‘Reacher’ Creator Cites Spy Thriller ‘The Day of the Jackal’ as Inspiration

When Jack Reacher first burst onto the scene in the 1997 novel, Killing Floor, it put creator Lee Child on the map as a fresh new voice in the thriller genre. Dozens of more books followed, as did two feature films starring Tom Cruise that received mixed reactions from fans and critics. When Prime Video’s Reacher debuted in 2022, it corrected everything the movies got wrong about the titular character, and quickly became what everyone wanted from an adaptation.

All that being said, had it not been for a novel published in 1971 by Frederick Forsyth, fans might never have gotten Jack Reacher in the first place. Like Child’s Killing Floor before it, it was Forsyth’s first work of fiction, and became an immediate bestseller once it hit store shelves. Also, like Child’s book, it was adapted into a movie long before it ever became a series in 2024. Child, a voracious reader himself, was so inspired by the novel that it eventually led to the creation of Jack Reacher.

Lee Child Called ‘The Day of the Jackal’ a “Game-Changing Thriller”

Focusing on a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS to kill the French president, Charles de Gaulle, The Day of the Jackal remains one of the most popular spy thrillers of all time. Published on Aug. 6, 1971 in the United States, it won the Best Novel Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1972, solidifying Forsyth as a dominant force within the genre.

What made it different from other thrillers at the time was that The Day of the Jackal read more like a documentary than a spy novel. Forsyth, a former journalist, went into great detail about the minutia, explaining things like the cost of fake passports and how one acquires a black-market weapon. “It had a wholly new approach. It was talking about how things were done, rather than would something succeed,” Child told the BBC in 2021, adding:

As such, reading The Day of the Jackal had a profound impact on Child that would later seep into his own writing. “It really did affect me,” he continued. “I assumed when I was writing that people were going to be interested in the minutiae and the details and the accuracy — how it felt to have been in the Army and the things that he must have done in the Army.”

Eddie Redmayne Shines in ‘The Day of the Jackal’ on Peacock

The Day of The Jackal was eventually adapted into a feature film in 1973 starring Edward Fox that holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2024, another adaptation made its way to the small screen courtesy of Sky Atlantic in the UK, and Peacock in the United States.

Starring Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal, the series obviously makes significant changes from Forsyth’s novel to update it for a modern world, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s an excellent spy thriller. Redmayne shines as a morally complex assassin being hunted by MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch).

Rated 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, there’s only one season of The Day of the Jackal thus far, which is made up of 10 episodes. That makes it an easy-to-binge show that you can quickly get through in a weekend. For those looking for more, have no fear, because it’s already been renewed for Season 2, which is expected to premiere late this year or early on in 2027.