The Day of the Jackal (film)

At the beginning of the film, a group of conspirators led by Bastien-Tiri makes an unsuccessful attempt on the life of French President General de Gaulle . A few months later, the French secret services arrested almost all the conspirators. Bastien-Tiri , condemned to death, is convinced that not a single French soldier will raise a weapon at him, but his hope is illusory: the firing squad with its full complement does not hesitate to perform a service duty.

Having received the news of the death of the leader, the surviving leaders of the SLA agree with the decision of Colonel Rodá to hire a professional unknown to the special services of France to kill de Gaulle. After going through 11 dossiers, Rodá chooses a young English sniper who destroyed the Dominican dictator Trujillo . The Englishman agrees and declares that General de Gaulle does not cooperate with his best guard in the world. However, it requires a fabulous amount of money at 500 thousand dollars, and SLA, in order to raise money, organizes a series of bank robberies.

Until the end of the operation, the SLA leaders shut up on the upper floors of a Roman hotel owned by a former skydiver. This attracts the attention of the French intelligence services, and they organize the kidnapping of the postman Rodá. Unable to withstand the torture, he tells about the meeting of Rodá with an Englishman nicknamed Jackal. The French Interior Ministry realizes the danger of conspiracy and entrusts the investigation to the best French detective, Commissioner Lebel. He calls around the heads of special services of other countries. The British Commissioner Mollinson points him to a certain Charles Cultrup. The British Prime Minister finds out about the French request and orders Molinson to conduct an investigation. Meanwhile, the lover of one of the participants in a secret meeting with the Minister of the Interior of France turns out to be an SLA agent and broadcasts news of the search for the Jackal.

Jackal takes action: gets a British passport in the name of a long-dead person, steals a passport from a Dane era Lundquist, in Genoa orders a sniper rifle of a special design, as well as fake documents, while killing the document maker blackmailed him. Despite the warning of the SLA that the French special services began to hunt him, Jackal does not abandon his plan. In the area of ​​Nice, he spends the night in a hotel where he seduces the middle-aged but still beautiful Baroness de Montpellier. The next day, having broken a car in an accidental accident, Jackal takes refuge in her castle. The woman in love confesses to him that the police were looking for him, after which he kills her, puts on the Lundquist mask and arrives in Paris by train. Here he immediately goes to the Turkish baths, where he meets the homosexual Jules Bernard and agrees to stay with him. After killing Bernard, Jackal waits in his apartment for Liberation Day (August 25). On the day of the holiday, despite unprecedented security measures, Jackal under the guise of a one-legged cripple enters the house with windows to the square, where de Gaulle is supposed to reward participants in the Resistance. In the last minutes, Commissioner Lebel, after interviewing gendarmes, guesses the Jackal's guise, breaks into the apartment and shoots the killer.

• Edward Fox - The Jackal
• Michael Lonsdale - Commissioner Claude Lebel
• Cyril Cusack - Gunsmith
• Dolphin Seyrig - Colette de Montpellier
• Philippe Leotard - Constable
• Terence Alexander - Lloyd
• Michel Okler - Colonel Rolland
• Alan Badel - Minister
• Tony Britton - Inspector Thomas
• Denis Carey - Casson
• Adrian Kyle-Legrand - President Charles de Gaulle
• Jean Sorel - Bastien-Tiri
• Maurice Denham - General Colbert
• Jacques Francois - Pascal
• Olga Georges-Pico - Denise, SLA agent
• Michel Sübor - SLA terrorist in a car
• Vernon Dobcheff - investigator
• Robert Favard - Minister (not in credits)