Trivia: When The Jackal is in the Finnish hotel about to meet with Terek, the TV is playing a documentary about Hyenas. The commentator on the program is actually voiced by Jim Clark, the editor of The Jackal. (00:10:05)
Trivia: The scene in which the Jackal kills Douglas was re-shot at Bruce Willis' request. He wanted to show that Douglas was killed because he knew too much about the Jackal's identity, instead of simply because he was gay. (01:32:00)
Trivia: When Richard Gere asks Koslova about her name, you can hear the theme song for the 1970's TV show Kojak playing in the background. Richard Gere was in the Season 4, Episode 1 of this show called Birthday Party. (00:29:10)
Trivia: Just a few months before his death at age 91, Fred Zinnermann, who directed the original The Day of the Jackal (1973), on which this movie is based, actually fought Universal Studios to change the name of the film. Saying that the original had stood the test of time and he did not want the remake to bear the same name. (00:01:25)
Trivia: Because the Jackal and Mulqueen don't meet until near the film's climax, Bruce Willis and Richard Gere were never together for the majority of filming. They have both since described principal photography as resembling production of two separate movies. And reportedly when they would meet, they would ask each other "How's your movie going?"
Trivia: Bruce Willis improvised the moment when The Jackal draws a heart on Valentina's face with her own blood. (01:26:00 - 01:26:25)
Trivia: When The Jackal is racing his van into the parking garage to spray the paint off and get away from the weapons hijackers, he stops next to a pillar with the number 5 on it. Bruce's stunt double actually messed up on the first take, and while skidding the vehicle he smashed the van into that pillar and caused about $8000 worth of damage to the car. The stunt double actually then elected to not take his $300 bonus for filming since he caused that damage. Luckily, the production crew had two of the vans and were able to reshoot with the duplicate. (00:49:15)
Trivia: The location where Isabella and her family's house is located in the film was originally intended to look much different. They had scouted the location and found it to be warm, inviting and romantic. Director Michael Caton-Jones stated that he wanted the place to look like she had found a place away from it all, in a nice romantic setting with her family. However, before they came back for shooting, a hurricane had hit the place and destroyed the trees and landscape. They had to cut down dead trees, insert other trees and even spray paint dead leaves green to try and give it a more lively appearance after the hurricane. But they didn't quite get the effect they wanted and had to just bite the bullet and use what they could. (00:32:40)
Trivia: On the set where the FBI and the MVD are watching the interrogation of Politovsky, they ran into an issue. There was a miscommunication with the set designer and the room he created only had three walls. This presented a problem for the film crew as they had to have shots from behind, and in front of the actors in shots showing their faces or the screen they were watching. But as luck would have it, they happened to have a ceiling piece with a panted mural upon it that was about the right size. They were able to fit it into the set to be the wall behind the actors and it happen to work great, showing this painted wall in the background. But that was originally meant to be the ceiling. The director stated that they just got really lucky with that one. (00:18:25)
Trivia: For the Charlie Murdock disguise that The Jackal uses to buy a minivan, the fat suit that Bruce Willis wore was very hot and made him sweat. The film crew decided to incorporate this into the movie, and is why when in this disguise the Jackal always appears over heated and sweaty. (00:21:10 - 00:45:55)
Trivia: According to the director, in the scene where the henchman is reporting to Terek about the death of Ghazzi and where Terek kills this man, the extra at the end of the table with the broken nose was real. They did not apply makeup to his face for that look. That the actor had gotten into a fight the night before and someone had shoved a glass into his face. He turned up on set like that. (00:08:20)
Trivia: Bruce Willis stated had been wanting to play the villain in a movie for some time before this film, and that he thought the Jackal would be a fun character to play.
Trivia: In the weapon's test scene before The Jackal kills Lemont, Jack Black was instructed to act stupid and annoy Bruce Willis. Jack Black improvised all his lines in that scene. (00:55:20)
Trivia: Early in the film, Richard Gere has a mustache and goatee as he wanted to go with a different look than his usual popular image. However the studio was unhappy with this, and forced Gere and the director to shoot an additional scene after accepting the job, where he asks for a decent razor. Thus, him being clean shaven in the rest of the film. (00:29:00)
Trivia: Sean Connery, Liam Neeson and Matthew McConaughey were all offered roles in this film but turned them down.
Trivia: Richard Gere was first considered for the role of the Jackal until it was given to Willis, since Gere turned it down and wanted to play the hero. And this is not the first time that Willis got a role that Gere was considered for. Gere was also offered the role of John McClane in Die Hard but he turned it down.
Trivia: Frederick Forsyth, the man who wrote the novel "The Day of the Jackal" Insisted that his name be removed from the credits of this film. Which is why the movie is billed to be based of the Day of the Jackal screenplay by Kenneth Ross, and not the novel. (00:03:10)
Trivia: Several different actors were originally considered to play the role of Declan Mulqueen, including; Richard Dean Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Jeff Bridges, Gary Busey, Kevin Costner, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Tommy Lee Jones, Michael Keaton, Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman, Dennis Quaid, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, and Patrick Swayze.
Trivia: Edward Fox, who played the Jackal in the original The Day of the Jackal movie, is rumored to have rejected a cameo role in this remake.
Answer: Because she's dying, in shock, losing blood, and in pain.
raywest ★