What does the Ayn Rand Institute do? How heavily do you promote sales of Atlas Shrugged?

ARI’s mission is to promote the books and philosophy of Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged is Rand’s magnum opus, a gripping mystery story that is also the most radical and challenging book of ideas of the twentieth century. It has changed numerous lives for the better, and we promote the book extensively. (ARI receives no revenue from the sales of Atlas Shrugged or any other book by Ayn Rand.)

For instance:

• ARI sponsors an Atlas Shrugged essay contest for 12th-grade and college students.
• ARI provides free books to teachers to make it easier to teach her novels in high schools.
• ARI offers free copies of Atlas Shrugged to students in business schools and free-market programs.
• ARI runs the official website for Atlas Shrugged. On the top of that page is a link ”Heard about the movie?" that will take you to to a variety of audio, video, and written materials on the novel’s plot, characters, background, and role in current events.
• ARI has sponsored an Atlas Shrugged video contest.
• ARI helps people connect with reading groups for Atlas Shrugged.
• ARI has a Facebook page for Atlas Shrugged with 200,000+ participants.
• ARI supports and funds books about the ideas in Atlas Shrugged and their application.

I saw that ARI was thanked in the credits of the first Atlas Shrugged movie. What was ARI’s involvement with that movie and subsequent installment?

ARI had very minimal involvement with the first movie, and all of it occurred after the movie had been produced. (ARI does not own the production rights to a movie of Atlas Shrugged and also does not hold the copyright to the book itself.) ARI had no involvement with the second movie.

Will ARI be promoting Atlas Shrugged while the new movie is out?

Of course. We are eager for as many new people as possible to encounter Ayn Rand and to pick up Atlas Shrugged and discover within its pages its unusual characters and heroes, its intriguing mystery and plot, and its challenging ideas. Many readers describe reading Atlas Shrugged as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we want as many people as possible to enjoy that experience.

To whatever extent the movie leads people to talk about Ayn Rand, her philosophy and the continuing relevance of Atlas Shrugged, our experts are eager to join the discussion.

Does the movie capture the full scope of the book?

They don’t. Atlas Shrugged is a novel of more than a thousand pages, containing an intricate plot, unique characters, new ideas and a profound theme. The book is a masterpiece, and its panoramic scope presents a real challenge to anyone trying to adapt it to the screen. Whatever one thinks of the movies and however positive one’s personal response may have been to some aspects of them, the movies are no masterpieces.

For instance, the movies are much more conventional than is Atlas Shrugged. In the first movie, the basic conflict is political: a conflict between corrupt politicians and businessmen trying to run their companies and make a profit. In the book, the basic conflict is moral and philosophical: how thinkers and creators of all types accept and support the moral and philosophical ideas that dominate today’s culture—and how those very ideas lead to the creators’ exploitation and destruction. To change their fate, they have to change their ideas. In other words, Atlas Shrugged is a book that challenges widely held ideas at the deepest level. Its focus is not on political corruption. Rather, its focus is on the moral and philosophical ideas and ideals, accepted in some form by almost everyone, that lead to (among other things) today’s corrupt politics.

One result of the first movie’s superficial treatment of the book’s focus is that the movie dramatically alters characters and dialogue. To name but one of many instances, in the book, Hank Rearden is profoundly conflicted about Dagny Taggart: he is at once passionately attracted to her and yet repulsed by his sexual attraction to her and hers to him. In the movie, their relationship is not simply omitted; rather, it is included but presented as a run-of-the-mill affair. Yet the fact that Hank Rearden feels deeply conflicted over Dagny is central to understanding his character, motivation and unhappiness. In the novel he learns that there is a profound connection between the guilt he experiences in his romantic life and the guilt he is supposed to experience for his devotion to business—and that this connection points to a key reason why the creators have allowed themselves to be damned and victimized.

Now to find out exactly how this plays out—and to discover all the ways in which the novel’s characters and events have been altered—read the book!