Jack Bauer vs Jack Reacher

[xanaphia]

I am wondering who would win in a fight of some kind between Jack Reacher and Jack Bauer.

Jack Reacher
Jack Reacher, from the series of books by Lee Child. Nothing hurts him. He is a world champion sniper, can always tell the time without a watch, can do complicated math in his head instantly, and is described by a man who he convicted of murder as an "investigative genius."

From TV Tropes

Jack Reacher, from Lee Child's series of books, is a massive example of this. Literally. He's 6'5" tall and an ex-military policeman - which, in the books' context, makes him some sort of Super-Duper Special Forces soldier. Oh, and he's never wrong. Every other character in the novels exist to raise alternate viewpoints for Reacher to disprove. He also gains new savant abilities with each new book. For instance, the ability to do any type of math in his head, the ability to always know what time it is without a timepiece, and the ability to instantly calculate the distance between two points by eyeballing it - which comes in handy, because he's the best sniper in the world (despite being on the road for years and unable to spend time practicing and maintaining any shooting skills). Oh, and he also meets a new gorgeous, buxom girl in each novel, and he sleeps with practically all of them. One of them was happily engaged at the time but won over by Reacher's manly charm. Just read the list of "Acquaintances" at the Other Wiki, and try and guess which are the ones he sleeps with. Go on, try it. It's fun. Oh, and he wins every fight he's ever in. No matter how many people he's fighting at once, how big or skilled they are, and whether or not they're armed. Most of the time pretty easily.

Jack Bauer
Similarly, Jack Bauer of 24 is epic awesome. Sneak into a heavily guarded enemy compound, save your family, and kill the head bad guy? All before breakfast, because he's been awake for 36+ hours! By the end of the season, he's still sprinting around, killing people even though he has been awake for at least 42 hours straight.

See also TV Tropes.

So who wins the fight?

[chiasaur11]

Torturing Jack Bauer to death just makes him angry, and he can settle a half dozen terror attacks a day.

Reacher may be tough, but Jack Bauer is pretty much invincible.

[Faulty]

Well, Jack Bauer's more than a bit of a semi-sociopathic fascist, so I'm biased against him. But really, Jack Reacher sounds like he's got God Mode constantly on. I don't think Jack Bauer would even see him before he died.

[xanaphia]

I paraphrase Jack Reacher:

It's easy to kill people who are attacking you with guns. It's relatively difficult to beat guys with knives. Sadly there's four of them. Oh well, I guess I'll beat them all unconscious with a chair.

Then again, Jack Bauer has died repeatedly and not died. He is epic awesome, and awesome again.

[Faulty]

He's one of the most unethical and disturbing "heroes" on television.

[SilverSheriff]

He's one of the most unethical and disturbing "heroes" on television.

extreme anti-hero for the win.

[Shosuro Ishii]

He's one of the most unethical and disturbing "heroes" on television.

Up until the major shift over in writers (and a few select episodes that we would rather forget), that was kind of the point. One of the major recurring themes was Jack's internal struggle between doing what he precived as required versus what he precieved as right. Jack is an anti-hero, but he is 'ethical' just not in the traditional way.

[Faulty]

Up until the major shift over in writers (and a few select episodes that we would rather forget), that was kind of the point. One of the major recurring themes was Jack's internal struggle between doing what he precived as required versus what he precieved as right. Jack is an anti-hero, but he is 'ethical' just not in the traditional way.

Maybe I haven't watched enough of the show then, but I found his readiness to kill and torture people somewhat disturbing, especially when done for ones country, rather than what one sees as right.

[Shosuro Ishii]

Maybe I haven't watched enough of the show then, but I found his readiness to kill and torture people somewhat disturbing, especially when done for ones country, rather than what one sees as right.

Towards the end of season 7, Jack acknowledges that what he has done has been wrong, and that he carries the scars with him, but he accepts them, because he feels the world needs people like him. Kinda of like the operatiove in Serenity, only more badass, and more morally ambigious.

[Faulty]

Towards the end of season 7, Jack acknowledges that what he has done has been wrong, and that he carries the scars with him, but he accepts them, because he feels the world needs people like him. Kinda of like the operatiove in Serenity, only more badass, and more morally ambigious.

For some reason that doesn't make me feel better.

[xanaphia]

At the end on Season 1, Jack talks about how he has to do the wrong thing. He doesn't want to.

[Faulty]

At the end on Season 1, Jack talks about how he has to do the wrong thing. He doesn't want to.

If it's wrong then why must he do it?

[Shosuro Ishii]

If it's wrong then why must he do it?

Because he acknowledges that everything isn't always black and white and that sometime the 'heroes' of the story have to do morally ambigious things for the greater good.

In the 24 Universe (different from the real world), sometimes the good guy has to do some questionable things to get the job done.

[SurlySeraph]

He's one of the most unethical and disturbing "heroes" on television.

Yep. 24 is a world of Black and Gray Morality. Compare it to Warhammer 40,000, in which the Imperium is a horrifying Kafkaesque hellscape full of genocidal fanatics, but is the good guy compared to the factions that are trying to exterminate and/or eat all life, plunge the universe into eternal chaos on behalf of demon gods, or maintain eternal war everywhere. Jack Bauer may torture people, murder helpless enemies in cold blood, force doctors to abandon their patients at gunpoint, etc., but he doesn't enjoy doing it, he does it so that fewer people will end up tortured and dead later, and he occasionally expresses regret and horror over it.