Rank the Macguffins

Rank the macguffins from 1-4. also for fun add the macguffin you'd like for the hopeful 5th

1. Holy Grail- i think it's the coolest back story. Jesus cup and all that stuff.
2. Ark of the Covenant- face melt rays are always awesome.
3. Crystal Skulls- Like the mystery surrounding their making
4. Sankara Stones- meh.

for the fifth i think a return to the religious objects would be cool. i'd hope for the weapon cain used on abel. a spear i guess

1. Ark of the Covenant - Awesome!
2. Holy Grail - Kinda less awesome, but still cool.
3. Crystal Skull(s) - Not that awesome, but OK.
4. Sankara Stones - Too obscure, you don't really understand what they do.

Just a note here...

*chuckle* Those aren't MacGuffan's.

1. Cross of Coronado
2. Fertility Idol
3. Nurhachi
4. ??? His youth ???

A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters or advances the story, but the details of which are of little or no importance otherwise. The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot devices is that it is not important what the object specifically is. Anything that serves as a motivation will do.

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Locating Abner
Helping Oxley
Finding his father
Getting to Delhi

I'm going to list my favorite central artifacts, instead of the actual MacGuffins:

1. Ark of the Covenant - Classic and cool...
2. Holy Grail - Definitely a powerful artifact, but I felt that it would have failed without the father-son storyline.
3. Crystal Skull - A bit too esoteric for the average film enthusiast, but not at all bad.
4. Sankara Stones - As much as I'd like to put this at a higher rank, I felt that the film was very vague as to the purpose of the stones. At the same time, the sequence when Indy procures the stones for the first time, and watches them glow while John Williams' fabulously dramatic score roars is absolutely perfect...

I think it's safe to say that for the purpose of Indiana Jones, the artifact IS the MacGuffin. It's how Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford have always defined and used the term- regardless of what the actual film geek definition might be.

And in the grand scheme of things, the artifacts really aren't that important. They're quickly lost at the end of the film, and the audience is rarely given more than a cursory explanation as to what they do. The characters themselves spend the entire film just trying to gain control of them, yet never really succeed.

1. Ark of the Covenant- the ultimate WMD, even the U.S. government won't touch it.
2. Sankara Stones- the only artifact that has a tangible, positive effect on anyone when it is recovered (brings life back to the village). I also like that the recovery of the stones leads to the rescue of hundreds of slave children.
3. Holy Grail- pretty cool, but it only works if you stay in a cave in the Middle East.
4. Crystal Skull- saucer men from Mars? Come on...

1) The Ark of the Covenant
The best of the best. With this MacGuffin it feels like the most is at stake, its powerful, dangerous, deadly and yet (until the end) we don't know what it even does. For an object to be THAT scary and mysterious and us to not know what it even does until it's opened and the Nazis melt... that's a classy.

2) The Crystal Skull
Powerful. We know it's powerful and it's linked to the mythical city of gold, aliens and "saucer men from mars." Aliens/martians/interdimensional beings -- whatever you wanna call em, whether they come in peace (Close Encounters, ET) or to blow the world apart (War of the Worlds) they're scary and the skull getting to the Russians and the Russkies wanting to control minds freaked me out.

3) Sankara Stones
This is gonna sound weird but I loved how small they are. They were the ultimate example of "never judge a book by its cover"... small but (somewhat) deadly... they're easily mysterious, though dissapointingly because they're never really explained, but I sorta like that. Shrouded it mystery, but also you're not sure what purpose they serve. Good but not the best.

4) The Holy Grail
LAST CRUSADE is my 2nd favorite Indy movie, but the Holy Grail isn't that great... it's a good object and the way they have the father/son story in their and uses to showcase Indy and Henry's love for history/the Grail and whatnot is good, but there's a reason it isn't showcased much and isn't in the flick to the final moments in the Grail Temple.

1. Ark of the Covenant

2. Holy Grail

3. Sankara stones

4. Crystal skull

I'm not sure if the skull is even in the same league as the first three. The first three are religious/mystical objects with an unexplainable power. The skull definitely has metaphysical powers but there is nothing religious about it. It is 'too explainable'. I'm not religious myself, but I like the representation of religious things in Indy movies.

James said:

I think it's safe to say that for the purpose of Indiana Jones, the artifact IS the MacGuffin. It's how Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford have always defined and used the term- regardless of what the actual film geek definition might be.

And in the grand scheme of things, the artifacts really aren't that important. They're quickly lost at the end of the film, and the audience is rarely given more than a cursory explanation as to what they do. The characters themselves spend the entire film just trying to gain control of them, yet never really succeed.

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It's true Lucas has a slightly different interpretation of the MacGuffins used in the films then say Hitchcock, so based on that my ranking would be:

• The Ark of the Covenant
• The Holy Grail
• The Crystal Skull(Even though I rank TOD before LC or KOTCS, the Sankara Stones were pretty esoteric and unrealized!)
• The Sankara Stones

4. Sankara Stones - As much as I'd like to put this at a higher rank, I felt that the film was very vague as to the purpose of the stones. At the same time, the sequence when Indy procures the stones for the first time, and watches them glow while John Williams' fabulously dramatic score roars is absolutely perfect...

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Ajax, I agree completely! That scene is one of the best in the series!

1.) The Ark
2.) The Skull
3.) The Grail
4.) The Stones

The ark
Rekindling relationship with Henry Sr
Holy grail
Sankara stones

Yes, that scene when the stones glow upon being brought together with the music building up is great, but then they just return to dirty old stones. The Ark, well, you just wouldn't get tired of looking at that, same with the Grail and the Crystal skull. The Chachapoyan Fertility Statue, the Jade receptacle of Nurhachi's remains and the Cross of Coronado beat the Sankara stones in terms of visual interest and continuing effect. For the Indy5 macguffin, I think something like Excalibur. It's an object that may or may not have existed, has been lost in the mists of time and has mystical values and moralistic implications, like the other Macguffins, minus the Crystal skull of course. It would take Indy to England where wearing his jacket would make plenty of sense.

1. Ark of the Covenant

2. Holy Grail

3. Sankara stones

Was there another? Hmmh... No, it wasn't!

1. Ark. Creepiest of them all. Wrath of God = awesomeness.

2. Crystal Skull. In the creepy vein of the Ark, but with more "practical" powers. The added sci-fi origin adds to the sense of dread and unknown.

3. Holy Grail. Real-life historically speaking, one of the most iconic relics of them all. Power of immortality was a cool addition, too, though obviously it turned out to be pretty impractical. Overall, not the most compelling relic to pick for an Indy film, so it's at #3.

4. Sankara Stones. The least compelling relic by a longshot. And the most culturally arcane. In some ways I view the impoverished slave children to be the "real relic" in the movie, along the lines of Indy's father being the "real relic" in The Last Crusade.

The Ark is just brilliant- something not many people had heard of and scarily realised. Perfect.

The Crystal Skull might be a bit cheesy, but it is interesting as to where it comes from and makes the plot turn- I think it was a good idea. Nice and different but still Indy. Great to see Indy's confusion when he discovers it: 'what is it?!'.

The Holy Grail: well it's a really obvious choice, isn't it? Not quite obscure enough for me, but extremely well done in the film and nicely woven into the dad plot.

Sankara stones- they're not really the focus of the plot as much as in the other films which I do like, but they're still pretty odd. Not particularly interesting and even more annoyingly, Indy seems to believe in their power when his pre-Ark opening character had been shown to be more disposed to scepticism. He even chants at the end to make them glow! Indy as a religious figurehead? If anything like that had been in Crystal Skull I bet this place would have eaten itself.

Ark - Truly an icon of the series, love the mystery of whats inside and the hints of it's power.
Skull - The most actively used MacGuffin. Lots of mystery and I liked the magnetic power.
Grail - I liked the switch up, it was meant to be unimpressive.
Stones - The easiest MacGuffin to replicate in your own backyard. Their use, history and powers were a bit muddled.

WeAreGoingToDie said:

Stones - The easiest MacGuffin to replicate in your own backyard.

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.............

1. Ark of the Covenant
2. The Crystal Skull
3. The Holy Grail
4. The Sankara Stones

1. Ark of the Covenant. There's a reason it's a classic.
2. The Sankara Stones. They were pretty much the opposite of the Ark, which - for a sequel to a groundbreaking original - is a great idea.
3. The Holy Grail. The concept of immortality is pretty much awesome.
4. The Crystal Skull. The worst of the Indy MacGuffins. Had promise but was ruined by an alien plotline.

And my dream number 5?

THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES
A mysterious island filled with nymphs that guard a garden of peaches that grant immortality. The private garden of Hera, it was said to be guarded by a giant dragon (perhaps not for an Indy film).