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1-Page Summary of Atlas Shrugged
In a bad economy, Dagny Taggart, the vice president of operations for a railroad company, tries to fix her crumbling Rio Norte Line in Colorado. She is trying to get business back on track but is being held back by political corruption and Francisco d’Anconia’s failing copper mines. Her brother Jim uses his influence with politicians to pass legislation that will destroy their competition. To solve the problem, she turns to Hank Rearden who has created a new metal called Rearden Metal which can help repair the line quickly. When confronted about his companies problems he says that he wants all of those freeloaders out of his life so they won’t be able to use him anymore.
The state science institute makes a statement against Rearden metal, and Taggart’s stock crashes. Dagny decides to start her own company to rebuild the line, and it is a huge success. She becomes romantically involved with Rearden. They discover an old motor that runs on static electricity in an abandoned factory, so they try to find out who created it. The government passes new legislation that cripples industry in Colorado. Ellis Wyatt suddenly disappears after setting fire to his wells for no apparent reason. Dagny cuts trains because of this situation and things get worse quickly; more industrialists disappear without warning or explanation as well. Dagny believes there is someone taking these men away when they are most needed by the business world; she calls him a destroyer. Francisco visits Rearden at his mills while he’s working one day, but doesn’t understand why he continues running them under such repressive conditions until he helps put out a fire together with him—he realizes then how much love and passion Rearden has for his factories even though others tell him not to continue operating them anymore since their businesses are being taken over by the government now (which will lead eventually into socialism).
Rearden was put on trial for not following the new socialist laws. He refused to participate in the proceedings and told them they could punish him, but he wouldn’t help them convict himself. The judges were unable to do this because of their image as thugs. Wesley Mouch needed Rearden’s cooperation with a new set of socialist laws, and Jim Taggart needed economic favors from Rearden that would keep his railroad running after Colorado collapsed. Jim appealed to Lillian Rearden who wanted her husband destroyed so she could have an affair with Dagny Taggart. She told him that Dagny and Hank were having an affair, which led him to blackmail Rearden into signing over his metal under threat of exposing Dagny’s alleged infidelity.
Dagny quits her job and goes to a mountain lodge. When she learns about an accident at the Taggart Tunnel, she returns to work. She receives a letter from the scientist who helped rebuild the motor in Rearden’s steel mill and fears that he will become another victim of the destroyer. In an attempt to stop him from disappearing, she follows him in an airplane but crashes in the mountains. She wakes up and finds herself in a remote valley where all retired industrialists are living on strike because they’re fed up with government regulations on their businesses. There, John Galt turns out to be both the destroyer as well as one of those industrialists who built a motor for his own business purposes without regard for what others think is right or wrong! He falls in love with Dagny but cannot give up his own pursuits so he leaves her behind when she tries to pursue him back into society again. When Dagny returns to work after recovering from her injuries sustained during her flight into mountainous terrain, she finds that government officials have taken over ownership of railroads under nationalization laws which were passed by Congress while she was away healing. Government leaders want her make an inspiring speech about these new laws—she refuses until Lillian comes along and blackmails Dagny by threatening not only herself (Dagny) but also Hank Rearden (her lover). On air, Dagny proudly announces her affair with Rearden so everyone can hear it through radio waves across America. She warns people about this repressive government they live under now.
