James Heller


 * "Simply getting your life back, Jack, isn't going to change who you are. And you can't walk away from it. You know that; you've tried it. Sooner or later you're going to get back into the game, and my daughter is going to pay the price. Like your wife did."
 * &mdash; James Heller to Jack Bauer, "Day 6: 5:00am-6:00am"

James "Jim" Heller, a decorated American serviceman and congressman, was the Secretary of Defense under President John Keeler, and retained the position when Charles Logan became President under the 25th Amendment. A widower, Heller was the father of his former senior policy analyst, Audrey Raines. His son, Richard, was an activist who frequently participated in anti-government and anti-corporate protests, much to Heller's chagrin.

During Day 4, Heller and his daughter were abducted by terrorists answering to Habib Marwan, who intended to stage a show trial broadcast over the Internet and execute him for crimes against humanity. Although this effort was thwarted by Jack Bauer, the trial proved to be a diversion, and only the prelude to a series of devastating terrorist attacks that Marwan had been planning for several years. From CTU Los Angeles, Heller oversaw the response to the unfolding crisis for several hours before departing to coordinate civil defense on the orders of President Keeler.

During Day 5, Heller learned of President Logan's involvement in a terrorist conspiracy and attempted to force his resignation, but he was outmaneuvered by Logan and Christopher Henderson and forced to tender his resignation. While leaving the presidential retreat, Heller was targeted from a helicopter by Henderson's men, who had orders to kill him unless Jack Bauer allowed Henderson to go free. Over the phone, Heller told Jack that he would not be used as a pawn, and intentionally drove his car off the edge of a cliff and into a lake. Miraculously, Heller survived the ordeal, and left government service for a time to convalesce.

Before Day 6, Heller's daughter Audrey was reportedly killed in a car accident in China during her search for the missing Jack Bauer, but she was later discovered to have survived and undergone severe trauma as a prisoner of the Chinese government. Upon her rescue, Heller forbade Jack from ever seeing Audrey again, going so far as to file a restraining order against him on her behalf.

Early life and career
James Heller attended Yale University on an NROTC scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, and later joined the United States Army as an Air Defense Artillery Officer, pilot, and instructor. He achieved the rank of captain before retiring.

Heller had a daughter, Audrey Louise, with Alicia, and a son, Richard. He was married to Susan Heller until she passed away several years before Day 4, a tragedy that Heller, as he later recounted to Erin Driscoll, desperately tried to block out until a call from one of her friends drove home what had happened. As time went on, Heller had an increasingly strained relationship with Richard, whose political views rapidly diverged from his own.


 * It is not stated which of Audrey and Richard was born first, or whether Alicia was also married to Heller. 24: The Ultimate Guide states that Audrey was born to Alicia Heller while Richard was born to Susan Heller, and that Richard and Audrey are step-siblings.

Later, Heller served as president of the Applied Aviation Company, before becoming a congressman in the United States House of Representatives, where he chaired the House Armed Services Committee and sat on the House Appropriations Committee. During his term as a U.S. Representative, Heller also chaired the Commission to Assess National Security Policy and acted as Counselor to the President for the Ballistic Missile Threat Committee. Following his term, Heller returned to the private sector, serving as Chief Financial Officer of Ballard Technology and as President and CEO of Anderson Aerospace Corporation, for which he was honored as Aerospace Executive of the Year. He served on the Board of Trustees for both the Freedom Foundation and the National Park Foundation, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

After winning the presidential election against incumbent David Palmer, John Keeler named Heller as his Secretary of Defense, overseeing the U.S. Department of Defense and advising Keeler as a member of the presidential cabinet. Audrey served as a senior policy analyst, and ex- agent Jack Bauer served as Special Advisor. Some months before Day 4, Audrey and Jack began a romantic relationship, going behind Heller's back, as Audrey believed he would not approve considering she was separated from her husband Paul.

Day 4
When Secretary Heller learned that his son, Richard, planned on speaking at a protest rally at Lockheed that might embarrass the President and be dangerous to national security, he decided to meet with him and send adviser Jack Bauer to CTU Los Angeles to attend a budget meeting. After Heller left Richard's house with his daughter, Audrey, his security detail was attacked and he was taken hostage, along with his daughter, by a group of terrorists.

Heller and Audrey were taken to a warehouse by the Middle Eastern terrorists, who posted a live broadcast on the Internet. The terrorists tied up Heller and revealed that they would put him on trial for war crimes against humanity and, if he is found guilty of these crimes, he will be executed on American soil and everybody in the country would witness it.

The terrorists, led by a man named Omar, forced Heller to sign a document confessing to the war crimes, but at first he refused to sign it. When they threatened to kill Audrey, Heller saw no other choice but to cave into their demands and sign the confession. Heller then later fakes a heart attack and manages to take out one of the guards and escape from the compound. After killing a few of Omar's men, Heller and Audrey are cornered and Omar threatens to kill Audrey if any more of his men are found dead.

After realizing the embarrassment the country will face is he is executed live, Heller suggests for Audrey to kill him, which would cause the terrorist's plans to fail. Audrey refuses to do it and after they both realize both of them are dead no matter what happens, they break open a gas pipe and nearly die, but Omar's men are able to find and revive them before the gas had any permanent damage.

Omar and his men begin the broadcast, as CTU and President Keeler watch. Just as the terrorists are about to execute Heller, bullets are seen flying around and President Keeler calls off the air strike on the warehouse. Jack is able to save Heller and they go after Audrey, who is taken hostage by Omar. Out of ammunition, Jack and Heller are in a blind spot, but luckily the Marines arrive and take out all of Omar's guards. Audrey manages to stab Omar in the leg, just as Jack throws a knife into his neck, leading to the marine's gunning Omar down.

Jack takes Audrey and Heller back to CTU, and Heller confronts his daughter about her relationship with Jack, realizing they are romantically involved. Heller learns that CTU has been interrogating Richard and after talking to his son, Heller is convinced that he is hiding something. Secretary Heller gives Curtis Manning the authorization to go to any methods to get information out of Richard.

Heller confronts Audrey's husband Paul Raines, telling him to give Audrey the chance to decide what their estranged marriage is headed to. Heller and the rest of CTU then learn the main terrorist behind the day's attacks, Habib Marwan, is in control of an override device that can melt down nuclear plants. Luckily Edgar Stiles is able to shut down the majority of the plants, but Marwan still holds control of six plants.

When Jack and Audrey follow up on a lead, they are attacked, but luckily, Tony Almeida arrives to save their lives. Realizing there is a mole inside CTU, Jack contacts Heller and shares this information with him. Heller informs no one but his assistant Scott Borman, whom he calls in to assist. Scott plants false information pertaining to Jack's location to see who transmits it, and when someone leaks it, all the evidence points to Sarah Gavin. Special Agent in Charge Erin Driscoll has her interrogated, but gets nothing. Edgar then proves that Sarah Gavin was set up by the real mole, Marianne Taylor, who attempts to escape from CTU.



When a nuclear plant begins to meltdown on San Gabriel Island, Heller contacts President Keeler with the news. He is then alarmed when Audrey tells him that the radiation cloud is blowing towards the clogged evacuation route. Heller then allows Audrey to go to the local DOD office to help out, and is then astonished when he learns Paul has a connection to the terrorists. He becomes furious with Jack when he learns that Audrey met with Paul in order to prevent him from leaving town.

When Edgar is able to stop the remaining nuclear meltdowns, Heller is pleased and congratulates him and the rest of Erin's staff. Unfortunately, Erin's daughter Maya committed suicide, and Heller advised her to take a leave of absence. Realizing that Tony Almeida has helped out tremendously and knowing he ran CTU for two years in the past, Heller agrees to have him serve as director until Division's replacement, Michelle Dessler, arrives.

After Audrey has witnessed Jack's aggressive behavior as a field agent, Audrey reveals to her father that her feelings for him may have changed and after Paul is seriously injured, she starts to realize that she may still have feelings for him. Realizing more attacks can come, President Keeler requests for Heller to be transferred to Division, to work with a general in laying out options for martial law.

When a connection is found between Marwan and Richard, Heller returns to CTU and decides to interrogate his son when Audrey's approach doesn't work. Richard confesses to his father that he slept with a man, whose girlfriend may have used his phone to contact Marwan. Although Richard expected disappointment from his father over his sexual orientation, Heller expresses no disappointment whatsoever about how Richard chooses to live his life. However, he was clearly upset that Richard's earlier silence had cost lives and time that could have been saved if he'd spoken up in the first place.

Day 5


At the start of Day 5, Secretary Heller was attending a summit in Japan. During the course of the day, he was contacted by his daughter Audrey, to tell him that Jack Bauer was still alive, and supposedly faked his death 18 months earlier.

Later in the day, Heller was on his way back to Washington, when Audrey called him. She asked him if he could make a stop to Los Angeles and keep it under the radar. When asking what this was about, Audrey told him this is something they need to discuss in person. Heller reluctantly agreed to come to LA and had his pilot land at the Van Nuys Airfield.

After meeting with Audrey, Heller is shocked to see Jack arrive, as President Charles Logan issued a warrant for Jack's arrest. Jack pleaded that he was innocent in the assassination of former President David Palmer, and he asked to speak to Heller in private with Audrey. Heller informed his guards Doug Masters and Mark Wexler to wait outside.



Jack then played an audio recording to Heller, that implicated President Logan in the assassination of President Palmer. Realizing what damage the recording would do to the trust of Americans in their government, Heller gave the recording to Masters and had Jack and Audrey restrained by his guards. Heller decided to use the recording to get Logan to step down from office, quietly, in order to avoid the country from suffering a huge impeachment process.

Proceeding with his plan, Heller called Logan and demanded to speak with him. The president reluctantly agreed to allow Heller to come to the presidential retreat. After arriving at the retreat, Heller confronted Logan. Heller agreed to keep quiet about Logan's involvement in Palmer's death and the selling of Sentox VX nerve gas to terrorists, but only if Logan resigned and left Audrey alone.

With no other options, Logan was forced to agree to Heller's terms and Vice President Hal Gardner was brought in as a witness. Moments before announcing his resignation, Logan got a call from Christopher Henderson, who acquired the recording from Bauer. Logan then told Gardner that he wanted Secretary Heller to resign. Heller became furious and made accusations of Logan ordering Palmer's assassination and selling nerve gas. Before being escorted out of the room, Vice President Gardner looked at Logan in disbelief.



While leaving the retreat, Heller called Wexler, but Jack answered instead, and informed him that Wexler and Masters were killed by Henderson and his men. Henderson meanwhile had a sniper in a helicopter follow Heller, to insure his success. When Jack called to confirm if a helicopter was following Heller, he broke the news to Heller that Henderson's men have orders to kill him if Jack didn't let Henderson go. Heller refused to allow Henderson be set free and he told Jack to tell Audrey he loved her before hanging up. He then accelerated his car into a lake.

A few hours later, Audrey was in medical and Curtis Manning brought her good news. Heller managed to survive the crash and he was in the ICU. Doctors said it was likely he would pull through. After giving Palmer's eulogy, Logan was brought into custody for his involvement in the day's events.

After Day 5
Due to Charles Logan being arrested and prosecuted for obstruction of justice, it is highly unlikely Heller submitted his resignation as the Secretary of Defense. Logan's involvement in the assassination of President David Palmer, as well as his ties to terrorists, were never fully revealed to the public. After President Hal Gardner finished up Logan's term, Wayne Palmer was elected to the Presidency, and Ethan Kanin succeeded Heller as the Secretary of Defense.

Audrey searched through back channels and came to the conclusion that Jack was being held prisoner in China, due to his involvement in Consul Koo Yin's death. Heller apparently made attempts to retrieve Bauer from China, but was unsuccessful. Audrey, against her father's wishes, went to China to look for Jack and was supposedly killed in a car accident. CTU Los Angeles sent over DNA samples to China, which confirmed the victim in the accident was Audrey. However, it was later revealed that her death was staged by Cheng Zhi, as he planned to use her as leverage against Bauer, who was an uncooperative prisoner.

Day 6


During the events of Day 6, Jack Bauer went against an order from the White House in order to save Audrey's life. He went forward with an exchange, that required him to hand over a FB sub-circuit board from one of the recently recovered Russian suitcase nukes. Jack planned to destroy the component with a package of C4 once Audrey was safe, but CTU intervened. When Audrey was brought back to CTU, Dr. Bradley planned to bring her out of her catatonic state through a drug procedure that could have killed her. When Jack was able to extract information from her when he reached out to her, Nadia Yassir prevented Bradley from going forward with the procedure.

Heller arrived at CTU approximately a quarter to 2 a.m. He told Audrey, who was in an unresponsive state, that he would take her back home and take care of her. After Heller left Audrey's room, he asked if he could speak with Jack. Heller entered Jack's holding cell, who immediately stood up in a sign of respect. Heller told Jack to sit down and he told him that he never want him to see Audrey again. Echoing the words of Jack's daughter Kim, he told Jack that he was cursed and everything he touched ended up dead.

Heller brought his daughter back to his beach house in Los Angeles. At approximately 5:45am, Heller spoke with a close friend on the phone and showed his gratitude for his daughter still being alive. After Heller ended the call, he heard a noise and made an attempt to reach for the phone. Jack came in the room and threatened Heller with his gun. He demanded for Audrey's location and Heller refused, further enraging Jack. Heller stressed that no matter how bad Jack wanted to get his life back, he would eventually be drawn back into "the game" and the end result will be the hurt of a loved one. He felt that Jack should let Audrey go for her own protection. After Jack expressed his anger for Heller's poor attempt to bring him out of China, he sat beside Audrey's bed to say his goodbyes. After he left Audrey's room, he glanced over at Heller and exited the house.