Right now, two decades have passed since the action-drama 24 premiered on Fox. My wife and dog have binged the entire show with me, and people that I work with may be involved in what’s below. I’m Midwest Film Journal editor / co-founder Nick Rogers, and today, I continue the longest thing I’ve ever written. Across 205 episodes, there were numerous fantastic characters on 24. But what about those who got in and got out in an hour or less — whose time was short but somehow memorable? Thus, Midwest Film Journal presents Gone in 60 Minutes: 24’s Best One-Hour Characters. The following list takes place between 50 and 40. Rankings occur in real reverse chronology. (Many thanks to Mollie Siu-Chong for baller banner photo design, as well as the administrators and users of Fandom’s 24 Wikia for meticulous information and copious images)
50. David Weiss
Day: 4
Hour: 12:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Performer: Evan Handler
Alive? Yes.
Day 4 was the first full season of 24 I watched alongside my eventual wife, who indulged my insistence that this wackadoo show about antiterrorism was good fun. It’s hardly her thing, but she enjoyed it. Conversely, Sex and the City was not my thing, but I picked it up midstream with her at the same time. We both cackled when Evan Handler — aka Harry Goldenblatt, Charlotte’s divorce attorney turned white-knight husband on City — turned up here as … an attorney. He’s there from Amnesty Global to forestall CTU’s torture of terrorism suspect Joe Prado, from whom they hope to obtain the whereabouts of big-bad Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo). Hilariously, Marwan reports this impending rights violation himself, knowing a lawyer’s presence will gum up the works and eat time CTU doesn’t have. Of course, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) figures out a brutal way around this to get what he needs. But having the terrorist understand that the insistence upon civility can also be easily exploited represents one of 24’s more ham-handed inquiries about the value of interrogative torture. Nevertheless, Handler is perfect for this kind of role, expressing his exasperation with CTU’s treatment of a downtrodden man while also happily driving off in his swanky convertible.
49. Dr. Bradley
Day: 6
Hour: 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Performer: J.C. MacKenzie
Alive? Yes.
The death of Teri Bauer (Leslie Hope) is one of 24’s saddest, most shocking moments. The tragedy of Jack’s other great love, Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), is a slower and arguably more depressing burn. Over the course of Day 4, Audrey sees first-hand how Jack’s violent obsessions engender so much death and questions whether she can love someone so steeped in that world. When Jack comes crashing back into Audrey’s life during Day 5 (after having to fake his death at the end of Day 4), they reconcile … right before he’s snatched by the Chinese in exchange for an act we’ll cover later. At that point, Audrey goes looking for Jack in China and is, unbeknownst to Jack, herself subjected to imprisonment and torture by his same captors. By the time Audrey shows up in Day 6 with information CTU needs, she is a catatonic shell who can hardly function. A smug chode in the Matthew Modine mode, Dr. Bradley wants to inject Audrey full of drugs that are as likely to kill her as extract intel about her tormentors. Obviously, Jack disagrees with Dr. Bradley and although Jack doesn’t rough up the bad doctor himself, at least he gets to put hands on his assistant by proxy.
48. Tim Rooney, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Third Class
Day: 5
Hour: 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Performer: Jeremy Ray Valdez
Alive? Yes
Rooney is among a U.S. Navy team at the Port of Los Angeles inspecting the Russian submarine Natalia K-524 — which terrorist Vladimir Bierko (Julian Sands) attacks with Sentox nerve gas. Bierko’s goal is commandeering the submarine and its nuclear missiles to bring about an apocalypse. Rooney is the only survivor of Bierko’s slaughter, who sends a distress signal that captures Jack’s attention and leads to hushed communication. Jack tells Rooney he must kill one of Bierko’s henchman and distract the others so a CTU team can make its move. Of the many people on this list whom Jack moves to previously unthinkable actions, Rooney lets you see the terror of his actions weigh on him the most. Still, it’s a pivotal moment in a blistering season, and Rooney is undeniably a hero in helping get Jack where he needs to go. Rooney also bears witness to Jack’s cold-blooded murder of his duplicitous former mentor, Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller), underscoring the brutality at Jack’s core that he’ll never be able to leave behind.
47. Derek Rosner
Day: 4
Hour: 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Performer: Todd Kimsey
Alive? No.
Hey, it’s Day 4, Hour 9 again! This hour’s terrorist-initiated meltdown of the San Gabriel Island nuclear power plant factors into one of 24‘s very best one-hour characters. And in a way, Rosner is a brief dry run at a similar, better, character from Day 7 (also on this list). But there’s something so immediately and unforgettably sad about the way this engineer communicates his choice to stay behind and monitor the meltdown well past any point at which he could safely recover from his own radiation exposure. Rosner delivers the news to James Heller (William Devane), the Secretary of Defense and Jack’s new boss, over a harried video feed that quickly goes dead. As with some real-life heroes who make the news, all we know about Rosner is that he saved a lot of people. Sometimes that’s enough.
46. United States Air Force Captain Clarke
Day: 4
Hour: 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
Performer: Michael Borgschulte
Alive? Yes.
As seen in entries #77, #76 and #51, 24 has its fair share of folks who save the day from the air. Clarke is the F-18 pilot whom CTU scrambles over Los Angeles in the waning minutes of Day 4 to take out Marwan’s last nuclear-armed missile before it strikes the city. (It would take them another day and change to actually let off such a bomb in L.A., remember?) Clarke is played by Major Michael Borgschulte, USMC, who, as of 2017, was still a pilot. Not bad for his only credited acting role, which allowed a captive audience to exhale on what was then 24‘s most exhilarating day.
45. Kathy McCartney
Day: 3
Hour: 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
Performer: Brigid Brannagh
Alive? Unknown.
Unlike Bruce Margolis back at #81, Kathy McCartney doesn’t waffle on helping CTU agent Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) contain the Cordilla virus outbreak at the Chandler Plaza Hotel, where everyone has been infected. Kathy has a one-night stand there with married man William Cole. Despite Kathy’s shame, she quickly tells Michelle about the encounter and that Cole went home. He’s symptomatic, which is a problem, but Kathy winds up helping contain the outbreak simply by what she discloses. As with Bruce, Kathy’s fate is technically unknown but generally assumed to be bad. This one’s a little sadder, though. Kathy made one wrong choice and paid mightily for it. She never meets Jack, but they have a good deal in common.
44. Nantz
Day: 8
Hour: 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Performer: Alex Carter
Alive? Yes.
President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) remained a giant-neck-waddled fly in Jack Bauer’s ointment well after Day 5, in which the disgraced POTUS was the primary antagonist. To save the office’s integrity, the American public never knew the real reason Logan left office, so he remained on the fringe of favored status with leaders (and enemies) foreign and domestic. Such was Logan’s devil’s-whisper counsel to beleaguered President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) during Day 8, when she pursued fragile peace with Kamistan at any cost — even if it meant killing people to achieve it. With Jack on the trail of this, Logan preemptively hires a team of security contractors to kill him once and for all. Nantz leads that team and comes so very close to offing Jack until he indulges the Fallacy of the Talking Killer — telling Jack he respects him and promising to make it quick and painless. Jack tries to escape, but Nantz still gets the drop on him. As it turns out, the last fight Jack has left to give is enough. It gives a newly penitent Taylor enough time to call off Jack’s execution and give him a head-start to once again go off the grid. Thus, Nantz is the last person to see Jack in person during what was, until Live Another Day, the series finale. That should count for something, right?
43. George Ferragamo
Day: 1
Hour: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Performer: John Prosky
Alive? No.
Dr. Ferragamo is mentioned so often by the Palmer family on Day 1 that you’re sure he’ll play a bigger role than he does. Keith Palmer begins seeing Dr. Ferragamo after his sister Nicole’s rape, which takes place before Day 1. During their sessions, Keith confessed that Nicole’s rapist did not commit suicide but instead fell after struggling with Keith — which his mother, Sherry Palmer (Penny Johnson Jerald) knows and has covered up, much to the dismay of his father, presidential candidate Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). After learning Ferragamo might become a target, David calls him with a warning but Ferragamo isn’t having any of it — claiming David is the source of any threat against him. At least Ferragamo is the locus around which David’s trust in Sherry disintegrates, seeing as she orchestrates Ferragamo’s death. It’s the first spindle in Sherry’s web spun over two more days.
42. Hank
Day: 5
Hour: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Performer: Robert Rusler
Alive? No.
Hank gets in one of few good licks on Jack across the course of 24 and suffers one of its most memorable deaths. He’s a professional assassin sent by Walt Cummings, the Chief of Staff to evil President Logan, to kill Jack at CTU. Before Hank can pop him, Jack realizes Hank means harm and engages in combat. With sickening audible clarity, Hank cracks one of Jack’s ribs. However, Jack gets the ultimate drop on Hank — ramming an already half-buried pair of scissors STRAIGHT THROUGH HANK’S NECK OH SHIT GODDAMN, JACK, YOU ANIMAL.
41. Erica Vazquez
Day: 1
Hour: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Performer: Christine Avila
Alive? Yes.
40. Theresa Ortega
Day: 3
Hour: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Performer: Kamala Lopez-Dawson
Alive? Yes.
CTU’s life insurance benefits are probably terrible, riddled with loopholes that protect major payouts and keep loved ones in the dark by shielding necessary state secrets. Families are likely the last thing on CTU managers’ minds when one of their team members dies … unless they’re suspicious that they are somehow involved in the day’s shenanigans. So it goes with Erica Vazquez, mother to programmer and analyst Jamey Farrell. Revealed as a mole who’s assisting terrorist Ira Gaines’s plot to assassinate Senator David Palmer, Jamey is murdered by mega-mole Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke) in a staged suicide. The payout to which Jamey admitted is in Erica’s bank account, so Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) grills her despite her deep sorrow.
Meanwhile, Theresa Ortega is the widow of Gael Ortega, who valiantly perishes trying to stop the release of Day 3’s Cordilla virus. While in the office, Theresa acquires Gael’s gun and shoots Stephen Saunders (Paul Blackthorne), that day’s terrorist mastermind, right as he’s about to identify the final virus-carrying courier CTU needs to stop. Both are yet more examples of the madness toward which all of these frenzied days drive people.
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