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| “ | Some people are more comfortable in hell. | „ |
| ~ Tony Almeida. |
| “ | But if I could do this, if I could save even...one life on the outside, then maybe I'd feel worthy of my wife's love again. | „ |
| ~ Tony. |
Anthony "Tony" Almeida is a major character in the 24 franchise.
Tony served his country with honor for the show's first two seasons. However, in Season 3, he commits treason to save his wife, Michelle. After a pregnant Michelle is killed in Season 5, Tony himself is thought to be dead and spends the next several years underground as a criminal mercenary trying to find Alan Wilson, who was responsible for Michelle's death, willing to kill his former best friend, Jack Bauer, to do it. However, Tony's plan failed and both Tony and Wilson were taken into federal custody. Tony later escaped prison, began working as a mercenary and helped to stop a terrorist attack in 24: Legacy.
He was portrayed by Carlos Bernard.
Biography[]
Prior to Day 1[]
Anthony "Tony" Almeida was born in Chicago, Illinois to unnamed parents, and after graduating from high school, attended San Diego State University and Stanford to major in computer science. After getting his degrees, Almeida joined the United States Marine Corps, where he became a scout sniper and reached the rank of first lieutenant. After he was honorably discharged from military service, Tony got a job at the Transmeta Corporation before being recruited into the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles.
Day 1[]
In Season 1, Tony was dating Nina Myers, who was later revealed to be a terrorist. Despite initially struggling with trusting Jack Bauer, who had previously dated Nina, the two became friends and Tony quickly became Jack's trusted ally during the events of the day.
Day 2[]
A year and a half later, Tony has been promoted to director of CTU following Jack Bauer's resignation after the events of Season 1. He becomes romantically involved with Michelle Dessler.
Day 3[]
Three years later, Tony and Michelle are now married and Tony is still the director of CTU. Tony is one of only three people (the others being Gael Ortega and Jack Bauer) who knew about a secret mission to stop the Salazars from getting a bioweapon: the Cordilla Virus. The plan is a partial success, however they were double-crossed by Michael Amador, who sells the virus to an ally of Jack's, a British former MI6 intelligence agent named Stephen Saunders. After being left for dead in a mission and tortured for years by the Bosnian secret police, Saunders blamed the American military and threatens to unleash the virus on American cities unless President David Palmer agrees to his demands to dismantle the military-industrial complex. CTU comes close to catching Saunders and stopping him, but Saunders kidnaps Michelle and blackmails Tony into letting him escape so she doesn't die. Tony betrays his country and commits treason by letting Saunders escape. He later attempts to cover this up to keep Michelle safe. Jack Bauer later finds out about this act, and Tony is taken into custody after CTU stops Saunders and rescues Michelle.
Day 4[]
Facing the death penalty for treason, Tony was vouched for by both President David Palmer and Jack Bauer, as Tony managed to be a huge help towards the end of Day 3. Because of his distinguished service record, Tony received a reduced sentence and he only had to face seven months of prison time. However, upon his return from prison, Tony struggled with adjustment to civilian life and became a bitter drunk, which ultimately drove Michelle away. Michelle filed for divorce and moved away. During the events of Season 4, Jack recruits Tony to help him, and he does. Tony is later reinstated at CTU and him and Michelle reconcile. While trying to find Habib Marwan's location to stop a nuclear weapon from hitting Los Angeles, Tony is taken hostage by Mandy, who attempts to blackmail Michelle into committing treason to save her husband, like Tony had done previously. However, this plan fails. Tony is rescued by Jack Bauer and the success of the mission results in stopping Marwan and the nuke. Tony and Michelle assist Jack and Chloe in faking Jack's death so he is not captured by the Chinese for other events that happened that day. Tony and Michelle take Jack to safety and leave to start their new life together.
Day 5[]
During the opening moments of Day 5, former President David Palmer was assassinated. Tony and Michelle, who had both left CTU to start their own private security company, were devastated by the news. Tony and Michelle had an important business meeting planned for the morning, but Michelle insisted on contacting CTU to help them out with the assassination investigation. Tony objected to this idea, suggesting CTU had capable agents, while Michelle felt their experience was needed. Just as Michelle left the house, Tony called their business partner to inform them that they would not be making the meeting, but at this point, a car bomb went off outside, killing Michelle, and knocking Tony down. Tony desperately ran outside only to find Michelle lying under some of the debris of the car. As he embraced her, the car's gas tank exploded, critically injuring Tony. Tony was brought to the medical center at CTU Los Angeles, as Bill Buchanan felt Tony would be more vulnerable to a second attempt at a local hospital. It is later revealed that all of the people who knew Jack Bauer were still alive had been targeted for assassination, because the leaders of a terrorist conspiracy wanted to lure Jack out of hiding and pin the assassinations on him. Tony was devastated over the death of his wife, and he later learned that he was in the same medical room as Christopher Henderson, who ordered the hit on his wife. However, Jack was able to convince Tony to not kill Henderson, because he had vital information that could help the investigation on Palmer's assassination and Vladimir Bierko's next plan. Tony, blinded with rage, could not hold himself back and attempted to kill Henderson with an overdose of hyoscine-pentothal. However, Tony found himself unable to kill Henderson, who suddenly woke up and shocked Tony by stabbing him with the syringe, though Henderson purposely missed an artery, as he had no intention of killing him. Tony fell to the floor, and Jack, who was running to medical to try to stop Tony, arrived and witnessed him seizing. Jack held Tony as he began to lose consciousness, believing Tony to have died in his arms. Referring to Michelle, he said, "She's gone, Jack." Tony was clinically dead for a short time; however, very shortly afterward he was resuscitated in secret by agents working for David Emerson.
Prior to Day 7[]
After being "dead" for seven minutes, Tony was covertly taken by Emerson's men, who then revived him with a hypothermic compound. Tony later learned from Emerson that Christopher Henderson had planned to spare Tony's life so he could use him against Jack Bauer, possibly as a hostage. However, Jack killed Henderson before this plan could materialize. Emerson convinced Tony that the government should pay for what it did to Michelle. Tony chose to stay with Emerson and worked for him, committing criminal acts as a mercenary. He rose to become the leader of Emerson's crew, which he headed for over three years. While working for Emerson, Tony began to search for the man responsible for Michelle's death. After years of searching, he discovered a private military executive named Alan Wilson was the true ringleader of the plot involving both Logan and Henderson, but he was hiding behind a group of businessmen. It took him another year to get Wilson to agree to meet, which would happen after proved himself as a true believer in Wilson's cause: to use a weapon of mass destruction on Americans to give private militaries more control of national defense. During this time, Tony began a relationship with Cara Bowden, a lieutenant in Wilson's organization. Sometime before Day 7, Tony was tasked with leading Emerson's team in stealing electronic components that would be used to build a device that could break through the United States' CIP firewall. He also learned of Iké Dubaku's network of traitors throughout the government, so enlisted the help of Bill Buchanan and Chloe O'Brian to bring down Dubaku and expose the traitors, telling them that the risk to innocent life had made him reconsider his loyalties. However, his main aim was always to bring down Alan Wilson's group, and he had enlisted Bill and Chloe to help track down all the elements of the cabal and bring them down after Wilson was killed.
Day 7[]
At the beginning of Day 7, Tony, along with masked henchmen. kidnapped Michael Latham from his car in Washington, D.C. They took him back to their hideout and forced him to build a device that would be able to penetrate the Department of Homeland Security's CIP firewall. Tony was captured when Jack Bauer was subpoenaed by the FBI to help in the investigation, but he still managed to inform Jack of his covert operation to bring down the corrupt government together with Bill and Chloe. Jack began to help them, which led to a successful destruction of a threat against President Alison Taylor by Dubaku. Tony promised Jack that he would give himself up to the authorities for his involvement in the day's attacks, and but he later met with Jack in front of the Capitol Building and told him that he had learned of an impending attack against the President on the following hours. This intel helped Jack to alert the President of Benjamin Juma's siege on the White House. Tony then learned of a second attack from Jack regarding a biological weapon (the brain prion variant) and the Starkwood private military compound. Starkwood was working with Alan Wilson to develop a weapon of mass destruction to blackmail the federal government into giving them full control over American defense. As fugitives, he and Jack had to go in alone. In the process, Jack was exposed to the prion pathogen, which would kill him within the day. While Jack was being checked out by the CDC, Tony was captured and tortured by Starkwood, on orders from its CEO, Jonas Hodges. However, Tony was saved by the FBI who attempted to find and take the bio-weapon. Starkwood mercenaries refused to let them search the compound, threatening gunfire if they did so. Tony managed to sneak back into the compound, identifying the canisters of the bioweapon. He destroyed the Python missiles that were loaded with it using C-4. Once taken into federal custody after Starkwood was raided by the FBI, he appeared to help Larry Moss take down a Starkwood mercenary named Galvez, who had escaped the compound with a small canister containing the pathogen. After Moss was shot, Tony betrayed him by smothering him to death, allowing Galvez to escape with the pathogen. When Jack realized that Galvez may have had a second partner, Tony did his best to lie and cover up his own involvement. Confronted by Jack, who had discovered Tony's involvement with the terrorists, Tony watched as his friend had a seizure before escaping the scene, shooting dead two FBI agents in the process. Tony and Bowden proceeded with a scheme which was approved by Alan Wilson and cabal of prion developers in order to shift the day's events towards framing the Muslims, specifically, a man named Jibraan Al-Zarian by forging false evidence and documents under his name and linking him to the last remaining prion variant threat. Taken into custody after the threat was averted, Tony was broken out by Jack, who was under duress. He suggested that they harvest the pathogen off of Jack, but as Tony later revealed to Jack, it was just a play to get to Alan Wilson, the man responsible for Michelle's death. Tony planned to blow Wilson up with Jack covered in C4, but his plan failed when the FBI raided their location. He killed Bowden and confronted Wilson, yelling that he was responsible not only for Michelle's life, but the life of his son, with whom Michelle was pregnant. Before he could take out Wilson, Renee and Jack both incapacitated him. Tony screamed at Jack in despair and fury as he was taken away by the authorities, and taken to a holding room, where he sat alone, his eyes filled with hatred.
After Day 7[]
Eight years into his life sentence at a federal prison, Tony appeared before the prison administrator to request his release from solitary confinement, stating that his record would allow him to infiltrate the terrorist and criminal elements in general population and inform on them for the authorities. Appearing genuinely remorseful, Almeida begged for the opportunity to redeem himself and feel worthy of his late wife's love again. However, Vanessa Diaz, the U.S. attorney at the hearing, read for the judge a transcript of a phone call between Tony and an associate after Tony's appeal was denied two years prior: Tony told the unidentified man that he wanted the judge's wife and children murdered in front of him as retribution. Taken aback, the administrator denied Tony's request, causing Tony to attack Diaz in a murderous rage. The guards promptly intervened and escorted him back to his cell. In the struggle, however, Tony managed to steal Diaz's glasses and take them back to his cell undetected. A display in the lens contained blueprints for the facility and details of an escape plan. The whole incident had been staged by Diaz and a third party to orchestrate Almeida's escape.
24: Legacy[]
After escaping prison, Tony had been doing mercenary work for several organizations and people. After Amira Dudayev detonated an explosive device on the George Washington Bridge, Rebecca called in Tony to use enhanced interrogation on Henry Donovan, in an effort to get information on how to find Jadalla Bin-Khalid. Tony and his group of mercenaries, including his girlfriend Sidra, kidnapped Donovan and tortured him, however yielding no results. Later, CTU National Director Keith Mullins called on Tony to try and locate Rebecca, who was on her way to handing herself over to Jadalla. Tony provided Mullins with the means to locate her, but she was kidnapped regardless. Soon after, Tony and Sidra were on their way to a new contract, when DNI Donald Simms tasked Tony with escorting Ara Naseri to a black site, which Sidra remarked people don't come back from. At Ara's safe house, Tony encountered former U.S. Army Ranger Eric Carter. Carter managed to take out most of Tony's team before the two engaged in hand-to-hand combat, ending with Carter breaking Tony's arm and Carter held at gunpoint by Sidra, the only other survivor of Tony's team. However, before the situation could degenerate, Tony was contacted by John Donovan who revealed that Simms was in custody, with Ara being their best chance of saving Rebecca. Tony stood down after confirming Carter's identity and told Carter to save Rebecca, stating that he'd help if Carter hadn't broken his arm.
Personality[]
After Tony's wife, Michelle Dessler, and unborn child were killed to cover up a government conspiracy and Tony nearly being killed himself, he went rogue and took action against the people he saw responsible for the tragedies in his life. Although he is definitely a villain, Tony is still a well-intention and tragic man, which is actually quite unusual for 24 villains. Most of them are vicious, mass murdering terrorists who do it for money, but Tony is genuinely complex and has a compelling motivation, making him one of the few anti-villains in the series.
Also legitimately affable, Tony could be seen as an evil counterpart to Jack, as both are former U.S. military personnel (Jack in the Army while Tony in the Marines) and government agents who have gone too far, but are still deep down fighting for justice, this is especially evident when Jack himself in a later season becomes tired at his government and decides to go out his way and kill people, making him strictly a villain as well. However, Jack still cares for civilian lives along the path.
Trivia[]
- In early drafts, the character's name was originally "Andrew Geller", with the script describing him as "a backbiting techie Jewish guy, a real climber." Tony's actor, Carlos Bernard, later elaborated, saying: "I was like, 'Why are they sending this to me? To begin with I'm Hispanic.' Fifteen minutes before we were about to begin shooting we were trying to pick out names for the character and the name we came up with was Tony Almeida, but the legal department wouldn't let us use it, I don't know why. But they said that I could be called Tonio Almeida. Tonio? That's like a stripper's name. So we were filming the very first scene, Kiefer walking down CTU, and he turns to me and says, 'Sorry man, I can't call you Tonio, I'm just gonna call you Tony.' I owe Kiefer everything: Tonio's the name of a guy who gets killed in the first episode."
- He is the only character from the original series to appear in 24: Legacy.
- Tony is the only character in 24 to go from a hero to a villain to an anti-hero.
- Tony is a Chicago Cubs fan. Carlos Bernard was born in Chicago. Tony has a Cubs coffee mug on his desk in first few seasons. He is also seen drinking a beer from this mug at his home during Season 4, and it was on his kitchen counter right before the explosion during Season 5.
- Tony Almeida is a playable character in 24: The Game.
- Tony's kill count through all seasons is 18. However, it should be noted that hundreds of innocents died because of his actions in Season 7.
- Tony is allergic to penicillin.
- Tony speaks Spanish.
- It is uncertain if Tony knew Michelle was pregnant at the time of her death. Many have speculated that Tony only found out after she died, possibly from the results of an autopsy.
- Tony stated that he was dead for seven minutes. Normally this would be impossible, as the brain would die without oxygen after three minutes. That said, the brain has lower oxygen requirements when the body is kept at a colder temperature due to a slower metabolic rate, making this scenario plausible. It's also important to note that there is a difference between being clinically dead, and being brain dead. Even with being clinically dead, the body still has enough oxygen stored inside for at least two to five minutes to keep the brain active, giving the explanation even more plausibility.
External link[]
- Tony Almeida on the 24 wiki.
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 Villains
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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Redemption Day 7 Day 8 Live Another Day Legacy The Game | ||