Atlas Shrugged

Dagny is delighted to learn that Rearden has disappeared. Despite the rules forbidding communication with outsiders, she receives a note from Rearden saying that he’s met Galt and doesn’t blame her for choosing him.

Thompson is due to give an emergency TV broadcast to the nation, but just as he is scheduled to speak, John Galt takes control of the airwaves. Dagny, Stadler, and Eddie all recognize his voice. Speaking to the general public, Galt gives an impassioned speech outlining the whole philosophy of objectivism, laying out the values and morals by which he and the other men of Galt’s Gulch live. He condemns the current society and its system of morality and ends with a call to arms encouraging the listeners to raise themselves back up to the level of men by following his principles and to get out of his way so that he can triumph and begin building a new world.

The looters and Washington men present for Thomson’s scheduled broadcast panic about Galt’s speech, and Dagny commands them to obey Galt and just give up. After Dagny leaves, Stadler recommends that they have her followed in the hope that she will lead them to Galt. The government offers a cash reward for anyone who can provide information leading to John Galt and sends out constant messages offering to negotiate with Galt. Meanwhile, the economy continues to collapse, social order degrades, and more people are disappearing, leaving behind the drawn symbol of the dollar sign.

Dagny fears for Galt’s safety and tracks down his address from the TT employee records. She finds him in his humble apartment, but despite her precautions, she is followed there. Galt, unphased, kisses her and shows her the high-tech laboratory that he has built in his back room. He orders her to lie to the looters and act as though she opposes him and planned to turn him in all along. She complies, and Galt is taken into custody. When the looters try to force entry into his laboratory, they trigger a booby trap that disintegrates the entire contents of the room, leaving them with naught but dust. Eddie leaves New York to fix an issue with TT on the other side of the country despite knowing that Dagny will likely have disappeared before he returns. He simply cannot give up the railway, and they say a heartfelt farewell.

Galt is held prisoner in a luxury hotel, visited by a parade of looters and Washington men who try in vain to flatter and manipulate him into leading them out of the economic crisis. Dagny advises them not to try and use force on him and receives a note with Francisco’s contact information so that they can organize a rescue when it becomes necessary. Stadler visits Galt but breaks down at the mere sight of him. Thompson forces Galt to attend a farce of a celebratory dinner, claiming that he has agreed to lead them out of the crisis, but when they try to televise his agreement, he just reiterates his prior order that the viewers get out of his way.

Thompson threatens to hold Stadler hostage to manipulate Galt, pushing Stadler to flee to the site of Project X with a plan to take control of it. At the site, he discovers that a militant gang of looters has already seized the site. Their leader laughs at the idea that Stadler could take over through right rather than force and dismisses him, but Stadler is insistent that Project X is his property. The gang boss and Stadler fight, and the boss deliberately messes with the controls of the machine because Stadler tells him not to. The subsequent catastrophic explosion destroys the project site and the nearby Taggart Bridge and kills everyone in the vicinity.

Galt has been taken away, and the looters plan to use Ferris’s new machine, the “Ferris Persuader,” nicknamed “Project F,” to torture him into complying with their demands. They notice Dagny listening to the conversation, but she affects a listless, careless attitude and they let her leave. She immediately calls Francisco and organizes the rescue and then packs her things and prepares to disappear. Stopping by the office, she learns of the bridge’s destruction and draws a dollar sign on the plinth of Nat Taggart’s statue before leaving.

The Ferris Persuader tortures Galt with electrical currents under the watchful eyes of a subset of the looters including Thompson, Ferris, and Jim. They are trying to force Galt into agreeing to rule them and give them orders and to do so because he wants the same things that they want. Jim is feral with the desire to keep torturing Galt, even after the generator breaks and the Ferris Persuader ceases to work. This causes Jim to have a breakdown at the realization of his own evil motives, and when he falls catatonic to the ground, the other looters take him and flee from Galt’s knowing gaze.

Dagny, Rearden, Francisco, and Danneskjold break into the site of Project F to rescue Galt. Dagny shoots the door guard, and they easily bamboozle and overcome the guards inside, although Rearden is shot in the shoulder. They find and rouse Galt, who is physically weakened but mentally unscathed and certain to make a full recovery. They leave on Francisco’s plane, with a second plane carrying most of the other men of Galt’s Gulch following in case they need backup. Below them, the lights of New York City go out.

The Taggart Commet breaks down in the middle of the Arizona desert. Eddie is aboard and tries to get it running or contact someone to repair it, but no one at headquarters is answering the phones. There’s nothing to be done, and all the other crew and passengers leave with a passing wagon caravan. Eddie remains behind, collapsed and broken, unable to bring himself to abandon the Commet.

In Galt’s Gulch, all is calm and productive as the members go about their work and prepare for the day they head back into the world. Dagny and Galt stand atop a mountain looking down, and Galt declares it is time for them to return.