jack bauer - hero of the future

24 day one premiered in november of 2001. it’s an election year, unspecified, for the sake of clarity we’ll say it’s actually 2001 and the 24 alternate timeline has their elections one year off from ours. this puts day one in real-time, november of 2001. (apparently they have their primaries in november, maybe the election is in 2002?)

day two premiered in october of 2002, eleven months later. however, the story was set eighteen months after day one. this put the 24 timeline seven months ahead of realtime for the duration of day two, setting the days events in may of 2003.

day three premiered in october of 2003. one year later in realtime, three years later in the 24 timeline. day three was offset by two years and seven months in advance of realtime. the events of day three took place in may of 2006.

day four premiered in january of 2005. fifteen months later in realtime, eighteen months later in the 24 timeline. day four was offset by two years and ten months in advance of realtime. the events of day four took place in november of 2007.

day five premiered in january of 2006. one year later in real time, eighteen months later in the 24 timeline. day five was offset by three years and four months in advance of realtime. the events of day five will take place in may of 2009.

day six premiered in january of 2007. one year later in real time, twenty months later in 24 time. day six was offset by four years in advance of realtime. the events of day six will take place in january of 2011.

day seven will premiere in january of 2009, two years later in real time. the amount of time in the 24 timeline since day six has been given as both several months (early production before the strike) and about a year (speaking about the prequel to day seven currently filming, which will itself air in november of 2008). for the sake of this timeline we’ll assume both quotes are correct, and place the prequel one year after day six, and day seven three months after the prequel. twenty-four months of realtime, fifteen months in the 24 timeline. this will offset day seven by three years and three months in advance of realtime. the events of day seven will take place in march of 2012.

so this january, if jack bauer’s cellphone in day seven has magic powers, understand that it’s because of chronal distortion. he’ll be using government grade technology from 2012, the kind of thing civilians won’t have access to outside of korea until 2013.

if you go back and watch jack taking hi-res photos with amazing zoom, from the rafters of an airport, and upload heavy data packets at lightning broadband speeds, during the events of day five, take note of what kind of phone he’s using. you’ll be able to buy that model in may of 2009, when the timelines synch up.

note also that this timeline assumes a perfect synch on day one, in november of 2001. with no references to 9/11 or our cowboy president declaring war on terror, and a black senator running for president with nary a question about his race, it’s entirely possible that day one won’t take place until sometime after obama wins the presidency this november, placing palmer’s campaign no sooner than early 2012 or 2016.

the entire chronology slides forward at that point, and we can then surmise that rather than using the cutting-edge of korean electronics, ctu is actually making do with older, obsolete technology from the early to mid 2000s. they become the scrappy underdogs, constantly under scrutiny from their better funded and equipped ‘allies’ at division, and getting the job done despite massive technological deficiencies compared to their terrorist counterparts.

alternatively, the producers have stated recently that 24 takes place in ‘the perpetual now‘, which can be assumed to take place just before ‘the near future’.