Posted on 08/08/2009 7:34:27 AM PDT by Publius
Synopsis
Dagny tries to out-think a rather unintelligent guard who knows who she is, knows she is a friend of Head of State Thompson, but refuses to admit her to the Project F building because Dr. Ferris has ordered that no one be admitted. She trumps by pulling out a gun. The guard is caught between two masters, the Head of State and the Executive Director, and he can’t decide which one to follow. She puts him out of his misery by firing a bullet from the silenced gun into his heart.
Francisco, Hank and Ragnar Danneskjøld join her after killing one guard and binding and gagging three others. Francisco takes the key, unlocks the door and goes in alone. He is immediately challenged by two guards whom he engages in a battle of wits until one guard goes for his gun; Francisco blows it out of his hand. Dagny, Hank and Ragnar come down the stairs and bind and gag the wounded guard. The remaining guard gives Francisco the layout of the building, the number and location of guards, and the location of the prisoner. Dr. Ferris and his entourage have left the building.
Hank goes up the stairs and finds six guards playing poker and only two guarding the room containing the prisoner. Another battle of wits ensues as Hank tries to convince the chief guard and his men that their information is out of date; the prisoner is to be delivered to Hank immediately. The chief knows that the prisoner’s presence is a secret, thus the chief shouldn’t know anything about him; therefore, Hank has to be lying. He picks up the phone and finds that it is dead. Hank now orders him to deliver the prisoner, lest he be reported for insubordination. John Galt has joined the government, and the deserters are all returning. One guard is elated to hear this, but the chief shuts him up. Realizing his men are not going to back him up, the chief fires at Hank, hitting him in the shoulder. Francisco shoots the gun out of his hand. The chief tries to hold his team together, but several drop their guns and bolt, and the chief tries to kill one of them. Ragnar crashes through the window, and the guards drop their guns, except for one who kills the chief.
Francisco rousts the guard from the door to the room where Galt is being held, and they break down the door. Galt is pleased to see his troops and takes brandy and a cigarette; he is none the worse for wear. They dress him and walk to a field just off the Institute’s grounds where their plane has been hidden. With Ragnar at the controls, they take off while Francisco patches Hank’s wound.
As they fly over New York, they see a city in chaos as everybody seeks to escape at the same time. Then the lights of New York go out as the power dies. Their job is done. It’s the end – but it’s also the beginning.
Eddie Willers has fixed the problem in San Francisco, obtaining immunity for the railroad from three different factions in the civil war tearing California apart. Without warning, the eastbound Comet stops abruptly in the middle of the Arizona desert as the locomotive fails. Eddie queries the conductor, who says the engineer is looking into it. Eddie asks the fireman to contact division headquarters via phone box and get a mechanic sent to the train, but the division doesn’t answer. Eddie asks the conductor to check if there is an electrical engineer among the passengers. Then he goes to the locomotive cab to see if he can do anything to fix the problem, but this isn’t what he was trained for. The engineer is about to give up, and Eddie desperately tries not to.
To everyone’s shock, a train of covered wagons appears out of the night. It had left California’s Imperial Valley due to the civil war and the seizure of crops, and had headed east by night to avoid the government’s minions. The wagon master offers to take the train’s passengers on board for a fee and informs Eddie that the bridge over the Mississippi is gone. Eddie watches as the train’s passengers and crew leave the Comet for the wagon train. The engineer asks Eddie to come, but Eddie can’t. Thinking of Dagny, Eddie tries to start the locomotive but to no avail. Leaving the engine, he sits on the tracks, sobbing in the night.
At Galt’s Gulch, Richard Halley plays his Fifth Concerto, Midas Mulligan plots his future investments, Ragnar Dannkeskjøld reads Aristotle while wife Kay checks her stage makeup, Judge Narragansett rewrites the Constitution, and Francisco, Hank and Ellis Wyatt plan the future manufacturing of railroad locomotives using Galt’s motor. John and Dagny walk through the mountains as John decides it is time for him and his apostles to go back to the world. He makes the Sign of the Dollar in the air as a benediction.
The Cruel Kiss-Off of Eddie Willers
Hollywood treatments of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, from Lon Chaney to Disney, have always sugar-coated the story. In the book, Esmerelda is hanged, and the captain of the guard rides away, blissfully unaware. The hanging is botched, so two men grab Esmerelda’s legs to hasten her death. Quasimodo visits her body at the charnel house where it is deposited and dies there. Centuries later, their bones are found intermingled.
So it is with Rand and Eddie Willers. He held the railroad together and proved his management skills and his mettle. He kept things going while Dagny ran a project in Colorado, dropped out in the Berkshires, and then spent a month at Galt’s Gulch. He put up with brother Jim, which deserves a medal in itself. In military parlance, Eddie has “earned his stripes.” Various people at the railroad and Rearden Steel have been admitted to Valhalla over the years, and yet Eddie Willers is left sobbing on the tracks. John Galt could have wrecked Taggart Transcontinental early on by simply recruiting Eddie away from the railroad, but he needed Eddie as a spy. Eddie Willers has been badly used by the characters in the novel and by Rand herself.
Would it have been too much to have the plane drop down and rescue Eddie from the frozen train? Does Dagny even think of him? Could he be admitted to Galt’s Gulch? What does it take to get inside that valley? Will Eddie have a role in the reconstruction of the world?
The end of the novel leaves too many questions for comfort.
The Sign of the Dollar
Catholics and Orthodox Christians cross themselves at the beginning of prayer in a ritual known as the Sign of the Cross, dedicating their prayers to the three persons of God. The Cross is the preeminent symbol of all branches of Christianity.
So it is with Rand. The Sign of the Dollar appears on their cigarettes. It appears in solid gold at Galt’s Gulch. It is scrawled by guerilla warriors on government buildings as America frays and falls apart. At the very end, John Galt, as pope of the new religion of Objectivism, makes the Sign of the Dollar as a benediction as he prepares with his saints to return to earth in a second coming.
For an atheist, Rand is certainly layering on the religious symbolism.
Discussion Topic
When I make the movie (yeah,right) Cheryl will secure a dignified divorce and she and Eddie will at last realize their true feelings for each other.
Indeed, Cheryl and Eddie would’ve been perfect for each other. I never thought of comparing the two characters, but they were very much alike. They admired success, but they devoted themselves to people who used them and tossed them aside.
For later.
The subject of what would happen after Atlas Shrugged seems a worthy topic, and thought provoking. Will you consider making it the topic of one, final thread?
Fire away.
I could do that, but I think it would be more fun if you and Bill did it. It would certainly get more answers. The original post isn’t very difficult.
“What would happen after Atlas Shrugged? Refer to your knowledge of economics, history, sociology, technology, and engineering when you offer answers.”
You have the ping list and you’ll get more replies than I. It would also shed some insights on the good old TEOTWAWKI subject. :)
I'm thinking Lillian Rearden rescues Eddie Willers, turns him to the dark side, and they lead a punitive raid that burns Galt's Gulch to the ground, massacring every man, woman, child, and kitten in the place. They then form a thousand-year empire that ends only when Duke Willers, Eddie's secret son by Dagny, turns up in an X-wing fighter and bombs the reactor in Project W, a massive planetoid-like space station also know as the Death Panel..."Duke, I am your father" or something like that...OK, there's a few rough edges on that one, mebbe...I'll get to work...
Oh, remember the ring?
(Apologies to the late Anna Russell.)
Well, it might be more interesting if the emperor was the secret son of John Galt and Lillian, but what the heck. Continuing with the Star Wars motif, we could have Duke trying to fly the X-wing fighter to bomb the little vent on Project W. He’s struggling to use his faith the hit the target when he hears Rand’s voice tell him to turn on the computer.
“Duke, use the spreadsheet.”
You’re going to get your wish. Billthedrill has written a “ten years after” essay, and I’m editing it. We should be posting it soon.
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