52 pages • 1 hour read
Michael CrichtonState of Fear
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 2 (Pages 181-256)Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Terror”
Pages 181-216 Summary
Evans, Sarah, Kenner, and Sanjong take Morton’s jet to Antarctica. On the way, Kenner asks them if they have heard of ELF, the eco-terrorist group that Morton may have unintentionally been funding. Kenner also mentions he suspects that NERF is connected to ELF. He shares what he has found out about ELF’s plans: four events timed about a day apart at different locations around the world, all designed to wreak environmental devastation made to look like the results of global warming. The purpose, Kenner implies, is to galvanize public opinion in favor of the theory of global warming, covering up research that does not support it, including suggestions that Antarctica is getting colder. Evans and Kenner talk further about climate science, conflicting reports, and the likelihood of the Vanutu lawsuit failing: “It’s hard to claim global warming is flooding your country if sea levels aren’t rising,” Kenner says (188).
The group arrives at Weddel Station, a research center near Mount Terror. Still disbelieving the claims that Antarctica is not warming, Sanjong gives Evans a list of scientific references reinforcing the argument. Against Evans’ response that energy companies might have financed those studies, Kenner retorts that one could say Evans is financed by the environmental movement’s agenda. Both Sarah and Evans begin to wonder what they should really believe about climate change.
Kenner learns that an American scientist named James Brewster suddenly arrived in Antarctica. Having looked into this story, however, Kenner finds out that the real James is at home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, meaning that there is an impostor on Mount Terror. They arrange for a graduate student, Jimmy Bolden, to take them out in the field to search for clues about what is happening.
Jimmy takes them to the shear zone, where the Antarctic ice is riddled with deep crevasses. He informs them that “Brewster” arrived in Antarctica to study iceberg formation. They have difficulty finding his camp, but Jimmy is eventually able to point it out. They inspect the campsite, and discover explosive devices inside. Kenner orders Jimmy to take Evans and Sarah back to Weddel Station, while he plans to pursue “Brewster.” Jimmy suggests they take a shortcut across an ice field. Over the radio, Sarah and Evans hear an announcement that Jimmy Bolden has been found unconscious back at the station, and that the “Jimmy” leading them is yet another impostor. He gets out of his snowcat, and watches as Evans’ and Sarah’s falls into an ice crevasse.
Pages 217-256 Summary
After the initial shock of the fall, Sarah surveys what has happened. Her snowcat has become wedged on an ice shelf 30-40 yards down the crevasse, and she does not initially see Evans. Showing her characteristic composure, she refuses to panic, telling herself “Even if her chance of success was small, there was still a chance” (220). Sarah hears Evans call from below, and succeeds in hoisting him up with a rope, with great difficulty. They make it back to the surface by climbing the crevasse wall with crampons. Weather conditions have become severe, and Evans and Sarah nearly die from hypothermia, but are miraculously discovered by a NASA robot and rescued.
Back at Weddell Station, Sarah and Evans are nursed back to health. Meanwhile, Kenner and Sanjong track down the Boldon impostor’s identity. He is David R. Kane, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, advised by the real Brewster. They search David’s room, and find many photos of what look like Antarctic ice. Kenner explains that they randomly disconnected the explosive devices that the imposters had laid out to thwart their plan to unleash a massive iceberg that would look like the result of global warming.
En route back to Los Angeles, Kenner and Evans discuss a long track record of tactical attempts to make global warming appear real or more severe via media manipulations. He reiterates his argument that most evidence does not conclude that catastrophic global climate change is occurring. Sanjong explains that the photos they found in David’s room were actually negative images of clouds over Gareda, one of the Solomon Islands, with coordinates for a place called Resolution Bay (known locally as Scorpion Bay). Kenner and Sanjong mention the “netwar” they are engaged in, meaning that the communication lines between ELF cells are so complicated and multi-channeled that they are extremely hard to track (253).
Part 2 (Pages 181-256) Analysis
In the second part of the novel, Kenner and Sanjong prove to be the key to solving its mysteries. Time and again, they have the answers to questions related to the issues characters run into, and offer solutions. At the beginning of “Terror,” Kenner reveals to the group coalescing around him both the nature of the eco-terrorist events that are imminent, and their connection to ELF. Kenner and Sanjong are more than sources of information, however. They consistently uses a Socratic type of question and answer debate to dispel character’s views on global warming and sow seeds of doubt. Thus, Kenner and Sanjong act as eco-gurus.
When elements like the graphs (84), list of references (193-94), and footnotes (247) are included in the novel, this blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction, between what is invented and what is real. “Terror” works that confusion on multiple levels, well beyond the insertion of reference material. For instance, several of the researchers whom Kenner and the others meet in Antarctica turn out to be imposters, making it difficult to ensure that anyone is who they say they are. To take another example, the research about the Earth’s climate that Kenner and Sanjong share defies public consensus. Antarctic ice is melting, as a result of global warming, and sea levels will consequently rise—or so goes common opinion. Kenner produces data suggesting that some Antarctic ice is melting, but not as a result of human influence, and not on a uniform scale that will significantly raise sea levels. Confusing points like these introduce doubt, which becomes leverage for shifting the characters’ accepted beliefs.
The central dramatic event in “Terror” is Sarah’s and Evans’ miraculous escape from near death. The intrigue that surrounds this event, including “Jimmy’s” leading them astray with chilling calculation, is classic thriller material. Crichton, however, also uses it as an opportunity to develop his characters. Sarah emerges as a highly capable, coolheaded force to be reckoned with, in contrast to Evans, who has to be saved after nearly collapsing in a nervous wreck. On the other hand, the relationship between Evans and Sarah is dynamic; when Evans has a turn at saving Sarah from a lightning attack later in the novel, it demonstrates his growth.
Setting is also especially important in “Terror.” The novel rejects commonplace notions about global warming. Thus, it is fitting that the moment when the beliefs Evans and others hold about this topic begin to unravel occurs in what is commonly presented as one of the most precarious environments on Earth: the Antarctic ice shelf. State of Fear implies that media portrayals of Antarctica characterize it as warming dramatically, despite evidence Kenner produces to show it is getting colder. Moreover, in this hypothetically warming environment, Sarah and Evans nearly freeze to death, underscoring how perceptions about climate can be highly relative. Yet the attempted killing of the two characters emphasizes that the greatest threats in the novel are human-to-human in form.
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