Red Herring
A red herring is a detail planted to pull attention away from what actually matters — and its famous origin story may itself be a fabrication.
Full definition of Red Herring →:: COMPARE ::
Red herringvsMacGuffin
The short answer
A red herring misleads the audience and can be removed without collapsing anything. A MacGuffin misleads nobody — everyone knows it's a pretext — but it cannot be removed, because the entire plot is people chasing it.
Side by side
| Aspect | Red herring | MacGuffin |
|---|---|---|
| Misleads | The audience | Nobody |
| Load-bearing | No | Yes |
| Matters in itself | Seems to | Doesn't |
| Removable | Yes | No |
What each one means
MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is the object everyone in the story is chasing, whose actual nature doesn't matter to the story.
Full definition of MacGuffin →