Summaries

Synopsis

Dagny Taggart (Samantha Mathis) pilots an airplane in pursuit of another plane. Dagny asks herself, "Who is John Galt?" before apparently crashing into a mountainside.

Nine months earlier, Dagny is trying to understand the abandoned prototype of an advanced motor she and her lover Hank Rearden (Jason Beghe) have found. Scientists across the country have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances, but Dagny is able to locate Quentin Daniels, (Diedrich Bader) who agrees to help from an abandoned laboratory in Utah. Quentin was recommended by Dr. Robert Stadler (Robert Picardo), head of the State Science Institute, who says he cant directly help Dagny..Eddie Willers (Richard T. Jones) continues to work in the trenches for Dagny at Taggart Continental. Wesley Mouch (Paul McCrane) defends the fair share law (that forces companies to supply to each customer equally, as per need), saying that it is not the cause of many businesses closing down one after the other. Meanwhile businesses in Colorado close down due to the fair share law and Dagny is forced to stop freight services.

Dagny's brother James Taggart (Patrick Fabian), president of the family railroad company, meets store clerk Cherryl Brooks (Larisa Oleynik) and brings her to see a renowned pianist Richard Halley, who disappears during his performance, leaving a note asking, "Who is John Galt?" Later, at James and Cherryl's wedding, Dagny's friend Francisco d'Anconia (Esai Morales) argues with other guests about whether money is evil (or whether it is simply a tool with which men trade with each other and create value), and secretly informs Rearden about devastating explosions at his copper mine-the next day.Rearden spends the night with Dagny. Later, he is confronted about the affair by his wife Lillian (Kim Rhodes), but when he offers a divorce she declines, in order to maintain her position in society.

Rearden sells his advanced Rearden Metal to Ken Danagger's (Arye Gross) coal mining company, but refuses to sell it to the federal government (or the state science institute), in defiance of the newly enacted "Fair Share" law that forces businesses to sell to all buyers. Rearden wants to support Ken as he needs coal to make steel, which supports Dagny. The two are charged under the law, after Dr. Floyd Ferris (John Rubinstein) of the State Science Institute tries to threaten Rearden with jail time on account of him breaking the law .. Rearden refuses to make any deal with him.. Dagny barges into Danagger's office, realizes that he too is about to disappear, and understands that she is close to understanding the force behind the disappearances.Meanwhile Francisco meets Rearden and explains that it is he who is providing and producing wealth for the looters to loot. He begs Rearden to stop, but Rearden wont. Just then there is an accident at the mill and Francisco jumps into action. Rearden sees first hand that Francisco is not a playboy and knows hard work and has brains to put the hard work to create value.

At trial, Rearden defends individual freedom and the pursuit of profit, and is given only a token penalty by the court, which fears turning him into a martyr. The government announces "Directive 10-289", which freezes employment and production and requires that all patents be gifted to the government. Rearden defies this decree as well, but relents when he is blackmailed with photos of himself and Dagny that would damage Dagny's reputation.Meanwhile the board of Taggart Transcontinental decides to dismantle the John Galt line and use the Rearden metal to fix the more profit making routes of the company. James is under pressure to increase wages and continue unprofitable activities for the "public good"..

When Dagny hears about Rearden's "gift" and her brother's complicity, she quits the railroad. During her absence, a Taggart Transcontinental train collides with a military train in the Taggart tunnel, due largely to political pressure by a passenger Kip Chalmers (Rex Linn) and human error by Dagny's poorly trained replacement. The replacement decides to send a steam engine inside a 8 mile long tunnel and it stalls due to the lack of oxygen.. meanwhile the military train fails to switch to a different track due to a faulty switch and slams head long into the passenger train inside the tunnel, collapsing it. The transcontinental route is blocked.This impels Dagny back to her job. D'Anconia tries to dissuade her from returning, as he had earlier tried to talk Rearden into leaving his business, but she returns anyway.

Dagny takes a train to Colorado to show her faith in the railway, but its engine fails. The repair technician used to work for 20th Century Motor Company, which produced the motor Dagny found. He tells Dagny how the need-based reward system in his company failed, and his coworker John Galt left the company vowing to "stop the motor of the world."Dagny calls Daniels, who tells her that he is quitting (after somebody came to meet him, when he got the motor to work). Dagny buys a small airplane and flies to Utah to try to dissuade him, but as she is landing, she sees him get into a plane on the airstrip.

After a pursuit in the air-the opening scene of the film-Dagny's plane crashes in a valley hidden by stealth technology. A wounded Dagny Taggart crawls to the edge of her crashed plane, where she is greeted by John Galt (D.B. Sweeney).