Bauer's job usually involves helping prevent major terrorist attacks on the United States, saving both civilian lives and government administrations.

Bauer is not a crooked agent; though his frequent use of torture to gather information has generated much controversy and discussion.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland portrays Jack Bauer in the television show[1] and video game.

Entertainment Weekly named Jack Bauer one of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.

We were casting a lot of people and then we heard Kiefer Sutherland's name and thought, that's Jack Bauer.

"[5] In 2000, Sutherland was contacted by his friend, director Stephen Hopkins, who was working on the pilot for the experimental real-time TV show and offered him the lead.

Following his military career, Jack worked for both the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics unit and for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a Case Officer in the National Clandestine Service.

Bauer generally wishes to live a humble life, but is willing to step forward and protect his country, even at the expense of his own health.

While the government acknowledges his service, Bauer and his superiors clash over his more rogue and extreme actions he takes without explicit authorization.

In his goal to find peace, he gets involved with Audrey Raines, the daughter of United States Secretary of Defense James Heller, whom Jack works for.

The relationship with the Secretary's daughter is all but severed when Jack makes the decision to save a material witness over Audrey's ex-husband.

Finally, the friend he thought was dead (Tony Almeida), betrays him when he turns to terrorism in order to seek revenge against the person who killed his wife, Michelle.

I guess the only advice I can give you is try to make choices that you can live with.As the principal character in 24, Jack plays a prominent role in the television series as well as the video game.

Since Holt was involved with the Chinese government, it is believed that Jack leaked information that led to his identity being discovered and execution.

At the end of the series, the agents announce that they have no conclusive evidence about his involvement, but Ramirez promises to keep a close eye on him until he is certain.

Jack begins waiting outside a ship where terrorists are going to release a ricin bomb in the water supply.

Jack finally kills Madsen near the end of the game when he tries to escape by shooting up his speedboat with a Zastava M80 assault rifle, causing it to explode.

Enraged, Bauer reappears at the end of the episode, having called all agents of his organization and abandoning his prior mission so that he could hunt Bart down and arrest him.

In the TV show Tripping the Rift episode 23 1/2, a character named "Jack Hour of the Alien Terrorist Unit" offers to help rescue Six.

In episode 14, season 3 of the TV show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dennis Reynolds names his junkyard cat “Agent Jack Bauer”.

In "The Job", the third-season finale of the American adaptation of The Office, Dwight Schrute wishes to name Jack Bauer his second-in-command, but laments that he is "unavailable, fictional, and overqualified".

He is also one of only two Male Lead Drama TV Actors ever to have won all 4 awards, the other being Bryan Cranston for his role as Walter White on Breaking Bad.

Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "When Kiefer Sutherland's 24 superagent barks "Dammit, Chloe—we're running out of time!"

[17][18] As well, at a 2007 legal conference in Ottawa, Canada, Jack Bauer's tactics were raised during a panel discussion about "terrorism, torture and the law".

Panel members, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, discussed the use of torture "in times of great crisis".