They realize that no one has ever made a dime on passenger rail service, and that without massive government subsidies, they will go bankrupt. So they make the government take over Taggard Transcontinental as part of Amtrak. The employees finally get decent pay and safe working conditions, and all of the characters become either TV pundits or Members of Congress, where they micromanage Amtrak happily ever after.

And they didn't even have a horrendous train crash, lovingly detailed by a sociopathic romance novelist with major Daddy issues. What a letdown.

A three-hour speech.

Dunno, couldn't get past the first 20 minutes.

Trains?

@2
That would be my guess.

Atlas Shrugged was perhaps the only book that was better as a Cliff Note.

A gaggle of vaguely sociopathic observers, watching the spectacle from afar, conclude that whatever happened was amazing and life-affirming and, holding the story close to their hearts, set off in order to be a dick to everyone else under a policy they describe as "rational self interest" but in practical terms manifests as "fuck your shit, I got mine."

So, basically they conclude that private industry is the only way to get high speed rail built in America.

However, conniving bureaucrats do everything in their power to thwart it.

Just like in real life where...hold on...wait a minute....

In the end, the Great Men and Titans of Industry who stand astride the mediocrity of modern times like great colossi decide collectively to withhold their genius from the unappreciative masses until such time as the masses realize their mistake and beg for their return. They withdraw to the isolated "Galt's Gulch," where their complete lack of even a minimal sense of social obligation to their neighbors combined with their utter uselessness at any task resembling manual labor leads them all to untimely deaths. After a descent into cannibalism which begins approximately four days after provisions run out whittles them down to a single survivor, who is by definition the worthiest and most fit human alive, the Last Great Hope for Rational Egoism dies of starvation, alone and unmourned, after realizing too late that he is not actually capable of growing enough food and cutting enough firewood to sustain himself through a winter.

The masses, for their part, barely notice their absence and go on about their business. Soon new assholes arise from their ranks and the cycle begins anew.

Bob The Angry Flower's Classic Literature Sequels, Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later
http://goo.gl/PrB9y

6: You forgot the part where they spend the first few days masturbating in front of full-length mirrors.

8: while listening to three-hour speeches.

Just wanted you all to know the giggle to weight ratio in this response thread is beautiful. My mediocrity has now irreversibly tarnished it, shame.

In the end that wretched bitch Ayn Rand gets disabled and terminally ill and goes on government assistance and health care. I wish I were making this up.

Bruce Willis was dead the whole time, the chick was a dude and Verbal was Kaiser Souza.

The best (!) way to encounter Ayn Rand's fever dream is audiobook on CD: It's 40-some hours of the weirdest radio play you'll ever hear. (And it's free via the Seattle Public Library--so imagine Rand's whirling in her mausoleum as you're not spending a dime to get her work, but instead relying on a tax-supported state institution.)

Proteus dear, that was a masterpiece. I tip my chapeau to you.

@13
Ummm… "tax supported" isn't "not spending a dime."

But as far as libraries go, it's spending a dime on something that's definitely worthwhile. Ayn Rand books notwithstanding.

The fundamental flaw in the whole premise is the idea that there are only a small handful of individuals in the whole human race that are capable of such amazing feats of industry and ingenuity. So small, in fact, that they can hide out in an isolated ditch in Colorado.

The truth of the matter is that there are millions of potential captains of industry in this country alone that have the skills and smarts to make the world a better place. And they aren't held back by government regulation and whiny slackers, they are held back by the existing titans of industry who wield the vast wealth and power they've accumulated to keep anyone else out of the club.

While the Amazing Randis scream about the evils of government, the Koch brothers sit back and enjoy the success of their scheme.

I couldn't make it past 20 minutes. I was really curious about how the libertarian narrative would play out... but the acting, plot & dialog were insufferably bad. I am not about to pick up the book.

@16: "The truth of the matter is that there are millions of potential captains of industry in this country"

What about all the "potential captains of industry" that are currently working at Gamestop and lecturing the rest of us about the need to remove minimum wage so they can rocket up to the top?

Atlas shrugs