The Day of the Jackal (2024)
The titular protagonist may have been a master assassin, but he is also a master of disguise, as seen throughout the first season. The Day of the Jackal is a modern version of the 1973 film, which in turn was based on a 1971 book written by Frederick Forsyth. The latest iteration takes the form of a TV show, and after a successful first season, the show has been renewed to continue for a second season.
The central figure, the Jackal, is a mysterious man who works as a hired mercenary, earning huge cash rewards for taking down targets. In this line of work, it is essential that he knows how to use a weapon, to take down targets effectively, and that he is able to escape without his identity being revealed, and this is where his other spectacular skill comes into play. . The Jackal is a master of disguise, using a variety of techniques to hide behind alternate characters and costumes.
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Ralph
In fact, when the series begins, the Jackal looks nothing like the actor Eddie Redmayne, who plays him. Instead, he listens to a voice recording, imitating his tone and mannerisms, and the man is revealed to be a rather old and frail person. In fact, the Jackal killed and stole the identity of the janitor of a German company and has now shaped his face to look the same with the help of prosthetics. But beyond the look, the Jackal aligns his voice and uses his native ability to speak the German language and convince others that he is this man, named Ralf.
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Anthony Mallinson (British)
After his attack in Germany, the Jackal tries to find an alibi. To this end, he has already contacted a collector in Nuremberg, close to where the coup took place, and arranged a meeting to see his collection under the name Anthony Mallinson. Mallinson is an upper-class individual who collects rare games such as chessboards. Upon leaving the country to cross the border with France, he is stopped at a checkpoint where he shows his passport to a guard stating his name and British nationality, although the Jackal claims to live in Paris under that persona.
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Charles Calthrop
Next, the Jackal is seen using the name Charles Calthorp. However, this is especially strange since the people who know him by that name are his wife, his son, and her family. It appears that the Jackal fell in love while using one of his fake identities, and has now built a life and family as this character. His son was still named in honor of this figure, as he was called Carlitos, which is the Spanish equivalent of the name Charles or Charlie. Having lived with this name for so long, the Jackal can actually identify with this name more than most.
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Alastair Thirsk
When traveling to Riga, Latvia, to accept another contract, Jackal uses another new identity to travel under his passport and to conduct his business. As Alastair Thirsk, he remains a British citizen who appears to be the same age as the Jackal, although he is completely bald. He also uses this identity to visit a bank and obtain details about a recent payment, which indicates that the Jackal has accounts in this name that he accesses, or at least uses to conduct his private business and receive payments from clients.
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José Bauer
While the Jackal tries to find out who his most recent client was, having failed to pay the Jackal what he is owed, he needs to obtain private information from a company in Germany. To do this, he again uses prosthetics to transform himself into a frail elderly man named Josef Bauer. Bauer appears to have several medications that he needs to take regularly and difficulty moving around. However, he is one of the first frequently used identities that Jackal uses when he has a different nationality, as this man's documents state that he is a native of Germany.
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Anthony Mallinson (French)
Anthony Mallinson is an identity that the Jackal used at the beginning of the show to establish an alibi to explain why he was in Germany, but later in the show, he uses this same identity when fleeing Germany after killing the dishonest customer. Despite sharing a name, Anthony Mallinson, on this occasion, is of French nationality, and his driving license confirms this detail to a police officer who arrives at the scene of a minor collision between the Jackal and a delivery man. So although the name is recycled, it is certainly a different character and identity than the upper class collector who hails from the UK.
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Peter Gibson
His next job is for the Jackal to travel to Estonia to prepare to kill a high-profile tech billionaire named Ulle Dag Charles. Before the event where the UDC will arrive in Tallinn, the Jackal arrives and pretends to be an architect called Peter Gibson to gain exclusive access to the site and explore the surroundings. Peter Gibson flirts with a young man named Rasmus, who works at the venue, and is given the chance to explore the building alone with an all-access key card before the event. Later, when he returns to Estonia, this is the name he gives to the police officers who knock on his hotel door.
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Frederick McCarthy Forsyth
Despite using Peter Gibson's identity upon arriving in Tallinn, Jackal uses another identity to enter the country. With heavy prosthetics that transform him into an elderly man who has difficulty walking without the aid of a wheelchair, the Jackal travels to his destination with the help of several airport employees. This is also the disguise he uses when he is on board a flight on which MI6 agents Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) and Vince Pyne (Nick Blood) are also boarding. A brief look at the Jackal's various passports later in the series reveals that the character's name is Frederick McCarthy Forsyth, which is a nod to the author of the original novel.
Another identity that the Jackal uses while in Estonia is not named, although it has some characteristics distinct from Pedro and Frederico. This man appears to physically resemble the Jackal, although he also has slicked back hair, large glasses, and, distinctively, his foot is shod in a large boot. This boot is actually a special custom weapon made by Norman Stoke that will allow the Jackal to take a sniper with a limited number of uses to the location without being noticed. Unfortunately, Rasmus identifies this character and calls out the name he recognizes Jackal by, Peter. To protect his identity and avoid being caught, he kills Rasmus as this character.
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Alexandre Duggan
Alexander Duggan appears to be the true identity of the Jackal seen in the show. While serving in the British Army, Alex Duggan was a key player in the overthrow of Taliban leaders. However, he became disillusioned with the army after seeing horrific acts committed by his colleagues and decided to forge his own path as a mercenary for hire. To make a clean break, the Jackal killed the rest of the unit and caused the military to assume he was dead along with his allies. Interestingly, this is the main identity used by the Jackal in the 1973 film, although in this version of the story it is a false identity.
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Richard
After finally completing his mission and killing UDC, the Jackal is forced to think quickly and make hasty choices. He crashes vehicles, steals a truck and soon introduces himself to an elderly couple who are on vacation in the countryside trying to cross the border. To appear less intimidating, Jackal puts the ring on his finger, wears glasses, messes up his hair to look disheveled and walks around with an exaggerated injury. To the elderly couple, he introduces himself as Richard, and they are happy to provide him with a ride to a nearby hospital, but he soon pulls out a gun and reveals that he is not who he claimed to be.
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Andrew Lee Clarke
In The Day of the Jackal At the end of season 1, the Jackal finally arrives at his home in Cádiz, Spain. At this point, he finds his house empty, with his wife and son having already fled. Frustrated and thinking, the Jackal takes several passports and bags of money to leave. Several of the characters previously portrayed can be seen in these travel documents, but one who has not been referenced thus far is Andrew Lee Clark. Clark is another British native, although he has no clear physical distinction from the Jackal.
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Ukrainian National
Finally, another passport glimpsed in this brief scene shows the face of the Jackal, who claims to be a Ukrainian citizen. Due to the writing being in Cyrillic script which is used by the Ukrainian language. This is another character that was not revealed in The Day of the Jackal Season 1, but there's a chance he could appear in Season 2.