The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal (1973)

3 commented-on entries

(10 votes)

Corrected entry: At the beginning, just after the title credit the President's car is machine gunned and you see the back windshield shatter and disintegrate. Moments later the car arrives at the airport with the windshield intact. We see de Gaulle get out of the car with the intact rear windscreen.

Correction: I have just watched the film, paying close attention to the sequence of events in this scene. There are two Citroens shot up by the putative assassins. One has its rear windscreen shot out but we do not see the occupants - but the diminutive Mme Yvonne de Gaulle certainly is not one of them. This car is the one occupied by de Gaulle's bodyguards. Later, de Gaulle and his wife get out of the Citroen with the intact rear windscreen.

At 02:46 we see index plate of the rear car: 6352 KZ75. This is not the car DeGaulle enters. At 03.13 we see the index plate of his car: 5249 HU75. At 05:17 we see this car pull up at the airport with a slightly damaged rear windscreen. It was the other car, 6352 KZ75, that had its rear windscreen shot out, but we do not see the rear windscreen when it pulls up at the airport.

Corrected entry: When the Jackal arrives at the house used to shoot at the president, he unhooks his leg (folded behind him as part of his disguise) and he is wearing just a sock. as he is walking up the stairs to the room he also has a sock but, while sitting waiting for the president to arrive, we see he is now wearing two shoes. Where did the second shoe come from?

christian467

Correction: This is explained in the book. The shoe is strapped to the inside of his strapped up leg. He uses mocassins so they will fold flat.

It is explained in the book but not in the film, which makes it a legitimate movie mistake. Further, that is not a moccasin he is wearing. It would not "fold flat."

Corrected entry: When the Jackal boards the train for Paris, about 40 minutes from the end of the film, the engine of the train is blue; when the train arrives in Paris, the engine is red.

Correction: The train has had a change of engine en route. The original engine was diesel and arriving in Paris was electric. This would actually have happened but wasn't shown as it would serve no part in telling the story.

Yes but how many changes? It makes sense to change a locomotive from diesel to electric or vice versa if the railway infrastructure would require this change. On usual train routes the locmotive is changed once from diesel to electric or vice versa. On few ocasions it would be possible to change the locomotive from diesel to electric and then back to diesel so two changes on one train route in total. But it wouldn't make any sense at all to change the electric locmotive with another electric locomotive. This is a continuity error in the movie.

There are three shots of the train: one arriving at Tulle, one in transit, and finally one as the train arrives in Paris. In each of the three shots, the train is pulled by a different locomotive. Also, the train in the second shot is a different length and made up of different types of carriages than the train that arrives at Tulle. It's obvious that stock train footage was used and any attempt at continuity was disregarded.

Plot hole: When the French conclude - incorrectly - that Charles Calthrop is the Jackal, they contact the British authorities and obtain his file photograph from the passport office. The photograph is of Edward Fox in character as the Jackal - but it shouldn't be! The Jackal and Calthrop have no connection. The Jackal never used his identity and did not apply for a false passport in his name. The photo should have been of Edward Hardwicke in character as Charles Calthrop, who appears in the closing minutes of the film. The two actors do not look anything like each other.

More mistakes in The Day of the Jackal

The Interrogator: You're being very foolish, Victor. You know yourself, they always talk in the end. You've seen it with your own two eyes in... where was it, Indochina? And Algeria, of course. Why don't you tell us what they're waiting for in that hotel, eh? Rodin, Montclair, Casson: what are they planning, who have they been meeting? Nobody? Not a soul, hmm? Then where were they before they went to Rome, eh? Tell us, Victor.

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Trivia: The Jackal demands $500,000 (US) to assassinate De Gaulle, which seems like a modest amount for such a dangerous job. However, when you take inflation into account that's the equivalent in 2024 money of over $5m. No wonder his putative employers are surprised.

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Chosen answer: According to Wikipedia: "Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants made by combining two high explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, i.e. it is a double-base propellant. However, Cordite N, a triple-base propellant is also used. Cordite is classified as an explosive, but it is normally used as a propellant for guns and rockets." So yes, it works.

Twotall

Answer: Yes, cordite is classified a an explosive, but it's rarely used as such. It's a common propellant for artillery shells etc. Realistically, the Jackal would have used a plastic explosive such C4 or Semtex for a bomb. And the mercury fulminate tipped rounds are a fantasy, it's so unstable, it would explode before it had left the barrel.

stiiggy

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