TOP TEN Moments from 24

Published on: 18th December, 2009

TOP TEN Moments from 24  | read this item

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With its eighth season set to commence next month, the long-running thriller 24 has become one of the most acclaimed and successful shows in recent years. Not only revolutionising the action genre (paving way for the likes of The Bourne Identity and the James Bond revival), 24 has also been credited for reinventing the flagging career of former brat packer Kiefer Sutherland, whose appeal had somewhat diminished over recent years. Depicted in real-time and with an ever-present clock indicating that time is almost up, the show was first broadcast just two months after 9/11, yet tackled such themes as terrorism and government conspiracy.

With its tortured protagonist Jack Bauer, a former Special Forces soldier and now director of the Los Angeles branch of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), Sutherland created what was become his most recognized role, constantly breaking the law and defying orders in an effort to keep both his country and family safe from invading forces.

The hi-tech show has since gained a cult following and eight years on is as popular as ever. To celebrate the arrival of Season Eight, here’s a look back at some of the highlights over the last decade…

10 – Since his introduction in Season Four, Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) has been one of Jack’s closest allies, which makes his death all the more poignant. With The White House having been besieged by a foreign army led by the merciless General Juma (Tony Todd who, incidentally, had appeared briefly in Season Three as a detective), Jack and Bill fear for the life of the new president Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones), who is being forced to read a statement to the world that would embarrass the United States. In an effort to end the crisis, Bill grabs one of the guards and detonates his explosives, allowing Jack enough time to take the president to safety.

9 – Once again Jack’s past comes back to haunt him when he discovers that the architect behind the latest terrorist attack is Stephen Saunders (Paul Blackthorne), a British soldier who had been under his command when he had been sent oversees to assassinate Victor Drazen (Dennis Hopper), who had been responsible for the brutal murder of thousands of citizens. Unknown to Jack, Stephen was captured and tortured for many years and was now taking vengeance against the government he felt had abandoned him. But when Stephen discovers that CTU head Ryan Chappelle (Paul Schulze) is tracking money to one of his accounts, he orders Jack to execute Ryan or else he will release a deadly virus and kill thousands of innocent citizens. Unable to discover Stephen’s whereabouts in time, Jack is forced to carry out Stephen’s demands.

8 – Although he was led to believe that his best friend, disgraced CTU agent Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), had been murdered by Henderson several years earlier, Jack is informed that not only is Tony still alive but is responsible for a wave of terrorist attacks that have plagued Los Angeles for several months. With CTU having been abolished, Jack joins forces with FBI agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) to pursue Tony to discover the truth behind his supposed death and new alliance. Tracking him down to a harbor, Jack and Rennie engage the enemy in a gunfight, before Jack chases Tony and apprehends him. Unable to believe his eyes and shocked by how much his friend has changed, Jack eventually allows Rennie to take Tony into custody to be interrogated back at FBI headquarters.

7 – Jack has never been sure whether or not he could trust his superior George Mason (Xander Berkeley), having been convinced that he had stolen money from a bust and placed it into an off-shore account. After Terri’s death, Jack had quit CTU and spent the following eighteen months estranged from his daughter and close to suicide. So when it is discovered that a plane has been rigged with a nuclear bomb and that the only way to guarantee that it would crash in a safe area was for a pilot to manually fly it to its destination, Jack volunteers for the mission. But George, who had been infected with radiation early that day and was close to death, stows away on board the plane, he gives Jack another chance to survive and join Kim by taking the plane down himself. The bomb explodes safely in the desert, with minimal environmental damage and George being the only casualty.

6 – Four and a half years have passed since his wife Terri (Leslie Hope) was murdered by fellow CTU agent-turned-traitor Nina Myers (Sara Clarke) and Jack has been unable to cope with the fact that she had been given a presidential pardon and deported. But when Jack’s undercover operation to take a deadly virus off the market relies upon him having to work alongside Nina, he must hide his true feelings and convince her that he a fugitive from his own country. When they are double-crossed and the virus is stolen, Jack takes Nina back to CTU but she manages to escape, only to come face-to-face with Jack’s daughter, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). Unable to shoot the woman responsible for killing her mother, Kim almost suffers the same fate before Jack intervenes. Instructing her to walk away, Jack takes one last look at Nina before executing her in cold blood.

5 – Having served his country with distinction and now enjoying retirement, former president David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) is writing his memoirs about his time in office. Whilst visiting Los Angeles with his younger brother Wayne (DB Woodside), he is assassinated by a sniper from an adjacent roof. Minutes later, former CTU agents Tony Almeida and his wife Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) hear about the death of Palmer but as they leave their home Michelle is killed by a car bomb and Tony is seriously injured. It is revealed that all of this was an effort to keep Palmer from the truth and to coax Jack out of hiding, having faked his death eighteen months earlier and is now living under an alias, and was ordered by President Logan.

4 – The United States is under attack once again, this time from Middle Eastern terrorist Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo). When it is revealed that he is a former employer of Los Angeles-based defense contractors McLennan-Forster and had planned his attack whilst working there, the company takes any means necessary to stop Jack from uncovering the truth. Having traveled to their office with Paul Raines (James Frain), the estranged husband of Jack’s lover Audrey (Kim Raver) and designer of the company’s computer system, the owners decide to set off a powerful Electromagnetic Pulse bomb (EMP), which would destroy anything electrical in the immediate area. With an entire neighbourhood in blackout, looting immediately commences whilst soldiers from McLennan-Forster lead a manhunt to track down Jack and Paul, who have obtained critical evidenced. Forced to hide out in a weapons store, the two pair up with the owners in an Assault on Precinct 13-style showdown against the heavily-armed assassins.

3 -With enemies coming at America from all sides, it was perhaps inevitable that eventually the president himself would be responsible. Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) had not only been responsible for the death of one of his predecessors, David Palmer, but had also masterminded various attacks on American citizens, orchestrated by former CTU agent Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller). When Jack obtains evidence of his corruption by hijacking a plane, Logan orders the military to shoot it down. Realizing that he has very little time, Jack forces the pilot to perform an emergency landing on a quite freeway. The plane touches down just before the military jets arrive and a desperate Logan reluctantly calls off the strike.

2 – After a year and a half of torture in a Chinese prison, Jack is returned back to America to be sacrificed to a terrorist who demands vengeance for the death of his brother. But Jack soon realizes that the conspiracy runs much deeper when he discovers that his own brother Graem (Paul McCrane) was behind Logan’s conspiracy and the death of Palmer. But it is soon revealed that Graem was just a pawn and the real mastermind was his father, Philip (James Cromwell). When Graem’s son is kidnapped by Philip and taken to an oil rig off the coast of Los Angeles, Bill offers to fly Jack out without the approval of CTU to rescue him. With a strike force sent to bomb the rig in an effort to destroy sensitive data, Jack has only minutes to defeat his father and save his nephew before the rig explodes.

1 – Forced by the Drazens to assassinate Senator Palmer as revenge for the attempted murder of Victor Drazen, Jack’s only ally at CTU has been his former lover Nina. Having been advised that there was a mole in the government and one of his own may be working against him, Jack suspects both Tony and George, until it is revealed that the traitor is Jamey Farrell (Karina Arroyave), whom Jack had believed was one of the only ones he could trust. But when he is falsely informed by Nina that Kim’s body has been found, Jack breaks into the Drazens hideout and kills all of the terrorists. Jack’s wife, Terri, is informed that the danger is over and that both her husband and daughter are safe. But when she searches for Nina to thank her for her help, she discovers that she is the real traitor and is tied to a chair whilst Nina erases any information that could incriminate her. Unfortunately, Terri overheard Nina talking in German which leaves a loose end and when Jack finally arrives at CTU he finds that Nina has murdered her. Whilst there have been more action-packed sequences throughout the seasons, it is this twist ending that paved the way for the direction that the show would later take. An alternative ending saw Terri survive and the Bauers enjoying a happy ending, but thankfully the producers went with the more emotional and shocking conclusion.

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