| James Heller | |
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| 24 character | |
William Devane as James Heller |
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| First appearance | 4 |
| Last appearance | 6 |
| Portrayed by | William Devane |
| Appearances | 4, 5, 6 |
James Heller is a fictional character from the TV series 24, played by William Devane.
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The character Heller was given the background of receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Yale University.[1] He is characterized as a loyal public servant, serving in the Army as a pilot and air defense artillery officer, obtaining the rank of Captain, and became a reservist upon his retirement from active duty.[1] The fictional character's background also includes a stint as CEO of Anderson Aerospace before serving as a Congressman and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the Commission to Assess National Security Policy. He was also director of the President's Economic Stabilization Program.[1] Heller was appointed Secretary of Defense under President John Keeler and retained this position under President Charles Logan. Viewers of the TV series learn in season 4 of 24 that Heller is the father of his senior policy analyst, Audrey Raines and that he was widowed. His son Richard frequently participates in anti-government/anti-corporate protests, much to his father's chagrin. Heller refers to his son's ideology as "6th Grade Michael Moore logic."
The character of Heller is further characterized as being a true patriot, believing that the country did not deserve to have a long impeachment process when his former special advisor Jack Bauer requested his assistance to bring Charles Logan to justice and attempted to cut a deal with Logan which would have resulted in his resignation as president.
Before season 4, the character of Heller hired Jack Bauer as a special advisor following his dismissal from CTU. During that day, Heller and his daughter are kidnapped by a terrorist group, which planned to broadcast his execution over the internet. They were rescued by Jack, and Heller coordinated CTU's pursuit of terrorist leader Habib Marwan. After spending several hours directing operations in CTU-Los Angeles, he is eventually transferred to Division when the threat escalates. Neither Heller nor his daughter were part of the tight circle that helped fake Jack's death to avoid an international incident with the Chinese.
At the start of season 5, Heller is attending a summit in Japan. While on his private jet on the return trip, Audrey telephoned him and told him that it was urgent that he redirect the plane to land in Los Angeles. Jack meets him at Van Nuys Airport to give him evidence implicating President Logan in the death of David Palmer. After hearing the recording, Heller feels the best course of action is to personally meet with Logan and try to quietly force his resignation. He leaves the recording with one of his security officers and orders Jack and Audrey to be kept in custody until he returns. After he leaves, Christopher Henderson locates Jack at the Van Nuys airport and forces him to surrender the recording while holding Audrey at gunpoint. Heller's plan backfires when Logan, notified by Henderson that the tape has been recovered, informs Vice President Hal Gardner that he is forcing Heller's resignation because of his unsubstantiated allegation that he was complicit in Palmer's death.
After Henderson is captured by Jack, Henderson reveals he has his men on standby to kill Heller. The men have orders to kill Heller if Henderson does not make contact with them every fifteen minutes. Jack calls Heller to ask him if any of Henderson's men are visible, and Heller informs him that a man from a hovering helicopter has a laser sight on him. Jack is insistent on letting Henderson go to save Heller. Heller, however, asks Jack's forgiveness for not trusting him earlier, and wasn't going to let his life get in the way. On the phone, Heller speaks his last words, "Tell Audrey I love her." He then hangs up, and in a suicidal gesture, drives his car off the cliff into a lake. His car is last seen impacting the water of the lake. It appears Heller resigned himself to committing suicide.
It was later revealed that Heller indeed survived the crash and was in intensive care.
In season 6 of 24, Heller returns at 1:56 AM after he learns of his daughter's condition. When he sees what state she is in, he tells Jack Bauer to stay away from her. "You’re cursed, Jack,” Heller says, “Everything you touch, one way or another, ends up dead." After telling Jack about never going near Audrey, he threatens to file a legal restraining order to make sure that Jack will never see her. Nadia Yassir tells Jack that Heller moved Audrey to a civilian hospital.
In the closing minutes of Day 6, Bauer arrives at Heller's beach house, holding Heller at gunpoint and demanding to know why Heller didn't try to get him out of China. Heller insists that he did, but those efforts met with failure. Jack tells him that he did not try hard enough, and decided to leave Jack as an "acceptable loss." Jack also says that Heller doesn't blame him for Audrey's condition but the fact that Audrey would not give up on Jack regardless of what he told her. Heller admits Jack is right, and he deserves better, but Jack is not interested. Additionally, Bauer demands to know where Audrey is, and Heller refuses, which enrages Bauer further. Heller calmly lets Bauer know that no matter how badly Bauer wants to regain his life, he will be drawn back into "the game and my daughter's going to pay the price...like your wife did!" Jack becomes infuriated even more with Heller and threatens to kill him, but Heller then implores Bauer to let Audrey go for her sake. After a few moments with Audrey, Bauer agrees with Heller, and painfully bids Audrey goodbye for the last time.
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