One of Ayn Rand's most famous novels, Atlas Shrugged, 1957, combines sci-fi tropes with Rand's objectivist philosophy and anti-government political views. Eddie Willers walks down the streets of New York City in A Future America. A homeless man asks, who is John Galt, as Eddie walks by, startling him.
Eddie gives the man a dime for a cup of coffee and continues walking, noticing the rundown nature of the city. The streets are in poor repair and the buildings have cracks in them. Every fourth storefront is empty. The line, a euro who is John Galt, has become a catchphrase used when there is no answer to a question, implying, what can you do? Willers meets with James Taggart, president of the railroad company Taggart Transcontinental.
Willers informs James that there has been another accident on the Rio Norte line. The track is no longer viable and, tired of the frequent accidents, People have stopped taking the train. Taggart notes that every rail company is suffering similar problems with their rail tracks.
Willers tries to convince James that they have to make repairs to the tracks or the train is never going to arrive. Dagny Taggart, James's sister and vice president of the company, intends to make repairs to the Rio Norte line. The track is still valuable because an innovative oil tycoon, Ellis Wyatt, has found a way to extract oil from shale that is very profitable. Dagny reflects that this breakthrough is the only thing saving the United States from sliding into economic darkness, along with the rest of the world.
Taggart Transcontinental suffers a setback when the Mexican government nationalizes another of their lines, the San Sebastian, built to service copper mines that went bust. James uses his political influence to have legislation passed that destroys Taggart Transcontinental's only real competition. Dagny disapproves.
seeing this as more evidence that the government is corrupt and compromised. She intends to partner with Hank Reardon to make use of Reardon Metal, an advanced new alloy, to repair the Rio Norte track. Dagny and Reardon have noticed that the world's leading industrialists and makers are disappearing.
They discuss their experiences dealing with the looters, who simply take from those who create and produce, chiefly the government. The government's state science institute corruptly declares that Reardon Metal is unsafe to use. and Taggart Transcontinental's stock plummets. Dagny starts her own company in order to repair the track.
She meets with Reardon to form a partnership and the two become lovers. As the government passes more and more legislation crippling industry with regulations and restrictions, Ellis Wyatt suddenly disappears from the public. Dagny and Reardon search an abandoned factory, discovering a prototype engine that runs on nothing more than static electricity, an incredible breakthrough left to rot. They launch a search for the inventor, but a new government measure cripples Dagny's business, as increasingly more famous industrialists disappear. Dagny tells Riordan she fears of Destroyer as working to undermine the country by making these brilliant men and women disappear.
Riordan is arrested for violating the new laws, but this is a transparent effort to pressure him into supporting a new socialist framework and helping James salvage his business. James goes to Riordan's wife, Lillian. who bitterly informs him of his sister's affair with Riordan. More new laws come into effect, requiring that all new patents be assigned to the government. Riordan initially refuses to turn over the secrets of Riordan Metal, but blackmailed with the knowledge of his affair, he acquiesces.
Dagny resigns in disgust, but an accident involving her rail line brings her back. She hires a scientist to try to replicate the engine she and Riordan discovered, but comes to fear the destroyers making people vanish. have targeted him. When he boards an airplane, she follows him but loses control and crashes.
When she awakes, she is in a remote, isolated valley called Galt's Gulch. She is amazed to discover all the missing industrialists and scientists. They tell her that the government and most of the world are looters, seeking to benefit from and control their ideas and hard work.
Therefore, they have gone on strike. Dagny meets John Galt. the man who built the engine. He is mesmerizing, and she quickly falls in love with him.
However, she declines his invitation to stay because she loves her company too much. She leaves, only to find that the railroads have been seized by the government. She is blackmailed into making a speech to calm people down, but she rebels, admitting her affair with Riordan, and warning the people not to trust the government.
Things go from bad to worse as the government throws off any semblance of rationality. staging riots and creating other emergencies in order to claim resources, but then mismanages those resources. The government prepares to make a national broadcast to calm fears, but suddenly, John Galt hijacks the airwaves.
This is John Galt speaking, he says, describing the strike and explaining the motivations behind it. The government arrests and tortures him in an attempt to make him become their economic leader. Dagny and some armed rebels rescue Galt, returning to Galt's Gulch. There they plan to wait until the government collapses entirely and then return to rebuild.
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