Revealing mistake: In the scene towards the end, where Declan has chased the Jackal back onto the subway platform, and has just followed on himself, behind him you see a man (possibly a cop) running to get out of the way of the guns, but just before going out of shot, he stops running and just casually 'strolls' to the edge of the set (some kind of small booth or shop on the platform). (01:50:55)
Bishop73
4th Feb 2008
The Jackal (1997)
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Suggested correction: This doesn't really reveal any mistake. I see the guy he runs into it and then slows down as he looks back. There's not really much else place to go and he just saw that Declan wasn't shooting any of them, that the previous guy, The Jackal, was the one shooting the cop. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with how this man acted as he went into that booth.
I watched the scene and he's running out of fear along with everyone else and the just stops running, as if he thinks he's off camera, and the starts to walk, but he never turns around. Everyone else is ducking if they're not running. It would not be a natural reaction in that situation, especially since people were still screaming.
2nd Aug 2018
The Jackal (1997)
Question: I'm asking this as a question, cause I'm unable to determine if this is actually a mistake with the weird writing... or if I'm just missing something. Right after The Jackal kills Lemont, it cuts to the FBI in a room trying to piece things together. Witherspoon walks in and says "Here we go, sir. Eleven days ago, Charles C. Murdock bought himself a brand new Dodge mini van. Now, that was a big surprise to Mr. Murdock, whose passport and wallet were stolen 16 days ago at the Helsinki Airport." He says this to Preston and the rest as if this is brand new news, a new lead they have to go on and a break they've needed. But then Preston just looks at him contemplating this and immediately responds. "Anything from the border? We sent a description of the van to every crossing from here to Manitoba." Him saying this as if they had this information long ago and already had people searching for it. To me this doesn't make any sense with how either of those characters said their lines. Witherspoon has been with Preston and the others almost this entire time in on the investigation and would have known if they already knew about the van. And if the van was actually a new lead Witherspoon just found and was telling them. Then what Preston said makes no sense. So where is the error in this or am I just missing something? (01:01:35)
Answer: It seemed to me that they had a description of the van, but had not yet identified the owner. Witherspoon is saying the van was purchased with a stolen identity and therefore they still don't know who really bought the van.
But how did they even have a description of the van then? Up to that point it seemed they didn't know anything about a van. This is why i'm confused.
The film makers may have cut out some scenes that would explain it in better detail, but as it is, there's no mention when the FBI knew about the van. However, they did know the Jackal was using James' passport and flew into Montreal so they have been able to follow him, although they're always a step behind. I don't think it's a plot hole or bad writing though, but it certainly up for debate.
In the movie the Jackal (Willis) often changed the colour of the van, white, blue, red etc. So for a proper BOLO of a van especially in 1997 there are many (including currently) many colours of a minivan (family van) so the color it was sold as was changed and it showed him practising washing away one color over another and the last being red.
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