Monday, January 14, 2008

24: the next two hours

First off, thanks to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY for including me in their list of the "100 Greatest Websites." I've just renewed my subscription for five years.

Yesterday I revealed the first two hours of what 24 had planned for this season. Here are the next two. I know it's more fun to actually watch the four hours over two nights but since the show has been postponed for a year I figured this will at least keep you. So fasten your seat belts.

The following takes place between 3 and 4 PM.

A nuclear bomb explodes outside Washington D.C. Fortunately, this does not interrupt air travel. Chloe calls the kidnappers, says, “If you kill Juno (her baby) you won’t get the Anthrax shipment. Why you’d even want Anthrax I can’t imagine but it’s going to take longer to remove from the government’s secret storage warehouse at 10875 Magnolia Blvd.” Abdul-Paula will give her another hour but ups the ransom as a penalty. She must now also bring $8.95 for the Huggies. Chloe asks if he is responsible for the nuclear blast. Abdul-Paula is enraged. “Sure, it’s always the TERRORISTS!”

Chloe calls Jack to update him. Fortunately, he gets cellphone service at 35,000 feet. Jack now has one hour to get to Washington D.C., save Audrey, find out who set off the bomb, then fly back to Los Angeles to rescue Chloe’s baby.

4:00:00

The following takes place between 4:00 and 5:00 PM

Jack lands at Dulles Airport and catches a cab to the city. A postal worker spots him and another chase ensues. Hundreds more are dead. Since there’s no traffic in Washington DC (enough commuters were killed in the nuclear blast to make driving a real pleasure) he arrives downtown in five minutes.

The President calls. President Taylor (played this season by Cherry Jones: pictured) heard Jack was in town and has a special top secret mission for him. He’s instructed to report to the White House. He calls Chloe but there’s pandemonium at CTU. Apparently someone released nerve gas and only Karl Rove happened to have a gas mask. Fortunately, Chloe locks herself in the conference room, which like all glass-enclosed rooms is sealed air tight. Chloe’s baby has an accident and as Abdul-Paula goes for the handi-wipes the baby accidentally activates a timer to a series of suitcase bombs that in two minutes will blow up every Dunkin Donuts in Los Angeles.

Jack arrives at the White House and is ushered into the Oval Office. President Taylor hands him a letter. “This is my Verizon bill. It’s overdue. See that it’s sent by midnight tonight.” The bomb timer ticks away. 5 seconds…4 seconds…3 seconds…2 seconds…1 second. BOOM! Fortunately there are no Dunkin Donuts in Los Angeles so the damage is minimal.

Jack is about to leave when President Taylor stops him. She has one more thing he needs to look at. The CIA and Oprah's people did some uncovering and apparently Jack’s great-great grandfather was Hitler. Audrey is being strapped to electrodes. Applause from the attendants. Chloe is calling maintenance to come fix the air conditioner. It’s stuffy in the sealed conference room. Karl Rove’s wife is downloading music illegally. Former President Palmer prepares Banana Foster. Kim and her captors rob a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco. Jack goose steps to a mailbox.

5:00:00

11 comments :

Rob said...

SPOILER ALERT:


I've got a friend of a friend whose uncle knows a guy who used to bowl with a guy whose best friend was a PA on a show that taped near the set of 24 and here are some highlights still to come.

The divisional office of the Post Office, seeing the sorry state things are in, takes over the one Jack was working in. The leader of division, played by Corey Feldman, seems to be a real jerk at first, but dies a heroic death when he ingests a tainted Dunkin Donut that is about to poison everyone in a sealed Post Office safe room.

Peter Weller's character returns. Yes, he was killed by Jack, but thanks to modern technology, he's been fitted with an all new metal exterior shell and turned into RoboRogueAgent.

Chloe mistakenly delivers the powdered terrorist agent Anthrax. Unfortunately, Abdul-Paula wanted records from the group Anthrax. Chloe, using her awesome computing skills, Googles the name Scott Ian, and finds the band's guitarist is taping I Love the First Part of the 2000's for VH1. Before he can send the records, he is killed by a falling green screen.

Kim manages to escape her captors, but winds up doing cameos in John Waters movies.

Anonymous said...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers contracts, effectively conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The move signals that development of next season's crop of new shows also could be in jeopardy because of the 2-month-old writers strike, the newspaper said.

January typically marks the start of pilot season, when networks order new comedies and dramas. But with writers not working, networks do not have a pool of scripts from which to choose.

20th Century Fox Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television each confirmed to the Times that they terminated development and production agreements. Studios typically pay $500,000 to $2 million a year per writer for them to develop ideas for new TV shows.

"I didn't see it coming," Barbara Hall, a writer and producer whose credits include former CBS series "Joan of Arcadia" and "Judging Amy," told the Times, which said ABC executives gave her the news Friday. "I am not entirely sure what their strategy is, all I know was that I was a casualty of it."

Overall, more than 65 deals with writers have been eliminated since Friday, the newspaper said.

Anonymous said...

Really, Ken...there aren't any Dunkin' Donuts in L.A? Anymore? I say that because there were in the market in the early 1970's--there's one seen in a stock transition shot used on episodes of EMERGENCY!--and in the late '80s donut boxes seen on screen in MURPHY BROWN and THE WONDER YEARS, while dummied up, were clearly in the Dunkin' style.

Stephany said...

Ken,
Always love your blog but oh my god this 24 "mini-series" is the best thing yet. I eagerly await each day to read what is going to happen next. It's surely giving me my dose of missed Jack Bauer.

Anonymous said...

Can we please get an Aaron Sorkin writes an episode of 24, please?

maven said...

This 24 plot is the most plausible one yet! Thanks!

By Ken Levine said...

My post tomorrow will address all of the overall deals that the studios are releasing.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the EW listing! I didn't know EW had that good taste!

Anonymous said...

Guess nobody saw (or cared about) the Golden Globes. Hate to say it, but it was the best televised award show ever. Watched it, commercial free, on channel 2. Was over in a little more than half hour. What ever channel 4 was doing was awful. Looked like they weren't even there.

Anonymous said...

I started watching the Globes (on Channel 4/NBC), but since I had just seen the winners list online, I bailed after 10 minutes. Nothing more boring than watching Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell reading the nominees, announcing the winner, then ad libbing some generic reaction.

Disagree with 'anonymous' about it being the "best awards show" ever though. People who like award shows don't care about the length; people who hate award shows shouldn't watch them, regardless of length. If you hate award shows, but like to know who won, just go about your business and periodically check the web for updates. The way some folks rail against award shows, you'd think they were being forced to watch them. Personally, I think the most fun is to rail against them WHILE watching.

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine an Aaron Sorkin 24? CTU would definitely need to add an extra wing to accomodate all the walking