The Day of the Jackal

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The Day of the Jackal is a thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, first published in 1971, about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle.

The novel is widely regarded as one of the best "spy thrillers" ever written, widely praised for its convincing portrayal of France in 1963, and its carefully thought-out plot. It is also notable for remarkably effective suspense considering the Jackal's target is a real historical figure who was not assassinated. The book was filmed in 1973 by Fred Zinnemann starring Edward Fox in the title role. Like the novel, the film was praised for its depiction of 1963 France.

While the OAS did exist as described in the novel and the film opens with a remarkably accurate re-enactment of the Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry-led attempt on de Gaulle's life, most of the remaining plot is fictional. The storyline follows the efforts of an extremely professional hired assassin (hired by an exiled OAS high command) in his preparations to assassinate de Gaulle, the efforts of an equally professional but rather hard-pressed French detective assigned to identify and stop him along with elements of intrigue and bureaucratic maneuvering at the highest levels of the French government.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the first part, Anatomy of a Plot, the reasons and motive for the assassination are described. The Jackal has his first and only meeting with three OAS leaders and discusses the price of the kill. The rest of the part describes how the Jackal gathers information on Charles de Gaulle while in England, and describes the weapon he is planning to use. Little information is given what he is going to do, however. The Jackal also sets up his false identities and disguises by forging and stealing documents.

The second part, Anatomy of a Manhunt, shows how French intelligence finds out about the plan and gives Claude Lebel, a French detective, the assignment to prevent the assassination while the ministers are discussing whether or not to inform de Gaulle (who is notoriously careless of his personal safety) about the plan.

Pressured by his superiors, Lebel does everything he can to find out who the Jackal is. He gets in touch with all his foreign contacts to ask if they have any records on such a man. Finally he gets the name of a suspect, Charles Harold Calthrop, from the British.

The French police get close to the Jackal a few times but he manages to evade capture. The Jackal's informant, provided by the OAS, leaks information from the French government to the Jackal, allowing him to keep one step ahead of the police.

In the last part, Anatomy of a Kill, Lebel realises that there is one day drawing near on which de Gaulle will make a scheduled public appearance: Liberation Day, on the 25th of August, commemorating the liberation of Paris during World War II. Despite police safeguards, the Jackal manages to make his way into Paris.

On Liberation Day, as the celebrations begin, the French police are more alert than ever. The Jackal, disguised as a war veteran, makes his way to a building which faces the plaza where de Gaulle will present veterans with medals. He takes position, readies his small custom-made sniper rifle and aims at de Gaulle.

However, The Jackal fails to take into account the Gallic custom of kissing on both cheeks, expecting instead that de Gaulle will shake hands with the medal recipient. When the Jackal takes a shot de Gaulle moves forward to kiss the recipient on the cheeks at the same moment, causing the bullet to miss.

Lebel, meanwhile, asking around the checkpoints, figures out that the war veteran with the aluminium crutch is actually the Jackal. He and a police officer rush up to the apartment. In a climactic conclusion the Jackal manages to kill the police officer with his rifle, but is gunned down by Lebel with the officer's MAT-49 submachine-gun.

The book ends with the denial by the British authorities of any possibility of the Jackal's being a British citizen, and the funeral of "an unknown foreign tourist, killed in a car accident", with only Claude Lebel attending. "The Day of The Jackal was over."

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Real-life terrorist Carlos was nicknamed "the Jackal" by the press in reference to the novel.

A very loose, action-oriented adaptation was made in 1997 starring Bruce Willis as the assassin and Richard Gere as a former IRA sharpshooter recruited by the CIA to stop him. Zinneman was so concerned about what this production might do to the reputation of his own film that he successfully pressured the producers to change the name to The Jackal. That adaptation (which was widely panned by critics) bore little resemblance. The Jackal's target was kept secret until the climax, and it depicted him as an icy psychopath dependent on cutting edge weapons technology as opposed to Fox's layered portrayal of a sophisticated, rational and consummate professional.

The procedure of identity theft detailed in the book is often referred to as the "Day of the Jackal technique", and has been exploited in many real crimes.

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