macguffin

Sometimes “McGuffin” or “Maguffin”, and often associated with Hitchcock, PageWise has a good definition: A device or plot element that catches the viewer’s attention or drives the plot. It is generally something that every character is concerned with. The McGuffin is essentially something that the entire story is built around and yet has no real relevance. That is, it’s what the movie says it’s about, even though it really isn’t. In the first Charlie's Angels, the McGuffin was stolen voice-identification software; in the second, it was Federal Witness Protection List. In both cases, the villain’s real motivation was greed and revenge. In early drafts of Full Throttle, the Angels had to retrieve a glowing vial labelled “McGuffin Industries.”