This week's edition of "Armchair Quarterback Fox's 24". Warning Spoilers inside.

[El Rojo]

Alright, how many THR members out there would have been camping in the desert with at least a minimum of a handgun and more likely with at least one rifle and/or one shotgun? I personally would have had my Glock 27 at the very least. I don't like going anywhere in the boonies without at least one battle rifle, so I would have most likely brought along either the M1 Garand, M1A, or SU-16. Either way, with at least one firearm, I could have taken out at least one or more of the terrorists. I would have problably set up in that long cooridor and waited for the bad guy to come running after me and then ambushed him. Actually, the last thing I probably would have done was go to a building like that. There is nothing like a big vast desert to get lost in in the night. Sure with NVG they would have an advantage, but there is still a lot of land to look at from a jeep.

I want to know why there is only one CTU agent tasked to recovering the football. I would think they would have already splashed Marwan's jeep with a Hellfire, 2000 lbs. LGB, or a 500 CBU. At the very least there are some F15s in the areas, have them give him the 20 mike mike treatment.

Oh well, it is entertaining if not realistic. At least now I won't go to the desert without at least one rifle for each person that goes.

 

[bratch]

I really love the show but at times have to remind myself its a show. Like how can a helicopter and satellites not find the only jeep in the desert? I mean it even had its lights on.

I wasn't totally surprised they didn't have a gun I was surprised they didn't have a knife. I mean who camps without a knife?

 

[wasrjoe]

Hollywood writers.

 

[CleverName]

Glad I wasn't the only one thinking "If I was there, I'd get my rifle, end the terrorist threat, and collect my Congressional Gold Medal." Nothing like a long distance shot to justify that expensive scope. Additional benefit if I made it with a 50 BMG - Hey California, it's an anti-terrorist weapon!

 

[MAKOwner]

I'm kind of annoyed by the fact that Jack never ever takes a rifle along on these missions. Especially ones where he's expecting contact... Grab a M4 or MP5 or something for crying out loud...

To tonights episode I found it kinda lame they'd send just jack and one other CTU agent to get the football.

And there is no way those Jeeps would have been able to drive around unspotted once they started looking for them. And wouldn't AirForce One's fighter cover stay around on station to help secure the area where AFOne went down at or something?

 

[psyopspec]

Not reading the thread, but just wanted to say thanks for the fair warning this time around ! I'll be popping all of these back up when I'm caught up on the dvd's.

 

[ZeroX]

Tactical issues aside, I was more annoyed with the VP. I couldn't tell if he was up to something or just a bad actor.

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

the whole time i kept saying, i woulda killed those terrorists if I were camping. I dont go camping without a weapon. not only that, jack and that random CTU agent were the guys in charge of retrieving the football. in reality there would have been national guard choppers and tactical teams there within minutes. how did the terrorists jeeps get there before anything else? its not like they could plan that the plane would A. blow up due to the missle B. crash where they planned it


but anyway, its a good show.

 

[Norton]

Or...how about the scene where the BGs get the football manual from the husband:

Wife says she'll give them the football if they promise not to kill them. Of course Marwan says, "I promise". Wife gives them the football and then looks surprised when Marwan says to kill them. :banghead:

 

[Remington788]

I dont go camping without a weapon

Me neither, I think me and my FAL would have been more than enough for four guys armed with handguns out in the desert. They never would have known what hit them.

I'm surprised no one has metioned the bullet trick Jack used to fool the terrorist. I don't think a little grass fire in a can would cause those 9mm bullets to go off.


But then again, it is just a TV show.

 

[Calhoun]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought all of these things last night.

Cal

 

[Elkslayer]

Yeah, Last nights show was PRETTY lame

Like being a floor or two below ground level in an electrical substation with all kinds of electromagnetic interference way out in the desert AND STILL HAVE A CELL PHONE SIGNAL!!! YEAH,,, RIGHT!!! I loose signal just walking under a awning on the downtown streets around here!

 

[TonyB]

Yeah..who goes camping with out at least a knife?also why wouldn't you put your cell on vibrate when trying to sneak around and kill BG's?
My wife did say"if that were you and me,you would've shot those guys already."I had to smile...when she's right ,she's right.....I still love the show...also whould that burning can of bullets actually work??I don't think it would..I could be wrong.....

 

[Boats]

Yeah, last night I was telling my wife that it was military/outdoors BS week on 24.

Peeves:
Pictographic radar icons.
Disappearance of AF1s fighter escort not patroling the crash site.
Two man team with pistols sent to recover the football.
A nuclear football that is useable by any finder who can open it.
Campers without a gun.
Campers without even a SAK.
"Passive triangulation" without any point discrimination.
Unmanned reserve powerstation.
Breeept. Breeept. Moron.
Corrugated tin providing effective cover against both pistol and SMG fire.
Perfect cellular service in all but the initial football recovery.
Smoky grass fire in a can ignites 9mm rounds which sound like gunfire.
Nuclear football with a code to open it, but not a code to fry its control board.
A helicopter that can take out one Jeep in the desert, but not the other less than five minutes away no matter which direction it went.

OTOH:

Every layperson is convinced of the existence of pictographic radar icons.
To lay people it takes 4-5 F-15s to take out a lone F-117. And they are fighters incapable of ground attack.
There is no sense in arming yourself adequately or taking at least a squad for a short helicopter ride into the unknown.
The nuclear football is useable by any finder who can open it or it is useless as a plot point.
Campers without a gun are more believable in California than campers with one.
Campers without even a SAK? Well there was that yahoo in Utah who had to cut off his own arm with a Pakistani gas station freebee. Serves them right.
Hollywood is full of surplus tricorders for passive triangulation.
Only audible rings work to tell you that the character is talking to someone.
Unmanned reserve powerstations never have minimium wage security guards.
Corrugated tin provides effective cover against both pistol and SMG fire in Hollywood.
Perfect cellular service appears everywhere in Hollywood except horror movies.
Smoky grass fire in a can ignites 9mm on the sound engineer's board.
Hollywood doesn't seem to know about FLIR or that a spotlight is used on COPS to great effect rather regularly.

 

[M99M12]

Peeing up wind.

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

boats....everything i was about to say...you covered. good job

 

[Don Gwinn]

Hollywood cell service is a fickle thing. In Way of the Gun, the entire plot hinged on the fact that the bagman following the kidnappers couldn't get a cell signal when they left with the girl--despite the fact that he was standing ten yards from the pay phone that worked perfectly for all the other characters.

Still a great movie.


We watched it with my mother-in-law last night; I think my wife was afraid to mention that we would have shot back. I won't say I would have killed the hardened terrorists. . . . but I would have shot at them, for goodness' sake.

 

[Mal H]

Like most here, I thought about all these things as well while watching.

Why wasn't an entire squad sent to recover the football?

How does Bauer know so much about the workings of the football?

Why not stash the football somewhere in the brush after disabling the transponder and just hide? IOW, why high-tail it to the only object that stands out like a sore thumb in the desert?

Why remove the batteries from a cell phone to prevent "passive transmission". Off is off.

Why are the lights always on in the substation? And why is such a large substation unmanned? Why does the substation have a glass window with no security wire in the door?

If they had to go to the substation, why can't they just hide and be "vewy, vewy, kwiet"?

Why does a cell phone work in the basement of an electric substation in the desert when my cell phone gets maybe one bar when we are only 5 miles from the nearest tower?

Why can't a helicopter easily outrun a jeep with its lights on? The chopper was only distracted about 1 minute at most.

Why does any other agent agree to accompany Bauer on any mission, short or long? They should know by now they are going to be killed in the first minute of any encounter. They are like the Blue Shirts in Star Trek.

Why do I keep watching it? Because it's still pretty entertaining with all its flaws.

 

[SLCDave]

I love the show, but last night's episode ranked right up with last years' episode where they got GPS signals in the subway tunnel.

 

[KnightHawk67]

The Star Trek guys that were cannon-fodder were the red shirts. (Sorry, old Trekkies never die. LoL)

Another plot point about the football, even if it were going to take an hour to change all the launch codes (why so darn long?) where was Marwan going to get a nuke in less time than that? He was in the middle of the freakin desert!! I mean, no one said "Hey, we are missing a nuke from our inventory. Gee, could he have it in the back of that jeep?"

I love the show, but it grates my nerves in the "Hollywood-ification" of real life.

 

[Arc-Lite]

....and keep in mind the area AF-1 went down...Inyo, which is in the basic area of Groom Lake (area 51/USAF) and China Lake(USN)...(right up the road, from Edwards USAF) three of THE most secure areas...in the US, each with enough armed personal and strike and support aircraft...to form a nation. Oh well... if you just sit back, and put the mind on auto pilot, for an hour...its one of the better shows on the tube. The thing that amazes me....is how good Jack looks.... with the day he has had so far.

 

[Mal H]

KnightHawk - Right! The Red Shirts always got it first.

Another question about last nights episode:

Why is it that a couple of terrorists can triangulate a cell phone with a single piece of hand-held gear in seconds when the CTU can't seem to do it with lots of time and the entire technology budget of the US Gov't?

 

[UnknownSailor]

Since when can an F-117 carry an AA missle?

I firmly doubt that the contents of the football are so irreplaceable. I'm sure the codes contained in any one football can be almost instantly made invalid.

Body armor, anyone?

Camping deep in the California desert without some kind of protection? Only in Hollywood.

For Jack Bauer: Got rifle? As often as he gets into gunfights, he should have an AR slung at all times...

On the plus side:
Last episode drywall was shown not to be effective cover. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that.

 

[GEM]

LAME!

And they killed Dena!!

The plot twists are getting sillier and sillier. Marwan can get there so fast when no other military assets can is because:

He is an evil Mummy. He has magic teleportation powers.

 

[Joe Gunns]

'Why is it that a couple of terrorists can triangulate a cell phone with a single piece of hand-held gear in seconds when the CTU can't seem to do it with lots of time and the entire technology budget of the US Gov't?"

'cuz CTU, as a new homeland security agency, has gear procured by bureaucrats in formerly separate agencies resulting in probably four different incompatable systems managed by three layers of low-bid software, each of which was acquired to "fix" glaring glitches in the earlier acquisitions.