The Jackal

The Jackal is a 1997 American political action thriller film directed by Michael Caton-Jones, and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier. The film involves the hunt for a paid assassin. It is a remake of the 1973 British-French film The Day of the Jackal, which starred Edward Fox and was based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. The film earned mostly negative reviews from critics, but was successful at the box office, grossing $159.3 million worldwide against a $60 million budget.

Plot
A joint operation between the FBI and the MVD leads to the death of the younger brother of an Azerbaijani mobster. In retaliation, the mobster contacts and hires a professionally trained, globally operating hitman, whose real name is never known, operating in the codename of the "Jackal" to kill an unidentified important American target. The Jackal demands $70 million for the operation, to which the mobster agrees. He also demands the first half to be paid in advance and the remainder on completion, adding that if there is an information leak, he will keep the first $35 million. Meanwhile, the MVD capture one of the mafia members. During the interrogation, the henchman reveals the name "Jackal". This, coupled with documents recovered from his briefcase, leads the FBI and MVD to assume the target for the retaliatory hit is FBI Director Donald Brown.

As the Jackal begins his preparations for the assassination—utilising a series of disguises and stolen IDs in the process—the FBI learns of one person who can identify him. FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston and Russian Police Major Valentina Koslova turn to a former IRA sniper named Declan Mulqueen, who had a relationship with an ETA militant named Isabella Zancona, who they believe can identify the Jackal. Mulqueen agrees to help in exchange for their best efforts to get him released from prison.

It's later obvious that Mulqueen has a personal motive for hunting the Jackal: the assassin betrayed Mulqueen and Zancona in Libya, also wounding Zancona while she was pregnant with Mulqueen's child, causing a miscarriage. Zancona provides information that can help identify the Jackal, including the fact that he is American with military training and combat experience in Special Operations and was stationed in El Salvador. Zancona gives Mulqueen a key to a drop box that has a clean passport and $10,000 cash for him to go back to Ireland. However, Mulqueen has given Preston his word not to run so that he can find the Jackal.

Meanwhile, the Jackal arrives in Montreal to pick up the weapon he intends to use but is notified by his Internet contacts that a group of hijackers have located and are pursuing his weapon. He kills the leader of the hijackers using an totally toxic substance sprayed on his car. After evading them, he hires small-time hood/gunsmith Ian Lamont to design and build a control mount for it, demanding Lamont's silence and that he return any documents that the assassin gave him. Underestimating the threat represented by the man, Lamont tries to blackmail him for more money; the Jackal kills him while test-firing the weapon. The FBI discovers Lamont's remains and, with Mulqueen's help, deduce that the Jackal plans to use a long-range, high cyclic rate weapon, i.e. a heavy machine gun for the assassination.

With the help of a Russian mole in the FBI, the Jackal realizes that he is being tracked by Mulqueen with assistance from Zancona, and he infiltrates her house after receiving an FBI access code from his source. Instead of Zancona, however, he finds Koslova and Agents Witherspoon and McMurphy. He kills the agents and mortally wounds Koslova. The Jackal says that Mulqueen "can't protect his women," which she repeats to Mulqueen before she dies.

As the Jackal executes his final preparations, Mulqueen realizes that his target is not Brown, but the First Lady, who is due to give a major public speech at a new Chemotherapy Center. The Jackal (pretending to be gay) has in the meantime been dating a gay man, Douglas, in order to gain a parking permit to be used for his assassination plot. The Jackal goes to his house to rig the gun up in his minivan. A news report comes on the television, telling how the authorities are looking for him, with a drawing of him but in a disguse. Douglas does not see the news report but The Jackal kills him in cold blood as he did not want any people left alive that know his face. During the opening of a hospital for which the First Lady is giving a speech, The Jackal plans to shoot her via remote control. Arriving just in time, Mulqueen successfully sabotages the Jackal's weapon by shooting the telescopic mount, while Preston blocks a bullet meant for the First Lady. Mulqueen then destroys the vehicle containing the weapon. With his plan disintegrating, the Jackal flees into the subway. After a cat-and-mouse chase through the subway tunnels, Zancona wounds the assassin and Mulqueen shoots him dead.

A few days later, Preston and Mulqueen stand as the only witnesses to the Jackal's burial in an unmarked grave. Preston reveals that he is going back to Russia to pursue the mobsters behind the Jackal, and that Mulqueen's request to be released was denied, but he will likely be moved to a minimum security prison. Preston's heroics in saving the First Lady have made him a hero in the FBI. Knowing that his current clout will prevent any real backlash against him, Preston turns his back on Mulqueen, allowing him to go free.