The Day of the Jackal (2024) is the latest adaptation of the 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, but there are plenty of differences between the original story, and even the 1973 film. Eddie Redmayne stars as the titular Jackal, a master assassin who completes contract kills on behalf of private clients. While the story features a lot of commonalities with the original story, there are distinct changes from the beginning.

However, the TV show is not the first adaptation to alter the story from the source material. Just two years after the novel was published, a feature film starring Edward Fox as the lead was released, and it took some liberties with the story. Despite this, the 1973 was an attempt at a faithful adaptation, while the modern TV show aimed to update and build on the story which is foundational in the earlier text.

8The Day Of The Jackal Resets The Story To Modern-Day

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On that note, the 2024 TV show takes a story that was designed as historical fiction when it was released. Initially, the novel examines the 1962 failed attempt on Charles de Gaulle’s life, and then launches into a fictional narrative around that. The entire story is thus set in the period before the internet, before many other pieces of high-tech equipment were created, and the world was generally a very different place than modern audiences could recognize and be familiar with. As a result, the show gave the story a complete contemporary makeover.

The Jackal coordinates deals with clients through encrypted internet chat rooms, he uses a variety of technology to research and prepare for his missions, he uses weapons made with 3D printers, and he is generally an expert in manipulating tech to his advantage. Likewise, the target in the story is now positioned as a tech billionaire who intends to launch a program that will make money and spending more transparent, which would put a lot of the mega wealthy in hot water. All of this is much more modern and distanced from the original novel and the subsequent film.

7The Target Is A Tech Billionaire Instead Of A Politician

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Within the original story, the Jackal is hired to carry out the assassination of Charles de Gaulle, by his political opponents, the OAS. de Gaulle was the president of France during the period when the novel and film are set, and so, the job is about as high profile as it can get for the mercenary who is recruited to pull it off. However, with de Gaulle being a less well known figure to people in the world today, the target is replaced with a fictional character, whose name is almost an anagram of de Gaulle’s.

Ulle Dag Charles is a tech genius whose wealth has grown exponentially due to his popular products and software. Now, he stands as the richest man in the free world, and with that wealth, he hopes to offer more transparency to everyone else. As a result, he designed a program called River, which will show the flow of money and make transactions visible to everyone. This means that those who horde wealth, or acquire greater wealth through shady means would be exposed. Obviously, the billionaires of the world are less than enthusiastic about this idea, and a target is placed squarely on UDC’s head.

6Bianca Doesn’t Exist In The Books

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Bianca Pullman, played by Lashana Lynch, is an agent of MI6 who has a tenacity that makes her the ideal person to track down the Jackal. Using her connections, exhausting her relationships, and placing her laser focus on the case, Pullman not only discovers the Jackal’s true identity, she recognizes when he is behind a murder, and even finds his home and family. Despite this, the character is not present anywhere in the novel, and the actual agent who brings the Jackal down is a French detective.

Detective Claude Lebel is an unassuming man, whose ability to blend into the background and go unnoticed helps him to uncover details that many others miss. While other agencies are looking for the Jackal, Lebel has a quiet determination and intellect that makes him the man for the job. While others are misdirected, and fail to spot the clues, Lebel’s singular focus makes him the man who eventually takes down the Jackal.

5The Jackal Has A Wife And Child

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Precious little is revealed about the Jackal in the original text. He chooses his codename when he is hired to assassinate de Gaulle, and after that, he goes about crafting false identities. One of these is Alexander Duggan, which in the 2024 show is actually the Jackal’s true identity. However, his real name remains hidden, and the Jackal appears to have no life outside his work. The updated show provides a very different Jackal as he leads a double life.

On one side, the Jackal is a father and husband who goes by the name Charles Calthorp. Calthorp is a wealthy British businessman who lives with his wife and child in Cadiz, Spain. However, his work often takes him away for days and weeks at a time. These ‘business’ trips actually turn out to be the Jackal’s contract kills, as he departs from his home, and begins hunting down whatever target is put in his path. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to lead a double life.

4Moral Lines Are Blurred In The TV Version

Despite the Jackal in the novel and 1973 film being charismatic, and in some ways charming, he is quite clearly the villain of the story. He is a hired mercenary, and he does not have much in terms of redeeming qualities. Instead, he operates for a terrible client base, committing awful illegal acts, and then goes about his day with no shred of guilt or remorse. The Jackal in the TV show is a very different story, with many of the other characters becoming morally gray as well.

The Jackal is clearly a loving husband and father, who wants to provide the best for his family. However, out of greed, vanity, or some other motivation, he continues to do incredibly awful things for money. On the other hand, characters like Bianca Pullman believe they are on the right side of the law because she works for MI6, but in the course of her investigation, there is a trail of dead bodies which can be traced back to her and her aggressive methods. Bianca is also so committed to her work that she is willing to risk her family, and her own life.

3The Ways In Which The Jackal Disguises Himself

In the film, the Jackal uses Alexander Duggan as his primary disguise. He also puts together a handful of other identities which allow him to travel and interact in various ways while remaining aloof. Some of these disguises require physical changes and transformations, but for the most part, the differences are subtle, and they simply make him look just different enough to pass as someone else other than himself.

However, the 2024 show has the Jackal physically transformed on several occasions, as he designs and wears prosthetics that turn him into other people and unrecognizable figures. In addition, he uses false identities, expert language skills, make-up, clothing, and a change in his character in order to create other identities. Eddie Redmayne excels in this capacity as he embodies these different roles and gives each unique personalities and characteristics.

2The Jackal’s Employers Are Upper-Class Elites

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The Day of the Jackal originally had the far-right terrorist organization, the OAS. This paramilitary group employed aggressive and violent tactics to meet their goals, including assassinations, bombings, and torture. As they opposed Charles de Gaulle and his leadership in France, they hoped to have him killed, and they pooled together their resources to be able to afford to pay the Jackal and have their rival taken out.

In the modern show, the OAS is replaced by a small collaborative team of billionaire business executives. These individuals sit in a high tower in New York, hundreds of miles from the action as it plays out. They employ someone to act as a go-between to keep themselves clean, and they wish to protect their fortunes from both prying eyes and anyone who may lay claim to a part of it. Once the mission is complete, these billionaires hope to avoid paying their debts by allowing the Jackal to be killed, and ultimately prove just how similar to groups like the OAS they are, despite not being an official terrorist group.

1The Ending Of The Day Of The Jackal

At the end of The Day of the Jackal, the Jackal comes incredibly close to killing Charles de Gaulle, but he misses his first shot. As a result, Lebel and a colleague hear where the Jackal is positioned, and they rush to the room before he can unload another shot. At this point, the Jackal kills Lebel’s accomplice, and the pair share a brief glance between them. Then, Lebel snatches the gun from the dead officer, and unloads it into the Jackal, killing him instantly and putting an end to the game of cat and mouse that the pair were caught up in.

However, in the show, the Jackal manages to successfully eliminate UDC and avoid being captured. At this moment, Bianca has left MI6, but she is called back in to help in the aftermath. Pulling together all the clues she has uncovered, Bianca manages to find the Jackal’s home, and stakes out the house until he returns. In their final conflict, the pair share a few words, and there is a moment where they stare at one another through a one-way mirror, but the Jackal is the one who is left standing when he shoots Bianca dead from behind in The Day of the Jackal.