History Series / TwentyFour

** Jack died, ''twice''.

* DamselScrappy (formerly "TheKimberly")[[invoked]]

* DiesWideShut: [[spoiler: Bill Buchanan]]

* HappilyMarried: Brutally subverted by [[spoiler:Jack and Teri, in particular the latter's death]], as well as [[spoiler:Tony and Michelle's reconciliation after Season 4 that comes to a swift end during the start of Day 5.]]

** Season Four: Jack prevented Marwan's plans from coming to fruition, but in the process, [[spoiler: he captured a Chinese consulate in a sting operation to get information to stop Marwan. This wound up killing one Chinese representative in friendly fire, Jack let Audrey's ex-husband Paul die on an operating table to save the aforementioned consulate, who also got wounded from friendly fire, and the resulting operation forced Jack to fake his death and flee the country]]. The worst part is that this could have been prevented if Charles Logan let Jack go through with the original (though illegal) operation to capture Marwan the first time. All the more ironic, considering what happened [[HarsherInHindsight next season...]]

* RandomEventsPlot: Season 4. Oh, dear God, season 4. Try to keep up: [[spoiler: The terrorists derail a train to steal a briefcase, then abduct the Secretary of Defense and plan to execute him live on the internet, but it's ''really'' a Trojan Horse to get viral programming code to spread across the web and use the mysterious briefcase to [[EverythingIsOnline override every nuclear power plant in the US and cause them to melt down]]. Once that's averted, it's revealed the defense contractor that built the Override may be complicit in the day's events and hire mercenaries to kill Jack Bauer, who's investigating them. So far, fairly coherent. Then things go awry. The defense contractor subplot is dropped as quickly as it's introduced in favor of [[DisasterDominoes a series of increasingly ludicrous]] [[RubeGoldbergDevice and convoluted]] terror attacks. It turns out the nuclear power plant meltdowns were just to keep Air Force 1 in the air so a mercenary can steal a jet fighter and shoot it down. Not content with ''murdering the leader of the free world'', '''that''' turns out to be a play for recovering the nuclear football from the crash site, which terrorist leader Habib Marwan then uses it to locate a nuclear warhead in transit [[ArtisticLicenseGeography in the mountains of Iowa]], which he then installs in a missile assembled in someone's garage, and then uses to try and nuke Los Angeles. ''Which would have happened anyway if he'd succeed in melting down every nuclear power plant''. And all the while, Marwan evades capture from CTU no less than '''five times'''. And this plot isn't even the focus! Mostly it's happening in the background while CTU bickers like children and are preoccupied with out-of-nowhere subplots like the [[StrawmanPolitical legal crisis over mercenary Joe Prado]], the sudden return of recurring baddie Mandy, or Jack Bauer's raid on the Chinese Consulate.]] Whew. Are you exhausted yet?

* RandomEventsPlot: Season 4. Oh, dear God, season 4. Try to keep up: [[spoiler: The terrorists derail a train to steal a briefcase, then abduct the Secretary of Defense and plan to execute him live on the internet, but it's ''really'' a Trojan Horse to get viral programming code to spread across the web and use the mysterious briefcase to [[EverythingIsOnline override every nuclear power plant in the US and cause them to melt down]]. Once that's averted, it's revealed the defense contractor that built the Override may be complicit in the day's events and hire mercenaries to kill Jack Bauer, who's investigating them. So far, fairly coherent. Then things go awry. The defense contractor subplot is dropped as quickly as it's introduced in favor of [[DisasterDominoes a series of increasingly ludicrous]] [[RubeGoldbergDevice and convoluted]] terror attacks. It turns out the nuclear power plant meltdowns were just to keep Air Force 1 in the air so a mercenary can steal a jet fighter and shoot it down. Not content with ''murdering the leader of the free world'', '''that''' turns out to be a play for recovering the nuclear football from the crash site, using it to locate a nuclear warhead in transit [[ArtisticLicenseGeography in the mountains of Iowa]], and assembling it into a missile which terrorist leader Habib Marwan plans on nuking Los Angeles with. ''Which would have happened anyway if he'd succeed in melting down every nuclear power plant''. And all the while, Marwan evades capture from CTU no less than '''five times'''. And that's not even getting into the random, out of nowhere subplots like the [[StrawmanPolitical legal crisis over mercenary Joe Prado]] or Jack Bauer's raid on the Chinese Consulate.]] Whew. Are you exhausted yet?

* RandomEventsPlot: Season 4. Oh, dear God, season 4. Try to keep up: The terrorists derail a train to steal a briefcase, then abduct the Secretary of Defense and plan to execute him live on the internet, but it's ''really'' a Trojan Horse to get viral programming code to spread across the web and use the mysterious briefcase to [[EverythingIsOnline override every nuclear power plant in the US and cause them to melt down]]. Once that's averted, it's revealed the defense contractor that built the Override may be complicit in the day's events and hire mercenaries to kill Jack Bauer, who's investigating them. So far, fairly coherent. Then things go awry. The defense contractor subplot is dropped as quickly as it's introduced in favor of [[DisasterDominoes a series of increasingly ludicrous]] [[RubeGoldbergDevice and convoluted]] terror attacks. It turns out the nuclear power plant meltdowns were just to keep Air Force 1 in the air so a mercenary can steal a jet fighter and shoot it down. Not content with ''murdering the leader of the free world'', '''that''' turns out to be a play for recovering the nuclear football from the crash site, using it to locate a nuclear warhead in transit [[ArtisticLicenseGeography in the mountains of Iowa]], and assembling it into a missile which terrorist leader Habib Marwan plans on nuking Los Angeles with. ''Which would have happened anyway if he'd succeed in melting down every nuclear power plant''. And all the while, Marwan evades capture from CTU no less than '''five times'''. And that's not even getting into the random, out of nowhere subplots like the [[StrawmanPolitical legal crisis over mercenary Joe Prado]] or Jack Bauer's raid on the Chinese Consulate. Whew. Are you exhausted yet?

** Season Four: Jack prevented Marwan's plans from coming to fruition, but in the process, [[spoiler: he captured a Chinese consulate in a sting operation to get information to stop Marwan. This wound up killing one Chinese representative in friendly fire, Jack let Audrey's ex-husband Paul die on an operating table to save the aforementioned consulate, who also got wounded from friendly fire, and the resulting operation forced Jack to fake his death and flee the country]]. The worst part is that [[WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis this could have been prevented]] if Charles Logan let Jack go through with the original (though illegal) operation to capture Marwan the first time. All the more ironic, considering what happened [[HarsherInHindsight next season...]]

* ShoutOut: The first few episodes of Season 5, detailing a plot to bring Jack out of hiding by [[spoiler:killing his friends]], are very reminiscent of the intro to {{Commando}}.

* ShoutOut: The first few episodes of Season 5, detailing a plot to bring Jack out of hiding by [[spoiler:killing his friends]], are very reminiscent of the intro to {{Predator}}.

*** The ''24 Wiki'' has a [[http://24.wikia.com/wiki/Damn_it chart for how many times "damn it" is said on an episode-by-episode basis]].

* BeyondTheImpossible: A staple of ''24'' storytelling.

* XanatosGambit / EvilPlan: Every single Dragon and BigBad has at least one - and some seasons feature multiple Bads.
** The end of Season Seven reveals that [[spoiler: ''the entire season'' was nothing but Tony's attempt to get close to Alan Wilson to kill him in revenge for killing his wife and son.]]
** The events of Day 3 are largely set in motion by [[spoiler:Jack, Tony and Gael Ortega.]]
* XanatosRoulette: for the above reason.
** Jesus Christ, Marwan.

*** In a lesser extent, David Palmer also applies. In season three, he hired Sherry Palmer to take care of Alan Milliken when he threatened to pull financial support for David's re-election, because [brother] Wayne Palmer slept with Milliken's wife, Julia. Granted, he probably didn't expect Sherry to basically kill him by not giving him his medication, but after what she did to David in the first two seasons, [[WhatAnIdiot what exactly did he expect]]? More importantly, during season four, [[spoiler: he signed off on the undercover operation to capture a Chinese consolate, which ended with another Chinese representative killed by friendly fire. Although Palmer and Jack knew the risks of the operation, they went through it anyway to save LA from Marwan]]. Palmer's statement to Charles Logan when he panicked over the idea? "Sometimes, we got to get our hands dirty to do what needs to be done."

** [[spoiler:Russian President Yuri Suvarov is revealed to be behind the murders of President Hassan and Renee Walker. This may lead to UnfortunateImplications and debate on if he was actually involved in the events of Day 5 and 6 as well since those seasons had Russian terrorists. It should also come as no suprise that the man is also a good friend of Logan.]]

** [[spoiler: Tony]] attempts to be this in season 7. [[spoiler: He fails. Miserably.]]

** And some just get written off without any explanation of where they've gone off to: Adam Kaufman (who went on to eat brains on {{Series/Heroes}}), Nadia Yasser, Wayne Palmer and his sister Sandra, etc. Makes it hard to do a Character Sheet for this show.

Hit US TV Series starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, agent for a fictional US government agency, during his very bad days. Each season of the series takes place in RealTime over the course of a single day (each episode is one hour out of that day), during which Jack is called into service to stop a terrorist threat.

The first season revolved around an assassination plot on presidential candidate David Palmer. Jack's daughter was kidnapped, along with his wife (later on) to make him help the terrorists, who were trying to kill both Jack and Palmer because the two of them cooperated on a mission in Sarajevo.

The [[TVStrikes Hollywood Writers' Strike of 2007/8]] kept the series off the air during 2008, with the exception of a two-hour MadeForTVMovie, ''Redemption'', which aired in November, 2008 and acted as a {{Prequel}} for the seventh season. The seventh season was a ReTool which moved the action to the East Coast and generally improved on the fairly mediocre Season 6. Season 8 premiered on 17 January 2010 and moved the action again, this time to New York. The eighth season was the final season, and the show finished its run on 24 May 2010, with TheMovie slated to begin production not long after.

24 is also jokingly referred to as The Jack Bauer Torture Hour, or the Jack Bauer Power Hour. Try to guess why.

* ThirtyGambitPileup: So...who ''actually'' ordered Palmer's assassination?

* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My X]]: Used to ludicrous extremes, but features most prominently in Season 7 with Henry Taylor and [[spoiler: Tony Almeida]], who both lost their sons (one living, one unborn).

* AirVentEscape: Impossible to be a secret/federal agent and not do this at least once.

* DamselScrappy (formerly "TheKimberly")