Macguffin
noun
See McGuffin
noun
A plot or movie device that raises a seemingly crucial question in the minds of the audience, but may well be a cunning deception: The writers wanted a MacGuffin which would set up a series of absurd rules for us/ You still haven’t told me what the McGuffin is. Why were the government and Mr Dsointerested
[1930s+;firstusedbythedirectorAlfred Hitchcock, and perhaps suggested by McGuffin, ”a gift that is not to be opened until Christmas,” hence something tantalizing, found by 1925]
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