History Main / FakinMacGuffin

* Hilariously {{inverted}} in Season 1 of ''Warehouse13''. [=MacPherson=] enlisted a brainwashed Leena to take Harriet Tubman's thimble and an ear-splitting goblet from the Warehouse's shelves; he left behind an ordinary thimble and a plastic sippy-cup. It worked.

* The climax of ''Film/TwentyOne'' has the professor take the bag of chips the team has just won while they are fleeing the casino. After he has apparently abandoned the other team members, he discovers the bag contains only chocolate coins. ItGotWorse for him from there.

* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Elsa presents Donovan with one of the false Grails, leading to his demise.

* The fake Horcrux at the end of ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' is an example of this gone wrong: Regulus Black replaces one of the series' {{MacGuffin}}s with a fake in an attempt to bring down Voldemort, but instead it backfires on our heroes when they gather the {{MacGuffin}}s in their own attempt to bring down Voldemort.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Sonic tries to slip Eggman a fake Chaos Emerald, but Tails blows the secret.

A possible outcome of a HostageForMacGuffin situation: The hero reluctantly hands over the MacGuffin, the audience facepalms, the villain gloats... and then it turns out that the MacGuffin the hero handed over was actually a fake.

The effect of the fake MacGuffin will vary: sometimes it will destroy the villain when he tries to use it, or even bestow the mysterious boon he was trying to steal on the hero instead; sometimes, of course, it will merely do nothing at all.

Hopefully, the existence of a phony MacGuffin will have been set up in advance, and some effort will be expended to explain why the villain doesn't immediately notice it's a phony.

Not to be confused with MockGuffin, when it turns out in the end that the MacGuffin everybody has been chasing is a fake, and there is no "real" MacGuffin.

Generally not related to EggMacGuffin.

* ''DevilMayCry 2''. BigBad [[MadScientist Arius]] is after four artifacts known as Arcana so he can revive the Demon World's former king (Argosax the Chaos) and absorb his power. Although she puts up a valiant fight, Lucia is defeated and held hostage by Arius, and Dante (who has all of the Arcana in his possession) comes to her rescue; [[HostageForMacGuffin Arius asks for the items in exchange for Lucia]]. [[ZigZaggedTrope Things get wonky from here]]: Dante is quick to hand over the Arcana, but then [[CurbstompBattle hands Arius his ass]]. Arius then manages to escape with the Arcana by playing up Lucia's [[DistressBall temporary damsel in distress status]] as he blows up his stronghold. When Arius initiates the resurrection ceremony, he fails. Dante then coolly walks onto the scene and [[BatmanGambit reveals that he]] [[UnwittingPawn played Arius like a chump]] by switching the Arcana Medaglia with his own lucky coin, playing this trope straight again.
* ''{{Drakensang}}'': After recovering the Dragon's Eye from Castle Grimtooth, the party is confronted by the BigBad Malgorra and her servants, who are holding hostage the young son of Traldar, the owner of the castle. In order to save him, you must hand over the Eye to Malgorra, but is later revealed that it was a fake all along and that Traldar kept the real one on him.

* In the first of the ''{{Thief}}'' games, which are entirely based around stealth, this is how you defeat the final boss. As he is preparing his ritual, you sneak into his altar room and swap out The Eye for a fake eye to cause his ritual to blow up in his face instead of summoning chaos to the world.

* In ''TheCastleOfCagliostro'', Lupin makes a copy of the ring with a microtransponder inside, so as to trick and then taunt the Count.

* ''HudsonHawk'': Eddie is forced to put together the pieces of the critical element of LeonardoDaVinci's gold-making machine (which the villains have been pursuing throughout the movie). However, he leaves out one crucial part, which eventually causes the machine to malfunction and explode.
* In ''TheScore'', Nick Wells (anticipating a double-cross) swaps out the sceptre he was hired to steal for they axle the used as stand-in during their trial runs, meaning that Teller ends up when nothing when he does betray him.

* Played with in the first ''Film/MissionImpossible'' movie: The protagonist hands a disk over, then convinces his rival that it was a fake so he throws it away, then picks it up from the trash, revealing that it was real after all.
* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Elsa presents Donovan with one of the false Grails, leading to his demise.
* ''{{Film/Ronin}}'' has the protagonists attempting to steal a silver briefcase. The first time they try to steal it, it turns out to be a decoy with a bomb inside.

* ''Explorers of {{Gor}}''. Long story short(er), Shaba the Cartographer has an {{Invisibility}} ring captured from the Kurii which he was supposed to deliver to the Priest-Kings, but he (seemingly) turned traitor and was going to deliver an exploding ring instead & return the real ring back to the Kurii. Except he kept the invisibility ring for himself to explore [[DarkestAfrica Darkest Gor]]. When both the Priest-King representative and the Kurii find him after his voyage of discovery they fight, and the Kurii capture the ring. But it turns out the get the wrong ring. EarthShatteringKaboom ensues.

* In the ''Series/BloodTies'' episode "Norman", the heroes Vicki and Henry are forced to give a magic dagger to the demonic villain Norman when he kidnaps Vicki's secretary and holds her hostage. Norman needed the dagger to complete a spell to release the uber demon Asteroth into the world. However, unknown to the audience, Vicki and Henry had first taken the dagger to a priest to have it blessed before they gave it to Norman, so that when he used it, his spell of summoning failed and he was sucked back down to Hell.
* ''BurnNotice'': Michael doesn't trust a thief he's forced to work with, because she's framing him for a murder, so he gives her a canister full of fake nerve gas (tear gas AndSomeOtherStuff), and takes the real stuff, keeping her under the illusion that it's fake.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Sonic tries to slip Eggman a fake Chaos Emerald, but Tails blows the secret.

* In the first of the ''{{Thief}}'' games, which are entirely based around stealth, this is how you defeat the final boss. As he is preparing his ritual, you sneak into his altar room and swap out The Eye for a fake eye to cause his ritual to blow up in his face instead of summoning chaos to the world.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', the Crystal Star in Poshley Heights is displayed in plain sight and is the only one like that. Beldam and her sisters, who had spent the previous three days trailing Mario, nabs it before Mario could get to it. It turns out this one is a fake; Inspector Pennington, who runs the display, actually let them take it to get them away from there, then leads Mario to the real one.
* In ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'', the heroes create a false Beanstar to give to Fawful and Cackletta... but they don't fall for it, instead discarding the fake and taking the real one by force.

* ''BuckGodot: [=PSmIth=]'': After Buck is obliged to hand over the MacGuffin he was hired to guard, he reveals that he had a copy made and it was the copy he handed over. Or did he hand over the real one, and ''this'' is the copy...?

* In ''{{Sonic Adventure|Series}} 2'', Sonic tries to slip Eggman a fake Chaos Emerald, but Tails blows the secret.

* In ''IndianaJones and the Last Crusade'', Elsa presents Donovan with one of the false Grails, leading to his demise.

* ''{{Ronin}}'' has the protagonists attempting to steal a silver briefcase. The first time they try to steal it, it turns out to be a decoy with a bomb inside.

* In one of ''TheThreeInvestigators'' books the bad guy wants a journal that the boys have which was written in the mid 1800s, with potential clues to a BuriedTreasure. Jupiter hands it over, then after the bad guy leaves he reveals that he only gave up the oilskin cover of the journal, having taken the pages out first.

* In the climax of ''ShortCircuit'', Johnny 5 makes a copy of ''himself'' to keep from getting destroyed by the army.

* In the ''AmericanDad'' episode "Black Mystery Month", Steve does this with a jar of peanut butter. Stan tried to do it, too, but failed, because he thought they would switch themselves via magic.

* GrandmasterOfTheft sees this happen in the second episode with a villain example. Narcissa rigged her challenge by not bringing the real Undine's Tear in the first place just in case she lost.

** Cassidy goes on to use said fake to her advantage to OutGambit Narcissa back with her own weapon. However, the second time she tries this trick with Deus, [[DangerouslyGenreSaavy he's more than aware she was going to do it and shots the fake before requesting the real one.]]

* GrandasterOfTheft sees this happen in the second episode with a villain example. Narcissa rigged her challenge by not bringing the real Undine's Tear in the first place just in case she lost.

* GrandasterOfTheft sees this happen in the second episode alone. Narcissa rigged her challenge by not bringing the real Undine's Tear in the first place just in case she lost.

Not to be confused with GoldenHelmetOfMambrino, when it turns out in the end that the MacGuffin everybody has been chasing is a fake, and there is no "real" MacGuffin.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E5TheKeysOfMarinus The Keys of Marinus]]", the Doctor and his companions find a fake Key along with the five real ones. When the villain tries to get the Keys off them at the end of the story, they give him four real Keys and the fake, and he gets blown up when he tries to use them.
** Also used in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]", where the Doctor steals the power source of the Daleks' DoomsdayDevice. By the time they catch him, he's made a fake to offer them in exchange for his freedom.