Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer is a fictional character played by Kiefer Sutherland as part of the television series, 24.

Biography

Bauer graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English literature from UCLA, and a Master's degree in Criminology and Law from UC Berkeley.

After finishing university, he worked as a Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team member, and in the U.S. Army's elite Delta Force. Apparently, Bauer also did fieldwork for the Central Intelligence Agency before being seconded to its domestic branch, the Counter Terrorist Unit.

Bauer held the position of Director of CTU Los Angeles during the attempted assassination of President (then Senator) David Palmer. During that day, Bauer's wife Teri and his daughter Kim were kidnapped by Victor Drazen, a man Bauer thought he had killed in a covert mission called Operation Nightfall in Kosovo two years earlier. Bauer's colleague/former love interest Nina Myers (who turned out to be a traitor) killed Teri Bauer before being arrested. Jack was so distraught over Teri's death that he resigned as CTU Director and became an inactive CTU agent.

Eighteen months later, Bauer was called back to duty by the National Security Agency (NSA) to help CTU stop a terrorist group known as Second Wave from detonating a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. Bauer initially refused, but eventually agreed to take part in the operation to stop the bomb. After the incidents depicted in Season 2, Jack was appointed Director of Field Operations by new CTU Los Angeles Director Tony Almeida.

However, Tony was removed from CTU three years later after committing an act of treason to save his wife's life, Jack was forced to leave the institution and became employed by the Department of Defense. Bauer became involved with the daughter of the Secretary of Defense, Audrey Raines, and it was apparently a serious relationship. However, after Jack was called back to CTU in Season 4 to help them stop a series of attacks against the United States masterminded by a terrorist named Habib Marwan, Audrey decided that she could not handle Jack's life when he was working for CTU, and the two of them separated.

Character

Jack Bauer has been described by some as an uncompromising patriot of the United States of America due to the dedication he shows for his job, although his political and ethical perspectives are never really revealed in great detail. One recurring theme however, is Jack's belief in the mantra, "the ends justify the means": that is, he believes obtaining the desired results is more important than how this is done, and he frequently performs controversial actions if he thinks they will achieve some important goal. His philosophy is perhaps revealed best in a line he uttered to his boss after shooting a criminal in front of him, and the boss expressed dismay: "That's the problem with people like you, George. You want results, but you never want to get your hands dirty." It later turned out that Jack murdered the man so that he could gain the trust of a criminal gang that had information he needed to stop a nuclear attack on the United States.

Jack has routinely put his own life on the line, as well as the lives of those close to him, in order to serve the common good. Notably, he was faced with a situation where a terrorist threatened to release a devastating biological weapon if Jack did not execute one of his superiors, Ryan Chappelle. Once it was confirmed that the terrorist was not bluffing, Jack killed Chappelle with a bullet to the head. In another notable example, during the events depicted in Season 4, Bauer was told to extract a Chinese scientist named Lee Jong from the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, who had vital information needed to stop an imminent terrorist strike. During the illegal raid, Lee was shot and needed immediate medical attention to stop him from dying. When he arrived at CTU, Bauer learned that the doctor there was already working on Paul Raines, the ex-husband of Audrey Raines (Jack's then girlfriend) who had been shot earlier trying to save Jack's life. Much to Audrey's horror, Bauer drew his weapon and ordered the doctor to begin surgery on Lee. Raines went into cardiac arrest and died shortly afterward. Bauer is rarely seen showing remorse for such actions, although this is largely due to his suppression of such emotions so that he can concentrate on his job. He has on occasion revealed his more vulnerable side, including a notable scene at the end of Season 3 when he breaks down crying after the traumatic events of the day. It is, perhaps, this vulnerable side that is most meaningful to the character- to remind us that Jack, is too, human, with emotions and a sense of morals.

Following the death of his wife at the end of Season 1, he sometimes seems to live a life that has little personal purpose. As he said to Chase Edmunds, his co-worker in field operations during Season 3, who was having a romantic relationship with Jack's daughter: "You can not keep this job and lead a normal life at the same time!" Although Bauer is still attached to his daughter, the two of them do not seem to spend much time together any more, as she did not appear at all in the most recent season.

Through the years of his good service, Jack becomes a semi-personal friend of the fictional (and first African-American) President of the United States, David Palmer, largely due to Jack having saved his life more than once. A very descriptive factor of their relationship is that the President refers to him as Jack, while Jack addresses the President solely and professionally as "Mr. President." Palmer, however, felt close enough to Jack that he was one of the first people to learn Palmer would not be seeking re-election.

The "Death" of Jack Bauer

At the conclusion of Day Four, due to his involvement in a secret raid on the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate that resulted in the friendly fire death of the Chinese Consul, Jack Bauer was scheduled to be handed over to the Chinese authorities. Presidential Adviser Walt Cummings ordered Secret Service Agent Dale Spaulding to kill Bauer once he was in custody in order to prevent the Chinese from extracting any harmful information from Bauer. Mike Novick, chief of staff to President Charles Logan, overheard the conversation and informed his friend, former President David Palmer. Palmer called Bauer and urged him to flee CTU.

Bauer, along with Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, and Chloe O'Brian, planned an escape in which Bauer faked his own death to avoid being taken into custody. Once Secret Service Agent Spaulding and CTU personnel left the scene, Bauer was administered epinephrine and was revived. Almeida and Dessler smuggled Bauer out of CTU and dropped him off on a secluded road. He thanked them for all that they had done for him, then called President Palmer, thanking him as well for the advanced warning. "For all intents and purposes," Palmer stated, "Jack Bauer is dead." Bauer hung up the phone and walked off.pt:Jack Bauer