Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt? Movie Premieres Friday; See Clips in New Documentary

The third and final installment in the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's staggering (and staggeringly successful, even 57 years later) novel Atlas Shrugged, a brutal and vivid dramatization of the horrific places the logic of statism and collectivism lead, premieres nationally on Friday.

The makers of the film have issued an interesting 29 minute documentary, called Atlas Shrugged: Now, Non-Fiction, containing clips from the forthcoming film Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt?

Watch it here, starring, among others, Ron Paul:

a list of theaters screening the film starting Friday.

See my report from the set of the film from March.

In 2009 I wrote for Reason on the theme of the documentary, the inescapable presence of Rand's ideas in the real world today.

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

So, speech or no speech?

[briannnnn]

Oh please God no speech. Don't turn an unreadable book into an even more unwatchable third installment of an already unwatchable movie series.

[Almanian!]

From your lips to flying spaghetti monster's ears, bruh

[MJGreen]

Speech!

[thom]

I watched the second one on Netflix one night when I was a little drunk and enjoyed it. It was terrible but I enjoyed it. I'm hoping for a similar experience with number 3, but isn't that the part that's just John Galt talking?

[CE]

Spoiler alert: He also gets tortured, so proglodytes might want to tune in too.

The third book is where Atlas Shrugged turns into sci-fi, with zero point energy and acoustic crowd weapons.

[widget]

The third book is where Atlas Shrugged turns into sci-fi, with zero point energy

The engine that burned air put AS off the sci-fi genre from the start. Even hardcore Objectivists, like Leonard Peikoff, have complained about Rand's comprehension of science.

[Stormy Dragon]

On the other hand, I've run into objectivists who take an creationist approach to Atlas Shrugged, for example insisting for example that rearden metal is a real thing and the only reason we still use steel is because of a vast government conspiracy.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

That's like complaining about the unrealistic presence of hobbits and elves in Tolkien. The whole point of the Randian hero is that he's capable of seemingly impossible feats in this grand, romantic fashion, and the benefits of those feats improve everyone's lives, most substantially those who are least competent to take care of themselves.

So of course Rand's hero would create a perpetual motion machine that would revolutionize the world.

[Warren's Strapon]

Yeah, I always thought the whole point was that it was fantastical.

[CE]

The first one was better drunk. Dagny was hotter.

[Riven]

Hank was waaaaaay hotter in the first one, too.

[Brett L]

This gives me hope that some day someone will take on Cryptonomicon as a movie project.

[Xeones]

I'd also like to see the Baroque Cycle get the Game of Thrones treatment. Even if it sucked (the way George Clooney's abortive SyFy adaptation of The Diamond Age was probably about to), i'd watch the Cairo battle and Half-Cocked Jack's raid on the Tower of London over and over again.

[The Last American Hero]

I have not see the first two. I feel like I should watch and support these films on principal, but the trailers look just plain bad.

[The Last American Hero]

Or principle, if you prefer.

[Jensen]

They are pretty terrible movies, as most people are suggesting, substance use is required.

That old Fountainhead movie's ok though.

[Winston]

I find it interesting that King Vidor directed that and Our Daily Bread.

Oh and Barbara Stanwyck was responsible for helping to get the Fountainhead made.

I find it pretty funny to see internet types getting upset at Stanwyck for being a Rand fan. Being an supporter of a totalitarian dictatorship is okay but Ayn Rand is out of bounds.

[Edgehopper]

There's a left-wing fan riff of the first one available at Rifftrax which is pretty funny, if, well, left wing. I thought the second was watchable but weak--more watchable because things happen in part 2 other than characters orating at each other. And Dietrich Bader, best known as idiot Oswald from the Drew Carey Show, as physics prodigy Quentin Daniels is a hilarious bit of casting.

[Winston]

Dietrich Bader

Well there goes any career revival for him, not that he was in the greatest shape in the first place...

[ReadyKilowatt]

I'm happy to see the third and final installment. Now the Randians can stop complaining about getting a movie made and how successful it would be.

Of course in the time of the constant Batman reboot I'm sure they'll want someone else to have a crack at it too.