TheBoost said:

xhonzi said:

I think it applies here. As FF said, Star Wars (1977) is decidely NOT about the DS plans. The plot may center around the plans, but the story doesn't. The story is about the characters, the galaxy, good vs evil, Jedi Knights and lightsabres, etc...

The plot to Star Wars is about the DS plans. From scene 1 it is the #1 thing the drives the plot.

It is why the princess is captured. It is how the DS is destroyed in the last scene. If the DS plans weren't there, the plot wouldn't work at all. Regardless of the elements that make it a great movie (good/evil, lightsabers, etc) the PLOT is driven by the DS plans. They are fundamental to the plot structure on all levels.

The MacGuffin DOESN'T drive the plot. The money in psycho, the 39 Steps, the Maltese Falcon (which never acually appears in the movie), the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the microfilm in every spy movie made in the 1960s; the identity of these objects don't matter to the plot, the only thing that matters is that the characters want them.

The DS plans, the Ark, the Holy Grail are all pivotal to the plot, and couldn't be replaced with anything else.

I understand- but I don't think the MacGuffin has to be unpivotal to be a MacGuffin. I think the Maltese Falcon drives the plot unseen just as well as the DS plans do. You don't "see" the DS plans until the very end of the movie.