“Do you expect me to talk?”
“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.”
– Goldfinger (1964)
Historically, torture scenes in pop culture signaled villainy. James Bond villains devised elaborate death traps, Big Brother tried to break Winston Smith in 1984, and the bad guys in Star Warsand Star Trek tormented heroes like Han Solo and Captain Picard. Torture was a bright line only evildoers crossed.
Even when torture scenes were parodied in Monty Pythonskits or in movies such as Dude, Where’s My Car? or Shrek, it was typically the antagonists doing it.
Then 9/11 happened.
For a country reeling from the attacks and seeking reassurance and retribution, a new pop culture hero emerged who stood for the proposition that stopping terrorism justified almost any means, however brutal, illegal or immoral.
Jack Bauer, protagonist of Fox’s 24, spent eight-and-a-half seasons and a TV movie racing against the clock to stop attacks on the United States. Premiering less than two months after 9/11, the show starred Kiefer Sutherland as a driven counterterrorism agent who prevented chemical attacks, assassinations, cybercrimes and several nuclear explosions against the backdrop of a ticking clock to underscore the imminent danger he and his country were in.
