Dagny Taggart 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 have found. Scientists across the country have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances, but Dagny is able to locate Quentin Daniels, who agrees to help from an abandoned laboratory in
Utah. Dagny's brother
James Taggart, president of the family
railroad company, meets store clerk Cherryl Brooks and brings her to see a renowned pianist, 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 argues with other guests about whether money is evil, 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, 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
coal mining company, but refuses to sell it to the
federal 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. 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. 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. 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 a tunnel, due largely to political pressure by a passenger and human error by Dagny's poorly trained replacement. 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. 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. The film ends with a quote from
Ayn Rand: "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. But when you see that in order to produce it, you need to obtain permission from those who produce nothing... You will know that your society is doomed. ==Cast==