Tropescilloscope: MacGuffin

An object that, while not relevant to the main narrative, is frequently pursued throughout it. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Big Damn Heroes Gainax Ending Those Two Guys Public Domain Feature Films From Nobody to Nightmare Evil Sounds Deep Stylistic Suck Crapsack World I'm a Humanitarian Villain Opening Scene Kill It with Fire Evil Laugh Epic Fail Horror Comedy Dramedy The Casanova Revenge Foreshadowing Hell Is That Noise Eyepatch of Power Bond Villain Stupidity Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Becoming the Mask Film Noir Obfuscating Stupidity Affably Evil Five-Man Band Failed a Spot Check Important Haircut Eureka Moment Disappeared Dad Naïve Newcomer Black and Gray Morality Overly Long Gag The Remake Not Using the "Z" Word Central Theme Unreliable Narrator Evil Counterpart Break the Haughty Heroes Want Redheads The Chessmaster Precision F-Strike No OSHA Compliance An Arm and a Leg Villainous Breakdown Killed Mid-Sentence Woman Scorned Stuff Blowing Up Actor Allusion timeperiod Suspiciously Similar Substitute Science Fiction Films The Vamp Word of God The Hero Dies Room Full of Crazy Suddenly SHOUTING! Honor Before Reason I Have Your Wife No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Get Out! Berserk Button Works Set in World War II Heterosexual Life-Partners Men Are the Expendable Gender Sole Survivor Bare Your Midriff Poor Communication Kills Artistic License – Biology Epic Movie Camera Abuse Hate Sink Fun with Acronyms Animated Credits Opening Funny Foreigner Nice Hat Silent Movie Dual Wielding Big Bad Eagleland Made of Iron Hollywood Law Accidental Misnaming You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Russian Films Stealth Hi/Bye Bait-and-Switch Fat Bastard My God, What Have I Done? Here We Go Again! Spell My Name with an "S" Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Slap-Slap-Kiss Card-Carrying Villain Loophole Abuse Video Credits Be Careful What You Wish For Unwitting Instigator of Doom Yandere No-Sell Villain Ball Ship Tease Loads and Loads of Characters The Alleged Car Police are Useless Implacable Man Improbable Aiming Skills Slasher Movie Call-Forward Star-Crossed Lovers The X of Y Early-Bird Cameo Hong Kong Films Well-Intentioned Extremist Properly Paranoid Mad Scientist Only One Name Villain Song Offscreen Moment of Awesome Aside Glance Gold Digger Dying Moment of Awesome Index of Film Westerns Rich Bitch Irony I Need a Freaking Drink As Himself Ax-Crazy Posthumous Character The End... Or Is It? Fatal Flaw Dirty Cop Retcon Taking the Bullet You Have Failed Me Mystery and Detective Films Action Girl Apocalypse How Villain Protagonist Fiery Redhead The Alcoholic Expy Tap on the Head Unresolved Sexual Tension Jerkass Has a Point Punny Name The Quiet One Costume Porn Crucified Hero Shot An Axe to Grind Drugs Are Bad Adaptation Expansion Beware the Nice Ones Shoot the Shaggy Dog Improvised Weapon Authority Equals Asskicking Chekhov's Skill Knight Templar Super Strength Spared by the Adaptation Death by Sex Mundane Made Awesome Police Brutality You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Broken Pedestal Contrived Coincidence Jerkass Age Lift Better to Die than Be Killed Intergenerational Friendship Meet Cute Brutal Honesty Anti-Hero The Atoner Alliterative Name Leitmotif Manly Tears Not So Stoic German Films Face–Heel Turn Bad Boss Mistaken for Gay Music Stories Bi the Way Undying Loyalty Psychological Thriller In the Back Screw This, I'm Outta Here! "Shaggy Dog" Story BFG Grievous Bottley Harm Manchild Early Installment Weirdness In Medias Res The '50s The '90s Badass Longcoat Japanese Films Artistic License – Geography Defiant to the End Adaptation Name Change Off-into-the-Distance Ending Double Entendre Rule of Funny Beard of Evil Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Black Comedy Rape Historical Hero Upgrade Agony of the Feet Hidden Depths It Will Never Catch On Real Life Mr. Exposition Psycho for Hire Antagonist Title Fake Shemp Sassy Black Woman Award-Bait Song Mind Screw She's Got Legs The Power of Love Evil Brit Demoted to Extra The Bad Guy Wins Love Triangle Does This Remind You of Anything? Woman in White What the Hell, Hero? Training Montage In Name Only Slasher Smile For Want of a Nail An Aesop Femme Fatale Auto Erotica Artistic License – Physics Brick Joke Dramatic Irony Never Trust a Trailer Insane Troll Logic Scary Black Man Abusive Parents Enemy Mine The Chick Wrong Genre Savvy Deconstruction Cool Old Guy Jerk with a Heart of Gold Artistic License – Law Bound and Gagged Non-Indicative Name Ambiguous Ending Adaptational Villainy Adapted Out Horror Films Gratuitous English Easily Forgiven Dark Action Girl Fish out of Water Humiliation Conga Hypocritical Humor A Date with Rosie Palms Wham Line Informed Ability Jump Scare Cain and Abel Ungrateful Bastard Driven to Suicide The Dog Bites Back Sadistic Choice Man on Fire One Steve Limit Would Hurt a Child Dark Is Not Evil Obstructive Bureaucrat Match Cut Babies Ever After Nothing Is Scarier The Bully Adaptation Dye-Job Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Very Loosely Based on a True Story A Father to His Men From Bad to Worse Crazy-Prepared Fantasy Films Determinator Arranged Marriage Evil-Detecting Dog Pyrrhic Victory Deus ex Machina Half the Man He Used to Be Tranquil Fury Chekhov's Gun Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Vitriolic Best Buds Catch-Phrase Fate Worse than Death Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Black Comedy Leave the Camera Running Maybe Ever After Genre Savvy Skewed Priorities Older Than They Look Breaking the Fourth Wall Martial Arts Movie I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Badass in a Nice Suit Meaningful Background Event Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Thriller Historical Villain Upgrade And I Must Scream Body Horror Big Eater Those Two Bad Guys Anachronic Order Didn't Think This Through Groin Attack Translation Convention Kubrick Stare Does Not Like Shoes Manipulative Bastard Captain Ersatz Shipper on Deck Redshirt Army Ghost Fiction Ms. Fanservice Death Glare Amoral Attorney Intrepid Reporter Logo Joke Creative Closing Credits Together in Death Insistent Terminology Canon Foreigner Rousing Speech Male Gaze Not So Different Curse Cut Short The Stoner Kick the Son of a Bitch Cool Car Adaptational Attractiveness Expository Hairstyle Change Danny Peary Cult Movies List The Smart Guy Instant Death Bullet Broken Bird Setting Update Double-Meaning Title Sci-Fi Horror Hollywood Darkness Red Right Hand Smoking Is Cool Race Lift Air-Vent Passageway Lighter and Softer Real Life Writes the Plot Pretty in Mink Silence Is Golden Took a Level in Badass Red Oni, Blue Oni Adaptational Badass Closed Circle Race Against the Clock True Companions Curb-Stomp Battle Vomit Discretion Shot No Celebrities Were Harmed Fingore Bilingual Bonus Big Brother Instinct One-Man Army Big Bad Duumvirate This Is Gonna Suck Damsel in Distress N-Word Privileges Mugging the Monster Mama Bear Refuge in Audacity Dull Surprise Major Injury Underreaction Obviously Evil Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Annoying Younger Sibling Grey and Gray Morality Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Credits Gag Bowdlerise Badass Normal As Long as It Sounds Foreign Mercy Kill Let's Get Dangerous! Dark Reprise Brother–Sister Incest Badass Boast Abhorrent Admirer Hero Antagonist Title Drop All Just a Dream Nice Guy Cool Shades Rasputinian Death Psychopathic Manchild Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold The Ditz Comically Missing the Point Jerk Jock Line-of-Sight Name Self-Deprecation Film Noir Index The Voiceless Blackmail Protagonist Title The Oner Getting Crap Past the Radar Rule of Three Bavarian Fire Drill Chiaroscuro Fanservice Parental Incest The Sociopath Stealth Pun Creepy Child Adult Fear Betty and Veronica Serious Business Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Sequel Hook Australian Movies Canadian Movies No Ending Empathic Environment Mythology Gag Only in It for the Money Military and Warfare Films Disguised in Drag Green-Eyed Monster What You Are in the Dark Small Name, Big Ego Politically Incorrect Villain The Place Parental Neglect Toplessness from the Back Malevolent Masked Men Ironic Echo Beta Couple Fourth Date Marriage Call-Back Mooks Due to the Dead The Un-Reveal Hooker with a Heart of Gold Black Best Friend Make It Look Like an Accident "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Male Frontal Nudity Red Eyes, Take Warning Laughing Mad Bunny-Ears Lawyer Random Events Plot Plot Hole All Men Are Perverts The Smurfette Principle Armor-Piercing Question Animal Title Index One-Word Title "Awesome McCool" Name Adults Are Useless Wounded Gazelle Gambit Chase Scene Black Dude Dies First Batman Gambit Anti-Villain Creator Cameo Fantastic Racism Ascended Extra Hypocrite All for Nothing Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Spiritual Successor Corpsing Car Fu Rule of Cool Immune to Bullets Gorn Token Minority More Dakka Superhero Retired Badass Dogged Nice Guy Country Matters Did Not Get the Girl Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Ambiguous Disorder The Big Guy Left the Background Music On Pretty Little Headshots Names to Run Away from Really Fast Attempted Rape Not What It Looks Like Madness Mantra Kids Are Cruel The '80s Bloodless Carnage Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Deal with the Devil Shut Up, Hannibal! A Minor Kidroduction Leaning on the Fourth Wall Adaptational Heroism Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Brainless Beauty Dramatic Gun Cock Slashed Throat Pragmatic Villainy Zombie Stories Recycled IN SPACE! Alas, Poor Villain Market-Based Title Evil Plan Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Chewing the Scenery Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Flipping the Bird Advertised Extra Never My Fault Romantic Comedy He Knows Too Much Foregone Conclusion Straight Gay Bolivian Army Ending Character Development Cassandra Truth Television Movie Index Spanner in the Works Narrator Meaningful Echo World of Ham Dumb Blonde Not Quite Dead Bland-Name Product Dark and Troubled Past Re-Cut Covers Always Lie Almost Kiss Needs Wiki Magic Love Animal Motifs Vampire Fiction Action Survivor Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Sequel Escalation Foil Crazy Jealous Guy The '60s O.O.C. Is Serious Business Punctuated! For! Emphasis! I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Bar Brawl Take That! Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Based on a True Story Naked People Are Funny Sir Swears-a-Lot Back from the Dead Riddle for the Ages Badass Grandpa Hope Spot Unusually Uninteresting Sight Made of Explodium My Beloved Smother Humans Are Bastards Once More, with Clarity! Suspiciously Specific Denial Retirony Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas What Happened to the Mouse? Shown Their Work Off with His Head! It Can Think Smug Snake A God Am I Deadpan Snarker Adorkable Pre-Mortem One-Liner Daddy's Girl Defrosting Ice Queen Disney Death Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Friend to All Children The '70s Pay Evil unto Evil British Films The Cameo Chekhov's Gunman Running Gag Never Found the Body folderlabel Sacrificial Lion French Films 20 Minutes into the Future The Load Boom, Headshot! Take a Third Option '80s Hair Parental Abandonment Department of Redundancy Department Stalker with a Crush Faux Affably Evil Biopic Disproportionate Retribution The Cavalry The Faceless Gender Flip Depraved Bisexual Bullying a Dragon Red Herring Red Shirt Greater-Scope Villain Freudian Excuse Death by Irony The Lost Lenore Badass Bookworm Celebrity Paradox Karmic Death Victoria's Secret Compartment Extremely Short Timespan Guile Hero Scare Chord Gilligan Cut MacGuffin Good Is Not Nice Awesome, but Impractical Put on a Bus Evil Is Hammy Offscreen Teleportation Dropped a Bridge on Him Drowning My Sorrows The Mafia Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun It's Personal Peek-a-Boo Corpse Cool Old Lady Blood Knight Despair Event Horizon Action Prologue Scenery Gorn Those Wacky Nazis Trailers Always Spoil Extreme Doormat Framing Device The Ace Cat Fight Historical In-Joke Throwing Your Sword Always Works Downer Ending Darker and Edgier Missing Mom Dies Wide Open "The Reason You Suck" Speech Genre Throwback B-Movie Even Evil Has Standards No Antagonist Face Death with Dignity The Film of the Book Artistic License – Military Italian Films The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Deliberate Values Dissonance Up to Eleven She Cleans Up Nicely Gory Discretion Shot Product Placement Domestic Abuse Author Appeal Actually Pretty Funny La Résistance As the Good Book Says... "Well Done, Son!" Guy Ass Shove Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Dwindling Party Catapult Nightmare Beauty Is Never Tarnished And the Adventure Continues Have a Gay Old Time How We Got Here Redemption Equals Death Developing Doomed Characters Death of a Child Broken Aesop A.I. Is a Crapshoot Arch-Enemy The Dreaded Eldritch Abomination Death by Adaptation Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Disney Villain Death Even Evil Has Loved Ones Your Head A-Splode Film Series Continuity Nod Adaptation Distillation Stock Footage Dutch Angle Taking You with Me All There in the Manual Novelization Documentary Arc Words Idiot Ball Composite Character Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Action Genre Cluster F-Bomb Rule of Symbolism Noodle Incident Laser-Guided Karma Plucky Comic Relief Serial Killer Fainting Mighty Whitey Totally Radical Rewatch Bonus Historical-Domain Character Amusing Injuries Asshole Victim Neck Lift Shower Scene Mr. Fanservice Soft Glass Shell-Shocked Veteran Light Is Not Good Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Establishing Character Moment Deliberately Monochrome Calling the Old Man Out Big Fancy House Fatal Family Photo Spiteful Spit Bond One-Liner Cool Guns Dressing as the Enemy The Stinger Twist Ending Lock and Load Montage Butt-Monkey Children Are Innocent Frame-Up Sports Stories Dissonant Serenity Overprotective Dad Shirtless Scene Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Scenery Porn Married to the Job Monumental Damage Reality Ensues Corrupt Corporate Executive Genre Shift Freeze-Frame Bonus Cold-Blooded Torture Visual Pun The Ghost Heel–Face Turn Flashback Anachronism Stew Motor Mouth Mood Whiplash Tagline Exact Words Storming the Castle Cowboy Cop Reality Is Unrealistic Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Bottomless Magazines Gone Horribly Right Really Gets Around Book-Ends Karma Houdini Cruel and Unusual Death Henpecked Husband Famous Last Words Author Avatar Dirty Coward Wham Shot Break the Cutie Destination Defenestration Drill Sergeant Nasty Show Within a Show Bury Your Gays Too Dumb to Live Pimped-Out Dress Kill 'em All Big-Bad Ensemble Big Applesauce Every Car Is a Pinto Bloody Hilarious Papa Wolf Daylight Horror Our Zombies Are Different Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Neck Snap Lampshade Hanging Anyone Can Die Sealed Evil in a Can Unspoken Plan Guarantee Parental Substitute The Starscream Homage Four-Temperament Ensemble No Name Given There Is No Kill Like Overkill Exactly What It Says on the Tin Vomit Indiscretion Shot Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Ambiguously Gay Hair-Trigger Temper I Did What I Had to Do Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Darkest Hour NO INDOOR VOICE Stepford Smiler Earn Your Happy Ending Blatant Lies You Killed My Father All Girls Want Bad Boys Death Seeker Evil vs. Evil All There in the Script Same Language Dub Say My Name Villain with Good Publicity Imagine Spot Demonic Possession The Stoic Eiffel Tower Effect Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Reasonable Authority Figure Heroic BSoD Fanservice Extra Whole Plot Reference Evil Is Petty Meaningful Name Sinister Minister Dirty Old Man Bloodier and Gorier Time Skip Artistic License – Gun Safety Cat Scare Outrun the Fireball The Hero Drives Like Crazy Fire-Forged Friends Mexican Standoff Rated M for Manly The Dragon Soundtrack Dissonance Interrupted Suicide Tempting Fate Ominous Latin Chanting Christmas Movies Index Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Last-Name Basis Bad "Bad Acting" Only Known by Their Nickname Wicked Cultured Artistic License – History Roaring Rampage of Revenge Took a Level in Jerkass Oh, Crap! Bittersweet Ending Faking the Dead Insult Backfire Love at First Sight Hoist by His Own Petard Worthy Opponent Determinator aka: The Determinator Improbable Weapon User Bald of Evil Shout-Out Sanity Slippage Punch-Clock Villain Distracted by the Sexy Captain Obvious Sexy Discretion Shot Vacation Films May–December Romance Casting Gag Only a Flesh Wound Not So Above It All Romantic False Lead It's All About Me Heroic Sacrifice Accidental Murder The Mole Coming-of-Age Story Paper-Thin Disguise Facial Horror Your Cheating Heart Belligerent Sexual Tension Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Truth in Television The Reveal Rape as Drama Playing Gertrude My Greatest Failure Large Ham Handicapped Badass Funny Background Event Combat Pragmatist Anguished Declaration of Love Reckless Gun Usage Eye Scream Hero of Another Story Alpha Bitch Unusual Euphemism Bring My Brown Pants Manic Pixie Dream Girl Fan Disservice Not Even Bothering with the Accent Heel Realization Kick the Dog Wretched Hive Ripped from the Headlines After the End Would Hit a Girl Jitter Cam War Is Hell Pet the Dog As You Know Conspicuous CG Our Vampires Are Different Moment Killer Aluminum Christmas Trees He Who Fights Monsters Pragmatic Adaptation No Good Deed Goes Unpunished The Great Depression Diabolus ex Machina For the Evulz Affectionate Parody The Musical Decoy Protagonist The Brute Final Girl Reality Has No Subtitles Guns Akimbo And Starring Blood from the Mouth Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality The Lancer Everyone Has Standards Knife Nut Morality Pet Happily Married Big "NO!" Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Cloudcuckoolander Camp Gay Only Sane Man Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience