August 4, 2020 – George Lucas sold LucasFilm to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Then Disney discarded Lucas’s Sequel film treatments, hired J.J. Abrams and others to finish out the Star Wars saga, and we, the audience, got MaGuffined.
Per Wikipedia, “a MacGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.” In moviedom, there have been some successful MacGuffins: the Maltese Falcon in The Maltese Falcon, the word “rosebud” in Citizen Kane, and even the Death Star plans in a certain sci-fi movie franchise. But what about the MacGuffins in the Sequel Trilogy films?
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt
After enduring the major debacle of The Last Jedi, and then the catastrophic debacle of The Rise of Skywalker, when I recently rewatched The Force Awakens, it seemed like a masterpiece by comparison. Though the movie has flaws, it’s the best of the trilogy. Yet it did have a questionable MacGuffin. What was it?
MapGuffin: Poe Dameron receives something special on Jakku.
The Force Awakens began with some nice character development. We met Rey’s and Finn’s characters. Their stories became intertwined with the characters we already know: Han, Leia, Luke. But before all that, at the very beginning of the movie, Poe Dameron obtained A MAP TO LUKE SKYWALKER. The map was on what looked like a computer flash drive. Why was this map flash drive so important? Because no one knew where Luke was, not even his sister, Leia.
A map to Luke is not a terrible MacGuffin in and of itself. But it’s an illogical one if you agree with Mark Hamill. Hamill didn’t like the Sequel Trilogy’s depiction of Luke. Hamill has stated that Luke was the most hopeful character in Star Wars. For example, he never gave up trying to get his dad to turn from the dark side. In SW9 Finn says, “Leia never gave up, and neither will we.” But Luke would give up?
If Hamill is right, quitting the fight and going off into hiding goes against Luke’s character. The story shouldn’t need a map to Luke. Plus, even if Luke had gone into hiding, doesn’t it make sense that he would have at least told Leia where he was? In any case, this is what the writers wanted to portray. As Han said: “he [Luke] walked away from everything” after Ben turned against him. So the movie starts with a major MacGuffin: a map to Luke.
Since I agree with Hamill about Luke’s character, to me the map to Luke is an illogical MacGuffin. But even if Luke’s hiding made sense, the movie still doesn’t need a map-to-Luke MacGuffin. So why is it in the movie? I have a theory. The Rise of Skywalker, also directed by J.J. Abrams, has a lot of MacGuffins. I theorize that the map in The Force Awakens was an Abrams idea, not a Lawrence Kasdan idea. Maybe Abrams is into MacGuffins. I also theorize that the best aspects of The Force Awakens, such as its character development, are probably due to Kasdan. He received top writer billing for this movie, and is arguably the best writer among all the writers of the Sequel Trilogy.
One final observation: The MapGuffin that Poe received was only a partial map. The rest of the map was inside R2-D2. So there was actually a second MapGuffin in the movie. Some people might consider this to be clever writing, but to me such writing tricks have no place in Star Wars.
Writer: Rian Johnson
What was the MacGuffin of The Last Jedi? See if this seems like strong writing to you…
The First Order figured out a way to track the Resistance even at lightspeed (another Star Wars invention by Rian Johnson, like “the Holdo maneuver”). So the Resistance needed to deactivate the First Order’s tracking device on one of their Destroyers. But, to get on the Destroyer, the Resistance had to get past the First Order’s security shields. But how?
MazGuffin: Maz Kanata has the perfect solution.
So Poe, Finn, and Rose reach out to Maz Kanata – by hologram-phone – for help. She tells them they need the help of THE MASTER CODEBREAKER. That’s THE master codebreaker, not merely A master codebreaker. Maz says, “This is rarified cracking. If you want to get on that Destroyer, I know only one option. Find the master codebreaker.” She then tells them they can find THE master codebreaker in Canto Bight. He will be at the high stakes table in the casino. And he will be wearing a red ploom flower on his lapel.
Then, somehow, a red ploom flower image appears on the hologram. (How did that happen?) So Finn, Rose, and BB-8 go off to find “the master codebreaker” MazGuffin on some planet. But then, after all that MacGuffinizing, they never meet the master codebreaker. Why? Because they illegally parked their spacecraft on the beach! For this they’re thrown into prison. But while there, they meet someone else to help them, who isn’t “the master codebreaker.”
If you’re thinking this “master codebreaker” thing is a weak MacGuffin, it gets worse. DJ – the surrogate codebreaker hired by Finn, Rose and BB-8 – betrayed them, which led to the deaths of Resistance people on the transport ships! And this whole thing started because Holdo refused to tell Poe her plan, so Poe came up with a plan of his own. Thus Holdo, Poe, Finn, Rose, and BB-8 are to blame for the deaths of the people on the Resistance transport ships! Wow. That’s a lot of death-of-their-own to place on the protagonists of the film. Not to mention all of the Resistance deaths at the start of the movie caused by Poe’s decision to defy Leia’s orders.
The MazGuffin of The Last Jedi was weak to begin with. But then it became much worse. It became weird. It was part of a sick pattern in The Last Jedi: making the protagonists responsible for many deaths of their own people. How was such a twisted idea ever greenlit for Star Wars? Did anyone higher up even analyze Johnson’s script? How did this happen?
Writers: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams
J.J. Abrams was back for The Rise of Skywalker, and the movie had MacGuffins galore. What were they? See if you think this is strong writing for a $275 million movie, that’s also the last entry in the Star Wars saga that began in 1977…
The Sith “wayfinder” MacGuffin dominates The Rise of Skywalker.
In The Force Awakens, they needed a map to find the planet of Luke the good guy. In The Rise of Skywalker, they need a Sith “wayfinder” to find the planet of Palpatine the bad guy. For some reason, only two Sith wayfinders were ever made. We encounter SITH WAYFINDER #1 very early in the film. Kylo Ren goes on a killing spree in order to find it. After he’s found it, he uses it to get to Palpatine’s planet, Exegol, so he can confront him. It will be some time before we see the second wayfinder, though, because we need to encounter some more MacGuffins beforehand…
Through Luke’s writings, Rey discovers that a Sith “wayfinder” is needed to find the location of Exegol, the hidden planet of Palpatine and the Sith. Again with the help of Luke’s writings, Rey and company travel first to the planet of Pasaana for clues about the wayfinder. On Pasaana, Lando Calrissian tells them that he and Luke were there hunting a Sith assassin, OCHI OF BESTOON, who had a clue about the wayfinder. So Rey and company go looking for Ochi’s ship in the Pasaana desert.
Fortunately, quicksand drops them into an underground cave. There they find A SPECIAL DAGGER among Ochi’s remains. Fortunately again, the location of the second wayfinder is inscribed on the special dagger! The problem is, the location is inscribed in a Sith language that C-3PO is forbidden to translate! What will they do?!
Then Chewie gets taken by the First Order. And he has the dagger with him! Now what?! But C-3PO tells them that the dagger’s inscription is in his memory, and the only way to retrieve it is if his memory is completely wiped! Fortunately, Poe knows a special blackmarket droidsmith, BABU FRIK, who can wipe C-3PO’s memory! (Sounds like Maz’s master codebreaker.)
So they go to the planet Kijimi to see the droidsmith Babu Frik. While there, Poe runs into an old flame. Lucky for him, she gives him a special FIRST ORDER CAPTAIN’S MEDALLION that they will need later to go free Chewie from the First Order! (The object fetish continues.)
C-3PO’s memory is wiped, then he tells them the location of the second wayfinder. After saving Chewie and the special dagger, Rey and company go to the planet Kef Bir. While there, Rey stands in the exact right spot on the shore, and holds the dagger in just the right way, so that the dagger shows her the location of the wayfinder! Also, coincidentally, this special dagger, with the special inscription clue on it, turns out to be the same dagger used to kill Rey’s parents!
So Rey finally finds SITH WAYFINDER #2 among the remains of the second Death Star. But then Kylo Ren shows up and destroys it! So all of that MacGuffinizing was for nothing. And Rey ends up using the wayfinder on Kylo Ren’s ship instead.
To put this MacGuffin adventure in perspective, the Canto Bight MazGuffin adventure in The Last Jedi takes place among 20 minutes of the film. And much of that 20 minutes is spent on Ahch-To with Rey and Luke, not in Canto Bight. But the Sith wayfinder adventure of The Rise of Skywalker, with all of its MacGuffins in between, by itself takes up about an hour of the movie. Even longer if you count Kylo Ren’s wayfinder MacGuffinry.
Some people might like this sort of thing, which is essentially a treasure hunt through space. But others like myself view it as weak writing for a Star Wars film. It might work in Indiana Jones or The Mummy, but not here. No matter how you slice it, the MacGuffin hunt of The Rise of Skywalker was definitely a gamble for the final installment of Star Wars. Maybe they didn’t have any better ideas. Still, why, with the last movie of the saga, introduce a story technique (treasure hunt) that’s never been done in Star Wars before?