History Film / TheJackal

* PetTheDog: The Jackal gives a generous tip to the pregnant young black woman in London who forges passports for him.

* LackOfEmpathy: While the Jackal is using Lamont as a target practice he tells him to hold out the pack of cigarettes. Despite aiming at it he blows Lamont's arm off. The Jackal's response is simply "I told you it (the gun sight) was off." Then he yells at him to move over the car "before you pass out."

* LackOfEmpathy: While the Jackal is using Lamont as a target practice he tells him to hold out the pack of cigarettes. Despite aiming at it he blows Lamont's arm off. The Jackal's response is simply "I told you it (the gun sight) was off."

* LackOfEmpathy: While the Jackal is using Lamont as a target practice he tells him to hold out the pack of cigarettes. Despite aiming at it he blows Lamont's arm off. The Jackal's response is simply "I told you it (the turret) was off."

* LackOfEmpathy: While the Jackal is using Lamont as a target practice he tells him to hold out the pack of cigarettes. Despite aiming at it he blows Lamont's arm off. The Jackal's response: simply "I told you it (the turret) it was off."

Russian mobster Terek Murad has declared open season on the Russian MVD and the FBI over the shooting of his brother in a Moscow nightclub. He hires the Jackal (Willis), a nasty assassin whom almost nobody has ever seen, to kill the Director of the FBI. With nowhere else to turn (except a woman who used to work with the Basque separatists, who is now in the USA but whose exact whereabouts in unknown to all save Mulqueen), FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Poitier), who was present at the Moscow shooting, and Major Valentina Koslova (Venora) of the MVD (who pulled the trigger in that shooting) enlist the reluctant services of Declan Mulqueen (Gere), an imprisoned IRA sniper, to track the Jackal down, for Declan is the only other person who can positively identify the Jackal.

* AntagonistTitle: While still named after the main villain, this film does away with the first half of the original novel's title in favour of simply calling it The Jackal.

* AntagonistTitle

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Jackal in the original book and film is a cold-blooded professional killer who does his job efficiently and without drawing undue attention to himself. He kills a handful of arguably innocent people during his preparations, but only those who threaten to expose him. Whereas this version of the Jackal abandons any pretense of detachment early on, becoming a cackling psychopath who racks up a significantly higher body count (killing his victims in much less discreet fashion than his predecessor), openly engages Mulqueen and the FBI in public gun battles and willingly endangers civilians who pose no danger to him.

* ArmsDealer: The Jackal buys the ZSU-33 from an online(complete with a Microsoft Sam voice) arms dealer that can provide any weapon desired, coming up with several options even after the Jackals tightly narrows down his preferences.

* TheAtoner: Declan Mulqueen was a soldier for the IRA but wasn't a mad-dog terrorist like other members were, and would really prefer to be let out so he can go someplace quiet and live out the rest of his days in peace.
* BadBoss: Murad - he buries an axe in the head of a subordinate - one he tells the others he loved like a son, no less - for failing to kill any of the militia group whose operation led to the death of his brother.

* CatchPhrase: "Half now, half on delivery" is the Jackal's standard form of payment.[[note]]In other words, when commissioned to do something, the Jackal's agreement is to be paid half his fee up front, and the rest after he completes the deed[[/note]]

** 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.]]
** Witherspoon has been a part of the case from day one and knows that Preston is not kidding when he says that he wants the location of Isabella out of the files because TheMole may get this intel. He follows procedure anyway, and gets multiple Federal agents killed including himself when the Jackal decides to come calling.
* InformedAbility: The Jackal is supposed to be one the best assassins in the world, but for some reason the good guys still have no problem following his every step. To be fair, how they catch up with his every step borders on telepathy, but using the weapon you plan to use for your assassination to rip a small time gunsmith to shreds still isn't very intelligent, even if he is trying to blackmail you. There must be at least a thousand ways to make him disappear without anyone getting suspicious.

* 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 [[spoiler:to 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. Murad also kills one of the men [[YouHaveFailedMe who were supposed to bodyguard his brother]], who he mentions was a very dear friend of his, in front of all of his subordinates and mentions that he "felt no pleasure" of doing this and that they can imagine what he will do to the people he actually ''hates''.
* MasterOfDisguise: Jackal uses a variety of wigs, stolen drivers' licenses and passports to make his purchases.

* 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 declares open season on those cops but orders ''the assassination of the First Lady of the United States'' as a "[[MakeAnExampleOfThem this is what happens when you fuck with me]]".]]

* 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. Preston is personally against the decision by his higher-ups but sighs as his hands are officially tied, then as the two stop near a coffee bar Preston turns to Declan and says he's going to go for a cup of coffee and will be back in...thirty minutes; Declan understands that that is his cue to just walk away a free man.]]
* ShooOutTheClowns: Lamont is played by none other than Creator/JackBlack (in an early role, mind you), so his character isn't particularly serious. [[spoiler: The tone darkens a bit once said character gets the most gruesome death in the movie.]]

** 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. Even going to Isabella's house is a dumb move -- what did he expect to gain out of it, with the possibility of it being a trap even, if not more KickTheDog material?]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The Jackal was hired by Murad to deliver a very loud and nasty assassination and he delivers: his plan still involves sniping his target, but he uses [[{{BFG}} a .50 BMG machine gun]] instead of the pistol-caliber ScaramangaSpecial of the original book.

Russian mobster Terek Murad has declared open season on the Russian MVD and the FBI over the shooting of his brother in a Moscow nightclub. He hires the Jackal (Willis), a nasty assassin whom nobody has ever seen, to kill the Director of the FBI. With nowhere else to turn (except a woman who used to work with the Basque separatists, who is now in the USA but whose exact whereabouts in unknown to all save Mulqueen), FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Poitier), who was present at the Moscow shooting, and Major Valentina Koslova (Venora) of the MVD (who pulled the trigger in that shooting) enlist the reluctant services of Declan Mulqueen (Gere), an imprisoned IRA sniper, to track the Jackal down, for Declan is the only other person who can positively identify the Jackal.

Russian mobster Terek Murad has declared open season on the Russian MVD and the FBI over the shooting of his brother in a Moscow nightclub. He hires the Jackal (Willis), a nasty assassin whom nobody has even seen, to kill the Director of the FBI. With nowhere else to turn (except a woman who used to work with the Basque separatists, who is now in the USA but whose exact whereabouts in unknown to all save Mulqueen), FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Poitier), who was present at the Moscow shooting, and Major Valentina Koslova (Venora) of the MVD (who pulled the trigger in that shooting) enlist the reluctant services of Declan Mulqueen (Gere), an imprisoned IRA sniper, to track the Jackal down, for Declan is the only other person who can positively identify the Jackal.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Jackal in the original book and film is a cold-blooded professional killer who does his job efficiently and without drawing undue attention to himself. He kills a handful of people during his preparations, but only those who threaten to expose him. Whereas this version of the Jackal abandons any pretense of detachment early on, becoming a cackling psychopath who racks up a significantly higher body count (killing his victims in much less discreet fashion than his predecessor), openly engages Mulqueen and the FBI in public gun battles and willingly endangers civilians who pose no danger to him.

* InNameOnly: To ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal''.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: A particularly gruesome example. Sometimes Richard Gere sounds Irish, and sometimes he doesn't.

* MercyLead: See SteppingOutForAQuickCupOfCoffee below.

* 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. Preston even says it almost word for word.]]

''The Jackal'' is a 1997 suspense thriller starring Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/RichardGere, Diane Venora, 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.

* BadBoss: Murad - he buries an axe in the head of a subordinate - one he tells the others he loved like a son, no less - for failing to kill any of the militia group whose operation led to the death of his brother.

* PetTheDog: The Jackal gives a generous tip to the pregnant young black woman who forges a passport for him.