There are the Nazi's with their duelling scars, the shady looking Arabs in turbans, and the cowboy with the black hat, but now there is a new way of identifying on-screen baddies - the guys using the Windows PC.
An avid viewer of Fox television's espionage epic 24 has made what he believes is a plot destroying discovery; all the good guys use Mac computers and all the bad guys use PCs.
Web designer Dean Browell generally keeps an eye open for Mac computers in movies and television programmes, and that's how he noticed that all the bad guys in 24 appear to be PC based.
The programme centres around the life of counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) and creates a level of suspense by continually suggesting there is a traitor working on his team.
In the programme Bauer switches between using an Apple Cube and a Titanium PowerBook, while most of his colleagues use PowerMacs, iBooks or PowerBooks.
Browell initially commented to his wife about all the baddies using PCs but thought his theory had been blown out of the water when trusted CIA agent Jamey Farrell started using a Dell PC.
But not so. Shortly after being seen with the Dell PC agent Farrell was revealed as a traitor and committed suicide.
Browell also believes that agent Tony Almedia, who is often suspected as being a traitor, is as innocent as the day is long. Why? He uses a Mac of course.
But then there are his suspicions about trusted colleague Nina Myers who has just started using a Dell laptop.
"It is really odd," Browell told Wired News. "It almost seems like a visual clue that was there from the beginning. It would be a really big coincidence if they didn't put that in there intentionally."
The producers of 24 however deny that there is any connection with bad guys using PCs.
