24 (2001)
24 is a 2001 action & adventure series created by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow. It stars Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Carlos Bernard.
Each season runs one twenty-four-hour day, and the clock never stops. Jack Bauer, the volatile agent at the center of Los Angeles counterterrorism unit CTU, chases assassination plots, bombs, and moles while the split-screen ticks. Kiefer Sutherland plays Bauer as a man who will cross any line to stop the next attack, and the show made that moral cost its engine. Dennis Haysbert's Senator Palmer, family betrayals, and season-long conspiracies fill the hours. Fast, ruthless, and built for momentum, it defined the real-time thriller on television and set the pace for a decade of imitators.
Quick answers
What is 24 about?
Each season runs one twenty-four-hour day, and the clock never stops. Jack Bauer, the volatile agent at the center of Los Angeles counterterrorism unit CTU, chases assassination plots, bombs, and moles while the split-screen ticks. Kiefer Sutherland plays Bauer as a man who will cross any line to stop the next attack, and the show made that moral cost its engine. Dennis Haysbert's Senator Palmer, family betrayals, and season-long conspiracies fill the hours. Fast, ruthless, and built for momentum, it defined the real-time thriller on television and set the pace for a decade of imitators.
When was 24 released?
24 was released on 6 November 2001.
How many episodes does 24 have?
24 has 204 episodes across 9 seasons.
Who made 24?
24 was created by Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow and Sean Callery.
Where can I watch 24?
24 is available on Disney+, Hulu, Google Play, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch 24
Rent: Google Play
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, Google Play
Official site
Cast
- Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer
- Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian
- Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida
- Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer
- Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer
- Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers
- Kim Raver as Audrey Raines
- James Morrison as Bill Buchanan
- Reiko Aylesworth as Michelle Dessler
- Jude Ciccolella as Mike Novick
- Glenn Morshower as Aaron Pierce
- D. B. Woodside as Wayne Palmer
Similar series
Explore 24 guides
24 in our writing
- Companion guide: Techno-Thriller
A few thoughts on 24
Its ticking-clock espionage runs straight into Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War and the wider Jack Ryan world of analysts turned field operatives. The Bourne Identity offers the same breathless competence under pressure. For a game, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell drops you inside the black-ops mission Bauer is usually sprinting through.
Ticking-clock missions where one team has hours to stop mass murder
Jack Bauer's real-time missions at CTU set the template these six follow: a small unit racing an unmovable deadline before an attack lands. The Night Agent, Citadel, Nemesis, Legends, The Terminal List and Shooter trade 24's split-screen clock for their own countdowns, but they keep the same math: every decision costs time nobody has left to spare.
Undercover spies whose loyalty could blow up the whole operation
24 built its tension on Jack Bauer never knowing who inside CTU was compromised, and these shows chase that same rot from the inside. The Night Manager, Alias, Kleo, Black Doves, Condor and La Femme Nikita all send an agent deep into an enemy structure, where one wrong word to the wrong handler ends careers and lives.
Operators the government will always deny sending
Jack Bauer worked outside the rules when the rules got in his way, and so do these. The Bourne Identity and Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher are trained assets cut loose from their own agencies, The Old Man and The Day of the Jackal chase men the state wants gone quietly, and Bodyguard and Paradise put duty of protection above any rulebook.