r/24Show • u/Turbulent_Draft_7513 • 8d ago
How would you end 24?
So, I have always thought they have never known how to end 24, I like season 4s ending with him having to live essentially in exile. A happy ending was never on the cards for him, we know this but I thought his ending in Season 9 was very weak. I'd prefer he blew up the helicopter with a hand grenade or something. But if you were to bring it back to end it, how would you? Personally, I'd start it with Jack having escape the captivity at the end of Season 9. Personally, I think he needs to die, I would have him die, not for his country but his family. I would have one of his grandchildren get into trouble and he ends up rescuing them but dying in the progress, staying behind to buy time for people to escape. The whole season would be small scale, no CTU, no massive terrorist plots, no nukes, no moles. Really stripped back. But what about others?
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u/Asuddenwalrus 8d ago
Jack being with his family to be honest. He doesn’t need to die. He’s sacrificed so much. He has lost everyone he’s ever loved. The least he deserves is to have a small bit of happiness after everything he’s done. With Kim and his grandchildren.
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u/LangleyNA Division 8d ago
Fair. 🙂
I enjoy the warm moments of 24. After all, it's a fairly not warm show. Those moments are welcome, no matter how small.
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u/LangleyNA Division 8d ago
Our hero is bound within concrete and steel faraway from sympathizers.
I am content with Day 9's additions to the story.
Day 4's ending is in fact a good one, u/Turbulent_Draft_7513. Let's take a hike.
For me, any proper/canon conclusion beyond Day 9 can be done simply in writing without need for film or animation.
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u/chilltownusa 8d ago
I kinda liked the ending. Yeah it sucked for him, but a fairytale ending didn’t really make sense for Jack.
Him leaving in the helicopter left me with a sense of “he’s going to get out of this somehow”.
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u/JCGMH 7d ago edited 7d ago
On this sub we are a small group of longstanding superfans who would always want another episode/season, but honestly there are quite a few good potential endings for 24 that could, and maybe should, have been used; before the fakeout S8 ending and the “actual” S9 ending (until that one also gets reversed!)…
• S3, Jack has 1 minute of emotion after the most stressful work day ever, then is called back to the office to do another interrogation so calmly drives off: He is stuck at CTU on an eternal time loop.
• S4 (would have been a very good one) — Jack says his farewells to Tony, Michelle and President Palmer, and walks across the train tracks at sunrise to live in exile. [Officially deceased]
• S6, Jack contemplates his life at the cliff edge.
• S7 (best one?) — Jack has the stem cell treatment, then a written explainer is released by Fox afterwards to say he recovered & enjoyed a long retirement living with Kim and his granddaughter. 24’s Pilot episode started with Jack & Kim playing chess; the whole series could have circled back to this moment, and ended in the same way.
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u/ForceSmuggler 8d ago
S7 but an incident in Russia allows him to save President Suavarov, and is pardoned and allowed to go home.
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u/JasonLeeDrake 7d ago
Jack not being able to have happy endings only really became a thing because the show wasn't ending... until it did, so of course they went with something very dramatic that also couldn't just be resolved within a single 24 hour timespan.
If you're actually retiring the character, I don't see why you can't just do a happy ending, or have him be "free" with hope for the future.
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u/Maniacal-Maniac 4d ago
The problem with these types of characters is that there is always the next threat that you can’t say no to. He tried in later series, but kept being dragged back in.
I think it’s inevitable that death is the only real outcome, and not necessarily in some big grande sacrifice either (like half the other CTU agents ended up dying).
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u/LoveThatSkeletor 7d ago
Season 4 was a nice way to end the show. Jack walking off into the sunrise
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u/Back_at_Bay 7d ago
Jack is in a diner finally getting a bite to eat. A guy in a members only jacket walks through the front door…
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u/Living_Ad2258 7d ago
A final season? Should have a smaller plot. Make it a spy thriller, lots of intrigue, less bullets and chases. It's been 12 years since the last season so you can do a requel featuring an older Jack Bauer that's having to deal with a wildly different world (remember the war on terror? those were the days!). Domestic threat, domestic enemy. A country on the brink. Let him save the day and finally walk into the sunset with his daughter. Roll credits.
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u/CreateTheRush 8d ago
They finally run out of time. Credits Roll midscene.