Movies
The Day of the Jackal: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Sky Series
In The Day of the Jackal, Eddie Redmayne plays a mysterious assassin. While the character is fictional—based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel—there was a real-life figure known as “The Jackal.”
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, born in October 1949, was a Venezuelan terrorist responsible for assassinations and bombings in the 1970s and 80s with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a journalist discovered a copy of The Day of the Jackal in one of Sánchez’s London safe houses, leading the media to nickname him "Carlos the Jackal." However, later reports from The Guardian suggested that the book actually belonged to an informant, Barry Woodhams.
Sánchez didn't choose the name “Carlos” either—it was simply on one of his false passports. His real name was Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, and his father, a Venezuelan Marxist, named his other two sons Vladimir and Lenin. He was arrested in 1994 and remains imprisoned in France, serving consecutive life sentences.
Forsyth’s novel, however, was actually inspired by Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, a former French Air Force lieutenant colonel who attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle.
According to NBC, Bastien-Thiry and three shooters ambushed de Gaulle’s car in Petit-Clamart, a suburb of Paris. They sprayed the vehicle with machine-gun fire, missing their target but leaving 14 bullet holes and two punctured tires. One bystander was injured, but de Gaulle survived unharmed. Bastien-Thiry, claiming de Gaulle was a "tyrant," was later captured, convicted, and executed by firing squad.
While The Day of the Jackal takes inspiration from real events, Forsyth’s fictional assassin diverges from history, creating a thriller rooted in a blend of fact and fiction.
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