A group of conspirators contracts the Jackal, a professional hitman, to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle of France. The killer starts to put his painstaking plans into action, creating a new identity, establishing his alibi and commissioning a custom-made weapon, while out-foxing the French police at every turn. Fred Zinnemann's adaptation of Frederick's Forsyth thriller, with Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Alan Badel, Tony Britton and Cyril Cusack.