Jack Bauer vs Walter White: Who's The Most Badass Character?

8. Intelligence

Jack: Jack may be best known for his gun-toting and terrorist foiling, but he's also an extremely accomplished intellect, holding not just a degree in English Literature but a Masters degree in Criminology and Law. In addition to this, he speaks half a dozen languages, can fly helicopters and planes, operate any weapon thrown at him, and due to his 15 years of experience in the Army, is a master strategist as far as warfare goes. Walt: On the other hand, Walter White is a graduate student of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, and some of his work helped a team to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Granted, agreeing to sell his share of Gray Matter for a measly $5,000 wasn't too smart, but under his pseudonym Heisenberg, he has created his own (evil) genius legacy, a master cook whose talents cannot be matched by his contemporaries. In addition to this, his constant manipulation of Jesse demonstrates extreme intelligence (or is it just a testament to Jesse's lack thereof?), poisoning Brock to ensure that he could kill Gus, a very clever move indeed. However, Walt can also be very hot-headed, and doesn't always think things through - leaving the Leaves of Grass book in the bathroom for Hank to find, for instance, was pretty careless. WINNER: Walt may appear to be the more fundamentally academic of the two, but he's also more unpredictable and liable to screwing things up. Jack may be the more unrealistically dependable of the two, but that's TV, so he wins.