MovieChat Forums > The Jackal (1997) Discussion > Why change the colour of the vehicle?

Why change the colour of the vehicle?

posted 18 years ago by hsmith2007
54 replies | jump to latest

In my view "The Jackal" was a completed pointless remake of the original "Day Of.." as well as being much poorer. One specific that really bugs me, however, are the two scenes that cover the colour of a van that The Jackal used. In the first he practiced spraying a top layer of white paint from the van, changing the colour to blue. He was particularly interested in how long this would take. I waited with interest to find out why he was doing this but when it came, nothing was explained. After a chase scene he ended up in an undergound car park, sprayed the white paint off, put some highly toxic paint on one of the van's handles and cleared off. Baddy turns up, sees the stream of white paint that has been washed off, goes to the now blue van, touches handle, dies. What was the point of all this? Hardly the actions of a cool, efficient assassin!

[–] esenthiel 17 years ago

I don't understand the bafflement. He wanted to see how long it would take to change the color of his vehicle in case he was being pursued. If he knew it took him thirty seconds, but he had people on him that were only ten seconds away, he may've resorted to some other measures... however, if he estimated they were forty-fifty seconds behind him, he'd have time. Knowing how long it would take is somewhat important.

[–] martindunne 17 years ago

The car scene does work.
He is being hijacked, lulls one of the criminals into a false sense of security (by changing the colour then leaving it in a puddle of paint) and kills him. There is one thing left unexplained. It's not him or the car they're after, but the gun. The car is disposable, the gun isn't. The gun vanishes in this scene, and presumably it's not in the car. Where is it?

[–] Alyssa-the-Critic 14 years ago

How come almost everyone here does not get this.. IMDB fail or what?

It breaks down like this...

1. Tension filled car wash scene #1 gives you the notion he is using special paints and methods to in-all-likelihood attempt to flawlessly elude POLICE. Police being people who if they are trying to track vehicles? Go by make, model, color and plates..(ie he can change two of those identifiers with his methods)

2. He picks up the weapon in the van, gets chatter from some inside source that he is being targetted by the unlikely and un-anticipated hi-jacker element. He lures them to his hotel, and makes sure to see that they are parked and lights off...BEFORE he goes through the entrance, and knowing they would either be on foot to pursue, or be waiting out there at least a minute or so or why turn off the car? So, he races down the basement as fast as possible once he sees their parked car and lights off happen.

3. Knowing his wash-off time already (a well planned methodical persons behaviour)he attempts to either completely throw them off by a simple paint remove + plates fake out...PLUS he also rigged the back hatch with a poison in case they discovered the car by MAKE, and model and went to thoroughly check all cars with that minivan look. (because from his characters perspective, he didn't know they were going to discover the car SO CLOSE to it being still visibly wet + residue of paint running)

There wasn't any showing of the jackal knowing how long they would take to go in after him. Therefore his "best case scenario" would be a blue DRY car with no paint running in a drain, and different plates ; in a 4 level car garage! That could be easily enough to confuse them for 20 mins once they start their search.

Do some thinking next time guys :P Those who doubted its relevance are stupid or attempting to troll the board claiming it's a bad movie with unfounded heresay. No contest on that assumption.

[–] RomeClone 14 years ago

Also, someone asked why the gun disappeared. It didn't and I don't know where you got that idea. It's still in the back of the van which is why Bruce sprays the toxic stuff on the handle. He did that just in case the color swap didn't work.

As for where he goes, it clearly shows him go up to his hotel room and grab his bags. Presumably he comes back down and drives his now blue van with different tags to another hideout or hotel.

Why is this scene so hard for everyone to understand?

It's like they need to be beaten over the head with Bruce looking at his watch when he's spraying it down to remind them of the first time he did it. He knew how long it took to change the van's color, and based on that he knew he had enough time to do it in the garage before the thugs could catch up to him on foot. Did you want Bruce to turn to the camera and say "Remember how I did this before and timed it? Well this is the part where that pays off."

The fact that it didn't ultimately work is irrelevant. The thug caught on and Bruce knew that was a possibility so he sprayed the handle with the toxic stuff. If it had worked, you same people would be complaining that it was too convenient and wouldn't the thugs notice his van is soaking wet? Well that's exactly what happened. They actually went a more realistic way with it and you're all still complaining. Either you're nit-picking douches or you're too stupid to understand the scene. Either way, holy *beep* guys.

[–] Alyssa-the-Critic 14 years ago

Yeah they really are so damned stupid and IMO they are trolling these boards. Usually randoms who think they can out-smart people using logic like you and I, RomeClone.

I'm glad some logic got injected into this thread. Hopefully idiots don't tarnish a good quality movie with their supposed plothole radar (which is failing them)

[–] gary_overman 14 years ago

There have been situations where I did not see the answer to something that was practically staring me in the face, but it does not mean that I was stupid. It simply means that for whatever reason the answer did not dawn on me.

To me, and a couple of others in the thread, the reason for changing the color of the van and timing the removal of the paint was obvious, but apparantly it was not clear to the OP.

It does not necessarily mean that the OP was stupid. It just means that the answer did not come to him (or her).

[–] alioth4 13 years ago

"3. Knowing his wash-off time already (a well planned methodical persons behaviour)"

Yeah, that suggested to me that it was an evasion technique he'd used before, probably often, on his jobs. One of the things he drilled himself on regularly (and he probably drilled other moves regularly that we didn't see because we didn't need to see). The original scene where he's drilling the wash and timing himself was probably to impress on us just how thorough and methodical (and thus how formidable a foe) he was. And as we're told through Declan, he was in a business that didn't forgive mistakes.

[–] flobiwan-1 13 years ago

Unless i missed it, i don't think i heard an answer to what the OP was getting at - or at least what confused me about it.

I understand why he would want to change the color in general. But what was the purpose in changing it at THAT particular time? If he was going to poison the hijackers anyway, wouldn't he WANT them to see the van? Why disguise it if the point was to bait them into trying to open the van? Once the hijackers are dead, he could take off in the same white van since nobody else was chasing him at that moment. Why waste his color change on that moment?

[–] cbaker03 12 years ago

The Jackal was simply being prepared for the possible consequences of undertaking such a serious assignment. Repainting the vehicle with a quickly removable color was an insurance against the possibility of being followed by the police. As it turned out the assassin was found to be carrying a highly desirable prototype weapon hi-jackers were looking to steal. Anyone looking to open the gate of the vehicle would soon become asphyxiated by the noxious chemical sprayed on the latch. A deadly chemical absorbed through the skin. As for the color change being made at that time...what`s the harm...by the time the weapon was mounted ready for use, the van color had become red. White, blue and red....3 possible combos for the authorities to try and track down, and the assassin parading as a police officer is perfect cover in an area swarming with police after the fact, comparable to what was likely done on the grassy knoll back in 1963.

[–] RomeClone 12 years ago

Flobiwan, the purpose of changing the color at THAT particular time was because he wanted to fake out the hijackers in the garage. If that didn't work, the poison on the handle was a backup plan.

You're assuming his plan was to poison the hijackers all along, but you contradict that in your own post. You ask, "If he was going to poison the hijackers anyway, wouldn't he WANT them to see the van?". Yeah. Yeah, he would. But he did change the color. Clearly he didn't want them to see the van but in case they did, the poison was a backup plan.

Also, you're assuming nobody else was chasing him at that moment. All he knows is he is compromised and that there is at least one car full of hijackers after him. There could easily be others after him at the same time, possibly even a backup team for the hijackers in the garage. He knew he had to move again after either dispatching or evading the hijackers, so changing the color of the van would at least give him an edge in case others are aware he's in a white van.

[–] washcloud 12 years ago

Interesting post the one of the thread starter, interesting responses of the ones that so hastily jumped on him and called him names - well I think all this deserves an interesting answer :

(Even though hsmith2007 seems to have been fed up with the turn his thread took and never posted again since 2007) one has to take into consideration certain facts to deal with the initial questions asked :
Kinda plot-holey to begin with, the fact that "The Jackal" [u]did not change the original colour of the van he bought under the name of a stolen ID[/u]. I mean, "for an extremely meticulous villain", he should have AT LEAST thought of it, shouldn't he. He namely should have painted the van a whole different colour that the one that came with when he bought it. He THEN should have undergone the procedure of applying that "thin layer of washable paint" and move around with that "seemingly white van".

Now as for the "timing" crap that got the thread starter too uneasy with : it WAS an unnecessary element of the script, 'cause like he wrote, it got us all thinking "The J" was gonna need it at some point of the movie and we all have been waiting for it, but it never came to practice. Timing the whole procedure would be meaningful, only if he needed to apply it at some instance where even seconds mattered. 'Cause the whole gig lasted something around one minute (if one adds up the time needed to change plates, and he most surely wouldn't need to count seconds if just in need to escape from some random predicament like the one he was faced with in that hotel garage with the hijackers after him : he would either attempt it ("changing the color") or not, without setting a chronometer again, but rather based in his general knowledge about how much time is needed. So he didn't even need to set the chronometer in the first place : it apparently was something that was gonna take a minute's time...
All-in-all, the stopwatch stuff got us started and it proved to be redundant...
It does not qualify as some hole in the plot though.

Finally, the toxin thing : we never find out what happened either with the dead hijacker or his companions. Assuming that there were scenes that got cut in the final editing, the director probably kept the whole "flashy" toxin scene (impressive as hell in a movie like that), while he got rid of the rest. Rest maybe being "TJ" killing the other two hijackers as well in that garage where they probably went and found their dead companion. After all one was down (making it easier for "TJ" to deal with the others) and the rest two probably didn't expect to find him lying lifeless next to the van. Maybe even one of them dropped dead by touching the toxin as well. Cut scenes sometimes screw things up a bit and leave unanswered questions. Plot hole? Probably not. Messy editing rather.

[–] OtisCriblecoblis 12 years ago

See original film - ludicrous actions call for equal measures. Agree that action in the original was not very convincing - but hurried action when was called for...

[–] tay-15 12 years ago

Hilarious thread - but despite all the hurled insults, the OP's five-year-old point still applies. It doesn't make sense and you can't have it both ways. If he was trying to throw them off with the color change, fine, but then everyone arguing the "logic" is that the poison was a back-up. OK, then what happens next? Who finds the body? Are the hijackers just going to split without further investigation?

All of you mouth-breathers imploring us to "think" didn't think 30 seconds past the end of the scene, and the biggest assh-les on this thread didn't even try explaining (because they can't).

And no, imaging scenes possibly cut out of the film doesn't fly - and if you have to go to such lengths to explain something, then the initial question is quite valid indeed.

It's just not a very credible scene, among many others in this film.

"Get on board, dick."

[–] layton59 10 years ago

Hey I was in that parking garage that night and some a-hole had parked his minivan in the car wash spot.

I told the parking garage attendant and he said he would get it towed.

I am glad that I did not try to open the rear hatch.

I guess the two other hijackers had removed their dead friends body by the time I drove up.

Furthermore, the van and the pavement were dry when I saw them.

Still not sure why The Jackal would want to change his van's color at that time and leave one, two or three dead bodies around his van holding the $200,000 Polish gun.

All in all, this movie has more problems than a college math textbook.

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