Some remarks on Walter Benjamin's view of aura, and its disappearance in the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Its return thematized in the maguffin. Maguffin defined, with examples, from Pulp Fiction, Kiss Me Deadly, MI: 3, etc. Women as maguffins, in La Jetée and a host of other films. Then a close viewing of the first third of Out of the Past. Continuities and discontinuities. (NB: Marsellus, not Marcus, as I misspoke.)