Every fad needs its own cracked trainwreck of a movie . Scientology got Battlefield Earth , and now the cult of Ayn Rand gets Atlas Shrugged , Part 1 . But how does Atlas stomach up to Battlefield Earth ?
Quite well , really . Atlas Shrugged Part 1 , which just spread in theaters today , is a rarefied gain to the roster of movies that are both kooky and clunky . A pic this monstrously fantastic really ought to be against the law .
Spoilers forward …
Actually , scratch that . The Union governing should n’t outlaw frightening picture show like Atlas Shrugged – rather , the feds should just regulate them . For example , we could have a Union mandate that all such movies must asterisk Nicolas Cage or a comparable actor – someone who knows how to bring the correct level of gravitas to negotiation like , “ Which do I sacrifice : an excellent piece of smelting , or this Institute ? ”
Call it the Nicolas Cage Full Employment Act . Or better yet , since Nic Cage is a wanted national resource that ’s presently being spread unequally , the Nic Cage National Equalization Act . It should be up to the Union government to verify that as many ludicrously insane movies as potential have access to the full of life panacea that is Nic Cage .
The good news is , according to Atlas Shrugged the movie , all it takes to pass a raw federal law is three people sitting in an upscale restaurant , as long as one of them has a cigar . Any clip someone with a cigar quotation some completely demented thought for a federal legal philosophy , it becomes the law of the land within five minutes or so .
In Atlas Shrugged Part 1 , it ’s the dystopian year of 2016 , and a portion of material has gone off the rail ( literally ) in just five years . The economy has collapse , and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is under 4,000 . Because of unrest in the Middle East , there ’s no more oil , and petrol is $ 37 a gallon . We see lots of scenes of the rusted , decay landscape , with former bodied vice presidents standing around wear out sandwich boards predicate that they will vice - preside for solid food . ( And even though everybody ’s out of work and there ’s almost no industriousness , people talking about runaway inflation , presumably because elves are on a buying spree . )
So everybody has to travel by rail – which wee it a shame that the antediluvian rails bank line have something like a 50 pct derailment rate . The federal political science seems totally uninterested in mandating safety standard for the rail industry , since all the feds give care about is outlaw competition and efficiency and stuff .
So we assemble the Taggarts , head of the surprisingly Taggart Railway , which much has a “ Days Without Derailment : 0 ” augury hang in its headquarters . There ’s Jim Taggart , who ’d rather pray the governance to put his slightly less derail - y competitors out of line than replace all his railway tie that are currently made out of cotton confect . Meanwhile , there ’s his amazonian sis Dagny , who want to bring home the bacon in the rails clientele by really having rail . It ’s one of those radical ideas that might just ferment .
The problem is , Dagny is having trouble getting young sword rails made , in all likelihood because of the government activity . So she turns to a new company , Rearden Metal , which has a newfangled metal that ’s twice as illumination as steel and yet twice as sturdy . People keep warning Dagny that metalologists call up this new metal is unstable , and it ’s never been test – because in this dystopian time to come , everyone ’s forget the secret of testing alloy . The Senior Metalological Institute of Metalology is super perturbed .
But that ’s okay , because Rearden Metal ’s metal , called Rearden Metal , is made out of pure Individualism . It is sturdy and shiny and smart as a whip and rugged – much like its inventor , Hank Rearden . too soon on , we see Hank Rearden telling his secretaire to throw aside all his telephone messages from the Metalosophers and all those people who think they make love about alloy .
So anyway Dagny decide to employ Rearden Metal ’s new Rearden Metal to supersede her rails , without testing it first , because the Invisible Hand . Dagny and Hank begin a sweaty , lascivious , entrepreneurial wooing , which consist of them looking into each other ’s eye and talking mistily about the power of selfishness . They ’re the only two people who translate each other , in a humans of frivolous , effete full-bodied people who just want to be part of the system and drink interminably fizzy cocktails .
And of course , all the other byplay people , who ca n’t vie with Dagny and Hank , desire the government to repel them out of business . Cue lots of scenes of those three guys come up with ever more cracktastic theme for newfangled laws , such as the approximation that one mortal can only own one society . ( And for some reason , Rearden Metal , Rearden Smelting and Rearden Ore are three unlike companies . Hank should burn down his lawyers . ) hoi polloi talk seriously about the “ Dog Eat Dog rule ” illegalise competition between companies , and the Equalization of Opportunity Bill outlawing some states make more money than others . You start to inquire just what is in those cigars they ’re fume – and can we in the consultation have some too ?
Meanwhile , the debate over whether Rearden Metal ’s Rearden Metal is safe goes on and on . At one spot , the State Science Institute apparently decides the metallic element is safe – but issues a statement saying otherwise , because they ’re worried about losing their financial backing . They ’re the last remaining science institute in the rural area and they ’re hang on by a thread . ( That ’s where we get the great line about “ excellent smelting , ” which sort of sums up the motion-picture show decent there . )
My absolute favorite scene in the picture show issue forth before long after , where Armin Shimmerman ( Quark from Star Trek : Deep Space Nine ) point up to portray the ultimate personification of fundamental planning – the Anti - Quark , if you will . The Anti - Quark wants Hank Rearden to trade his troupe to the political science , so he ’ll stop put all those misfortunate steel party out of clientele . Hank tells the Anti - Quark that he ’ll betray the company if the Anti - Quark can answer the head , “ Is Rearden Metal beneficial ? ” He ask this like ten clip , and the Anti - Quark refuses to answer , lastly tell that it does n’t matter – if the alloy is bad , then it ’ll cause atrocious fatalities on this newfangled railway . If the metal actually is good , then it ’ll put these other companies out of line . So it ’s either a guard peril or a societal risk .
Oh , and Armin Shimmerman get the awe-inspiring line , “ During a steel shortfall , we ca n’t leave a company that produces too much blade . ”
The whole business left me want to receive the Anti - Odo .
So the movie , in general , is about the development of new engineering , and whether company should receive or venerate scientific excogitation . And the two selection appear to be : A ) test the new metal by run a string over a suspension nosepiece made out of it , going 250 miles per 60 minutes ; or B ) doom the novel metal without any examination whatsoever . In a sense , this picture aims to fulfill that great mission of science fiction : exploring the impingement of young scientific breakthrough on the world as a whole . alas , we get only one or two moment where anybody takes seriously the idea that a metal one-half as heavy and twice as strong as blade could have some interesting utilization . Damn those metalologers .
And then towards the closing of the movie , we suddenly take a abrupt left bout , because Dagny and Hank line up out a miraculous railway locomotive that uses the Casimir Effect and has a miniature particle accelerator in it to make atmospherical intensity . It ’s like the engine equivalent of Rearden Metal ’s fabulous Rearden Metal , except that it was never produced because the company that was making it turned Socialist .
So Dagny buy the farm on a pursuit to cover down the inventor of this locomotive , which leads her to a former purgative professor who now runs a dining compartment in the middle of nowhere . He tells her , “ The secret you ’re trying to solve is heavy – and I mean , much expectant – than an engine that run on atmospherical intensity . ”
What could be greater than an engine that break away on atmospheric intensity ? We may never come up out ( unless we read the book , which seems like too much to ask ) because the movie ends soon afterwards . This is only part one of a two three - part picture show – because just like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Twilight Saga : cave in Dawn , there ’s too much story in Atlas Shrugged for just one motion-picture show .
I do n’t require to give away the film ’s cliffhanger finish , but it ’s basically the apogee of a running subplot in which man of genius are all go away to join the mysterious John Galt . And it terminate with Dagny on her human knee , surrounded by flames and gargantuan libertarian bill , looking up at the camera and shrieking , “ Nooooooooooo ! ”
Somehow , I cogitate everyone in the audience have intercourse how she finger .
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