Well said, Lucky...

I should have read this first. yes.

I agree. Actually this could have gone on for at least thirty hours, with a special three-hour rendition of the John Galt Speech. One could even offer to stream that on the Internet, if they didn't think anyone would watch the whole thing on TV. That way, you could offer highlights of the John Galt speech in the broadcast version, and publish a link to the full speech, and a transcript.

Back to Eddie: here is my own proposed revision of the end of Eddie's story:

Eddie agrees to go out to San Francisco to try to sort out the mess with three warring factions, one of which seized the terminal and held trains for ransom. But he has bigger plans than that. He explains these to Dagny, in writing--in an envelope that he slips under her apartment door, or maybe surreptitiously passes to her in the office.

The plans are these: the eastbound Comet will be his escape route. He plans to get off the train in Phoenix, Arizona, on the theory that the Washington boys don't dare send an escort with him, since the California warring factions would just as soon kill a Washington man as look at him. He gets a Comet going out of San Francisco, all right--only it breaks down outside of Flagstaff, as the novel originally reads.

When the wagon train shows up, he gives them a destination, provided they take off everyone from the Comet and "settle up" at destination. Because he has already arranged to sign on with Dan Conway, who hopes to start the Phoenix-Durango RR back up. Dan Conway can do that, because the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, drawing inspiration from John Galt's speech, has revolted against Washington.

As the wagon train draws near, a helicopter posse flies out and meets them. In the lead chopper: the aforementioned sheriff (it doesn't have to be Joe Arpaio if you really don't think he'd do it), and Dan Conway. All you need do, then, is hint at their plans: they'll get a line going up to Durango, Colorado--which is not far from Ouray, Colorado, which in this universe is now named, variously, Atlantis, Mulligan's Valley, and Galt's Gulch.

So when John Galt says, "The road is cleared; we are going back to the world," you cut to Eddie Willers, riding a track motor car, going up the line to where the tracklaying train is busy laying rail through Durango. You know he and Dagny will meet again, this time as counterparts, if not equals, though the movie ends before you see that happen.

Movies, like everything else is run by money. We would all like to see A.S. as a TV series, but one would have to be able to show it could be profitable, unless it is financed by people willing to put out big bucks without a profitable return. Even then, if it doesn't attract a big enough audience, it most likely wouldn't even finish one season, let alone 5 or 6 which would likely be needed to do the book justice. However, when the book was published, no one gave it much of a chance to succeed. And that, would be its biggest selling point.

Remember that Eddie did not get "stranded"...he refused to leave the train, of his own free will. He was given an opportunity and turned it down.

With new casting and screenwriting, that could still be done. I urge the Producers to think about doing that. Lining up advertisers to pay for the series shouldn't be a problem if the ad agency concentrates on companies with conservative leadership.

They introduced Cheryl Brooks in Part Two, not ONe.

In the novel, Dagny and Eddie were clear in their relationship. When Eddie left to go west, it was clear that he knew that Dagny would leave with Galt and that while she had reached the ability to walk away from the railroad, he hadn't. Eddie is one of the tragic characters in the novel, the others to my mind being Cheryl and Tony, the wet nurse -- the people who should have been rebels but found their principles [and their heroes] too late to save them.

Remember that, unlike Eddie, Gwen Ives left when Reardon did. I have no doubt that Dagny would have made sure that Eddie Willers made it to safety in the gulch had he been willing to go. The choice was his to make, and he chose to set out on his own [at last?] rather than ride her coattails [as always?]. Cheryl and Tony died, but at least with Eddie there was the ambiguous chance that he could have survived.

However, I think that the implication is clear that Eddie's survival would depend upon his finding a stronger, more decisive person to follow. He was an able second but his career and ultimately his life was always as a follower. Without a strong leader he floundered.

it was also an important plot device in the novel. It was supposed to bother us. It wasn't for Dagny to choose, it was Eddie's choice and he made it. Good people will be hurt when the motor of the world stops. It was a disappointing giveaway in my opinion.

"It needs to be pointed out that the first tier of "heroes" are not desert islands. They need reliable people working for them and with them"
Yes. I like to think people who took the oath didn't think of themselves as first tier or second tier. They were just people, people who sometimes needed/wanted things from one another and were free to trade what they had to get them.

They did more than make Eddie black. They made him more of a no-nonsense character, much less self-effacing, much less petulant.