History Awesome / TwentyFour

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

* [[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 is GenreSavvy enough to want 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's "towel" speech, or the final shootout at the pier with the Drazen brothers.
** 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.
* Teri gets one when she shoots the man who's trying to strangle Kim... remember, this is ''before'' we know Kim's going to [[DamselScrappy make a habit of getting into these situations at complete random while having no relevance to the overall story]]... and then she ''shoots him again,'' calmly telling Kim that the man's boss was expecting to hear two shots.

* The moment right before when Kevin/Alan Not!York gets into the limo before realizing that Jack's behind the wheel. "Hello, Alan."
** Jack unblinkingly watches Kevin unload his entire pistol into the bulletproof window between the two of them.
* David Palmer walking into CTU '''''[[MemeticMutation LIKE A BOSS]]''''' [[note]](as in, he really ''does'' own the place)[[/note]], without any kind of foreshadowing beforehand.

* In the penultimate episode, Jack and Christopher Henderson work together and assault the submarine Vladimir Bierko has taken over. While Henderson disables the missiles, Jack slaughters Bierko's men including killing one man by shoving his face into burning hot steam and breaking Bierko's neck with his ''legs''. Henderson, aware that [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy Jack will now kill him in revenge]], ambushes Jack...only to learn that Jack took the bullets out of his gun fully anticipating this. Henderson's [[GracefulLoser proud grin]] at Jack at and their final exchange is one the of best parts of the season:

** 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.'''

* Before it became clear how much of an ObstructiveBureaucrat he would become, Lynn McGill actually accomplishes one during the airport hostage crisis. Jack has been held under duress by the terrorists and is forced to lead on Curtis' team that it's okay to start their assault, even though doing so would lead to an ambush. However, Jack specifically tells Curtis that he is in a "flank two" position. Lynn, curious, decides to run through the transcript of their call, something that annoys Bill and Chloe, who see it as redundant and a waste of resources. However, with less than 60 seconds before Curtis' ill-fated assault could begin, McGill runs in and informs Bill that "flank two" was an outdated duress code from back when Jack used to work at CTU, something that no one was able to realize up to that point because they ran the code through CTU's ''current'' protocol filter. Thanks to this, Curtis is able to abort the assault and redeploy the men so that they utterly ''[[CurbStompBattle trounce]]'' the terrorist faction, suffering no casualties on their part.

* 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 TVTropes calls a [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]]!

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* 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.

** 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.]]

** 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 {{Badass}}es 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.'''

** 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 beat Cheng Zhi himself to near-death.]]

* Jack escapes from captivity by a cell of terrorists by ''[[TheLostBoys biting out a guard's throat.]]''

** 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 {{Badass}}es 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 {{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.'''

* 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 {{The Kimberly}} no more.

** But before that, [[spoiler: Kate reveals to Jack that Audrey has been shot. At first, he falls into depression, but then he decides to murder all of Cheng Zhi's minions and then beat him to near-death.]]

** But before that, [[spoiler: Kate reveals to Jack that Audrey has been shot. At first, he falls into depression, but then he decides to murder all of Cheng Zhi's minions and then beat him to near-death.

* Jack [[spoiler: decapitating Cheng Zhi with a katana.]] As cheesy as it may have been, it was incredibly gratifying.

* Jack [[spoiler: decapitating Cheng Zhi with a samurai sword.]] As cheesy as it may have been, it was incredibly gratifying.

* 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.

* 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 quit 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.]]

* 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 quit work]] of his security detail. As this is happening, Mark fights off Stolnavich, who is trying to gun him down. He's eventually able to take the diplomat down by sending the man crashing through a glass pane.]]

* 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 quit work]] of his security detail. As this is happening, Mark fights off Stolnavich, knocking him through a glass pane.]]

* [[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 is GenreSavvy enough to want 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 Margots 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.
* Kate and Jack [[spoiler:seemlessly 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.]]