History Film / TheJackal

* InsertDouble: Creator/BruceWillis' hand double is English actor Lester J. Adams.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's higher-ups (that was being used as a messenger) had him tell about the Jackal. On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast when the Jackal says his price) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the KGB and FBI having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's higher-ups (that was being used as a messenger) had him tell about the Jackal. On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast when the Jackal says his price) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the KGB having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's higher-ups (that was being used as a messenger) had him tell about the Jackal. On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast when the Jackal says his price) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the FBI having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

* HiddenSupplies: The Jackal reveals to have a safe (protected with a hand grenade booby trap) with some fake documents, and vehicle plates that he uses for the last leg of his mission. [[spoiler:It's also made clear that

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's higher-ups (that was being used as a messenger) had him tell about the Jackal. On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the FBI having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: This, and DisproportionateRetribution, is why Murad hires The Jackal: an FBI agent (part of a joint task force-he also mentions he is getting rid of the Russian policemen himself) kills his brother in self-defense, so he wants to make sure that a message is delivered [[spoiler:by having the Jackal kill ''the First Lady of the United States'' in the [[ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination most brutal, public]] way possible]]. The only reason why the FBI catches on to this is because the Jackal decides to play CriminalMindGames by asking [[spoiler:a dying Major Koslova]] to pass a message to Mulqueen ([[spoiler:"you can't protect your women"]]) which would only make sense if the target is someone other than the one they presumed to be up to that point, which was [[spoiler:the director of the FBI]]. The fact that this latter was being protected so strongly from the moment they know about The Jackal that it was a potential SuicideMission to get to [[spoiler:him]] while [[spoiler:the First Lady was going to appear on the opening of a children's hospital]] was also a factor in figuring this out.

** The confrontation that makes the whole plot happen escalates into a shootout because Murad's brother decides it's a good idea to belt out death threats to every cop in the room.

* TooDumbToLive: So you've decided to blackmail the obviously well-financed and dangerous criminal that's hired you to build a base for his huge gun. He says he'll bring the money to a remote location where there's no one around to hear him test his giant gun. [[SarcasmMode Sounds like fun!]]

* RuthlessForeignGangsters: TheMafiya, in this specific occasion: [[spoiler:in retaliation for the accidental death of his brother (a death that happened because the idiot tried to threaten and then tried to ''kill'' a bunch of cops while being taken into custody), Murad not only declared open season on those cops but orders ''the assassination of the First Lady of the United States'' as a "this is what happens when you fuck with me".]]

** Go ahead, include the address of the key witness in the case files, even though your superior has explicitly told you not to because the Jackal has a mole in the FBI. No way ''that'' can backfire on you and other people.

* IdiotBall: The Jackal [[spoiler:kills Lamont because he was trying to blackmail him into giving him more money for the plans for the mount of his BFG, but afterwards he just leaves behind the plans and Lamont's corpse for everyone to find.]]

** The confrontation that makes the whole plot happens escalates into a shootout because Murad's brother decides it's a good idea to belt out death threats to every cop in the room.
** The Jackal [[spoiler:has killed multiple FBI agents and fatally wounded Major Koslova, and for some cute reason he decides it's a good idea to give her a playful quip about how Declan "can't protect his women", which directly leads to the FBI figuring out that his target is the First Lady.]]

* LawfulStupid: Whiterspoon gets multiple people killed, including Koslova and himself, because he followed FBI filing and informant procedure and placed Isabella's address in the interview transcript even after Preston ordered him to leave it out.

* ActionGirl: Major Koslova and Isabella Zanconia. The former is a veteran Russian soldier, the latter is ex-IRA.

* SteppingOutForAQuickCupOfCoffee: [[spoiler: This is how Declan walks away a free man after the government denies him an early release and gives him minimum-security instead.]]

* ActionGirl: Major Koslova and Isabella Zanconia.

* TheAtoner: Declan Mulqueen

* ByTheBookCop: FBI Agent Whiterspoon, played for tragedy. Even after he was explicitly ordered by his superior to not put the address of Isabella and her family on the case's documentation in fear of what may happen if TheMole gets his hands on it, Whiterspoon does it anyway and the Jackal ends up killing all of the agents on the house, including Koslova.

* ProfessionalKiller: Jackal

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's messengers had him tell about the Jackal. On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the FBI having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's messengers had him tell about the Jackal (and even then, they knew jack). On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the FBI having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

* AdaptationExplanationExtircation: On the original book and film, the reason why the authorities got their knowledge about the Jackal in the first place was their suspicion about why was the French separatist group that hired him going on a bank robbing rampage, and lucking up when their abduction of one of the group's messengers had him tell about the Jackal (and even then, they knew jack). On this film, Murad's group never seems to have money issues at all (Murad just makes a quip about the Jackal being expensive before laughing it off and agreeing with a toast) and the Russian police just happened to luck into catching some random member of the group that had somehow overheard Murad talking about the Jackal. Also compare the French knowing absolutely jack about the Jackal in the beginning vs. the FBI having enough of a dossier to immediately finger Mulqueen as a someone who may have met him once.

''The Jackal'' is a 1997 suspense thriller starring Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/DianeVenora, and Creator/SidneyPoitier. It was directed by Michael Caton-Jones. While its title is similar to the 1973 film ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'', it shares only the main story point of an anonymous assassin and some general plot elements.

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1997-the-jackal_7343.jpg]]

''The Jackal'' is a 1997 suspense film starring Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/DianeVenora and Creator/SidneyPoitier. It was directed by Michael Caton-Jones. While its title is similar to the 1973 film ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'', it shares only the main story point of an anonymous assassin and some general plot elements.

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* [[{{UsefulNotes/Baltimore}} Baltimore Doubling]]: WMATA, the agency operating the Washington Metro, does not permit filming of movies involving violence in the subway system. The scene involving a firefight in the Metrorail was done in Montreal, but made to look like it was done in the DC system (except for the somewhat obvious, to a metro fan, differences in station architecture and rolling stock -- not the least of which is that the Montreal metro, unlike the Washington metro, ''has tires''.)

* {{Lzherusskie}}: Diane Venora as Major Koslova

** FridgeBrilliance: He's getting sloppy. Between the enormity of what he's about to do, everything going against him, and him constantly thinking "All I've got to do is get through this job and I'm done forever", he's become unhinged and isn't up to his usual standards. Notice that he starts out as the ice-cold, composed strategist he's described as, but bit by bit through the movie it chips off until he's cackling and doing things ForTheEvulz.