Genre is a classification of texts based on the cathartic (emotional) response the author wants the audience to feel. There are three genres focused on offering its audience escapism (comedy, fantasy, and science fiction); three offering sentimental connection (tragedy, romance, and slice of life); three offering action-oriented thrills (war, western, and adventure); and three offering cerebral thrills of suspense (horror, mystery, and crime). These genres are defined by their use of tropes, which are consistently used literary devices like characters, plot events, settings, and motifs—these tropes become so integrated into their genres that they can often become cliches. Every genre can also blend with other genres (meaning the text has both sets of tropes) and has derivative subgenres with additional specific tropes. These twelve genres encompass both fictional and nonfictional texts as well as every kind of text structure.
ADVENTURE: Looking for Treasure and Trouble
Adventure is a genre of artistic expression that revolves around novaturient desire—the urge to go far away and discover something new. Adventures appeal to an audience's feelings of fascination, which is a combination of . The audience feels catharsis (the release of built-up emotions) when the adventurer succeeds because it reminds them that they too can do incredible and special things in their own lives.
Along with War and Western, Adventure is one of the three genres of action. Action describes plots and situations that raise an audience's adrenaline due to their high stakes, fast pace, and seemingly insurmountable odds. Action stories have conflicts dependent on solving problems with a mix of brains and brawn—physical prowess, strategic thinking, and expertise with weaponry make a good action hero. While action can be thrilling, it doesn't employ suspense in the same way as the genres of suspense, and while action stories can offer an escape from the everyday world, action films only escape real-world situations if blended with one of the genres of escape.¹
Adventure doesn't just blend well with its fellow Action genres. After Romance (which appears as a subplot in almost all stories), Adventure appears the most as a thread blended into other genres. Any story where a character leaves home can become an adventure story. Adventures happen all the time with Comedy, Fantasy, and Science Fiction because escapism often means a character literally escapes to somewhere else. Romances often use an adventure to get two opposite characters into forced proximity so they can fall in love, and since Horror requires fear of the unknown, it is a natural partner for adventures into unknown lands.
Adventures are defined by eight tropes. A SEEKER OF FORTUNE discovers the existence of a long-lost MACGUFFIN that would change their lives forever. However, the macguffin is being held in the untamed wilderness of the TERRA INCOGNITA and protected by guardians. However, the seeker knows where to go because they have THE SKELETON KEY that can grant them access. On their journey to get the macguffin, the seeker is assisted by FELLOW TRAVELERS and discovers that they are not alone on their quest, as there are COMPETITORS that want the macguffin for their own selfish reasons. These competitors present a ticking clock to get the macguffin, and a chase to reach it first ensues. The competitors gain the upper hand when the seeker of fortune falls into THE DIRE TRAP. However, it doesn't matter if the competitors do reach the macguffin first because their selfishness prevents them from obtaining it from the guardians of the macguffin; however, the seeker of fortune knows that they can only win the macguffin if they TRADE SOMETHING PRICELESS to them for it. They make this sacrifice to win the treasure they sought, and this indeed changes their entire life.
If this sounds like the classic story arc of the Myth, that's not a coincidence: myths were some of the earliest adventure stories. However, myths require archetypes, heroes, and some sort of moral lesson—adventures do not. In myth, heroes are The Chosen One asked to answer the Call to Journey Onward so they can fix their Broken Society for the good of all—in adventure, the seeker of fortune has a personal reason why they are motivated. While many myths are adventures, the genre of Adventure includes lots of different stories that don't fit the mythic cycle.
Along with War and Western, Adventure is one of the three genres of action. Action describes plots and situations that raise an audience's adrenaline due to their high stakes, fast pace, and seemingly insurmountable odds. Action stories have conflicts dependent on solving problems with a mix of brains and brawn—physical prowess, strategic thinking, and expertise with weaponry make a good action hero. While action can be thrilling, it doesn't employ suspense in the same way as the genres of suspense, and while action stories can offer an escape from the everyday world, action films only escape real-world situations if blended with one of the genres of escape.¹
Adventure doesn't just blend well with its fellow Action genres. After Romance (which appears as a subplot in almost all stories), Adventure appears the most as a thread blended into other genres. Any story where a character leaves home can become an adventure story. Adventures happen all the time with Comedy, Fantasy, and Science Fiction because escapism often means a character literally escapes to somewhere else. Romances often use an adventure to get two opposite characters into forced proximity so they can fall in love, and since Horror requires fear of the unknown, it is a natural partner for adventures into unknown lands.
Adventures are defined by eight tropes. A SEEKER OF FORTUNE discovers the existence of a long-lost MACGUFFIN that would change their lives forever. However, the macguffin is being held in the untamed wilderness of the TERRA INCOGNITA and protected by guardians. However, the seeker knows where to go because they have THE SKELETON KEY that can grant them access. On their journey to get the macguffin, the seeker is assisted by FELLOW TRAVELERS and discovers that they are not alone on their quest, as there are COMPETITORS that want the macguffin for their own selfish reasons. These competitors present a ticking clock to get the macguffin, and a chase to reach it first ensues. The competitors gain the upper hand when the seeker of fortune falls into THE DIRE TRAP. However, it doesn't matter if the competitors do reach the macguffin first because their selfishness prevents them from obtaining it from the guardians of the macguffin; however, the seeker of fortune knows that they can only win the macguffin if they TRADE SOMETHING PRICELESS to them for it. They make this sacrifice to win the treasure they sought, and this indeed changes their entire life.
If this sounds like the classic story arc of the Myth, that's not a coincidence: myths were some of the earliest adventure stories. However, myths require archetypes, heroes, and some sort of moral lesson—adventures do not. In myth, heroes are The Chosen One asked to answer the Call to Journey Onward so they can fix their Broken Society for the good of all—in adventure, the seeker of fortune has a personal reason why they are motivated. While many myths are adventures, the genre of Adventure includes lots of different stories that don't fit the mythic cycle.
THE MACGUFFIN
The Heart of the Ocean necklace from Titanic (Disney/Fox)
The Maltese falcon from the film of the same name (Warner Bros.)
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The focal point of every adventure story is its macguffin. A macguffin is a goal, person, object, or idea that serves as a catalyst for the action in a story. The term was developed and popularized by director Alfred Hitchcock and his go-to screenwriter Angus MacPhail in the 1930s and 1940s, but the idea of the macguffin goes back to our earliest stories.² When Jason and the Argonauts sought the golden fleece, that was a macguffin. When the knights of the round table were sent by King Arthur to get the Holy Grail, that was a macguffin. The white whale that Captain Ahab sought to murder for eating his leg? Totally a macguffin.
The irony of the macguffin is that it is the crux of the story, yet the macguffin itself is not important. The macguffin could be anything that the seeker of it would find valuable and important. If there were no golden fleece, Jason would have been given some other impossible thing to find because King Pelias just really wanted the boy dead. If there were no Holy Grail, the knights would have looked for some other magical artifact that could heal their dying king. If Moby Dick hadn't chomped down on Ahab's appendage, the unhinged captain would have found another whale to hunt because that's his entire job. The macguffin only matters because the characters have decided that it matters. One of the best examples of this principle is the macguffin at the center of the film Pulp Fiction: a mysterious briefcase owned by gangster Marcellus Wallace that, whenever opened, glows with an ethereal golden light. The film intentionally never shows what is inside the briefcase, so it could be anything. Yet the audience doesn't need to know what it is—all they need to know is that whatever is inside is worth killing for. So is anything that characters want to find a macguffin? No—otherwise every character objective would be a macguffin. Think of it this way: every story in the Mystery genre is predicated by a sleuth trying to find information to solve a mystery, but the solution is not necessarily a macguffin. Take, for example, Knives Out: Detective Benoit Blanc has been hired to discover who killed crime novelist Harlan Thromby. Blanc and Thromby's nurse Marta Cabrera spend most of the film looking for clues, but none of these clues are macguffins. Plots only have one macguffin, but there isn't one object like a will or a video recording that would instantly solve the case for Blanc.³ Let's compare this to a mystery featuring one of the most famous macguffins in the genre: the Maltese falcon from the book and film of the same name. Detective Sam Spade is asked to find a man named Floyd Thursby, but before Spade can find him, Thursby is found dead, and Spade is accused of the murder. To clear his name, Spade needs to find who killed Thursby. Joe Cairo soon reveals to Spade why Thursby was killed—he was in possession of the Maltese falcon, a 16th-century relic that, under a coat of black enamel, is solid gold and jewel-encrusted. Spade starts hunting for the falcon along with all the secondary characters because if Spade can locate the falcon before anyone else, he'll be able to figure out who killed Thursby and framed him. Unlike the clues in Knives Out, the falcon is a macguffin that everyone is seeking out and can solve the crime in one fell swoop. The Maltese falcon brings up one final point about macguffins: macguffins need to be rare and irreplaceable. Cairo and his rival Kasper Gutman spend their fortunes and several years traveling around the world for the falcon. Yes, gold and gemstones make the statue valuable, but there are other valuable items in the world that would be easier to get. But Cairo and Gutman don't want the falcon just because it's valuable; they want the falcon because it is the Maltese falcon. The two men could have pursued any rare item—remember, the macguffin itself is not important—but they are after the Maltese falcon because no other object is as valuable to them. As Sam Spade puts bluntly, the falcon and all other macguffins are "the stuff that dreams are made of." |
THE SEEKER OF FORTUNE
Finn Mertens and Jake the Dog, the seekers of fortune in Adventure Time (Warner Bros.)
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Specifically, the macguffin is the stuff of the seeker of fortune's dreams. The seeker of fortune is an adventurer that loves the rare, loves the unique, and more than anything, loves the hunt for the rare and unique. Unlike Myth, where many a hero is reluctant to go on their journey, the seeker of fortune is enthusiastic about the adventure (even if, like Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, they have some misgivings about the situation). The seeker is, naturally, looking for the macguffin, but they often are also looking for something more, an intangible quality that is missing from their life that they need to complete themselves (and their character arc).
What the seeker of fortune is looking for on the outside is intrinsically tied to what the seeker is looking for on the inside. Thus, the type of macguffin in the plot defines the type of adventure the narrative will take—and the type of adventure that is undertaken defines the personality of the seeker of fortune. There are eight types of adventures, macguffins, and seekers one can find in an adventure story, which were outlined millennia ago in the works of ancient Greece. |
TYPE OF QUEST |
PURPOSE |
MACGUFFIN |
SEEKER |
thesiad |
to save one's self or one's society |
the panacea (a magical cure-all) |
traditional hero archetype |
argosy |
to prove one's self worth |
impossible-to-get prize |
chip-on-the-shoulder, arrogant, bold |
heracliad |
to redeem one's own reputation |
proof of their humility and change |
a pariah who's regretful, humble, or desperate |
orphiad |
to reach or rescue a distant loved one |
reunion with loved one (potential or established) |
sentimental, charming, worried (about their love) |
iliad |
to mete out revenge and retribution |
a broken enemy and any stolen property |
bitter, calculating, and relentless |
odyssey |
to return home |
one's own bed |
fish-out-of-water, unhappy, weary, homesick |
aeneid |
to relocate to a new home |
a welcoming community |
fish-out-of-water, curious, naive, ambivalent |
oedipiad |
to learn or experience something important |
lost, secret, or forbidden knowledge |
curious, intellegent, probably an archeologist |
Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly, a seeker who can only save her house and her siblings by bringing in her own father on bounty in the modern thesiad Winter's Bone (Roadside Attractions)
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THESEUS AND THESIADSThe type of plot most commonly associated with quests is the thesiad, where a protagonist has to journey to get or destroy a macguffin that will save their own life or their broken society. This type of quest is named for Theseus, the illegitimate heir of King Aegeus of Athens. After surrendering control of Athens to King Minos of Crete, King Aegeus had to send the seven strongest men and seven most beautiful women of the city to be devoured by Minos' "son" the Minotaur. To spare the city from this fate, Theseus volunteered to be one of the seven men sacrificed; subsequently, he freed Athens from Minos' control by slaying the Minotaur and seducing his daughter Ariadne. While other adventures have some similarities to Myth, thesiads follow the myth cycle structure beat for beat, and their seekers are archetypal heroes. Other thesiads include The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Wonder Woman, Winter's Bone, and the Arthurian Grail quests.
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In Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Isabel Merced portrays Dora Marquez, a seeker who is forced to embark on an argosy to discover the lost Inca city of Parapata so she can save her friends and parents. (Paramount)
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JASON AND ARGOSIESNamed for the voyages of Jason and his Argonauts, the protagonist in an argosy seeks a macguffin that will win them respect and prove their worth to others. In the titular example, King Pelias won't acknowledge that Jason is the rightful heir to the throne of Iolcos unless he proves he's worthy to be king by getting the golden fleece. Unlike Theseus, Jason doesn't do this for the good of his kingdom or to save his own life—he does it to show off and earn respect. Seekers in argosies do desire payment for their troubles, but they are primarily seeking treasure to establish or maintain a reputation for being the best and baddest. As a result, these seekers are arrogant, can be unlikable, and tend to have unhappy endings (AKA Medea). Other argosies include Treasure Island; The Hobbit; Rocky; The Goonies; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Ready Player One; Into Thin Air; and every episode of DuckTales, Dora the Explorer, and Pokémon.
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Billy Crystal as Mitch Robbins, a seeker who discovers his wife and son are embarrassed by him, so he goes on a cattle drive out west to make them proud of him again in City Slickers. (Sony/Columbia)
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HERACLES AND HERACLIADSNamed for the demigod Heracles (or Hercules if all you know about mythology comes from cartoons), a heracliad tells the story of a seeker who needs to win a macguffin to restore their own damaged reputation. In the original tale, Heracles raged out one day and murdered his wife Megara and their children (which is probably why the 1996 Disney cartoon didn't get a sequel).⁴ The oracle at Delphi told Heracles that this wrongdoing would prevent him from achieving true godhood and immortality, so to purify himself, Heracles serves his cousin King Eurystheus for twelve years, during which he performs twelve labors to earn the macguffin of redemption. This period of servitude taught a regretful Heracles humility, patience, and selflessness, all heroic qualities he was missing. Like Heracles, the seeker of redemption is typically brash and wild but also remorseful and desires self-improvement (though not all seekers achieve it). Typically, they must prove they have changed for the better to family or a lover. Modern heracliads include The Call of the Wild, The Philadelphia Story, Wild, City Slickers, Legally Blonde, Mallrats, and the very end of Casablanca.⁵
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In Taken, Liam Neeson portrays Bryan Mills, a seeker on an orphiad to save his daughter Kim from sex traffickers. (EuropaCorp)
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ORPHEUS AND ORPHIADSAn orphiad follows a protagonist on a journey to find a loved one. Here, the macguffin is usually a mate but could be another loved one, like in Taken or Finding Nemo. Occasionally, the protagonist isn't even questing to find their loved one but are sent to find someone else's love (Saving Private Ryan, Shrek). Note that the seeker isn't on a journey to find just anyone to love but is on a mission to connect with a current acquaintance but not-yet mate (Serendipity, Eurotrip) or their committed mate who has been separated from them by circumstance ("Cupid and Psyche," Y: The Last Man). The latter example is where this type of quest gets its name: on the afternoon of his wedding, Orpheus finds his new wife Eurydice dead from a snakebite, so he ventures down to the underworld to get her back. Like in the Orpheus myth, the seeker in an orphiad is sensitive (sometimes under a tough outer facade), caring, and constantly concerned about making it to their loved one in time (which can sometimes appear as whining or cowardice).
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Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, a seeker who amasses an army to avenge the death of his father in the modern iliad Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros.)
A less obvious iliad is Jaws: Roy Scheider portrays Chief Martin Brody, who seeks to find and kill a shark that has eaten three locals on the island of Amity, New York (Universal)
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MENELAUS, ACHILLES, AND ILIADSAn iliad is a journey to defeat an enemy and get revenge. The original iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, which saw King Menelaus bring an army of Greeks to Troy after the Trojans stole his wife Helen. While this may sound like an orphiad (a king goes after his kidnapped queen), Menelaus isn't waging a war because he loves Helen—he wants to punish the Trojans for thinking they can just steal something of his.⁶ This is obvious when the story reaches its end: after Menelaus gets Helen back, the Greeks still burn Troy and kill every male in the city.⁷
Those who have read Homer's Iliad may note that Menelaus isn't really the main character of that epic—Achilles is. While Achilles starts the story as a seeker of glory, he also becomes a seeker of revenge by the story's end (because, as we said, the macguffin can switch). Like other Greeks, Achilles takes Briseis, the daughter of a slain Trojan warrior, as his slave, which was seen by the Greeks as a humiliation to their enemy. When Agamemnon subsequently takes Briseis from Achilles to punish Achilles for inserting himself in an argument Agamemnon was having, Achilles takes revenge on Agamemnon by refusing to fight and asking the gods to let the Trojans win the war. However, Achilles rejoins the battle fully possessed by a thirst for vengeance after the Trojans kill his lover Patroclus. Achilles slaughters so many Trojans that the river god starts to choke from all the blood, and he doesn't just kill the Trojan prince Hector but mutilates his body and refuses to return it to Hector's grieving family. Like Menelaus and Achilles, the protagonist of an iliad is vigilant, angry, and relentless in their pursuit of their retribution. These protagonists can also be manipulative, even to their allies: Menelaus invoked the Oath of Tyndareus to bully all the other Greek kings to fight the Trojans with him. An iliad can be as small as a war against one person or as large as the Trojan War. Other iliads where the journey centers on revenge and retribution include Dune, The Count of Monte Cristo, Moby Dick, Jaws, and True Grit. |
In The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland portrays Dorothy Gale, a seeker on an odyssey home after a tornado strands her in the marvelous land of Oz. (Warner Bros.)
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ODYSSEUS AND ODYSSEYSNamed for the journey of Odysseus back to Ithaca after the Trojan War, an odyssey is a journey where, instead of leaving home to journey to a faraway place, the seeker wants to journey from a faraway place back home. Yet the seeker is not stuck somewhere longing for their warm bed and family—they are actively doing everything they can to get home, but it's not going well. The seeker's trip keeps getting waylaid by different disasters, emergencies, and side quests, much to the protagonist's chagrin. The macguffin here is their home, and the story ends shortly after they return (the "back in town after years away and now grappling with how everything has changed" story isn't an odyssey). The purpose of an odyssey is to teach the seeker humility and that adventure isn't ultimately as satisfying as a quiet, normal life, so the seeker is usually depicted as frustrated, closed-minded, and unrefined. Obvious inclusions in this subgenre are adaptations of The Odyssey (Ulysses, As I Lay Dying, O Brother Where Art Thou?), but other popular odyssey stories include The Wizard of Oz, Cold Mountain, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.
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Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, a seeker who desires a new home for herself and five other women but finds only barren desert in the modern aeneid Mad Max: Fury Road (Warner Bros.)
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AENEAS AND AENEIDSUnlike Odysseus, who had an island kingdom and a wife to return home to after the Trojan War, Trojan prince Aeneas was on his own—his city was burned, and he would be killed on sight if he returned to Troy. His macguffin, as famously recounted by Virgil, was a new place to live. During the journey of an aeneid, the protagonist will find several places where they could settle but ultimately move on from to find their ideal home. Other aeneids where the protagonist must flee their home to survive include Watership Down, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Grapes of Wrath, and Rango. Other aeneids see the protagonist motivated to relocate because their "home" doesn't feel like home and they want to live somewhere where they can be accepted for who they are (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, On the Road, Into the Wild).
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In 1968's Planet of the Apes, Charleton Heston portrays astronaut George Taylor, a seeker of knowledge whose mission takes him on an oedipiad to a planet ruled by apes, a place where every answer Taylor finds just generates more questions. (Disney/Fox)
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OEDIPUS AND OEDIPIADSLastly, some quests are for self-satisfaction. The seeker in an oedipiad desires to know or understand something, and since no one nearby has the answer, they must journey to a hard-to-reach place to get their hard-to-find answer. Sometimes, this could be scientific or historical knowledge (which accounts for the number of archeologists that populate these stories). Other times, the knowledge is personal to the seeker, as happens in the story of Oedipus. To rid his kingdom of a plague, Oedipus needed to exile the murderer of the former king Laius, but Oedipus has no idea who killed Laius, so he goes on a journey to find the answer (and later really, really wishes he hadn't).⁸ Other oedipiads focused on a search for knowledge, experience, and understanding are Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Bourne Identity, Detective Pikachu, the original Planet of the Apes, and Eat, Pray, Love.
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TERRA INCOGNITA
Isla Nubar, the tropical terra incognita of Jurassic Park. (Universal)
The animated lagoon of the Isle of Naboombu, the terra incognita of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. (Disney)
The Waterfall City in the Summerlands, one location in the terra incognita of the afterlife found in What Dreams May Come. (PolyGram)
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While there are a variety of macguffins for a variety of adventure plots, one thing every macguffin has in common is that it is hard to get—otherwise, someone else would already have it and there would be no glory in getting it. The difficulty in getting the macguffin doesn't come down to the macguffin itself; instead, it's a result of the terra incognita.
Terra incognita comes from the Latin for "unknown land" and is literally just that: a place that the seeker (if not all mankind) has no knowledge about. The quintessential terra incognita of the adventure story is the untamed wilderness: untouched jungles, endless deserts, uncharted islands, the depths of the ocean, and other middles of countless nowheres. When blending with other genres, the terra incognita can even include other planets, alternate dimensions, the land of the dead, or the imaginary realms of the mind. The macguffin is almost always somewhere in the terra incognita. Often it is considered lost in the wilderness, but sometimes everyone knows right where the macguffin is—it's just that no one wants to get it. For example, when Jason is sent to get the golden fleece, everyone knows it's located in Colchis, but no one's taken it before Jason because it's far away. And is guarded by a dragon that never sleeps. And comes from man-eating sheep with deadly venom. And is in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war known to violently punish those that trespass on his sacred grounds. One notable exception to this rule is odysseys. The macguffin is one's own home, which is something the seeker hopefully finds familiar. However, the seeker of home must pass through the terra incognita and its dangers to reach home. Similarly, aeneids see the seeker venture into the terra incognita to get to a known or unknown destination that is often outside of the terra incognita. The terra incognita could also the known world twisted into something completely new. Historian Ben Chase in National Treasure has previously been to the National Archives, Independence Hall, and the Old North Church, but these places take on a new dimension when he discovers that they are part of a secret treasure hunt arranged by the founding fathers. As Alan, Sarah, Judy, and Peter continue to play Jumanji, their sleepy town of Brantford, New Hampshire starts taking on characteristic of an African jungle. Whether completely unknown or mapped but untraveled, the terra incognita is a dangerous place. Like in the Jason myth, the macguffin is often protected by guardians of some kind, whether they be soldiers, monsters, magic curses, hard-to-solve puzzles, or booby traps (we'll get to those later). The guardians may have been intentionally placed in the terra incognita to guard the macguffin, or the macguffin was placed in the terra incognita because it's such a naturally dangerous and deadly place. Sometimes, the guardians aren't surrounding the macguffin itself but are guarding the passage to the macguffin (like Scylla and Charybdis in The Odyssey). |
THE SKELETON KEY
Sometimes the skeleton key is also a map, like the intricate tattoo on Michael Scofield that hides the schematics of Fox River Penitentiary, allowing him and his brother to make their titular Prison Break. (Disney/Fox)
Sometimes the skeleton key is also a vehicle, like the titular game in Jumanji. Here, Bonnie Hunt as Sara Whittle, Kirsten Dunst as Judy Shepherd, and Bradley Pierce as Peter Shepherd must play the game to get to the next stop in their adventure. (Sony)
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So how exactly can the seeker of knowledge find the macguffin if it's in an unknown land? How will they get there? And how will they make it past the guardians? The seeker needs three things to make their journey a success: a map, a vehicle, and a skeleton key. Or, in some cases, just a skeleton key.
A skeleton key in real life is a key that can unlock any door. In literature, the skeleton key is any device that "unlocks" an otherwise impossible obstacle for the protagonist. In the story of Ali Baba, the password "open sesame" is the skeleton key that unlocks his access to the hideout of the forty thieves. In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones uses his father’s diary as a skeleton key to "unlock" access to the Holy Grail. In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the skeleton key is the wardrobe that creates the passage into Narnia. Some skeleton keys are also literally keys, as seen in Coraline, Ready Player One, and Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning.⁹ Moreover, the skeleton key can also be a map. In The Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones realizes that the jeweled top of the Staff of Ra is a map that reveals where the well of souls is. In Prison Break, Michael Scofield's tattoos are a skeleton key with access codes as well as a map of the prison. The skeleton key can also be a vehicle as well: in The Wizard of Oz, the silver slippers are a skeleton key that instantly transports Dorothy Gale back to Kansas.¹⁰ When Tom Taylor of The Unwritten reads a book, his compass tattoo allows him to transport himself into the world of the text. Whether it functions as a key, a map, a vehicle, or all three, the most important feature of the skeleton key is, like the macguffin, that there is only one. This gives the seeker an advantage that no one else has and the ability to succeed where others have failed. Harry Potter's Marauder's Map is valuable because it's the only one, which means he can always know where others are in Hogwarts, but no one else has the power to always know where he is. In Jumanji, not only is there only one Jumanji game but also only four players who can play—this complex skeleton key only allows four people to turn it in a specific order so they can unlock the next stage of the adventure. This brings up another defining principle of the skeleton key: like other keys, it can be lost, stolen, bent, or broken. While the seeker has personal qualities and knowledge that help them win the macguffin, their key to success isn't an inseparable part of them.¹¹ They can and do screw up, and losing or being unable to figure out how to use the skeleton key is a common plot complication in adventure stories. |
COMPETITORS
Milton Berle as J. Russell Finch and Terry-Thomas as J. Algernon Hawthorne feature as two of over a dozen rival competitors racing to a park in Santa Rosita to find a $350,000 fortune (around $3.5m today) in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. (Amazon/MGM)
Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli hold Clark "Mouth" Devereaux (Corey Feldman) at knifepoint; the Fratellis are the competitors to the kids seeking One-Eyed Willy's treasure in The Goonies (Warner Bros.)
Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy acts as a personal competitor to Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter in The Prisoner of Azkaban as well as the entire series. (Warner Bros.)
Perhaps the least obvious competitor is the character competing with the macguffin for the seeker's attention, like Judy Greer as Mrs. Garrety in The Long Walk. (Lionsgate)
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But who would want to steal the seeker's skeleton key? As explored earlier, the macguffin is one-of-a-kind, incredibly valuable, and highly desired. This means that the seeker isn't the only one who wants the macguffin and will have to face competitors. There are three types of competitors in an adventure story: those who want the macguffin for themselves, those who want the macguffin to stay hidden, and those who don't care about the macguffin but do care about the seeker and, due to a personal vendetta, want them to fail.
COMPETORS AS RIVAL SEEKERSThese are the most straightforward competitors: they want to get to the macguffin before the seeker so they get the fame, fortune, and whatnot. These competitors are usually found in thesiads, argosies, and oedipiads, and the entire story becomes akin to a race. Examples of this type of competitor include Commander Rourke in Atlantis: The Lost Empire; Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?; Augustus, Veruca, Violet, and Mike in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; and all the various dopes racing toward the hidden treasure in Santa Rosita State Park in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
COMPETITORS PRESERVING THE STATUS QUOThese competitors try to stymie the seeker's quest for the macguffin not because they want it for themselves but because they don't want it to leave the terra incognita. These adversaries represent the status quo in society, and the actions of the seeker bringing the world the long-lost macguffin represent a threat to their business or personal interests. They'd prefer the macguffin stay lost, or, if all else fails, they will take the macguffin and destroy it or lock it in their own vault to keep it under wraps.
Examples of these kinds of antagonists include the villainous Neighborhood Watch Alliance in Hot Fuzz, a secret cabal that doesn't want Sergeant Angel exposing their secret control of Sandford; Hank MacLean in Fallout, who wants to destroy the cold fusion generator to keep the vault-dwellers from returning to the surface; and Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, who kills Rick Flag, Jr., to stop the exposure of the US government's inhumane experimentation in Corto Maltese. Sometimes, this can even be the seeker's motivation: Indiana Jones wants to find the Ark of the Covenant specifically so the Nazis cannot use its power, and the Fellowship seeks to destroy the One Ring so mega-baddie Sauron can't get to it. COMPETITORS WITH PERSONAL GRIEVANCESFinally, there are competitors that don't care about the macguffin at all, but boy, they care a lot about the seeker. Often, they harbor vendettas against the seeker and don't want to see them successful in any way, and keeping the seeker from getting the macguffin fulfills that goal—this is an offended Poseidon causing Odysseus to take twenty years to make a two-week voyage and Draco Malfoy doing pretty much anything in the Harry Potter heptalogy. However, these competitors can also love the seeker, so much so that they don't want them to enter the terra incognita. They fear the seeker might be hurt, or worse, the growth the seeker may experience because of their journey may mean that they want to leave them behind. The second type of antagonist comes in the form of insecure lovers and nervous parents, like the forlorn Mrs. Garrity in The Long Walk, Linda Krakauer in Into Thin Air, and the clingy David in Eat, Pray, Love. Instead of competing directly in the case for the macguffin, they compete against the seeker's desire for the macguffin through guilt and emotional manipulation. Take note that competitors are not the same as guardians. Guardians are natives to the terra incognita meant to protect the macguffin from any outside meddling. Like the seeker, competitors are not native to the terra incognita and, should they follow the seeker into the unknown land, will also face the guardians. While both act as story antagonists, they are not on the same team.
Competitors for the macguffin turn a journey into either a race (who gets there first and in time) or a chase (the seeker must be caught before they reach the macguffin). Both introduce a ticking clock to the story, which is a plot device that introduces a limited window of time for the protagonist to achieve their goals to heighten the stakes and tension of a story.¹² Phileas Fogg has only 80 days to circumnavigate the globe to win his bet. Furiosa must get Immortan Joe's brides to safety before the War Boys catch them. Jim Hawkins and the loyal crew must get to the buried treasure before Long John Silver and the mutineers do. |
FELLOW TRAVELERS
Michael Kelly as Jon Krakauer in the film Everest, which is an adaptation of Into Thin Air, a true account in which Krakauer acts as a witness narrator. (Universal)
Voiced by Beck Bennett, Launchpad McQuack is the perennial pilot for Scrooge McDuck and all his adventures in the cartoon series DuckTales. (Disney)
In Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Sophia Lillis plays Doric, a Tiefling druid who joins the party not to seek the macguffin but to protect her home, which she does by acting as a escort (specifically, a scout) for the group. (Paramount)
The three researchers party to the adventure of Kong: Skull Island—Corey Hawkins as geologist Houston Brooks, who is on the journey to prove his hollow earth theory; John Ortiz as cartographer Victor Nieves, who has come to map the island; and Jing Tian as biologist San Lin, who is on the journey to study Skull Island's megafauna. (Warner Bros.)
Richard Attenborough as Dr. John Hammond, the eccentric billionaire who "spared no expense" to bring Jurassic Park to life and sponsors Grant, Ellie, and Malcolm's trip to Isla Nubar to evaluate his dino park. (Universal)
David Tomlinson as Emelius Browne, a rascal who cons Miss Price into thinks he's a doctor before accompanying her and her wards on their adventures in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. (Disney)
Voiced by Patrick Warburton, Brock Samson is the bruiser of a bodyguard for Team Venture in the animated adventure series The Venture Bros. (Williams Street)
Jackie Chan as Jean Passepartout, Phileas Fogg's valet and companion in Around the World in 80 Days. Passepartout is a cynic who only accompanies Fogg because he is forced to and doubts Fogg will win his wager. (Disney/Walden Media)
Joel Kinnaman as Colonel Rick Flag, Jr., tries to bargain with turncoat Christopher "Peacemaker" Smith (John Cena) to allow him to share the truth about the US government's operations in Corto Maltese in The Suicide Squad. (Warner Bros.)
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Being a seeker isn't easy: they have to adventure to a strange place, outwit guardians, defeat competitors, and not lose their skeleton key. Fortunately, the seeker doesn't have to do it alone.
Like other Action genres, Adventure has an entire cast of side characters. Here, the deuteragonists are all fellow travelers who get drawn into the adventure by the seeker. All of these characters make up the seeker's crew and have the same objective: go into the terra incognita and get the macguffin. However, they are fellow travelers and not fellow seekers. Why? They don't actually care about the macguffin. This doesn't mean that these individuals don't want to reach the macguffin, but going after the macguffin is not their decision—they're just along for the ride. Often, the fellow traveler has been hired by the seeker of fortune or has been promised part of the treasure for their help. The fellow traveler isn't necessarily invested in the significance of the trip—they just want to get paid. Fellow travelers may also have personal reasons separate from the purpose of the trip for joining the journey: some may need an escape from problems in their lives, some may be in it for love (the seeker or other traveler is family or a romantic interest), and some may just be hitching a ride into the terra incognita for their own side quest.¹³ Unlike most side characters in other genres, adventure stories are just as likely to be told by a witness narrator, who is present in the plot action but is not the story protagonist. Moby Dick centers around Ishmael, but he's only on The Pequod because life on land was boring—the real seeker of fortune driving the plot is Ahab. Into Thin Air centers around Jon Krakauer, but he's only climbing Everest as an assignment by his magazine—the real seeker of fortune is expedition leader Rob Hall (plus all the clients on the team wanting the glory of summiting Everest). The protagonist is always the one driving the story—and that's the person chasing the macguffin in Adventure—but is often not the one recounting the adventure. Typical Adventure Side CharactersTHE PILOTThe first step of a journey starts with figuring out how to get to the destination. While the seeker can occasionally hop in their car and manage the trip themselves, they often need to charter a boat, a plane, or both to make it into the heart of the unknown. These modes of transport come with a pilot who has specialized knowledge to drive the vehicle. A common plot complication in Adventure is the injury or death of the pilot, which can strand the team far from help in the middle of the terra incognita.
THE ESCORTThe seeker almost always has some sort of map to where the team must go, but that doesn't mean they can make the connection between lines on the map and the true scale and danger of their surroundings. Thus, they find an escort. This is distinct from a pilot because the pilot has to get everyone to the destination, but the escort tells the pilot which path to take. Some experts are navigators who, with a compass and astrolabe, can figure out where to head even if they've never been there before. Some escorts are guides who have been to the terra incognita before and are therefore the first to detect danger. Some escorts also act as scouts: they travel in advance of the party to the next destination to make sure the path is secure, often using stealth and detailed knowledge of the flora and fauna of the terra incognita. This can even cross into spying on competitors or other antagonists to determine the best way around them.
THE MEDICA long journey in a strange land means the risk of injury is high. This is why almost every team has a medic—perhaps not a doctor per se but someone who can apply basic first aid and can treat the sick. The medic is typically the most patient and solitary of the team and is held in high regard because, unlike most members of the team, the quest is completely jeopardized if the medic goes down.
THE MECHANICJust as a member of the team is in charge of patching up people, the team will have a mechanic that can patch up a broken vehicle. A frequent plot complication comes when the vehicle breaks down and needs repair, though the mechanic may also be needed to fix the occasional broken skeleton key. In small teams, this role will be assumed by the captain or other crew member.
THE RESEARCHERWhile the pilot, navigator, medic, and mechanic all have their own practical expertise, the researcher is an expert in everything else. While a seeker of knowledge is looking for a macguffin consisting of specific knowledge, the researcher is on the trip to gain general knowledge about the terra incognita. They could be a botanist taking plant samples, a historian interpreting artifacts, a zoologist searching for strange new creatures, an ecologist testing for toxins in the surroundings, or an anthropologist hunting for lost tribes. Usually, researchers aren't hired but tag along willingly (unless they are a linguist needed to communicate with natives in the terra incognita).
THE SPONSORVehicles, pilots, navigators, medics, mechanics, translators—how is the seeker supposed to pay all these people? This is the role of the sponsor, someone with a lot of wealth that wants the seeker to find the macguffin because it will result in even more wealth (the investor), because they want positive publicity from the macguffin's discovery (the philanthropist), because they believe the macguffin will benefit the world (the altruist), or because they want to see the seeker succeed regardless of the macguffin (the patron). The sponsor often does not accompany the other travelers, though they often have a representative go in their stead: the quartermaster, a person who pays wages and approves expenses.
THE RASCALMoving from occupations to personalities, every good journey has a rascal. Sometimes called a rogue, a knave, or a thief, the rascal is someone the crew can (mostly) trust but no one else can, as they think of laws more like suggestions. The rascal will cheat others when playing games, steal from merchants, play tricks on others, and betray the confidences of others. Why have such a person on the team? The terra incognita is often a lawless, dangerous place, and the sneaky and sly rascal is able to get the team out of trouble by doing things their teammates can't or wouldn't do.
THE BRUISERWhile the rascal connives to get the team out of trouble, the bruiser uses their fists. The bruiser isn't just strong but is a gifted fighter that can anticipate their opponent's moves before they happen. However, their raw strength is appreciated when repairing the vehicle or getting it out of the sand and mud. Despite their ability to brawl, the bruiser tends to be quiet, gentle, and contemplative when not directly provoked.
THE OLD SALTTypically a trait of a captain or a cook, the old salt is someone who has been on many journeys before—so many that adventure has lost its appeal. They spend most of their time telling stories of their past, giving advice, contradicting the experts (and being right every time), and helping fresh adventurers on how to deal with their homesickness and the perils of adventure. While they can be a source of wisdom, they do not play the same role as the mentor in Myth, as they are more adversarial and dismissive of the seeker and their lofty goals, usually because they once were a seeker too but never got their macguffin.
THE CYNICLike the old salt, the cynic doesn't believe the quest will be successful, but not because of their experience from previous adventures. The cynic is doubtful that any venture in any context will lead to happiness. As the cynic openly tells others on the trip, they only agreed to come on the journey because the pay is good—though in reality, the cynic journeys into the terra incognita because it isn't the regular world that caused them to be so bitter and jaded. The cynic is an important character in Adventure to contrast with the seeker's zeal and optimism, and a common character arc is the restoration of the cynic's faith in the world once the macguffin is secured.
THE STOWAWAYLike the cynic, the stowaway has joined the trip to escape some unhappiness in their regular lives, like abuse, family obligation, or poverty. Unlike the cynic, however, there is something about the stowaway that makes them undesirable to have on the trip. In traditional nautical adventures, stowaways were children believed to be too young to "pull their weight" working on the ship. Another frequent kind of stowaway in older stories are women, who were once also thought of as being too weak to work and often disguise themselves as men during the journey. Occasionally, the stowaway is a spy for a competitor. In every story with a stowaway, the stowaway is found out, begs for understanding, is given menial tasks, and slowly works their way to becoming a respected part of the team... yes, even the spies usually get this treatment when they discover the seeker's team treats them better.
THE TURNCOATSecret stowaways aren't the only insiders that competitors can have on a seeker's team. Lots of adventure stories also feature a turncoat, a character who is part of the crew from the start who ends up being a competitor or working for the competition. This betrayal creates a complication where the turncoat sabotages the seeker and rejoins the competitors, who then move into the advantage in the race for the macguffin. While turncoats sometimes move back to the seeker's side at the climax, Adventure does redeem betrayers nearly as much as other genres like Comedy, Romance, and Fantasy. |
THE DIRE TRAP
One of the most iconic dire traps in film happens at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones must outrun a giant rolling boulder. (Disney/Fox)
Traps don't always have to be manmade: one of the most common dire traps in adventure stories is quicksand, which here swallows up Daud (John Dimech) in Lawrence of Arabia. (Sony/Columbia)
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The one part of the journey that no fellow traveler can prepare the seeker for is the dire trap set either by the competitors or the guardians of the macguffin. The trap isn't lethal—at least not at first—but slowly becomes a threat to the life of the seeker and perhaps some of their fellow travelers. The dire trap will seem impossible or inescapable, but the seeker figures out a way to escape by solving a puzzle or unlocking a hidden door—often with the aid of the skeleton key. Common traps in adventures include rooms with walls that close in, rooms that start to flood with water or earth, pathways that must be trod upon in a specific way to avoid disaster, and pits of wild and hungry animals.
These traps seem inescapable and mirror a natural trap in the real world that finds its way into many adventure stories: quicksand. Quicksand occurs when sand is flooded with a high density of water and, while it appears solid, acts like a thick liquid. The more one moves, the further they sink into the sand, so while quicksand is survivable, it isn't easy to escape on one's own. Quicksand and other natural traps appear throughout the journey through the terra incognita, though they only become the main climactic traps in survival adventures where the goal is getting home in one piece. Like with quicksand, the puzzle traps guarding the macguffin tend to be beaten only because the seeker has fellow travelers to rely on: perhaps the researcher is the only one who can translate a riddle, the rascal the only one quick enough to jam the mechanism, or the stowaway child the only one small enough to crawl through a passage to freedom. The trap may even separate the seeker from their teammates and create a new complication where the seeker must free their friends (or, on occasion, avenge their deaths). When a guardian sets a dire trap, they always mean to kill the person they trap. However, the same isn't always true of the competitors. For the competition, a trap is more likely just a way to capture the seeker, take away their skeleton key (which is critical for them if they want to get the macguffin), and send them back home. Instead of a complex puzzle (which takes time and resources to create), competitors rely on another type of trap: the ambush. When the seeker and their team feel relaxed and safe, they are beset on all sides by enemies. Like with the puzzle trap, the seeker finds a way to escape captivity. |
THE PRICELESS TRADE
At the end of the Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark hold poisonous nightlock berries in their hands. Both Katniss and Peeta are willing to trade their own life to let the other survive, and since neither can bring themselves to kill the other, they decide the best way forward is to end their own lives. (Lionsgate)
In a twist on its source material, Odyssey adaptation O Brother, Where Art Thou? sees George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill sacrificing his pride and praying to God to save him from being hanged... which he does through a massive flood. (Universal)
In The Last Crusade, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones gives up possession of the Holy Grail--the macguffin of the film, to save the life of his father (played by Sean Connery). The death of his father was the price for the grail, and it wasn't one Indy was willing to pay. (Disney/Fox)
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So a seeker gets into the terra incognita, escapes every dire trap, and is now standing in front of the macguffin. However, there is one last step they must take: something as valuable as the macguffin cannot just be taken without giving something in exchange. The seeker can only get what they want and leave with it if they trade something priceless for the macguffin.
This connects Adventure to its origin in Myth and the mythic cycle: before the Hero can bring the Pearl back to their Broken Society and achieve Restoration, they must perform a Sacrifice.¹⁴ Adventures ask the seeker to leave something of themselves behind before they go. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos must sacrifice the life of the person he loves most (Gamora) to get the final infinity stone. In Jurassic Park, Dr. Hammond must sacrifice his theme park to save himself and his grandchildren from rampaging dinosaurs. In The Mummy, Rick and Evelyn trade the infinitely powerful Book of Amun-Ra to stop Imhotep. Often, the priceless trade doesn't require an object but an act by the seeker. Odysseus is only able to get home after humbling himself and offering a prayer to Poseidon. Joseph Cooper can only save Earth by sacrificing being a father to his kids during their entire childhood in Interstellar. To save his love Elizabeth, Will Turner takes Davy Jones' place as the cursed pirate captain of the Flying Dutchman. The trade can even be more abstract than a single act: Jim Hawkins only gets the treasure and saves his friend by betraying the trust of every one of them, and T.E. Lawrence can only reach Damascus by participating in atrocities and losing his impeccable reputation. Sometimes, these trades aren't worth it to the seeker, and they abandon the macguffin to keep what truly matters. Indiana Jones gives up the Holy Grail to save the life of his father, and Phileas Fogg gives up winning his bet so he can marry his beloved Aouda (though, because he doesn't realize time zones are a thing, he ends up winning anyway). If these trades seem like a lot, it's because they need to be: what must be traded for the macguffin must be of equal value to the macguffin, at least to the seeker. This is most simply expressed in the first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indiana Jones attempts to swap a golden idol for a bag of sand and triggers a trap that nearly kills him. Competitors that beat the seeker to the macguffin often fail because they don't make a fair trade. Captain Culpeper believes he can just steal the money from the mad, mad, mad, mad treasure hunters but ends up losing his job, his freedom, and his family. Rachel Keller believes she's stopped Samara's curse in The Ring after she gives the girl a proper burial, but this isn't what the ghost wanted, and so her son's father dies. Ultimately, whether they get the macguffin or give up, the seeker always accomplishes their secondary goal: their journey has indeed changed their lives. Sometimes, the change is for the better: Odysseus and Dorothy return home, Bilbo Baggins becomes the richest hobbit ever, and Furiosa replaces Immortan Joe as the fearless leader of the Citadel. Sometimes, the characters are broken by their journey: Ralph gets off the island but is traumatized for life, Jim Hawkins swears off all future voyages despite earning his cut of the treasure, and Oedipus learns something so awful that he's driven to poke out his own eyes. |
Subgenres of Adventure
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SWASHBUCKLING ADVENTUREThis subgenre of Adventure consists of period pieces that center around the swashbuckler, a debonair and flamboyant antihero who is thrust from an honorable and noble life into vigilantism. Here, the seeker of the story wants to prove their worth in a world where most see them as a criminal. The swashbuckler is no soldier—he wears and fights in fine silks and hose—but he knows how to wield weapons. He is also a romantic figure that's usually courting a beautiful maiden in between exploits. The swashbuckler is a "gentleman rogue" that finds himself embroiled in melodrama but usually gets a happy ending. Popular swashbuckling heroes include the Three Musketeers, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and Zorro. Disney and Errol Flynn redefined Robin Hood as a swashbuckler in popular films (despite his origin in the Western genre), and the most popular swashbuckler of the 21st century is Captain Jack Sparrow. Note that while nearly all pirate stories are Adventure, only good-natured gentleman pirates are swashbucklers: Captain Blood is; Long John Silver is not.
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SUPERHEROIC ADVENTUREThe swashbuckler with their capes and masks evolved into the pulp heroes of the 1910s and 1920s, and with the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1 in 1938, the superhero story. Superheroes occupy an alternate version of our world where some people have extraordinary abilities thanks to science, magic, genetics, or unfathomable self-discipline. Some use their ability to cause crime and discord while others use their powers to fight crime and improve society. Superheroes typically hide their identity behind an alter ego, and most superhero stories question the legitimacy of their mission and the difficulty of managing their two personas. While every genre has superhero stories, all superhero stories have Adventure. Popular superheroes include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, the Justice League, and the Avengers.
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THE ROBINSONADEThis subgenre gets its name from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and could alternatively be called the "survival adventure." The protagonist is stranded somewhere in the terra incognita (often a desert island) and seeks two things at the same time: a way home and, until that is found, a way to make the place they're trapped into a suitable home—it's a blend of an odyssey and an aeneid. The seeker and any companions they have must explore the terra incognita for food, water, shelter, and a means of escape or contacting the outside world. This is how Adventure looks when the seekers have no skeleton key to unlock their main problem (and have no competitors, other than one another). Over extended periods of being stranded, groups that are stranded form social orders and new communities, which sometimes end well (Swiss Family Robinson, On the Island, Gilligan's Island) and sometimes don't (Lord of the Flies, The Ruins, Yellowjackets).
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THE PICTURESQUEWhile most adventures are a long narrative tracking the race to the macguffin, not every adventure story is as straightforward with its journey. The Picturesque subgenre has a journey that consists of a series of short adventures that the seeker has on their overall journey to the macguffin. The primary example of this is Don Quixote, where the knight and his squire encounter several different adventures in different towns as they travel to find a way to lift the curse from his beloved Dulcinea. A modern example is the film The Blues Brothers: on their "mission from God" to get enough money to save their childhood orphanage from being shut down, Jake and Elwood go from venue to venue to earn money playing music, and every gig brings a new adventure.
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THE SPACE OPERAA popular blend of Adventure, Science Fiction, and sometimes Fantasy and Western, the space opera depicts a quest by a group of space travelers to reach some futuristic technology macguffin so that they can save the galaxy. To do this, they often hop from planet to planet for resources and find themselves fighting off competitors with space lasers and light swords. Space operas originated in the 1940s as a genre swap of the Western "horse opera," which was itself a genre-specific version of the soap opera. Like soap operas, space operas have high melodrama, simple plots, and are more fiction than science (which is why many of them use ancient magic forces to explain how their futuristic tech works rather than get technical). Popular space operas include Star Wars, Dune, Flash Gordon, Lost in Space, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and Firefly.
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SKULL AND BONES ADVENTUREThese adventures don't travel far away to explore the terra incognita—they instead discover a secret world in the very cities that make up the modern world. The seeker of fortune becomes a seeker of truth when they learn of a secret society made up of powerful and influential people hiding in plain sight (the subgenre gets its name from Yale's Skull and Bones secret society). The seeker goes after a macguffin that will expose the secret society, and the society does everything they can to stop the seeker. Along the way, the seeker learns the general history of the secret society and debates whether exposing them is the right thing to do. These stories frequently blend in elements of Mystery, as the seeker has to follow clues and decode cryptic puzzles to figure out the next secret location they must infiltrate. Skull and Bones adventures include the novels Lexicon by Max Barry, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, and The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry and the films National Treasure, The Skulls, and The Ninth Gate.
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THE ROAD TRIPThe modern iteration of the Adventure is the road trip story, which often mixes Adventure with either Comedy or Slice of Life. In a road trip, the seeker of fortune is bored of their routine life, is moving on to a new place or new chapter in life, or is given a special assignment for their job. The seeker of fortune hits the road with a couple of companions—while their mode of conveyance is most often a single reliable car, cross-country or cross-continent trips can include a variety of planes, trains, and automobiles. Modern road trip adventure novels include On the Road, Travels with Charley in Search of America, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and road trip films include Eurotrip, Tommy Boy, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. What sets Adventure apart from War is that Adventure is a choice by the seeker while soldiers are mostly conscripted into a war. While some soldiers go into war seeking glory or seeking revenge, there is no clear macguffin—only a desire for the war to win and for the characters to survive. Adventure is also notably different from Westerns: while the protagonist is also a stranger, they are well adapted to the wild frontier in general. The protagonist's main tool isn't a unique skeleton key but a common (though reliable) firearm. 2. The term macguffin comes from an old Scottish joke McPhail told Hitchcock: A man is riding on a train when a second gentleman gets on and sits down across from him. The first man notices the second is holding an oddly shaped package. "What is that?" the first man asks. The second man says, "A MacGuffin, a tool used to hunt lions in the Scottish highlands." "But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands," says the first man. "Well then," says the other, "That's no MacGuffin." The punchline is that what the package is doesn't actually matter—it still drives the story. 3. Okay, some plots have two macguffins because the macguffin switches. In Bringing Up Baby, the macguffin is the intercostal clavicle of a brontosaurus that paleontologist David Huxley needs to complete his skeleton. David has been pursuing it for years and is dismayed when it is shipped to the summer cottage of his admirer Susan Vance. When David gets to the cottage, he's distraught after he learns that Susan's dog George buried the bone somewhere on the property. Everyone begins to search for the bone... that is, until Baby (a leopard Susan got for her aunt as a gift) escapes from the barn. Since a leopard running around Connecticut is a bigger deal than a millions-of-years-old bone, Baby becomes the new macguffin every character hunts for. Once Baby is found, the macguffin doesn't switch back to the bone—Susan finds it off-screen three days later, and David says he doesn't even care about it anymore. While these types of stories do have two macguffins, there is only one macguffin at a time. While plots don't have two macguffins, some macguffins exist in multiple pieces. Take the infinity stones in Avengers: Infinity War. Thanos needs all six stones to save/destroy the universe, so it doesn't matter if he finds one or two—the macguffin is the full set. Also note that while a plot only has one macguffin, stories can have more than one plot. In The Princess Bride, Princess Buttercup is the macguffin of Westley's quest. However, Inigo Montoya, one of Westley's companions, has his own subplot and his own macguffin: to find and kill the six-fingered man who slew his father. 4. Okay, there was 1999's Hercules: Zero to Hero, but that was just a frame narrative around repackaged episodes of the prequel animated series, so it doesn't really count. 5. A twist on the heracliad that modern writers regularly employ is that their protagonist doesn't actually commit the misdeeds that destroy their reputation (as their innocence endears them more to the audience)—here, the macguffin is the thing that will prove their innocence, which will in turn restore their reputations. This plot is used in The 39 Steps, The Third Man, and The Fugitive. 6. This isn't to say that Menelaus didn't love Helen—all myths say he did—but Menelaus was a Spartan of royal blood, and Spartan society was known for carrying out severe retribution on their enemies. This is supported by the versions of the story told by Euripides and Herodotus, where Helen never even made it to Troy—according to legend, Paris encountered a storm after abducting Helen and had to dock in Memphis. Egypt's King Proteus was a friend of Menelaus and refused to let Helen go back on Paris' ship. Proteus sent messagers to tell Menelaus that it was all good and that Helen was safe in Egypt... and instead of heading to Memphis, Menelaus still led the Greeks to Troy, killed all the Trojan men, enslaved all the Trojan women, and burnt the city to the ground. 7. Like other iliads, the story of the Trojan War shows how vengeance begets more vengeance. After her return to Sparta, Helen lived a pleasant life with Menelaus but was shunned by all other women since she's the reason that so many of their sons and husbands died in the war. Once Menelaus died and wasn't around to protect her, Helen became the target for dozens of Greek figures wanting revenge—some myths have the gods taking pity on Helen and saving her, and others see her hanged, poisoned, burned alive, ripped limb from limb, and buried alive in sand. 8. This clashes with the most popular version of the Oedipus myth by Sophocles where Oedipus doesn't go anywhere—he sits on his throne and has others seek out the information for him—but the original story was a journey. Several older sources depict the story this way: Oedipus learns that Polybus has died and ventures to Corinth for the funeral, but not before being warned by Tiersius that if he leaves Thebes, he will never return. At the funeral, Oedipus learns from Merope that she and Polybus adopted Oedipus, so Oedipus has a new quest: to find the identity of his parents. Oedipus starts at the hill where he was found and, by following clues along the way, finds his way back to Thebes, where he learns that the plague of infertility had been lifted in his absence. He puts two and two together, realizes he killed Laius and that Laius was his father, and departs to search for a new home (which winds up being Colonus). Sophocles cut the journey portion out of the story because Greek theatre was bound by the Unities (one time, one place, one action), which pretty much meant that journeys had to be saved for epic poems instead. 9. What a skeleton key is NOT is a magic feather. The Magic Feather is a literary device created for the story Dumbo where the baby elephant has the ability to flap his enormous ears and fly whenever he wants but only believes he can when he holds a "magic" feather in his trunk. The plot significance of the magic feather is that it shows that the protagonist had the power to achieve their goals all along. Skeleton keys don't work that way. Take away Dumbo's feather and he still could fly; take away Dorothy Gale's silver slippers and she can't get home. 10. There is sometimes a very fine line between a skeleton key and a macguffin. Sometimes the silver slippers (or ruby in the 1939 film) are thought to be a macguffin because the Wicked Witch of the West wants them, but Glinda wants to keep them from her (and so magically locks them onto a preteen girl's feet). However, this would only be a macguffin if the Wicked Witch were the seeker of fortune. She isn't, though--The Wizard of Oz follows Dorothy and her quest to get back to Kansas. The macguffin is who she believes will get her home: the Wizard in the Emerald City. Despite the slippers being the thing that actually gets Dorothy home, they aren't a macguffin because she doesn't have to seek them—she has them pretty much the whole time. A clearer example of the difference can be seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: the end of the film reveals that Roger had Marvin Acme's will on him the entire time—it had just been hidden under a love note Roger wrote by disappearing ink. While this item is the "key" to saving Toontown, it is actually a macguffin because it is the goal of the adventure that everyone is searching for. The skeleton key in that adventure is the portable hole, which allows Eddie Valiant to escape danger a couple of different times and save Roger and Jessica Rabbit's lives at the climax. 11. I recognize that two of my examples of magic keys are tattoos, and while someone's skin cannot be stolen (outside certain horror movies), a tattoo can be burned, obscured, or photographed and later decoded by others (which are situations that happen to Michael Scofield and Tom Taylor). 12. While some guides refer to the ticking clock as a trope of adventure stories, it really isn't because it's a trope of most stories in every genre. There are also a handful of adventure stories without a ticking clock for a majority of the story. A good example is The Hobbit, where Bilbo and the band of dwarfs are in no rush to get to Smaug's keep and take their time to secure information and supplies. While the battle against Smaug at the climax is time-sensitive (must kill dragon before dragon kills us), this isn't the same as a ticking clock. 13. There is another pseudo-character besides the twelve listed that appears in many adventure stories that isn't included because they are seldom a true character: The Comfort. The Comfort is an animal that the seeker or other character keeps to ground them and give them something to fear for when the trip gets dangerous. Examples include Charlie in Travels with Charlie in Search of America, Snowy in TinTin, Captain Flint in Treasure Island, Toto in The Wizard of Oz, and Ampersand in Y: The Last Man. Occasionally, the Comfort becomes the witness narrator of the adventure, like Buck in The Call of the Wild. 14. While the priceless trade often happens at the end of the story, some stories require it from the start. In Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka must cut his hair as an oath to never return to his home in Emishi so he may be allowed to seek a cure for his curse. FURTHER READING:
Green, Martin. The Great American Adventure. Beacon P, 1984. ----. Seven Types of Adventure Tale: An Etiology of a Major Genre. Penn State UP, 1991. Mellenthin, Jessica and Susan O. Shapiro. "Story Pattern of a Greek Hero." Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology. Rebus Community, 2017, uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound. ----. "Why Are There So Many Versions of Greek Myths?" Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology. Rebus Community, 2017, uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound. Morrison, Grant. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human. Spiegel & Grau, 2011. Walker, Michael. "The MacGuffin." Hitchcock’s Motifs. Amsterdam UP, 2005, pp. 296-306. Wilson, Christopher. "Oedipus: The Message in the Myth." Open University, 30 August 2019, open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/classical-studies/oedipus-the-message-the-myth. |
Directed by WORKS REFERENCED:
Mellenthin, Jessica and Susan O. Shapiro. "Jason." Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology. Rebus Community, 2017, uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound. Hadfield, Alice M. King Arthur and the Round Table. Core Knowledge Foundation, 2004, coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/King-Arthur-Text_web.pdf. Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Harper, 1951. Titanic. Directed by James Cameron. Twentieth Century Fox, 1998. The Maltese Falcon. Directed by John Huston. Warner Bros., 1941. Pulp Fiction. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Miramax, 1994. "The Invitation." Adventure Time, season 8, episode 20. Frederator/Cartoon Network, 2017. McCaughrean, Geraldine. "Ali Baba: The Robber Chief's Revenge." One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Oxford UP, 2000. pp. 130-36. Bringing Up Baby. Directed by Howard Hawks. RKO, 1938. Jurassic Park. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Universal, 1993. Winter's Bone. Directed by Debra Granik. Roadside Attractions, 2010. Mellenthin, Jessica and Susan O. Shapiro. "Theseus." Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology. Rebus Community, 2017, uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound. Wonder Woman. Directed by Patty Jenkins. Warner Bros., 2017. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings saga, Houghton Mifflin, 1954. Star Wars: A New Hope. Directed by George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1977. Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Euripides. Medea. 431 BCE. Translated by E. P. Coleridge, MIT Internet Classic Archive, accessed 2 April 2026, classics.mit.edu/Euripides/medea. Treasure Island The Hobbit Rocky The Goonies The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Ready Player One Into Thin Air Ducktales. Dora the Explorer. Pokemon. Mellenthin, Jessica and Susan O. Shapiro. "Heracles." Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology. Rebus Community, 2017, uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound. City Slickers. The Call of the Wild The Philadelphia Story Legally Blonde Mallrats Casablanca Taken Finding Nemo Mellenthin, Jessica and Susan O. Shapiro. "Orpheus." Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology. Rebus Community, 2017, uen.pressbooks.pub/mythologyunbound. Saving Private Ryan. Shrek. Cupid and Psyche. Y: The Last Man. Eurotrip Serendipity. The Iliad. The Odyssey. The Aeneid. Dune: Part Two. Jaws. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Universal, 1975. The Count of Monte Cristo True Grit Ulysses As I Lay Dying O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Wizard of Oz. Cold Mountain Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. Rango. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Paramount, 2011. The Grapes of Wrath. Mad Max: Fury Road. Directed by George Miller. Warner Bros., 2015. Watership Down. Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. On the Road. Into the Wild. Planet of the Apes. Sophocles. Oedipus the King. 429 BCE. Translated by F. Storr, MIT Internet Classic Archive, accessed 2 April 2026, classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus. Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The Bourne Identity. Detective Pikachu. Eat, Pray, Love. Bedknobs and Broomsticks. National Treasure. What Dreams May Come. Prison Break. Jumanji. Directed by Joe Johnson. TriStar, 1995. Coraline. Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Unwritten. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Directed by Stanley Kramer. United Artists, 1963. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Touchstone, 1988. Hot Fuzz. Fallout. The Suicide Squad. The Long Walk. Into Thin Air. Around the World in 80 Days. DuckTales. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Theives. Kong: Skull Island. The Venture Bros. Lawrence of Arabia. Hunger Games. The Mummy. Interstellar. Avengers: Infinity War. The Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides. The Ring. Lord of the Flies. Three Musketeers. The Scarlet Pimpernel. Zorro. The Adventures of Robin Hood. Robin Hood. Captain Blood. Robinson Cursoe. Swiss Family Robinson On the Island Gilligan's Island The Ruins Yellowjackets Don Quixote The Blues Brothers. Dune. The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Flash Gordon. Lost in Space. The Guardians of the Galaxy. Firefly. Lexicon. The Da Vinci Code. The Templar Legacy The Skulls The Ninth Gate Travels with Charlie in Search of America Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Tommy Boy. Planes. Trains, and Automobiles. Hercules: Zero to Hero. The 39 Steps. The Third Man. The Fugitive. Dumbo. TinTin. Princess Mononoke. |
This article was last updated on 16 April 2026.
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