Why making a movie of Fox's 24 series may be a bad idea

It looks like there are plans for a movie based on the Fox series 24! But is it really a good idea to bring this unique show to the big screen?

When 24 premiered in 2001, it became a sensation. The basic plot involved Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), a top agent for the L.A.-based Counter Terrorism Unit, trying to stop the attempted assassination of presidential candidate David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). Jack also has to handle his daughter (Elisha Cuthbert) being kidnapped, leading to a vast conspiracy.

What made the show special was the daring idea of having 24 episodes for each season, each one told in “real-time.” That led to some amazing turns with multiple screens and a clock showing all the action. The show was a hit with critics and audiences and also benefited from the advent of DVD. Long before streaming services came around, 24 was the perfect show for DVD owners to binge.

The series would run another 8 seasons with the high point being season 5 that won Emmys for Best Drama Series and Sutherland Best Actor. In 2014, the show had a brief event return with Live Another Day, a 12 episode series of Jack stopping a terrorist attack in London. Fox also attempted 24: Legacy, a spin-off without Bauer. 

There have been rumors now and then of another attempt and now reports are coming that Brian Grazer and his Imagine Entertainment might be doing a film version. Grazer discussed it on MSNBC’s Squawk Box.

"Imagine has always played in that zone where there is that high probability chance that it will be successful in movie theaters. It’s great for us, because we’ve built, over 30 years, over 100 different products and brands, whether it’s ‘Backdraft,’ which I’m now going to do today with Glen Powell, or whether it’s ’24,’ a movie that we’re going to do in a very interesting way with Disney and Fox."

The plans are still in the early stages so it's unknown if Sutherland would return as Bauer. But do we really need a movie version of the show?

Why a 24 movie may be a bad idea

The fact is, 24 already tried the movie format. In 2008, to bridge the long gap between seasons 6 and 7 caused by a writer’s strike, Fox produced Redemption, a TV movie to set up season 7. It wasn’t bad but it also showed a key issue in that it’s hard to make the “real-time” gimmick work on film. 

The power of 24 was always that gimmick and how fans loved to see the action heightening up in every episode. The worries on Jack and other characters in danger were offset by that ticking clock and even commercial breaks made sense. The show used the format better than anyone and watching it on DVD or streaming just makes one marvel at how well it was pulled off for one season, let alone 9. 

That makes it harder to see it working for a movie. A clever idea suggested by fans is for the movie to be two hours and forty minutes long and titled “2.4.” However, that may be a bit too long for moviegoers, and doing real-time is harder than it seems. 24 needed multiple hours to really get going for their storylines, compressing it into two hours or so may not be enough to capture the full impact of a storyline. 

There’s also the obvious issue that Sutherland is now 57 and getting a bit too old for the action needed for Jack’s adventures. We’ve seen such “legacy sequel” characters done in the last few years with mixed success. Sutherland may enjoy being Bauer, but just as possible, he’s decided to move on with different roles and leave it in the past. As the Legacy show proved, continuing with another character won’t be as compelling. Making a movie without Jack Bauer in it would be a waste as he’s the only reason folks would come out to it and rebooting it with another actor in the role is another risk the producers may not want to take. 

Another factor is that while 24 was a hit in its time, it isn’t the mainstream success of, say, Indiana Jones or even Top Gun. It’s been a decade since the last show so it’s hard to see more than just the franchise’s hardcore fans willing to pay to see it on screen. There’s the possibility of a fresh take on the tale, compressing season 1’s storyline into a film but it's still hard to see it working as well. 

If anything, the only revival most would see working would be on TV with Hulu or another streamer and returning to the 24 episode format. Even then, the question is whether Sutherland would take part and that the show's gimmick may have faded with time.

A 24 movie may have worked years ago when Sutherland was younger and the show still very popular. Today, however, it just seems too much time has passed not to mention that a movie simply couldn’t make the gimmick work as well as TV did. While a 24 revival on streaming might actually be a decent idea, this is one series that doesn’t lend itself well to the big screen.

24 seasons 1-9 are streaming on Hulu.