The Jackal

This article is about the movie. For the Marvel Comics supervillain, see Jackal (comics).

The Jackal is a 1997 action film starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Diane Venora and Sidney Poitier, directed by Michael Caton-Jones . It is a remake of the 1973 movie The Day Of The Jackal, even though its story has very little in common with the original movie.

Plot

When an American-Russian joint police task force, led by FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Sidney Poitier) and Russian Major Major Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora), kills the brother of a russian mobster, the master assassin, called The Jackal (Bruce Willis), is hired to make a retaliatiory killing.

Eventually, the task force discovers the plot and begins hunting the Jackal down. However, they have a problem: they don't have any information about his identity, and are forced to make a deal with a convicted ex-IRA sniper, Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), who knows the Jackal's face and methods, to find him.

With Declan's help, the task force races against time to find and uncover the Jackal's plan; meanwhile the Jackal prepares his attack, gathering the necessary resources. The action takes place in many locations, including Washington DC, Moscow, London, Helsinki, Chicago and Montreal.

Trivia

• Fred Zinnemann, director of the 1973 movie The Day of the Jackal, fought with Universal Studios to change the title of the movie so it wouldn't have the name of the original classic. He was 91 years old at the time.
• Sean Connery, Liam Neeson and Matthew McConaughey were all invited to be in the movie, but they all turned it down.
• Originally, Richard Gere was selected for the Jackal's role, but asked to play Mulqueen instead.
• It's said that, after this movie, Richard Gere and Bruce Willis vowed to never work together again.

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