High-voltage tension. Betrayal. Death from the skies. Pain. Torture. Just another long day at the office for Jack Bauer.

Yes, Jack is back, in a hailstorm of gunfire, broken promises and treachery.

After an absence of more than a year, the counter-terrorist super agent returns in a big-budget, fists-clenched, two-hour "prequel" Sunday night, dubbed 24: Redemption. This movielike special aims to bring us up-to-date on the state of the world through the paranoid filter of the popular television series, and sets the table for Season 7, which begins in January.

Heaven knows the world has gone to hell in a handbasket since Jack took off for parts unknown.

Anxious fans want to know -- where has their hero been? Renting Superman's Fortress of Solitude?