Hostage for Macguffin/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The villain has captured one of the good guys, and demands that the other heroes give him the MacGuffin in exchange for their friend.

  • Straight: Alice is captured by the Big Bad, but the Big Bad tells Bob that he is willing to let her go if Bob just gives him the MacGuffin.
  • Exaggerated: The Big Bad has captured all the heroes except Bob, and is willing to let them go if Bob gives him the multiple plot coupons.
    • The Big Bad threatens to crash an asteroid into Earth if he doesn't hand over the MacGuffin, so everyone on the planet, including him, is a hostage.
  • Justified: The Hero is too good hearted to be bribed or blackmailed, but he would do anything to protect his friends.
  • Inverted: The Big Bad has obtained the MacGuffin, but is willing to give it to the heroes in exchange for Alice.
  • Subverted: The Big Bad is about to capture Alice so he can get Bob to give him the MacGuffin in exchange for her safety, but Alice manages to get away...
  • Double Subverted: ... So he captures Carol who just conveniently showed up instead.
  • Parodied: The villain is willing to trade a jar favorite strawberry jam, from a company called MacGuffin Jams, for the hostage.
  • Deconstructed: Bob hands his MacGuffin — a precious family heirloom passed down through generations — to the Big Bad in exchange for Alice. This causes many of his family members to be mad, and Bob desperately argues that a life is worth more than a heirloom and that heritage is only an imagined object. Bob is slowly rejected by his family members, who believe that their heritage and heirloom is important and defines what they are.
  • Reconstructed: Bob tries to take back the heirloom he gave to the Big Bad.
  • Zig Zagged: The Big Bad can't decide whether he wants cash or the MacGuffin for the hostage. They keep sending Bob mixed messages, some demanding cash, others demanding the MacGuffin. They finally settle on the MacGuffin, but now is choosing what MacGuffin they want. During this time, Alice escapes, but the Big Bad hunts down Alice and captures her again.
  • Averted: The villain has captured a hostage, but keeps them around only for power in negotiations, never opting to trade the hostage for an object they want.
  • Enforced: "Let's establish how selfless our hero really is."
  • Lampshaded: "Let me guess, I have to give you the item if I want her back safely, right?"
  • Invoked: Bob and the Big Bad are both trying to find the MacGuffin, so the villain captures Alice and keeps her hostage so he will have a back-up plan just in case Bob happens to find the MacGuffin first.
  • Defied: Realising what the Big Bad is about to do, Alice breaks free on her own before the Big Bad can make his demands for the MacGuffin.
  • Discussed: "Why does he want my family heirloom anyway? Why can't he just let Alice go?"
  • Conversed: "You know, if Sir Evul really wanted to get rich in All the Tropers: The Movie, he could just have demanded money, instead of the MacGuffin."

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