Series | 24 |
---|---|
Caption | Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer |
Name | Jack Bauer |
Portrayer | Kiefer Sutherland |
Lbl1 | Appearances |
Data1 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
Lbl2 | Other Appearances |
Data2 |
Jack Bauer is the main protagonist of the American television series 24. His character has worked in various capacities on the show, often as a member of the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) based in Los Angeles, and working with the FBI in Washington, D.C. during season 7. Within the 24 storyline, Bauer is a key member of CTU and is often portrayed as their most capable agent. Bauer's job usually involves helping prevent major terrorist attacks on the United States, saving both civilian lives and government administrations. On many occasions Jack does so at great personal expense, as those he thwarts subsequently target him and his loved ones. Bauer's frequent use of torture to gather information has generated much controversy and discussion. Entertainment Weekly named Jack Bauer one of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland portrays Jack Bauer in the television show and video game. The television series ended on May 24, 2010 after 8 successful seasons. A feature film is now underway. TV Guide ranked him #49 on their list of "TV's Top 50 Heroes".
Sutherland must produce around 24 hours of film each season, "which is like making 12 movies, so there are going to be mistakes along the way, but I am incredibly surprised by how many things work well as a result of working at that pace."
Jack has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Science degree in Criminology and Law from the University of California, Berkeley. He enlisted in the United States Army and later graduated from Officer Candidate School. He was a member of Delta Force and specialized in infantry operations. Among his awards and decorations are the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and the Legion of Merit. He received Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, and Special Forces training. He left the Army in the rank of Captain after fifteen years of service. Following his military career, Jack worked for both the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics unit and for the Central Intelligence Agency as a case officer in the clandestine service. He was recruited into the Counter Terrorist Unit by Christopher Henderson.
He has demonstrated a high proficiency with firearms (typically the SIG P229 or USP Compact), explosives, electronic devices, resistance to torture (after being kidnapped by Chinese agents, and tortured for almost two years, it is revealed he hasn't spoken a single word for the whole time). He is fluent in German (Season 8) and has demonstrated some ability to either speak or understand Spanish (Seasons 1 & 3), Russian (Season 6), Arabic (Season 8), and Serbian (Season 1). He is also shown to be capable of flying planes (Season 2) and helicopters (Seasons 3, 5 & 8).
Jack's final dialogue with Renee Walker in Season 7 offers insight into his perspective on torture and its ramifications:
Jack is told that Audrey Raines died looking for him in China, but later discovers that she has actually been kidnapped by the Chinese. He completes an exchange with the Chinese and manages to save Audrey, as well as his nephew who gets mixed up in the events when Phillip Bauer returns. Audrey has lost her memory and does not remember Jack. Jack tearfully bids goodbye to Audrey after being told by her father, James Heller, that he cannot give her good enough care. The season ends with Jack staring out into the horizon, uncertain of his future.
Looking for a place where he can 'be at peace', Jack finds himself traveling the world and eventually winds up in the fictional African nation of Sangala. Here, he stays with his old friend and former special forces colleague Carl Benton, who runs a school for rescued war orphans. During his stay in Sangala, Bauer is found and subsequently subpoenaed by a state department official to appear before a senate hearing to answer questions concerning his activities with CTU, for which he has been trying to avoid for more than a year.
When a sudden military coup takes place in the country, Jack helps Benton bring the orphans to the U.S. embassy so that they can leave the country and escape rebels who plan to turn them into child soldiers. After Benton is killed, Jack turns himself in to a subpoena executed by U.S. Marines and allows himself to be arrested at the embassy in order to let the children be removed from the war zone.
However, it becomes clear that Juma was not working alone: he had support from within America, in the form of a private military company called Starkwood. Juma and Starkwood CEO Jonas Hodges had collaborated to develop a bioweapon, a fast-acting strain of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, which Hodges attempts to use to force President Taylor to include him and Starkwood in the highest circles of American government. Fortunately, the bioagent is destroyed before deployment via Tony's efforts, with only one known victim: Jack himself, who was exposed to the prion while attempting to escape with it. FBI physicians predict death within two days; while an experimental treatment involving the stem cells of a family member does exist, it has a low probability of success. As Hodges is arrested, it becomes clear that he is but one link in a larger chain: the leaders of many American PMCs have been assisting his efforts, and had planned to use his bioweapon for similar purposes. Tony is revealed to be an agent of this inner circle when he escapes with the only remaining canister of bioweapon. Though his attempts to deploy it are foiled, he manages to escape custody when his allies capture Kim Bauer, who had flown to DC to watch the Senate hearings, and threaten her with death unless Jack breaks Tony out of FBI custody. Tony thereafter reveals that his actions ever since resurrection have revolved around Alan Wilson, leader of the PMC conspirators and the man who ordered the assassinations (as seen in the opening moments of season 5) of former president David Palmer, Chloe O'Brian, Tony himself and his wife Michelle Dessler, who, Tony reveals, was carrying their unborn child. Tony and Wilson are both remanded to federal custody, while Jack makes peace with his impending death, unaware that Kim has volunteered to provide stem cells for the experimental treatment.
Jack's emotional state is more central to the story than it has been in previous seasons. Though he and Senator Mayer begin the day with attitudes of mutual antagonism, Jack later visits him at his home for information on Starkwood (Mayer had been investigating Starkwood as well as CTU), and the two come to an understanding: both of them want to live in a world where Jack's methods are unnecessary, even though they have somewhat different means of bringing that world to fruition. He wins the respect of a Muslim imam, Muhtadi Gohar, while attempting to apprehend a terror suspect (whom Tony had framed), and in fact turns to Gohar for spiritual guidance at the end of his life. He is able to make peace with Kim, despite the many years and pains between them. However, his most notable emotional relationship is with Renee Walker, who quickly establishes her willingness to abide by the law when she allows Jack to torture a suspect who may be protecting Almeida. Renee is possessed of the same hatred of injustice as Jack, but is very hesitant to employ the methods he uses; the two characters personify the debate that has raged on the show (and about it) for many years: whether the ends justify the means. The final important revelation offered this season was that Jack by no means believes the law to be unnecessary or weak, stating that he "know[s] that these laws have to be more important" than the often few people he is trying to save (one must assume that 24 only reveals rare exceptions, and that in the "regular/workday" life of CTU, the targets are much smaller); however, despite this belief, he contends that his "heart couldn't live with" sacrificing innocent persons, however few (the example he cites is "fifteen people on a bus"), for the sake of maintaining some abstract law or legal fiction.
On learning of an assassination attempt on Kamistani President Omar Hassan prior to peace talks with Russia, Jack contacts Chloe O'Brian at CTU. They learn that someone very close to Hassan is the suspected assassin. When Chloe asks for Jack's help, he says that he is done, but his daughter persuades him to help CTU foil the assassination attempt. The bomber is identified as one of the security personnel and Jack saves Hassan by killing the bomber.
Farhad Hassan (brother and Chief of Staff to Omar Hassan) is closely involved in the assassination as well as with smuggling nuclear fuel rods. This latter subplot involves Jack and Renee Walker going undercover to try and identify the location of the rods. Samir Mehran has the rods and wants to use them as leverage (as dirty bombs) to capture President Hassan. President Taylor asked Jack to protect President Hassan, but Hassan surrenders himself to Mehran to protect innocent lives being lost. Hassan is executed leaving Jack to apologise to President Taylor for his failure.
Jack and Walker return to his apartment and after a passionate moment together finds the two looking to their future, she is shot by a sniper (hired by the Russian foreign minister, Mikhail Novakovich). Renee dies shortly after in the hospital with a distraught Jack looking on. With revenge his only concern, Bauer attempts to interrogate Dana Walsh (a CTU mole), but President Taylor intercedes and orders that Jack be transferred to McGuire Air Force Base. In transit, he hijacks a helicopter and immediately tracks down an old friend, Jim Ricker, to supply him with weapons.
As he tracks Walsh, Jack is crossed by Chloe, nevertheless he finds Walsh and discovers the Russian involvement in the conspiracy behind President Hassan's death. Jack kills Walsh in cold blood after her failed attempt to escape with the information. This also leads him to Pavel Tokarev, the sniper who killed Renee. After brutally torturing Tokarev, Jack realises that the information he needs to discover the full extent of the conspiracy is on a phone SIM card, swallowed by Tokarev. Tokarev dies as Jack evicerates him and retrieves the card from his stomach. Tokarev's last contact was with former President Charles Logan. Jack captures Logan who leads him to Novakovitch, but unknown to Logan, Jack had placed a bug on him. After tracking down and eliminating Novakovich and his bodyguards, Jack then, via the bug, discovers that Logan is conspiring directly with Russian President Yuri Suvarov.
In the final hour of the series, Jack sets up an operation to take down Suvarov by having Logan ask Suvarov to come to his residence. Jack sits across in the next building with a sniper rifle aimed straight at Logan's room. However, before he has a chance to pull the trigger, Chloe intervenes, saying that they can use the recording Jack made of Logan and Suvarov's conversation as evidence. Jack agrees and gives her the recording. He then forces her to shoot him to avoid suspicion. As Jack is being transported to CTU, Logan (under the indirect authorization of President Taylor) arranges for his ambulance to be ambushed. In the final scene of the show, Jack is taken to a construction site to be killed. However, the agent charged with killing Jack receives a phone call from President Taylor, who had found them through a CTU drone via Chloe, Arlo, and Cole's help. Taylor orders the agents to stand down and release Jack.
In the final moments, Jack contacts Chloe at CTU. Still watching him on the drone, Chloe tells Jack that she and Taylor are buying time for him to flee the country, as he will now be pursued by both Russian and American agents for the events of the past hours and the revelation of the Russian conspiracy. Jack looks towards Chloe (at the drone), and tells her to protect Kim and her family because anyone that comes after him will try to use her to lure him out of hiding. Chloe promises to keep them safe and before running off, Jack tells Chloe that he had never thought it was going to be her that helped him through the years. He thanks her and then begins running away (which leaves the story open for the feature film), as Chloe tells Arlo to shut down the drone. The camera focuses and fades out on Jack's face one last time before the final clock, the only clock in all 8 seasons to count down from 3 seconds to 0.
With that, Bauer is released from custody and the interrogation ends.
Diamond Select Toys released 1/24 scale Minimates based on 24:
Enterbay released 1/6 scale figures based on 24:
McFarlane Toys released 1/12 scale figures based on Jack Bauer:
Medicom Toy (Japan) released 1/6 scale figures based on Jack Bauer in their Real Action Heroes line:
American politicians and lawyers have taken to using Jack Bauer and his actions to frame the debate on American interrogation techniques, which have become an object of intense controversy.
For example, at a legal conference in Ottawa, Canada, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took offense at a Canadian judge's remark that Canada did not consider what Jack Bauer would do when setting policy. Scalia shot back: "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles.... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives... Are you going to convict Jack Bauer? Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so."
Category:24 (TV series) characters Category:Fictional characters from California Category:Fictional government agents Category:Fictional Delta Force personnel Category:Fictional soldiers Category:Fictional martial artists Category:Fictional captains Category:Fictional vigilantes Category:Fictional American people of German descent Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2001
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