Jack Bauer: the Smart Warrior’s Faustian Gift 1 Jack Bauer: The Smart Warrior’s Faustian Gift Marcus O’Donnell 1 Abstract: Jack Bauer of the television series 24 is a highly charged contemporary mythic character who exists in powerful relationship to past and present real world and fictional figures. If Rambo was a classic Reagan era cinematic "hard body" (Jeffords 1994) Jack is the archetypal Bush "smart warrior," in a post-Patriot-Act-era. However like Rambo, Reagan’s displays of bravado were decisive and successfully staged but George Bush has faced a multiplying set of uncertainties. This sets up a more complex set of relations between Jack, George W. Bush and contemporary masculinities than those presented by the Reagan era. Jack is both an emblem of unimpeded presidential will and a parable of its Faustian consequences. “Let’s play ‘You’re the President,’” New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote provocatively at the beginning of a piece that tried to shore up George Bush’s stock in the wake of the December 2005 domestic eavesdropping revelations. “Let’s put you in the Oval Office and see what kind of decisions you make in real-world circumstances,” he continues, setting up a narrative of real versus ideal in his mock make-believe. “Because you are president, you are briefed each day on terrorist threats to this country. These briefings are as psychologically intense as an episode of "24," with descriptions of specific bad guys and their activities.” (Brooks 2005)