History Awesome / TwentyFour

* Jack is interviewing witness Marshall Goren, a complete HateSink guilty of kidnapping minors, child pornography and murder, and Goren smugly informs Jack that he's made a deal to testify against militia terrorist Joe Wald, who is connected to the day's threat. Jack calmly takes out his gun and shoots Goren dead while a horrified George Mason watches on, and then demands a hacksaw, which he uses to cut off Goren's head and present it to Wald's men to gain their trust.

* "I'm gonna need a hacksaw."

!!As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy]]. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''

This page was put to [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/CrowningMomentOfAwesome/24 crowner]], so here's the re-constructed page for you, now organized by season.

* Jack captures Henderson, only for him to ramp the smugness up to ten and get Secretary Heller on the phone. Heller, who's driving on a mountain road, sees that a sniper is aiming at him from a helicopter. Henderson starts to smug some more that Heller will be killed unless Jack lets him go. Heller takes things into his own hands, declaring that he won't be used like this before '''driving his car off the mountain''', leaving Jack free to go to town on Henderson. The best part? Heller is such a monumental example of AuthorityEqualsAsskicking that he ''survives.''

** Agent Walker should also get one for, in the same scene, [[WhatTheHellHero questioning Jack's humanity]], as well as for [[ArmorPiercingSlap bitch slapping him]] '''twice'''.

* Jack quickly runs out of bullets while running from two hitmen with automatic weapons. His response: take them both out with a [[AnAxeToGrind fire ax]].

* Although it in itself is a bittersweet moment, Renee's final scene in the Season 7 finale is her Crowning Moment of Awesome. Having captured the mastermind behind the tragedies in the day, Renee, having undergone twenty-four hours of BreakTheCutie, [[{{Angst}} spaces out angrily]] and alone as she looks at the captured Alan Wilson. Janis comes in to inform Renee that Alan's to be transferred out, but Renee, having come to a decision, tells Janis to get out. When Janis, knowing Renee probably wants revenge, refuses, Renee destroys the lock mechanism on the door and forces Janis to handcuff herself to a pole so no one can interfere, then walks calmly and silently into the interrogation room where Alan awaits. It isn't shown on screen, but it's heavily implied Renee decides that she's going to torture Alan to force him to give up information on the conspiracy. Although it's supposed to be a tragic moment -- Renee's heart-wrenching and inevitable descent from LawfulGood to ChaoticGood - -the fact that she's going along the exact same route as Jack's IDidWhatIHadToDo mentality gives fans a lot to look forward to.

* A kind of meta-example: When Morgan finally gets the evidence for Al-Harazi's imminent terrorist drone attack, ''everyone'' takes it right away. Her IT buddy confirms the code, her CIA boss sends it to the president, the chief of staff puts the call on speaker, the president orders all drones to be grounded, and the general in charge executes the order right away. You will '''not''' see this in a regular ''24'' season.
** Similarly, Jack's attempt to locate Margot by putting a virus on her arms dealer's computer system is interrupted literally at the last second by [=MI5=] agents... but Jack is still able to take time out from the ensuing firefight to finish uploading it. Having half the episodes really does light a fire under these people to get shit done.

* Another meta-example, doubling as a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}. President Heller tells his people exactly ''what everyone who watches this show wants to hear:''
-->'''Heller''': Jack wants her, Jack needs her, '''''Jack gets her'''''.

* Meta example for Kiefer Sutherland. It was ''four years'' since he had last played Jack, but picks it up again as if he had never left.

[[caption-width-right:350:"This is for Audrey, you son of a bitch."]]

* The cold opener of the show. A heavily armed CIA strike team surround where they believe Jack Bauer is and seemingly have him dead to rights when they storm into the warehouse he's been tracked down to. He leads them on a merry chase across a portion of South London, slowly picking off members of the team who outgun him through a judicious use of hand to hand combat. He is only captured when he gets cornered on the banks of the Thames with reinforcements on a Zodiac moving in along with the final agent on the team coming in from behind.]
** Jack allows himself to be caught by agents of a CIA black site. His internal reasoning? [[TrojanPrisoner To save Chloe, who had been captured days before]].
** The escape from the CIA black site also shows that Jack hasn't missed a beat since we last saw him. While being led down to the torture chamber by the JerkAss Agent Rittler, Jack first activates a pre-planted beacon in his wrist. He then chokes the arrogant, younger operative with his handcuffs, breaks loose, and before another agent can get to him, Jack is already sticking a Glock 17 in the man's face while delivering his first BadassBoast of the season. He then finds Chloe, revives her, and with Agent Kate Morgan bearing down on them, uses his gun to set off a colossal explosion which guts a significant portion of the building. Meanwhile, Jack's associate, who's been notified by the beacon, destroys a portion of the sidewalk with a grenade launcher, deploys a ladder down the newly created opening, and before any of the CIA personnel have realized how badly Jack has outwitted them, their prisoners are long gone.
** Mark Bodreau looking up Jack's file and finding a list of ''every'' kill he made over eight seasons. A very impressive sight and one hell of a FreezeFrameBonus.
** Jack singlehandedly dispatches a heroin dealer and his hired thugs without even breaking a sweat. And the prior conversation where you can tell that Jack just ''knows'' that those scumbags don't stand a chance against him.

[[folder control]]

!Day 1

! Day 2

! Day 3

! Day 4

! Day 5:

! Day 6:

! Redemption:

! Day 7:

! Day 8:

! Day 9/Live Another Day

* Renee Walker displays she's taken a turn towards {{Crazy Awesome}} since the previous season by slicing a suspect's thumb off to remove his parole bracelet.

** In particular the final shootout: the bad guys have their mole, Nina, tell him that Kim has been killed. "[[FamousLastWords He'll be here]]," [[TemptingFate one says]]. He immediately busts in, GunsAkimbo, and just starts emptying magazines. This place is ''filled'' with the dudes behind the ''real'' conspiracy that was behind what we ''thought'' was the conspiracy, and they'd been downright scary {{Out Gambit}}ting badasses who'd driven the tensest, most suspenseful action series you'd ever seen, holding all the cards ever since they were revealed. Then PapaBear lost his Kimmy, or so he thinks. The result is him going through like a machine, making every terrorist and {{Mook}} eat lead. Five minutes of ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' action later, a completely one-sided fight in which Jack mechanically, wordlessly kills whatever moves no matter what they try against him ends with him as the only living human being on the compound. All year, these guys were so unstoppable, so scary, so in control of the entire chessboard. Then one day they screwed with PapaWolf. Then they died. Special mention should go to the way he dealt with Andre and Victor Drazen. He engages them simultaneously in a gunfight, and Andre (despite arguably being the DragonInChief), is unceremoniously hit and killed with little fanfare. Victor almost beats Jack but runs out of bullets and surrenders. Jack then shoots him quite literally off the pier, ''shoots him in midair as he's falling, and finally shoots him some more once his by now dead body hits the water emptying the magazine.

[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/24_jack_kills_nina.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:340:After four and a half years, Jack finally gets the monster who murdered his wife.]]

'''As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''

[[caption-width-right:340:After four and a half years, Jack finally gets the monster that killed his wife.]]

* Sherry herself [[spoiler:getting shot dead (finally!)]] after again underestimating Julia Milliken and leaving her to fend for herself with the police.

* In the season finale, there's Logan discovering that he incriminated himself by threatening Martha while wearing a transmitter Jack had planted on him. The best part is, he suspects Martha is wired, it just doesn't occur to him that Jack wired ''him'' [[spoiler:that that was, in fact, the whole point of Jack's earlier publicly broadcast interrogation of Logan]]:

* The cold opener of the show. A heavily armed CIA strike team surround where they believe Jack Bauer is and seemingly have him dead to rights [[spoiler:when they storm into the warehouse he's been tracked down to. He leads them on a merry chase across a portion of South London, slowly picking off members of the team who outgun him through a judicious use of hand to hand combat. He is only captured when he gets cornered on the banks of the Thames with reinforcements on a Zodiac moving in along with the final agent on the team coming in from behind.]]
** Jack allows himself to be caught by agents of a CIA black site. His internal reasoning? [[spoiler:[[TrojanPrisoner To save Chloe, who had been captured days before]].]]
** The escape from the CIA black site also shows that Jack hasn't missed a beat since we last saw him. [[spoiler:While being led down to the torture chamber by the JerkAss Agent Rittler, Jack first activates a pre-planted beacon in his wrist. He then chokes the arrogant, younger operative with his handcuffs, breaks loose, and before another agent can get to him, Jack is already sticking a Glock 17 in the man's face while delivering his first BadassBoast of the season. He then finds Chloe, revives her, and with Agent Kate Morgan bearing down on them, uses his gun to set off a colossal explosion which guts a significant portion of the building. Meanwhile, Jack's associate, who's been notified by the beacon, destroys a portion of the sidewalk with a grenade launcher, deploys a ladder down the newly created opening, and before any of the CIA personnel have realized how badly Jack has outwitted them, their prisoners are long gone.]]

* Jack Bauer is in need for information which can only be found in the American Embassy. [[spoiler:When Chloe's new employer, Adrian Cross, screws him over, and with Kate Morgan once again breathing down his neck, he neutralizes an Armed Metropolitan police officer, takes said officer's gun, and, using his jacket to cover the weapon, begins delivering knee caps to a group of protesters outside the embassy gates while inciting a riot, forcing the Embassy to deploy their security, which opens the gate and allows Jack to waltz in.]]

* Jack tries to get [[spoiler:Simone Al-Hizari to come with him, as her mother has sent a hitman to kill her]]. Unfortunately, she's still under the impression that [[spoiler:her mother wouldn't hurt her]]. So Jack unceremoniously drops her in a hospital corridor and begins to walk away, [[spoiler:finally convincing Simone that she's in imminent danger]].
* Jack manages to escape Margot's hijacked drone in a massive car chase across a London suburb, narrowly avoiding multiple hellfire missiles. He manages to buy time to get out of the kill zone by [[spoiler:driving under a bridge, stealing another car to switch vehicles, and jury-rigging the previous car so it goes off and looks like it's still being driven, causing Margot to waste her remaining missiles blowing the empty thing up, realizing what's happened only after it's too late.]]
* The fake-out "death" of [[spoiler: President Heller]], while a bait-and-switch TearJerker, is also a would-be DyingMomentOfAwesome. [[spoiler: He deduces that by turning himself in to Margot, no matter what she does, he will win. If she is true to her word and won't kill anyone else, then he has saved hundreds or even thousands of lives by sacrificing his own. If she lied and goes ahead with the drone strike anyway, then she will be seen for the liar she really is. It also helps that he was suffering the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, and thus he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory [[DyingAsYourself with his memory still intact]] in order to protect innocent civilians, rather than slowly lose his mind, to the point where he may not remember his loved ones, until he eventually succumbed to the illness. He outwitted Margot simply by doing exactly what she said to do, and by doing the last thing she expected, simultaneously.]]
** [[spoiler:And in the next episode, he's now two for two in surviving a HeroicSacrifice he had every intention of being permanent.]]
* [[spoiler:How Jack kills Margot and Ian Al-Harazi. The two have just figured out that Heller is still alive and use their remaining drone to take out a tube station. Ian wants to bail before they're found but Margot forces him to stay. Sure enough, Morgan and Ritter arrive with some other CIA ops and begin to storm the apartment complex where they're hiding. While they shoot it out with Margot's henchmen, Jack reppels down the side of the building and draws Ian's attention to the window of the apartment. Ian walks over to the window, where ''Jack grabs him and throws him out to his death!'' Jack then shoots Margot to wound her, and manages to redirect the final missile to harmlessly impact the water. Margot sneers at Jack that every death that occurred this day was on the hands of him and Heller. Jack's response?]]
-->'''Jack''': [[spoiler:[[ShutUpHannibal The only death on my hands tonight]]...[[PreMortemOneLiner is yours.]] ''(Throws Margot out the same window to her death.)'']]
* Another plus of only having half a season: [[spoiler:Navarro]] tries to escape CIA headquarters after being found out by telling a security guard to lock the building down. Normally, this would be the setup for him escaping to be the new BigBad, but with only three episodes left, Jack is barely slowed down and soon catches up to him.
* After [[spoiler:Navarro]] has been exposed as a traitor and arrested. He (naturally) says he will only pass on the vital information he has in exchange for full immunity. Jack's response?

* Kate and Jack [[spoiler:seamlessly work together to get Navarro to tell them how to find the MacGuffin of the day before his immunity deal can be signed, by making him think Kate's gone over the edge from his betrayal and Jack is the only one who can stop her from summarily executing him (and this is only about half an hour after she learned about Navarro and was naturally frothing at the mouth over it). Then Kate tells him with utter calmness that she's going to be watching his execution.]]
* [[spoiler:Cheng Zhi proves that he's still CrazyPrepared by assassinating the daughter of the Chinese consul and holding Audrey hostage to ensure that China and the US go to war.]]
* Jack, Kate, and even [[TheScrappy Mark Boudreau]] get one when [[spoiler: they infiltrate Stolnavich's manor. Mark brides his way in, wearing a hidden camera. Once in, the CIA tech destroys the feed as Kate and Jack bust in, [[CurbStompBattle making quick work]] of his security detail. As this is happening, Mark fights off Stolnavich, who is trying to murder him. He's eventually able to take the diplomat down by sending the man crashing through a glass pane.]]
* Chloe O'Brian [[spoiler: in a lorry with Cheng Zhi and his men]] suddenly [[spoiler: grabs a pipe, takes out most of the guards and leaps from a moving vehicle!]] Up there with the M16 bit from Season 4.
* Jack [[spoiler: decapitating Cheng Zhi with a katana.]] As cheesy as it may have been, it was incredibly gratifying.
** But before that, [[spoiler: Kate reveals to Jack that Audrey has been shot. [[TearJerker At first, he falls into depression and pulls out a hand pistol]] [[DrivenToSuicide considering suicide]]. However, instead of ending it all, he puts the pistol away and goes into an UnstoppableRage and murders all of Cheng Zhi's minions and then [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat Cheng Zhi himself to near-death]].]]

** What sold it to me was allowing herself to be raped to save Kim. For this to be the same terrorist in the first example makes this even sweeter, and Hope Levy's comments about this are just the icing on the cake.
* One must be impressed by the way Presidential Candidate David Palmer faced down the hoodlums in the parking garage, not only by catching a swung baseball bat (not something one expects of a politician) but by speaking directly into their poverty after they recognize him. The pen is mightier, indeed.

* Marie's reveal was not only a CMOA, but makes her this troper's favorite villain in the series.

* Michael Amador luring a Delta team to an ambush. I know he's a bad guy, but that was beautiful.

-->''[Logan is taken away then spots, Martha and Mike Novic, who each have the smuggest smiles possible]''

* In the two short hours that made up ''24: Redemption'', we had time to both be introduced to Benton and witness his SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. He saves a wandering child from stepping on a landmine, but ends up stepping on it himself. If he lifts his foot off of it, it will explode. Benton tells Jack and the kids to leave him behind because it would take Jack too long to defuse the landmine. When the pursuing enemy soldiers come near Benton's position, he flags them down to get their attention, takes a few shots from their guns, draws them closer by pretending that he's trying to tell them Jack's location but is too hurt to speak loudly, and then says [[TakingYouWithMe "Go to Hell" and lets the mine blow up]].

--> "[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments This is so going to hurt.]] AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!"

* The BigBad of Season 7, Jonas Hodges has had some awesome moments so far. But in the latest episode, he killed someone who has been his friend for 20 years by hitting him with a bottle of scotch, then throwing him off of a balcony. After that, he just nonchalantly washed the blood off of his shirt and walked away. He outdid almost everything he has done this season.
* While the President's daughter, Olivia, has proven herself to be an [[MagnificentBastard unrepentant bitch]], you almost felt bad for her when she gets suckered into sleeping with a reporter, who then goes back on his word to run a story. I say "almost felt bad" not because she got what she deserved, but because it turns out ''she turns the tables'' on him by revealing she taped their sex and threatening to show everyone, including his wife, unless he packed up and left Washington immediately. You hate the bitch but you ADORE her gangsta. That, my friends, is what Wiki/TVTropes calls a [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]]!

* From the same episode: Once again, [[ReplacementScrappy Janice]] starts complaining when the FBI starts looking for all Muslims in Washington, as she feels it's racial profiling. Jack Bauer, who already served her once, [[TakeThat gets back in her face]]. But this time... Jack calmly tells her that he's just as pained as she that they have to racially profile all Muslims, but he's trying to save lives and he'll gladly do it another way if there is one. Janice backs down without another peep. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Jack is so Badass, he doesn't have to kick your ass to kick your ass.
* Everyone groans as Kim is put in danger to blackmail Jack yet again. However, this time, she stabs one of her captors (with a '''''[[ImprobableWeaponUser pen]]''''') just in time to get away from the shots the other one fires, then follows the man and lets the cavalry know his location. After his car flips over, she goes into the burning vehicle to get a key piece of evidence and manages to fight off his last desperate attack, severely burning her arm but getting away with the bad guys' location. She's officially DamselScrappy no more.

* President Allison Taylor demonstrates that even though she cares about her family, she is the President of The United States, and her duty comes first. In old-school Biblical fashion, she will no longer be called Allison Taylor. Henceforth, she will be known as [[FanNickname President Allison]] ''[[FanNickname Palmer]]''.

* Seconds after getting a '''completely''' unexpected knife in his gut, he pulls it out and throws it with perfect accuracy into a {{Mook}}'s trachea. Then he guns down the remaining bad guys through the wall, like he's already forgotten that he's seriously injured. And as if that's not enough, he then comforts the BrokenBird who stabbed him.

** Damn, [[Franchise/StarWars Darth]] [[FanNickname Bauer]]. DAYUM.

* The death of [[spoiler: President Heller]], while a TearJerker, is also a DyingMomentOfAwesome. [[spoiler: He deduces that by turning himself in to Margot, no matter what she does, he will win. If she is true to her word and won't kill anyone else, then he has saved hundreds or even thousands of lives by sacrificing his own. If she lied and goes ahead with the drone strike anyway, then she will be seen for the liar she really is. It also helps that he was suffering the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, and thus he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory [[DyingAsYourself with his memory still intact]] in order to protect innocent civilians, rather than slowly lose his mind, to the point where he may not remember his loved ones, until he eventually succumbed to the illness. He outwitted Margot simply by doing exactly what she said to do, and by doing the last thing she expected, simultaneously.]]

* The MidSeasonTwist in Episode 7 orchestrated by Jack, Tony and Gael. [[HolyShitQuotient The look on Chappele's face says it all]].

** Damn, [[Franchise/StarWars Darth]] [[FanNickname Bauer]]. [[HolyShitQuotient DAYUM]].

** The final shootout deserves more elaboration. To lure Jack in, the bad guys have their mole tell him that Kim has been killed. "[[FamousLastWords He'll be here]]," [[TemptingFate one says]]. He immediately busts in, GunsAkimbo, and just starts emptying magazines. This place is ''filled'' with the dudes behind the ''real'' conspiracy that was behind what we ''thought'' was the conspiracy, and they'd been downright scary {{Out Gambit}}ting badasses who'd driven the tensest, most suspenseful action series you'd ever seen, holding all the cards ever since they were revealed. Then PapaBear lost his Kimmy, or so he thinks. The result is him going through like a machine, making every terrorist and {{Mook}} eat lead. Five minutes of ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' action later, a completely one-sided fight in which Jack mechanically, wordlessly kills whatever moves no matter what they try against him ends with him as the only living human being on the compound. All year, these guys were so unstoppable, so scary, so in control of the entire chessboard. Then one day they screwed with PapaWolf. Then they died. Special mention should go to the way he dealt with Andre and Victor Drazen. He engages them simultaneously in a gunfight, and Andre (despite arguably being the DragonInChief), is unceremoniously hit and killed with little fanfare. Victor almost beats Jack but runs out of bullets and surrenders. Jack then shoots him quite literally off the pier, ''shoots him in midair as he's falling, and finally shoots him some more once his by now dead body hits the water emptying the magazine.

* His final battle with Fayed and about 6 terrorists with machine guns (while Jack himself had only a pistol), scored with perhaps the most operatic music the show has ever used. Jack ends up shooting to death all mooks and wrapping Fayed up in industrial strength chains, and tells him "Say hello to your brother" (who Jack had killed years before) before going to the controls and raising the chains into the ceiling, hanging him. When other agents finally arrive on the scene, all their leader can say is "''[[{{HSQ}} Damn]]'', Jack."

* Jack shooting a man ''through a wall'' in the MI6 L.A. bureau building.

** Damn, [[StarWars Darth]] [[FanNickname Bauer]]. [[HolyShitQuotient DAYUM]].

* George Mason's HeroicSacrifice was his personal CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

** MomentOfAwesome for Glenn Morshower as well: he nailed the scene ''in a single take''.

* In the two short hours that made up ''24: Redemption'', we had time to both be introduced to Benton and witness his CrowningMomentOfAwesome. He saves a wandering child from stepping on a landmine, but ends up stepping on it himself. If he lifts his foot off of it, it will explode. Benton tells Jack and the kids to leave him behind because it would take Jack too long to defuse the landmine. When the pursuing enemy soldiers come near Benton's position, he flags them down to get their attention, takes a few shots from their guns, draws them closer by pretending that he's trying to tell them Jack's location but is too hurt to speak loudly, and then says [[TakingYouWithMe "Go to Hell" and lets the mine blow up]].

* Jack Bauer is finally at rest, but asks to see one last person. But it's not Kim. It's the Imam from earlier. More like CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, but it can work here as well.

* Another meta-example, doubling as CrowningMomentOfFunny. President Heller tells his people exactly ''what everyone who watches this show wants to hear:''