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This is a production article written from an out-of-universe perspective
For years in the production of 24, please refer to the production timeline.

The timeline of 24 has never been pinned down. The creative team behind 24 has resisted placing any season in any specific year; moreoever, the few date references given tend to conflict with each other, as well as with real life.

According to Evan Katz, the time frame of 24 is intentionally vague and undefined, with each season effectively taking place in the "perpetual now." The production made a concerted effort to avoid showing dates onscreen; those that do appear — for example, the date visible on a cell phone screen — are usually not coordinated, and sometimes reflect the actual date and time when the scene was filmed.[1] Regardless, each season is stated to take place a certain number of years or months after the previous one, allowing the approximate timeline of events below.

By year[]


Relative timeline[]

Notes[]

Official comments[]

  • The set dressers for the CTU Los Angeles building set the date on telephones and other devices to January 23, 2012.[1]
  • In an E! Online interview, producer Howard Gordon commented that, accounting for the passage of various presidential administrations, Season 7 would technically take place in 2017.[2]

Sample timeline[]

If Season 1 were set in March 2002, the seasons and major events of 24 would take place in or around the following months:

On the above (speculative) timeline, the Presidents on 24 served for the following terms:

Theories about the timeline[]

Trinity[]

Nightfall[]

Veto Power[]

Trojan Horse[]

Cat's Claw[]

  • In Cat's Claw, Mercy Bennet references the tv series Alias, which first aired in 2001, thus placing Cat's Claw in 2001 at the earliest.

Chaos Theory[]

Day 1[]

Findings at CTU[]

Day 2[]

Countdown[]

Day 3[]

Day 4[]

Conspiracy[]

Day 5[]

  • 2 different CTU phones in "Day 5: 10:00am-11:00am" give the year as 2010, placing Day 1 in 2003. However, one says it is 17:59 on the 1st of September, and the other says it is 19:30 on the 29th of October.
  • A CTU phone that Shari Rothenberg grabs in "Day 5: 12:00am-1:00am" gives the date as 02/17/11, placing Day 1 in 2004, but gives the time at 22:20.
  • The sun is shown rising at 6:18:35 in Los Angeles, which may place the date of Day 5 at March 3-4, or August 19-20.

Day 6[]

Day 7[]

  • The immunity agreement for Greg Seaton, signed by President Taylor during the 11:00 PM to 12:00 midnight episode, gives the year as 2007, as derived from the last sentence on the agreement (1776+231). This places Day 7 in 2007 and Day 1 during 1994.

Day 8[]

Underground[]

Day 9[]

  • The car that Chloe and Jack steals has a road tax disc with an expiry date of 31-05-2014, which would place Live Another Day between June 2013 and May 2014, assuming the tax disc was valid.
  • In "Day 9: 3:00pm-4:00pm", Adrian Cross mentions in dialogue that his group Open Cell has been active for the past six years. As the Open Cell website places the organization's founding in 2008, this would place Day 9 in 2014.
  • In "Day 9: 5:00pm-6:00pm", Prime Minister Alastair Davies states there had not been a successful terrorist attack in the UK for 7 years. If he was referring to the July 7 bombings of London (which killed 52 and injured a further 700), this would place Day 9 in 2012. If he was referring to the 2007 Glasgow airport attack (which injured 5 people and is regarded to be a failed attack), this would place Day 9 in 2014. However he may have been referring to a different real-life, or entirely fictional, attack.
  • During various episodes of this season car number plates contain the number 63 as the third and fourth digits, this means the cars were manufactured sometime after September 2013.
  • In "Day 9: 9:00pm-10:00pm", Anatol Stolnavich has the departure details of the container carrying Cheng, the departure date is listed as June 14th 2014.

Birthdays[]

A number of characters on 24 have specific dates of birth. Owing to the inconsistency of the timeline, these do not always line up with their stated ages.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Looking for clues on the set of '24'. Zap2it (January 17, 2007).
  2. Kristin Dos Santos (January 15, 2008). Jack Is Back! Kiefer and Bosses Talk 24 Movie and New Season. E! Online. Retrieved on July 16, 2014.
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