some great meaning. I believe that...
Guy Reams (04:27.406)
potentially there could be this great arc of triumph in my life. I keep hoping. That hasn't happened yet, but you know, one day it'll all culminate and it'll all make sense. Most likely what'll happen is I'll die and I won't, my life will not have ended up the way I expected it. And then God and I can have this conversation about his directorial style. Anyway, I digress. But I believe,
that my life needs a MacGuffin. That's what I've been missing maybe. Maybe I need a Bugatti or a custom yacht built by some German manufacturers. But whatever it is, I need my golden fleece. Now, you may think this idea, you would think this through. This idea is actually pretty sound. A MacGuffin in movies is a device used to catch attention, provide purpose, without requiring extensive explanation.
is something that really drives the story forward. You might argue that our lives are not a work of fiction, but I would argue contrary to that. If you think about it, our future hasn't even happened yet. It hasn't happened, so it doesn't exist. That sounds awful a lot like fiction, right? So our future has yet to be created, and we are the creators. So just like creating fiction, we are creating the future our future.
We are the director of the future of our life, right? So if that's the case and we are the director and the author of our future, then why not use the same mechanisms that great filmmakers have used to create wonderful artwork, right? So in that case, a MacGuffin is a great tool. So I think you should create a MacGuffin. You should find out that thing that you want to chase, whatever it is. In fact, it's probably better not to be a thing. Let's get the materialism.
Maybe there's something that you're some concept, some idea that you're chasing, some grand thing. And that is the MacGuffin that will be part of your fictional story that you're creating for yourself. So I kind of wonder, you know, what is my MacGuffin? What is your MacGuffin?