McGuffin

Hitchcock explains the McGuffin

The term "McGuffin" came up in a conversation. Older son says it is the thing that drives the plot, like the Maltese Falcon in The Maltese Falcon, or the briefcase (with its never shown glowing contents) in Pulp Fiction. I recalled that it was more like a red herring. It's something in the story that has no bearing on the story, like some unknown character gets killed. You think it has some bearing on the story, and so you wait for the movie to explain it, but they never do. Close, but no cigar. A McGuffin is the thing in the movie that the characters care about. The audience doesn't really care about it, we may not even know what it really is, but we care that the characters care.