Characters / 24 - Bauer Family

aka: Twenty Four Jack Bauer

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Due to the nature of the show, with its many Walking Spoiler characters, twists, and turns, the only spoilers whited out are those for the season "24: Live Another Day". Proceed with caution!

The Bauer Family

Jack's Family

Jack

Jack Bauer

"I'm federal agent Jack Bauer. This is the longest day of my life."

Played By: Kiefer Sutherland

Dubbed By: Patrick Béthune (European French)

"I see fifteen people held hostage on a bus, and everything else goes out the window. I will do whatever it takes to save them, and I mean whatever it takes. ... Laws were written by much smarter men than me. And in the end, these laws have to be more important than the 15 people on the bus. I know that's right. In my mind, I know that's right. I just don't think my heart could ever have lived with it."

A retired American serviceman and a federal agent, who was responsible for saving multiple American citizens from potentially devastating terrorist attacks on more than one occasion.

He took a leadership role in various covert and undercover missions and served as both Special Agent in Charge and Director of Field Operations of CTU Los Angeles. His dedication to keeping U.S. citizens safe led him to make some deep personal sacrifices. Jack lost his job, his family, his friends, and, for a period of nearly two years after Day 5, his freedom. He showed his willingness to sacrifice his life on multiple occasions, but each time his sacrifice ultimately proved to be unnecessary.

---

• Action Dad: One of TV's most prominent examples.
• All of the Other Reindeer: No matter how many times he saved America from terrorists, almost everyone shuns him or threatens his life. At this point, he's portrayed as a living martyr—of torture tactics.
• And This Is for...: His last words to Pavel before eviscerating him to obtain evidence and avenge Renee Walker: "This is for my friend!"
  • States this right before killing Cheng Zhi. "This is for Audrey, you son of a bitch!"
• Anti-Hero: An Unscrupulous Hero. He's perfectly willing to torture, mutilate, execute allies if necessary and break nearly every law in the book. To his credit, he does intend to stand trial for any laws he breaks, even though this never actually happens (given that this is Jack Bauer we're talking about, perhaps no one is brave enough to try.)
• Anti-Villain: Jack effectively becomes this for the last stretch of the eighth season. Although Taylor, Logan, and eventually Suvarov are presented as the major antagonists and what they're doing is wrong, the show itself makes it clear that Jack, despite the cause he's fighting for, isn't exactly being all that admirable either.
• Arch-Enemy: He has three:
  • Nina Myers (season 1-3), his ex-lieutenant and lover, who turned to be a mole, and his wife and unborn child's murderer. She probably is the person Jack hates the most, and is, in Jack's words, worse than a traitor, considering she only cares about money and her own well-being.
  • Charles Logan (seasons 4-8). The man responsible for the Sentox conspiracy, and (semi-directly) for the deaths of David Palmer, Michelle Dessler, and Tony Almeida, not to mention all the others who died because of the entire conspiracy. And then, for the cover up of Renee Walker's death. He also is everything Jack hates about politicians (and people in general). Of all his enemies (and villains in 24), Logan possibly is the most powerful and influential, the only one he returns the hatred Jack feels for him, and the one who has the biggest claim for the Big Bad's spot for the series.
  • Cheng Zhi (Seasons 4-6,9). The Chinese agent responsible for Jack's two years of torture in China, and for Audrey Raines's torture and eventual death. They were both faithful agents to their countries, until Cheng felt Betrayed and tried to launch a war between China and US (something Jack almost did with Russia). Although, Cheng was always much crueler and ruthless than Jack.
  • For one season villains, Christopher Henderson, Victor Drazen, Stephen Saunders, and some of his family members (brother and father) deserve a special mention.
  • In another way, he is his own worst enemy.
• Back from the Dead: He fakes being dead for a year, which starts with being clinically dead for real for a couple of minutes. He was also clinically dead for a few minutes on Day 2, before being brought back to life by Peter Kingsley's men when they needed to continue torturing him.
• Badass Boast: Jack makes several over the course of the series, and it's never an empty boast.
  "I have killed two people since midnight, I haven't slept in over 24 hours. So maybe… maybe you should be a little more afraid of me than you are right now."
  "I can make you die with more pain than you ever imagined."
  "So help me God I will kill you, and you will stay dead this time."
  "Look, I can tell you consider yourself a pretty intimidating group. You probably think I'm at a disadvantage. I promise you, I'm not."
  "I've taken you at your word. But if you're lying to me, if anything happens to her or my family your entire world will come apart, and you will never see it coming."
• Badass Driver: During Live Another Day, he manages to outrun a UAV that's launching hellfire missiles on the getaway car he's driving.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears one at certain points during both Days 1 and 7.
• Badass in Distress: He gets captured at least 2-3 times a season, but most of the time he's successfully able to escape. On a few occasions, he will need someone (The President, CTU, Chloe...) to bail him out, but not without trying on his own first.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As opposed to his usual basic tactical clothing, he wore a suit when he infiltrated the Russian Consulate during Day 6 and again during Juma's invasion of the White House on Day 7.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When there isn't a crisis, Jack is shown as a pretty friendly and easygoing person and a loving father and partner and even in the midst of one, he often does his best to resolve issues without violence and is always willing to cooperate with others and help where he can and show kindness to those he gets close to. When pushed though, he shows exactly why he has the reputation he does.
• Break the Badass: Often and repeatedly throughout the series. Several personal crises and losses hit him as a cost of Jack doing what he does and threaten to destroy him emotionally, and the one that happens in Day 8 finally breaks him so hard that it causes a permanent shift downward on the Anti-Hero scale for him, something that continues on to Day 9. And top it all off, the ending of Day 9 comes in and hits him even harder.
• Beard of Sorrow: Day 2 and Redemption. Technically averted in season 6, since while he has a beard it's because of being held prisoner rather than a Heroic BSoD, although he was pretty much a broken shell of himself by that point.
• Bench Breaker: Restraining Jack Bauer is... problematic at best.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT try to justify treason, cold-blooded murder, terrorism, and assassinating the president with "It was for the good of the country!" and then say that makes you and him the same. Really, don't. Even if you're his brother, Jack will still utterly lose his shit at you. This is something that hits Jack deeply, considering how much he has suffered and lost, and the horrible things he has been forced to do to save innocent lives. Not to mention the guilt he carries for many of these actions.
  • For that matter, threatening, harming, or killing anyone he loves is pretty much a death sentence.
  • Mentioning Teri after her death will get you shoved at best and choked at worst.
• Best Served Cold: Never lets his emotions impede his tactical plans, which makes him even more dangerous when he's Axe-Crazy.
• Big Bad Ensemble: For Day 8, Jack ends up becoming this opposite Charles Logan and Yuri Suvarov. Suvarov has been the mastermind of the terrorist attacks on New York through the season, and Logan is exploiting things all for his own benefit, and Jack, after all the loss, heartbreak, and betrayal he's faced, is fed up and wants to kill both of them regardless of the consequences - even if it means kicking off World War 3 in doing so. Understandably, this ends up making him as much of a threat as the other two.
• Big "NO!": Several throughout the show, notably at the end of Season 4.
• Broken Ace: The best covert operative in the world but is just as (or even more so) big a fanatic than the terrorists he fights.
• Butt-Monkey: Throughout the entire series he's been betrayed, tortured, used, exploited, and almost all his friends and loved ones have wound up dead; while the majority of those that don't either eventually turn out to be traitors or wind up wanting absolutely nothing to do with him. His life borders on Cosmic Plaything level bad.
• Byronic Hero
• Calling the Old Man Out: To James Heller at the end of Season 6, although he's more a father figure than a father. While his father also becomes his enemy, he doesn't quite "call him out".
• Cassandra Truth: If a Reasonable Authority Figure listened to Jack, most of the bad guy's terrorist plots would be ended in hours, not a day. And the rare times one of them does, someone else's red tape comes in to get in the way.
• Cartwright Curse: Teri's dead, Audrey's gone, and the latest victim is Renee.
  • Claudia Hernandez falls into this, too, though she wasn't seeing Jack at the time.
  • Lampshaded by James Heller when he tries to keep Jack from seeing Audrey. This ends up being foreshadowing.
  Heller: You're cursed, Jack. Everything you touch, one way or another, ends up dead.
• Catchphrase:
  • In any given season of 24, it's likely you'll hear Jack yell "Dammit!" or "We are running out of time!" at least a couple of times.
  • Another common one is "My name is Jack Bauer, I'm a Federal Agent", and variants thereof. Ironically, this is only strictly true during Seasons 1 and 3; in Season 4 he's a Department of Defense staffer, and in all other seasons he's just a civilian who ends up working with CTU (plus the FBI in Season 7, and the CIA in Live Another Day) for the purposes of foiling a terrorist plot.
• The Chessmaster: As of Live Another Day, he's showing signs of becoming this. In the first hour, he purposely gets caught by the CIA in order to get transported to their black site. At the right moment, he signals an associate outside the building to prepare an escape route, incapacitates the agents escorting him to the torture chamber, rescues Chloe, sets off an explosion which guts much of the building, and to top it off, his associate uses a grenade launcher to blow a hole through the top of the underground passage where Jack is, deploys a ladder, and by the time the rest of the CIA realize what has happened, their prisoners are gone.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: If he sees or knows of someone in trouble, he will help them regardless of laws or politics or the cost to himself.
• Clear My Name: At several points, he's suspected of working with the terrorists, starting in Season 1, when he's thought to have tried to assassinate David Palmer, despite managing to narrowly prevent it.
• Combat Pragmatist: Sniper rifles, assault rifles, pistols, knives, CQC, chains, axes, scissors... teeth...and, rather memorably, a fireplace poker. There's also cars and vans... and on one memorable occasion, a ''bulldozer''. Hell, on more than one occasion, he's killed someone with nothing but his legs while chained up in a basement/holding compound.
• Cool Shades: He often wears a pair of aviator sunglasses.
• Covered with Scars: In season 6 and onward, thanks to the torture the Chinese inflicted on him. It's enough to get everyone at both CTU and the FBI to flinch when they see them.
• Cowboy Cop: Probably the best 21st century television example.
• Crazy-Prepared: Egregiously so in many cases, particularly towards the end of Season 8 where he outwits absolutely everyone that tries to stop his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and only backs down at the last possible moment aiming a sniper rifle at Yuri Suvarov by choice. Though given the average IQ of the typical government employee on 24, it may not be ''that'' surprising.
• Crusading Widower: In seasons 2 and 3 after the death of his wife Teri at Nina's hands. A much darker one in season 8 after Renee is assassinated.
• Darker and Edgier: After the first season. Although Jack still has his dark side during the show's freshman year, you can tell that Nina's betrayal and Teri's murder really effed him up after it. Even moreso by the ending of Day 8, as Live Another Day shows that he's crossing a lot more lines that even he would have initially hesitated at back during the show's initial 8-season run.
• Deadpan Snarker: With so many obstructive bureaucrats on the show, it's often the only way to get his point across. When told CTU no longer have torturers on speed dial?
  Then do what you're good at and offer immunity or something.
• Death Glare: One so effective, Charles Logan broke down blubbering at it.
• Death Seeker: In the first half of season 2, most of seasons 6-7, and the second half of season 8.
• Determinator: Oh boy is he ever. If you've got Jack Bauer after you, you should probably just shoot yourself in the head to save yourself a more painful death.
• Despair Event Horizon: Winds up crossing over this more than a few times over the course of the series, but Audrey's death was the one to make him permanently go over it. The biggest indicator of this is the near relief he seems to have when he turns himself over to the Russians in the last scene. It heavily implies that were it not for the fact that they had taken Chloe hostage to force him to give himself up, he likely would have done so willingly.
• Disc-One Final Boss: In the Day 8 finale, the threat Jack poses is the first to be resolved thanks to Chloe going through a non-fatal version of Talking the Monster to Death, and all in the first 10 minutes. The rest of it is focused on bringing down the Russian coverup and then eventually saving Jack from Logan.
• Driven to Suicide: In the final episode of Live Another Day, he comes very close to eating his gun after Audrey is killed. Luckily, he channels those emotions into a more constructive direction.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite saving America every single season, Jack always has to convince whatever idiot of the week is in charge of CTU or the White House that maybe, just maybe, he isn't involved with the villain's plans, and they should trust his judgement.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: He served in the U.S. Army Green Berets and Delta Force before joining CTU.
• Establishing Character Moment: Shooting his boss with a tranquilizer gun out of suspicion that he may be withholding evidence in the very first episode.
• Et Tu, Taylor?: His reaction when Allison Taylor sides with Charles Logan to protect the Russians for their part in the attacks on New York and President Hassan's death in order to ensure her treaty is signed, even forcibly sidelining him to (try and) keep him from interfering. Seeing as how the last few hours were especially bad for Jack what with the deaths of both Hassan and Renee, this last act winds up being the straw the breaks the proverbial camel's back for him and he loses it.
  • Long before that, it was "Et Tu, Nina?" after he discovered that Nina was a mole. He nearly killed her right on the spot until Mason talked him down.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he's shown to never take pleasure in it and usually takes measures to keep himself from fully crossing a line, Jack repeatedly exploits this whenever he's facing an opponent who won't tell him what he needs to know.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Unlike Tony, when Jack went on his revenge path, he didn't try to intentionally hurt any innocent people. When dealing with police, for example, he shoots to wound rather than kill. He also couldn't bring himself to kill Jason Pillar after learning about his family. And all and all, he does manage to reach a realization and stop himself before it is too late.
  • He also never tried to release a prion that was going to kill thousands. Sure, he might have started World War 3, but that was more indirect, and he was in denial (although not at Tony's level). All and all, Jack shows himself to be quite more resilient that Tony (he has lost more than him through the show), and even when he falls to his fury, to be more decent.
• Evil Counterpart: Notably, he's been on both sides of this. While he has several in the forms of Stephen Saunders, Christopher Henderson, Tony on Day 7, and Cheng Zhi especially on Day 9,, the last quarter of Day 8 sees Jack himself ultimately becoming one to Cole after their team up falls apart and Cole becomes disillusioned with him, with their different ways of trying to expose Logan and Taylor's coverup for Russia dramatically leaving them on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
• Fake Defector: Jack is sometimes forced to help the villains because his family is incapable of escaping danger.
• Faking the Dead: He does this at the end of season 4 in order to escape the Chinese.
• Fallen Hero: Near the end of Season 8, and despite regaining his senses, the world's forgotten all the good he accomplished. His line about no going back even as he races to stop Margot in Live Another Day perfectly sums it up. Over the course of it though, he at least manages to attain redemption in the American public's eyes by the time it's over. The Russian public is a different story.
• Fatal Flaw: His uncompromising sense of justice.
• Freak Out: Something inside him snaps after Audrey is murdered, causing him to completely drop his usual Tranquil Fury attitude and massacre Cheng Zhi's men all while screaming like an enraged animal the entire time.
• Genius Bruiser: Jack's bruiser credentials are well-established and he is also an excellent investigator and tactician and is very skilled at improvising, undercover work, deceiving bad guys when necessary, assessing targets and understanding opponents quickly and using his knowledge of them, planning operations, negotiating his way out of trouble when he needs to, seeing through set-ups, getting information from people, coming up with plans on the fly, using whatever he can in a fight and generally using his wits to save the day.
• Good Is Not Nice: From his willingness to kill in cold blood (though he's never killed anyone who didn't deserve it), to his penchant for torture, Jack epitomizes this trope. Though he actually is a nice guy when there isn't a crisis afoot.
• Guile Hero: Often, his most important weapon is his ability to assess how people operate. Like, for example, telling the President's aide in Day 5 that the people that have her daughter would never let the girl go even if she did what they asked, and in fact are more likely to shoot both dead on the spot afterward for knowing too much. This is how he and Wayne Palmer are able to discover that the Big Bad behind the day's events is actually Charles Logan.
• Guns Akimbo: During his final showdown with the Drazens, he wields two handguns.
• Heartbroken Badass: Dammit Patel, you couldn't just leave Jack alone, could you?
• Heel Realization: A major case in the final two episodes of the series. His confrontation with Jason Pillar gets him to admit that this time he isn't fighting for justice or the greater good, but rather his own selfish goals, and later with Chloe, he realizes that what he's doing is threatening the lives of innocent people, ultimately causing him to follow her plan of exposing the main antagonists of the season.
• Hero on Hiatus: Due to being infected by the Starkwood weapon in the second half of season 7, he's forced to spend it helping from the sidelines rather than the field like usual.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Let's just say murdering a high-ranking member of the Russian government, even if he was corrupt, performing borderline acts of terrorism, and nearly starting a world war doesn't exactly endear you to the public. By the time of Live Another Day, he's considered a traitor by the entire country.
• Heroic BSoD: Has suffered a few, notably at the end of season 1, which lasted into season 2. Season 3 ended on him having one of these. But the record probably goes to season 6, where Jack begins the day so broken he's okay with being turned over to terrorists so they can murder him. And though he escapes (otherwise the show would be called "1"), he breaks down again a few times throughout the day, especially after having to kill Curtis, and when Heller gives him a "reason you suck" speech. And then season 8 happened...
• Heroic Sacrifice: Countless times, and he actually summarizes his losses in season 7.
• He's Back!: Tends to get one of these per season, usually in the first (though sometimes second) episode. Notably averted in season 6, driving home just how broken and lost he was at this point.
• He Who Fights Monsters: A constant temptation, but for the most part averted; Jack is constantly told, "he did the right thing" in impossible situations by his coworkers. Let's just say in season 8, though, it's a really bad idea to target Jack once he's out of the game.
• Hidden Depths: Deep down, Jack truly wants to live in a world where laws and regulations make a difference. The problem is that there are just too many terrorists, time bombs, and incompetent/corrupt government agents in the Crapsack World he lives in.
  • He also is a kind and decent person below all his brutality and prefers to avoid violence when he can help it.
• Hollywood Healing: It's highly unlikely Jack would be standing after some of the injuries he sustains. However, he is slowed by serious ones on occasion.
• Honor Before Reason: Jack Bauer gives you his word and you can hold him to it. He doesn't break it because then he fears he wouldn't be able to keep promises anymore.
• Hot-Blooded: Jack tends to be very emotional and hot-tempered, espcially in a crisis.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Word-for-word from Jack's mouth several times, which is part of the reason some view him as a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Hero or Sociopathic Hero. He gets away with it due to being right most of the time.
  • At difference of almost everyone else who says this, he does not hold it as a badge of pride, nor does he hide behind it, nor does he avoid his responsibility for his brutal actions or use it as an excuse/justification. He also carries a lot of sufferment because of this and honestly wishes he didn't have to resort to such extreme methods to save lives.
• I Gave My Word: When he gives you his word, you better believe it. As long as you aren't German. Or have killed someone close to him.
• Irony: In the Day 7 finale, Jack chastises Tony for his selfish actions that have endangered innocent people by giving him a whole "x wouldn't want you to be doing this, and you're tarnishing their memory!" speech. Exactly one season later, he's on the receiving end of the same speech for the same reasons. Ouch.
  • The thing that initially brings him out of hiding in "Live Another Day?" Preventing the assassination of President Heller; in other words, preventing a president from dying on foreign soil since it could lead to war. You know, the same thing he nearly succeeded in doing at the end of the original run and what left him a fugitive in the first place.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He is the Trope Namer because he does some really squicky things to get information from prisoners.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: In six hours, he goes from waging personal war against the corrupt members of both the United States and Russian governments to nearly starting World War III just to kill them, and for a while, he's actually convinced that's the right thing to do if that means they can get their comeuppance. Thankfully, Chloe stops him seconds before he actually goes off it and pulls the trigger on Suvarov.
• Kick the Morality Pet: Threatens to harm Chloe late in Day 8.
• Knight Templar: A rare sympathetic example. This is Jack's Establishing Character Moment from the very first episode:
  "You can look the other way once, and it's no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time, and pretty soon that's all you're doing — compromising, because that's the way you think things are done. You know those guys I busted? You think they were the bad guys? Because they weren't, they weren't bad guys, they were just like you and me. Except they compromised... Once."
  • Exaggerated in season 8 when, for the longest while, he even justifies starting a world war with the counter that "the Russians attacked first."
• Love Makes You Evil: In season 8, he attempts to assassinate the mastermind behind the death of his love interest even though doing so would kickstart World War 3 and recklessly endangers innocent lives in his attacks on the conspirators, though Chloe's able to bring him out of it by the end.
• Made of Iron: He shrugs off what should be crippling injuries all the time.
• Manipulative Bastard: Jack is very skilled at playing people when he needs to.
• Manly Tears: Sheds them when he gets the news about David Palmer's death. Then there was his humanizing breakdown at the end of Day 3 and his weeping over the body of Renee Walker.
• Mirror Character: Jack's arc in Season 8 mirrors Tony Almeida's in Season 7, as he makes a Face–Heel Turn and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after the death of his Love Interest, no longer caring how many innocent people might end up as collateral damage of his actions. However, Chloe is able to stop Jack from triggering World War III by reminding him that Renee wouldn't approve of the actions he's committing in her name, while Jack's similar effort to talk Tony down by referencing Michelle fails.
• Neck Snap: He's done this to villains 10 times, 5 of those with his feet. One of them was even done with the back of his leg!
• Nice Guy: When there isn't a crisis afoot, Jack is generally a polite, friendly person and a good friend who helps however he can and who others are willing to go to bat for.
• One-Man Army: Jack frequently takes out entire buildings full of people by himself.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jack isn't someone who is above revenge, but at the same time, he's always gone by the principle of putting justice before it first. When Renee is killed and Allison Taylor betrays him, causing to go down a path of placing revenge as the highest priority, you know just how enraged he's become. And of course, there's his Kick the Morality Pet moment listed above.
• Out of Focus: In Day 7. He's somewhat hit with this in the first half of the season due to much of it taking place from Renee's POV, but it's the second half where this really strikes in full force. As mentioned in the Hero on Hiatus trope, Jack winds up getting hit with the Starkwood pathogen, which leaves him largely getting pushed to the background, with most of the focus going to Tony's rogue activities.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Frequently, especially killing a pedophile who was testifying for immunity in order to infiltrate Wald's group.
• Quickly-Demoted Leader: On Day 1, he was the special agent in charge of CTU Los Angeles, but left the job after his wife was killed. He later returned to government service, but never returned to a position of leadership. This was actually a good idea, because Jack's a better field agent than bureaucrat.
• The Quiet One: Not usually, but he notably doesn't say a single word for almost the entire first episode of Live Another Day.
• Old Soldier: By Day 7, Kim has a daughter. In Live Another Day, Jack is in his mid-fifties, and it hasn't slowed him down at all.
• Papa Wolf: For the love of God, leave Kim alone.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Especially with regards to Jack's rampage in Season 8; it may not be the best thing for world stability, but after all the crap he put up with that day, you'll probably be cheering him on through most of it. World War 3 might be taking things a bit too far.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Chloe in the later seasons. She's just about the only longtime friend he's got that hasn't died, and he trusts her more than anybody.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Several, but the best would probably be to Fayed. "Say hello to your brother".
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: His entire character arc for the eighth season has him going from being the hero to falling hard after failing in his mission, facing another devastating personal loss, and finally being betrayed one time too many, he goes straight into Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds modes and almost kicks off World War 3 in trying to make sure none of the conspiracy masterminds escape justice.
• Put on a Bus: Does not return for Legacy. Though this may be due to the fact that he turned himself in to the Russians at the end of Live Another Day.
• Rabid Cop: Subverted in the sense that Jack is almost never wrong in identifying the villain, but he's certainly willing to break the law to extract information.
• Rage Breaking Point: Happens in Live Another Day when he learns of Audrey's murder.
• Redemption Earns Life: In Day 8 his going along with Chloe's plan ultimately leads to Allison Taylor getting ahold of his datacard and viewing his video will, which leads her to realize that she's betrayed her own ideals. This change of heart allows her to help Chloe locate Jack and save his life literally seconds before Logan's men put a bullet into his head.
• Redemption Equals Death: Possibly played straight in Day 9, where even after he wins back the general public's trust back and is pardoned by President Heller Jack is ultimately forced to give himself up to the much-less-forgiving Russian government. Assuming there's no Day 10 or any other followups to pick things up, the implication the last we see Jack is they'll likely try to execute him as soon as they can.
• Revenge Before Reason: Though it's averted for most of the series (when, if he is going to get revenge, at least he will ensure he won't compromiss the mission or the greater good before it is viable), it's arguably played tragically straight in season 8; at the very least, he's ensuring not only that there's no way in hell he'll ever get to see his family again, but in the finale even lampshades that they could also be targeted by the organizations he's harmed in season 8 in retaliation for his actions. In the final episode, it's at least averted again in the long run, as Chloe manages to call him out on his actions and snaps him back to his senses.
• Sanity Slippage: With everything he goes through, he seems like he's constantly on the verge of blacking out and waking up surrounded by body parts.
• Scars Are Forever: Has numerous horrible scars over his body that were attained from his near two-year imprisonment in China, which serve as a constant reminder of the events that would ultimately leave him completely broken. He's able to move beyond it by the beginning of season 8.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Deconstructed in the final season. Jack goes up against his own government in order to punish the true perpetrators behind Hassan and Renee's deaths, but if he'd managed to completely succeed in his endeavors, the end results would have been much, much worse than anything the villains of the season were trying to accomplish.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Jack's general fighting style revolves around being as quick and brutal as possible, generally avoiding flashy moves in favor of quick dispatches. His main fighting style throughout the series is Krav Maga and he also uses Muay Thai, Hapkido, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Kali, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Jeet Kune Do, all of which emphasize brutal efficiency.
• Stress Vomit: After being forced to shoot and kill Curtis.
• Shoot the Dog: Many, many examples, but what stands out the most are probably the death of Ryan Chappelle, and when he shot Henderson's wife in the leg during an interrogation.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Tries throwing this at Chloe in the series finale. It doesn't work.
• Signature Move: Despite it not being used for the first time until the third season, he became known for his sleeper hold. The 24 Wiki indicates it was used 13 times throughout the series. It comes with its own Catchphrase.
  Jack Bauer: Don't fight it.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Expect to hear "Dammit!" many times in the course of the Days.
• Smug Smiler: Occasionally, particularly at the end of the penultimate episode.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Twice in season 6.
• The Pardon: Jack is told by Heller that he's been granted one for all his actions up to and including Day 9's events just prior to Heller's (false) death by drone. At the end of the day, it's become moots when Jack is forced to turn himself over to the Russians to save Chloe and subsequently protect his family from their retribution.
• Theres No Kill Like Over Kill: Jack, believing his daughter was killed by the Drazens, shoots Victor Drazen a total of 12 times. (This of course turned out to be a lie made up by Nina Myers on Drazen's instructions to lure Jack into a trap to kill him.)
• To Be Lawful or Good: as his establishing quote describes, this is basically the crux of his character. He almost always chooses "Good," and is surrounded by too many Lawful Stupid Obstructive Bureaucrats to have any reputation but that of a loose cannon.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Multiple times, with the aftermaths of his wife's murder, his imprisonment in China, and Taylor's betrayal being the most noteworthy cases, the last one hitting especially hard due to it coming off right when he'd started to gain a bit more idealism after so many years. By the last act of Day 8 and all of Day 9, he makes a permanent shift downward as an anti-hero, not even thinking twice about endangering or harming innocent people if it can get him results.
• Torture Technician: Don't give Jack a reason to extract information from you, just don't.
• Tragic Hero: The question is, who hurts Jack more? The villains he fights? The government he protects or Jack's own inability to compromise?
• Tranquil Fury: Whenever he goes on a revenge warpath against one who's personally harmed him and/or his friends and loved ones or has done something to truly disgust him, such as the contact in Day 5 who has been holding a teenage girl as a sex slave, he remains incredibly calm and collected, oftentimes disturbingly so. The closest he gets to breaking it is when his voice briefly begins to crack right before he tortures Pavel to death. In the Live Another Day finale, however, he isn't so tranquil when he learns that Audrey has been killed by Cheng Zhi's men, and yells in rage while killing 15 of Cheng's men in the course of two minutes before beheading Cheng himself.
• Unstoppable Rage: Having a loved one murdered turns Jack into a nigh-invincible One-Man Army when he goes after the perpetrators. Just ask the Drazens, Mikhail Novakovich, and Cheng Zhi.
• Villain Protagonist: In the final 5-6 episodes up until his Heel–Face Turn early in the series finale, he crosses the line from "Anti-hero" to villain. It's worth noting, though, that without Jack's standard MO (i.e. going rogue at the drop of a hat), the false peace would have protected the vast majority of those guilty for the day's events.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As demonstrated by his page quote, Jack doesn't care about laws when people are in danger. He will all sorts of bad things to ensure their safety.
• Wham Line: "Nothing. Nothing." This is the exact moment it becomes clear Jack isn't playing by his usual rules.
• White Sheep: As violent as he is, he is much better than his Corrupt Corporate Executive family.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: After everything that's happened to him in the series' entire run, Season Eight manages to to make it look like he'll finally find some sort of happiness... only for his government to betray him again resulting in his mission ending in failure, the woman he fell for to die, and the one figure he came to trust in the last few years stabbing him in the back to further her own goals. After all that, he finally snaps and goes on a violent, bloody rampage to avenge himself against the masterminds, and after all the crap he's been put through his entire life, can you blame him? He almost becomes a literal example when he has the chance to kill Suvarov and Logan, which would entire lead to the U.S. and Russia declaring war on each other, but it's narrowly averted when Chloe talks him out of it.
• Would Hit a Girl: As opposed to harming a child below, this is played very straight. While the kills can be counted on one hand, he nonetheless has killed female antagonists, and has occasionally harmed others. Then there's the infamous case where he shot Christopher Henderson's wife to try and force him to talk.
• Would Hurt a Child: Subverted in season 2 where he fakes the death of Syed Ali's son.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Any time it looks like he's going to get some sort of happy ending it's eventually cruelly denied him.

Kim

Kimberly 'Kim' Bauer

"I pushed you away, and instead of taking responsibility for all the mistakes I've made in my life, I blamed you. And it was stupid, and immature. And now all the time that we've lost..."

Played By: Elisha Cuthbert

"I have been listening to this crap all day, about how I get everything I want, and how my life is so great, and everybody else's life sucks. Well, you wanna know something? You don't know anything about me! Last night, I was kidnapped, tied up in the back of a trunk, and then I got to see your friend Dan get shot in the head. You take all the bad luck you've had in your entire life; it wouldn't fit into half of what's happened to me in the past twenty-four hours."

The daughter of Jack and Teri Bauer, was a target of terrorists during Day 1 because of her relation to Jack. On Day 2, she was the au pair for a young girl whose father turned homicidal. By Day 3 she worked as an intelligence agent at CTU Los Angeles, where she met Chase Edmunds and eventually left CTU with Chase to start a life. She was later involved with a clinical psychologist named Barry Landes after she believed her father had been killed.

By Day 7, Kim was married and had a daughter named Teri. She learnt of the subpoena of her father and tried, unsuccessfully, to contact him. When she finally managed to reach him she learnt that he had been infected with a lethal pathogen that would kill him within a day or two, and so decided, against her father's wishes, to undergo a dangerous stem cell treatment that could save his life.

• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': She snuck out to hang with friends, and wound up being dragged into an extremely traumatic kidnapping ordeal.
• Contractual Immortality: Word of God was that they could never kill her off because, after Teri's death, for Jack to lose his daughter too would throw him headlong over the Despair Event Horizon; Jack says as much out loud late in Season 7. This didn't please many fans, as she is The Kimberly — the Former Trope Namer for "Damsel Scrappy."
• Daddy's Girl: Her devoted, if rocky, relationship with her father is one of the most important and integral in the series. In a special video Jack ensures that he knows this.
  Jack: (from his final video message from her) I'm running out of time sweetheart, and you're not going to see me again, but I need you to know that you are the love of my life... I am so proud of you!
• Demoted to Extra: She is one of the most important characters in the first three seasons. In Season 4 she doesn't appear at all, in Season 5 she has a minor, two-episode role, in Season 6 she is absent, and in Season 7 while having a slightly more major role her screen time is limited compared to the first three seasons. In Season 8 she appears in the first two episodes only before finally being Put on a Bus for good.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In Live Another Day we learn that she managed to escape her father's world entirely, and is living a quiet, happy life with two kids.
• Leap of Faith: After learning her father is still alive and realizing the Drazens have no intention of letting her live, she decides she’s done with waiting to be rescued and escapes their custody by throwing hot coffee in a guard's face, running to the docks and jumping into the harbor with her hands still tied together, risking drowning all the while being shot at. This self-rescue is one of her single greatest accomplishments in the series.
• Ms. Fanservice: Particularly when she wears a thin tank top with no bra when... staying in a cabin with a deranged Mountain Man. Huh.
• Properly Paranoid: In Day 1, she refused to give her location to CTU because she was afraid someone else was also working with the Drazens. Unfortunately for her mother, she was correct.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In her short appearance in Season 7, she singlehandedly saves the day. Using her CTU training as both Mission Control and field operative, she chases after the people the Big Bad sent to kill her, manages to off both of them, and uses their equipment to figure out where the villain is hiding — and, therefore, where is being kept Jack hostage.
• Revenge Before Reason: Was the victim of it twice, and it went badly for both of the ones doing it. See Victor Drazen below. There was also Gary Matheson from season 2, who was almost able to get away with beating his child and killing his wife, but couldn't resist trying to kill Kim when he realized she was in the house.
  • It's also implied that she could be the victim of this again in the final episode due to Jack's own brief time following this trope, which is why near the end he asks Taylor and Chloe to make sure that whatever happens, she's protected.
  • She does this herself when she corners Nina with the intent of killing her for revenge for murdering her mother, though Nina potentially has useful intel for CTU.
• So Proud of You: One of the major reasons for Jack's final recording towards her is to ensure that he is incredibly proud of the woman Kim has become, and the family she has been able to gain.
• Took a Level in Badass: She gets closer to being a genuine Action Girl each season she shows up, and arguably is one in Season 7 (she sure kicks some ass when she needs to). As she pointed out after her turn as an Action Girl in Season 7, she was a CTU agent.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: invokedTrope Namer for one incident in Season 2 when she came face to face with a literal mountain lion, which was fairly brief and easily resolved as far as her plotlines go. Problem is her perils in the woods have literally nothing to do with the main plot, and at best could be used to underline how lost she is without her father. Are you starting to understand some of the antipathy towards the character?
• Underestimating Badassery: She definitely has her moments. Whether she escapes her kidnappers, stands up for herself, or just surprises everyone by being competent, she’s not as hopeless as she usually appears.

Teri

Teri Bauer

"It's a different world now, Jack."

Played By: Leslie Hope

"I think your father is the best man I've ever known, but he can be ... difficult - and his job doesn't make it any easier."

The wife of Jack Bauer and mother of Kim Bauer. During Day 1 she was embroiled in a hostage crisis with terrorists who wished to coerce and frame her husband. Despite surviving several highly dangerous situations, she fell victim to one of CTU's most dangerous deep-cover moles.

• Action Survivor: She's a housewife who goes full Mama Bear during Day 1, managing to show just how capable she can be.
• Butt-Monkey: Teri goes through emotional and physical hell through Day 1. If something is too horrible to happen to Kim, it happens to Teri.
• Character Death: Nina ties her up and shoots her in the stomach.
• Dead Guy Junior: Kim's daughter is named after her.
• Easy Amnesia: She briefly succumbs to amnesia after she thinks Kim was killed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A non-fatal one. She convinces a guard to rape her instead of Kim. While that guard has his pants and his wits around his ankles, she steals his cellphone.
• The Lost Lenore: To Jack, who considers her death My Greatest Failure.
• Mama Bear: To Kim. She goes through hell and back to save her daughter.
• My Greatest Failure: For Jack. Her death haunts him, and he blames himself for failing to protect her. It's especially traumatic because Jack knew her killer so well and never suspected she was The Sociopath.
• Sacrificial Lion: As soon as she died, it was pretty much the writers' policy that any of your favourite main characters could, and most of the time WOULD, die.
• Rape as Drama: She willingly gives herself to a villain who was going to rape Kim.
• She Knows Too Much: Killed because she happened upon proof of Nina's treachery.
• Trauma Conga Line: Her daughter is kidnapped, she's kidnapped, she's frequently attacked, at one point she's raped, gets amnesia due to trauma, and is finally killed by her husband's ex-lover who she hated anyway. All of this in the course of a single day.

Graem's Family

Graem

Graem Bauer

"Today wasn't the first time I tried to have you killed, Jack."

Played By: Paul McCrane

The son of Phillip Bauer and brother of Jack Bauer. He was married to Marilyn Bauer and the couple had one son, Josh. He was the chief executive officer of his father's company, BXJ Technologies.

Graem was the head of a group of conspirators at BXJ who were working with President Charles Logan and Alan Wilson during the Sentox nerve gas conspiracy of Day 5. During Day 6, he was involved in a cover-up at BXJ to hide the damage done by a sub-contractor, the terrorist collaborator Darren McCarthy.

• Alas, Poor Villain: For all his crimes, he is sort of reduced to a pathetic mess before being killed by his own father.
• Bald of Evil: One of 24's many bald bastards.
• Big Bad Wannabe: In Day 6, where he's quickly shifted to the background in the wake of the sadistic Fayed and Graem's own corrupt father and is killed off fairly early on.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Jack's Abel, though this wasn't revealed until Day 6.
• Character Death: Graem is murdered by his own father to prevent him from talking.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's the CEO of BXJ Technologies...and partially responsible for detonating a nuclear bomb on American soil.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: When he discovers Jack is back in town, he instantly starts to suspect his wife will begin an affair with him.
• The Dragon: To Phillip.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In spite of his many, many, many, many, many flaws he does seem to love his son.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Graem wears glasses and is responsible for countless murders.
• He Knows Too Much: Phillip doesn't think he'll last during interrogation, and kills him to protect himself.
• Knight Templar: Graem is willing to kill or die for his country.
• The Un-Favourite: Phillip clearly would've preferred the much stronger Jack to be his dragon, but Graem was all he had.
• The Reveal: He isn't revealed as Jack's brother until Day 6.
• Smug Snake: Graem is extremely confident over the phone with Logan, but not when confronted with actual force.
• Spell My Name With An S: During Day 5, he was often referred to as "Graham" (even by the show's captions) until Day 6 revealed his name as "Graem Bauer", also listed as "Graeme Bauer" in Jack's CIA file during Day 9.
• Unwitting Pawn: Graem honestly believed that all of his crimes were to help the United States and that his father felt the same way, but as Jack finds out from Phillip later, the latter only ever cared about himself and was using Graem all along. It doesn't help that Phillip killed Graem for knowing too much prior to that.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He clearly looks up to his father.

Marilyn

Marilyn Bauer

Played By: Rena Sofer

The wife of Graem Bauer and the mother of Josh Bauer.

• Awful Wedded Life: Marilyn does not like being married to Graem. God knows why they got married in the first place, let alone how they stayed married for as long as they did. They constantly fight, Graem is obsessively jealous and Marilyn instantly believes Jack when he tells her that Graem tried to kill him.
• Mama Bear: For her son, Josh. She threatens CTU itself when he's in danger.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The stunning, beautiful Marilyn is married to bald, short Graem.
• Working with the Ex: With Jack being the ex in this case.

Josh

Josh Bauer

Played By: Evan Ellingson

The son of Graem Bauer and Marilyn Bauer, as well as the nephew of Jack Bauer.

• Living Macguffin: He's used over and over again as a hostage.
• Who's Your Daddy?: There's some ambiguity over who his father is, Graem or Jack.

Other Family Members

Phillip

Phillip Bauer

"No one's life is worth the destruction of everything I've built."

Played By: James Cromwell

"You're involved in something that's much bigger than you can possibly imagine."

The father of Jack and Graem Bauer, as well as the grandfather of Kim and Josh Bauer. He founded the company BXJ Technologies and served as its chief executive officer, until he left the position to his son Graem. After Phillip's daughter-in-law, Teri, was killed by Nina Myers, Phillip and the rest of his family lost contact with Jack.

Phillip was complicit in the Sentox nerve gas conspiracy, which was headed by his son Graem, Alan Wilson and President Charles Logan, and involved Christopher Henderson and James Nathanson. Phillip also worked with his son to cover up the theft of five Russian suitcase nukes, during the events of Day 6. After the unsuccessful cover-up, he planned to assist Cheng Zhi in an effort to spur China's ascendancy as sole world superpower. This plot was thwarted by his son Jack, and Phillip was subsequently killed during an air strike on one of his oil rigs at the end of Day 6.

• Asshole Victim: The only regret Jack had when he died was that he was getting off easily.
• Archnemesis Dad: To Jack. He is probably the worst father in the entire show. Compared to him, Jack is a saint, and one wonders how he came out so good.
• Bad Boss: He killed his own son Graem after he took the blame for crimes that Phillip was also involved with.
• Big Bad: Of Day 6.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: With Cheng Zhi in Day 6. Also a Triumvirate with Charles Logan and Alan Wilson.
• Character Death: Jack leaves him on one of his own oil rigs, and he's killed in the ensuing airstrike.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first half of Day 6, he's portrayed as a fanatical patriot who's trying to cover up his unwittingly supplying terrorists with weapons of mass-destruction. When he returns later in the season, he's become a Defector from Decadence who feels that America's status as a world power is in terminal decline, and intends to defect to the Chinese. Out-of-universe this is probably the result of the writers realizing that his initial characterization made him too similar to Christopher Henderson; in-universe, it's probably him trying to conceal the truth from Jack, knowing that he would be seriously annoyed to find out that he's defecting to the same people who kidnapped and tortured him for over a year.
• The Chessmaster: Phillip sees most people as pawns to be used, and he uses them well.
  Graem: Make a plan and stick to it. You taught us that, remember?
  Phillip: Sometimes you have to make adjustments.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Of BJX Technologies.
• Evil Old Folks: He is pushing the 70's, and is one of the worst villains in the show.
• Face Death with Dignity: Phillip accepts his incoming demise with remarkable grace.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's good at faking emotion and geniality.
• It's All About Me: To him, all it matters is himself, his company and his legacy. He would sell his own country if it is of any advantage.
• Karma Houdini: Jack actually points out Phillip will die without being held accountable for the events of Day 6.
  Jack: You're getting off easy.
• Large and in Charge: He's 6' 7" of Big Bad Archnemesis Dad.
• Lean and Mean: He's tall and thin, not to mention an utter sociopath.
• Manipulative Bastard.
• Never Found the Body: The last we see him he's stranded on the oil rig right before it's destroyed in the air strike that Vice President Daniels approved, but the chances of his survival are highly unlikely.
• Offing the Offspring: He ruthlessly murders his son own Graem, tries to kill his other son Jack numerous times and threatens the life of his grandson.
• Old Soldier: Phillip may be in his older years, but he's still a badass capable of defeating much younger men. He's also a grandparent to Josh and Kim.
• The Patriarch: Of the Bauer family.
• The Sociopath: Oh yes. Phillip kills without remorse and is outright labelled as a sociopath by Karen Hayes.
  • He kills his own loyal son because he might implicate him, then he tries to kill his other son for the same reason, puts his grandson in harms way, same for his daughter in law. First, because he was trying to cover up his mess with the nuclear weapons, not giving a fuck if thousands more were killed becaude of them. And then, he allies with the Chinese and helps them to get a device which, if they get, would produce a war between the three powers. He also took part in the Sentox conspiracy. For Philip, the most important thing is his company and his legacy.

Stephen

Stephen Wesley

Played By: Paul Wesley

Kim's husband.

• The Danza: Stephen Wesley, played by Paul Wesley.
• Happily Married: To Kim.
• Satellite Love Interest: His character revolves around being Kim's husband.

Teri

Teri

Played By: Claire Geare

Kim's daughter.

• Dead Guy Junior: Named for Kim's mother, Teri.