Goofs

In the shooting at the Petit Clamart ambush the lower part of the rear window of the presidential limousine is shattered and falls to pieces, but when the car arrives at the airport the rear window, though badly cracked, is still largely in place.

The amount of gray in Lebel's hair changes noticeably in different scenes, beyond what lighting conditions would account for. Much grayer for some reports given in the conference room, distinctly less so in other settings.

When the Jackal parks the blue car (he had stolen from Madame de Montpellier) between two other vehicles there is absolutely no space for him to move out from the driver's seat. But in the next shot we find him easily maneuvering himself out.

When the Jackal crashes into the car travelling in the opposite direction he clips it on its nearside rear quarter and the nearside front door opens on impact. However, when he goes to check on the driver after the crash the nearside front door is closed.

When the Jackal is first trying to get a target on the president, the shot is taken outside the building and you can clearly see rain pouring down the roof tiles. The next shot shows the president and the crowd all dry with no sight of rain anywhere.

When Wolenski gets the mail from the post office, the narrator says the mail is addressed to General Delivery. But Wolenski is shown opening a P.O. Box; General Delivery mail is held at the counter and called for by name.

The assassination of Rafael Trujillo is one of the most documented killings in world history. The entire complement of assassins were caught, tortured and executed within a month of the murder. The killing wasn't particularly well-planned and it didn't require the efforts of an accomplished assassin like The Jackal.

This is a holdover from the source novel and it's as incorrect there as it was in the film.

The Jackal's spectacles should have immediately fogged up when he entered the sauna bath - instead they remained clear.

When the Jackal prepares to take his final shot at the melon in the forest, he is clearly shooting with the rifle on his right shoulder, but he views the sight with his left eye. No sniper could see reasonably through the sight with his opposite eye, which turns his head away from the intended line of fire.

When the Jackal checks the hotel register for Mme de Montpellier's details, you see that her address is near Lyon. When he steals her car, the number plate is clearly visible and ends in 63 which is the department number for Clermont-Ferrand which is in another department 170km away from Lyon where the number plates end in 69.

During the mass scene at the cathedral, the priest is seen standing behind the altar facing the congregation. At the time the movie is set (1963), the priest would have his back to the congregation. The change in the mass was one result of the Church's Vatican II council in 1968.

After Vatican II convened in 1962 (not 1968) this was one of the first changes to the mass. It cannot be established whether Notre Dame instituted it in 1963, but certainly it would have been well before 1968.

When discussing the Hotel Garibaldi, Wolenski is shown in a film holding a case containing mail chained and handcuffed to his wrist, prompting someone to remark that you would have to "cut his hand off to get the mail away from him." This is, of course, not the only way. You could cut the chain or handcuff, unpick the handcuff lock, or even pick the lock on the case open while it was still chained to his arm, to name a few others.

The person making the statement was not being literal - he was using a metaphor to show how tight security around the mail deliveries was.

The Jackal is wearing no eye protection while welding the exhaust pipe.

He is not welding, he is soldering, and eye protection is not necessary.

It is sometimes claimed that The Jackal hides the pieces of his disassembled rifle in his car's exhaust pipe, which would prevent the engine running. The pipe in question is fat and corrugated, not slim and smooth like an exhaust pipe.

When the Jackal is crossing into France and gets called into inspection, his suitcase seems to switch from a single to a double strap closure. However as we see later when checking into a hotel, he has two suitcases.

When the Jackal is shot with the machine gun his body is lifted up several feet in the air and thrown back against the wall. This would not happen with any small arm or light weapon.

Near the beginning, the conspirator on the motor scooter, wearing a full-face helmet that covers his ears, stops at a café and begins making a phone call without removing his helmet.

When the Jackal enters the final apartment to carry out the attempted assassination, he uses a key, taken from the lobby, to open the apartment door. When he has entered, he does not re-lock the door with the same key but turns a dead lock, which is higher up the door, to secure it. However, when the policeman with Lebel shoots the lock to break open the door, he fires at the lower lock. The door falls open, yet no shots were fired at the upper lock which is securing the door.

All the entries in the hotel's guest book are in the same handwriting. Every hotel requires each individual guest to sign in themselves.

When Victor is knocked out, kidnapped and tossed into the back of the van you can clearly see the actor holding his head up off the floor of the truck as the door is being closed.

In the final scene no one reacts to the sound of the gendarme's submachine gun shooting the lock out, the parade continues uninterrupted.

When Duggan steals the number plates of the couple's car in the forest, the registration of the Alfa Romeo that Duggan drives shows 161741 GE on the front plate and GE 161741 on the rear one.

It appears there is some confusion over the rank of the Special Branch officer played by Tony Britton. In the film's dialog he is called Chief Superintendent Thomas by Mallison and other characters in the British segment, but he is called Inspector Thomas in the end credits.

Lebel says "repeat that again" but he should have said "say that again" or "repeat that".

As the Jackal is being buried, one of the gravediggers is shoveling dirt on top of his coffin. However, just before the scene fades, he does not throw in the final shovelful, keeping it on the spade.

When the man on the motor scooter stops at the cafe in the first few minutes of the movie, we see an August 1964 calendar on the wall, but the movie is set in August 1963.

All of the clothing and hair styles reflect the early 1970s, when the film was made, and not 1963 when the film takes place.

When arriving at Gare d'Austerlitz a SNCF class 6500 can be seen behind the Jackal. These locomotives were introduced in 1969, even though the film is set in 1963.

A Morris Minor can be seen bearing a white front number plate; these were introduced as an option in 1968.

As the Jackal is approaching the border checkpoint, a Ford Escort can be seen driving towards him. The story is set 5 years before this model was introduced.

A character says "we better get a search warrant" but his lips are not moving.

When the Jackal is supposedly approaching the border between France and Italy from the Italian side, he drives along a downhill curve past a sign telling him that the border is 23km away. The scene was actually shot on the D52 road on Cape Martin, France.

When the Jackal enters the flat, he opens the door with the mortice lock key but he secures it with a deadbolt above it. The gendarme shoots at the mortice lock but has no idea of the existence of the bolt yet the door opens easily.

The Jackal is supposed to be one of only three guests who checked in at the hotel that day. Supposedly Colette is one of the other two guests, since she tells the Jackal that she had spent the day attending her son's graduation ceremony at his school in the Alps. That means the Jackal's alias ("Duggan") must be entered on the first or second line above or below Colette's name in the guest book. "Duggan" is not entered anywhere near Colette's name in the guest book. Also, more than two names are entered below Colette's name (on the same page as well as on the next page of the guest book), which means there were more than three guests who checked in that day.

The Jackal arranges to meet with the gunsmith and the forger again on 13th and 14th August respectively but he visits the forger first.

When the policeman at the end of the movie examines the Jackal's identity documents it shows his address as that of the apartment from which he intends to do the shooting.

However, the Jackal visited and decided to use this address after he had met with the forger and had no further contact with him until the day he killed him.

Therefore the forger would not have known to put the address of the apartment on the identity documents.

When the Jackal is in the forest testing the rifle, he fires the first shots looking through the scope with his right eye, making adjustments as needed. When he test fires with the explosive shell he is shown using his left eye.

A professional like this would know about 'eye dominance' and that switching eyes to aim can throw off the aim, substantially over a large distance.

At the hotel, the Jackal checks the guest book to find out Colette's room number. Each guest has a date of birth next to their name, Colette's being August 1933, which would have made her 30 at the time the film was set (1963), however, her character is supposed to be around 40 and has a 19-year-old son.

While discussing Charles Calthrop's possible involvement in the 1961 assassination of General Trujillo, the British detectives refer to the latter as dictator of Dominica. Rafael Trujillo was in fact dictator of the Dominican Republic, a different nation in the Caribbean. In a later scene where Calthrop's passport is shown, we see the visa stamp for "Republica Dominicana", Spanish for Dominican Republic.

When Lebel is advised by telephone that the Jackal has passed through the border into France in his white Alfa Romeo, he is told the license plate number is GE 1741 when, in fact, the license plate number on the Jackal's car is GE16 1741.

The officer in a tan suit walking in front of the troops is wearing very dirty shoes. Any officer would be wearing spotless shoes for a military parade.