Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Atlas Shrugged Part 2

Atlas Shrugged 2
(2012)
Drama | Mystery
113 min.

Rated: PG13 Brief Language
Grade: C+

Director: John Putch
Writers: Duke Sandefur , Brian Patrick O'Toole (co-writer), and 2 more credits »
Stars: Samantha Mathis, Jason Beghe and Esai Morales | See full cast and crew

The global economy is on the brink of collapse. Unemployment has risen to 24%. Gas is now $42 per gallon. Brilliant creators, from artists to industrialists, continue to mysteriously disappear at the hands of the unknown. Dagny Taggart, Vice President in Charge of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental, has discovered what may very well be the answer to a mounting energy crisis - found abandoned amongst the ruins of a once productive factory, a revolutionary motor that could seemingly power the World. But, the motor is dead... there is no one left to decipher its secret... and, someone is watching. It's a race against the clock to find the inventor before the motor of the World is stopped for good. Who is John Galt? -- (C) Official Site

Hated by critics, praised by ticket buyers. This is very much expected. Ayn Rand's detractors will hate the movie as much as they hate her. Her 1957 novel, her opus, Atlas Shrugged, has garnered great acclaim, and I confess I have not read read it - it's very, very, LONG! It's as long as Tolken's The Ring trilogy, all by itself. Even so, I know about the book, I've listened to people extol its virtues and heard its detractors claims of anti-Utopianism. So much has been written about her and her novel, I would never pretend to be an expert on anything about her or it.

Following the box office failure of Atlas Shrugged Part 1 (which I also did not see), this second installment has a larger budget and has changed the cast. Still sadly, the production values are terribly substandard. Much of the special effects look like something a high school student could have cooked up in his bedroom on his Mac. As I watched it I kept thinking the Left Behind series, maybe, know what I mean? This is too bad, it could have been better. It should have been better, WAY better. Such an classic novel deserves a first class rendition. Still, all in all, it is a very worthwhile movie based on the content alone, the message. The novel, and by virtue the film, is prophetic in its nature. We are currantly in a never ending battle against overreaching tyrannical governments. that view our constitutional rights as an impediment to redistribution and of course that is for the greater good of the global community.

Ever heard of a snake-oil salesman? They are selling you a bill of goods. Our current president favors granting the UN power to exact global taxes for global redistribution, the power to supersede our constitutional right to self-determination and limited government. He, and those who think like him, propose a benevolent global government with absolute power to assure fairness. Problem is, we know that ain't what we're gonna get. Remember that, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". This is one of the points that Atlas Shrugged warns against. Big government by virtue is anti-liberty, anti-self determination, anti-freedom. It is an enemy to the people, it rises to power promising security and benevolence and invariably becomes an insatianle slave-master of the people. It frustrates personal incentive, limits freedom, limits choice, limits quality of life.

As far as grading Atlas Shrugged Part 2, I have to applaud its message but I can't overlook the shabby direction, script, acting and production values. I am probably being over generous but I think the content is more important than the delivery.

Plot

(via Wikipedia)

The film begins with a flashforward in which Dagny Taggart crashes an airplane while following another plane. Dagny says to herself "Who is John Galt?" before crashing into the mountainside.

The film returns to eight months earlier. Dagny is trying to discover how the abandoned prototype of an advanced motor she and Hank Rearden found works. Quentin Daniels, the only capable scientist who has not disappeared yet, agrees to help her from his abandoned university laboratory in Utah.

Dagny's brother James Taggart, president of the family railroad, meets a store clerk (Cherryl Brooks) and brings her to see the performance of a pianist, who disappears during his performance, leaving a note asking "Who is John Galt?" Later, during the wedding of James and Cherryl, Dagny's friend Francisco d'Anconia argues with other guests about whether money is evil, and secretly informs Rearden that his copper mine will suffer a devastating explosion the next day. Rearden spends that night with his paramour Dagny. Later he is confronted by his wife Lillian; she refuses to grant him a divorce in order to maintain her position in society.

Rearden sells his advanced-material Steel to Ken Danagger's coal mining company, and refuses to sell it to the government in defiance of the newly enacted "Fair Share" law that forces businesses to sell to all buyers. The two are charged under the law but Danagger disappears before trial. Rearden makes a statement at trial about the benefits of the pursuit of profit, and is given only a token penalty by the court when it is seen that the crowds support him. However, the government announces a new law that freezes all employment and productions, and requires all patent rights to be transferred to the federal government. Government bureaucracy Wesley Mouch blackmails Rearden into giving up his Rearden Steel patents, using photos of Rearden and Dagny that would damage Dagny's reputation.

Dagny leaves her COO post at the railroad when her prized John Galt line is dissembled due to lack of business. During her absence, a train of Taggart Transcontinental collides with a military train in a tunnel in South Colorado, due in large part to human error by her poorly-trained replacement. Francisco tries to convince Dagny from returning to the railroad to supervise repairs, as he had earlier tried to talk Rearden into leaving his business, but she does nonetheless.

Dagny takes a train to Colorado to show her faith in the railway. The train stops due to an engine failure. The technician who comes to fix it used to work for 20th Century Motor, which produced the motor Dagny found. The technician tells Dagny how the need-based reward system in his company failed, and his coworker John Galt left the company to "stop the motor of the world". Dagny calls Daniels, who tells her that he is quitting. Dagny buys a small airplane nearby, and flies to Utah to try to dissuade him. While landing, she sees the scientist 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. Dagny crawls to the edge of her crashed plane, where she is greeted by John Galt.