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 5 (Pages 307-395)Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Snake”
Pages 307-360 Summary
Sanjong, Kenner, Evans, and Sarah arrive in Canyon Diablo, Arizona. A number of southwestern state parks have been inexplicably booked in advance for special events. All of the bookings were paid for by charities with no connection to the groups attending the events. The organizations all claimed it was a mix-up, but encouraged the groups to attend regardless, because the deposits had already been paid. Kenner and the others recognize this as the probable workings of ELF, and also discover that a rocket arrays have been prepared in McKinley State Park. Sanjong explains that ELF intends to use the rockets to control the weather.
The group watches more of the DVD Evans discovered. It shows Drake and his PR director talking about how to spin news and research to sell the veracity of global warming. Furthermore, the want to imply that climate science suggesting the contrary is either supported by industrial organizations or generated by researchers interested in making a splash.
Surveying the scene at the park, Kenner and his entourage come to the conclusion that ELF wants to spark a storm via “charge amplification” that will result in flash floods and catastrophic mud slides (321). The park is full of people, so time is of the essence. The group splits up to destroy the rocket arrays. Sarah and Evans are tailed by the same pickup truck as she followed to the test site earlier. It rams them from behind. Suddenly, lightning begins to strike all around them and on their car. Realizing they are somehow attracting the lightning, they escape into a forest. They leave the car and head toward an abandoned building with a porch covered in scorpions. Inside, they discover in horror that the building is filled with metal objects. Sarah is struck by lightning, but Evans manages to resuscitate her. They drive off, and are swept into a river by the flood.
Kenner realizes the radios the team has been using to communicate have been tampered with and are attracting the lightning, but is unable to alert the others. He sees rockets begin to fire into the air from the other arrays, and attempts to destroy the one he is targeting by driving over it. He engages in a shootout with ELF operatives and tries unsuccessfully to take one alive. Sanjong intentionally drives his truck into a cabin near the array he has been assigned, and shoots some ELF members. Heading back to the central area, he saves Evans and Sarah from being washed over a cliff. Miraculously, though ELF did start a flash flood, there are no casualties.
Pages 361-395 Summary
On the plane to Los Angeles, Evans reviews the news reports of what happened at McKinley State Park. Talking with Sanjong and Kenner, he is struck by how the reports fail to know what really happened. They are shocked that reporters still declare the flash flood evidence of the “extreme weather conditions” that are an imminent “result of global warming” (362).
In Los Angeles, Lowenstein, the Beverly Hills Police, Margo, and Drake all hound Evans for various reasons. Jennifer directs him to come to the offices of the Vanutu litigation team, and to be prepared to attend a press conference. Evans is concerned that he is being pressured to be there to give the impression that he supports the Vanutu lawsuit. Afterwards, Jennifer privately tells Evans the lawsuit is no longer being pursued. though Balder publicly announces that it is ongoing.
While there, Evans answers additional questions about global warming to assist the team researching the general population’s awareness of the issue. Their discussion this time centers on the “urban heat island effect” (369). The team shows Evans charts suggesting that temperatures in major urban centers have risen over the past several decades, while temperatures in other areas have remained stable or even cooled. They suggest that the urban heat islands are skewing the perception of global climates. The team also produces data showing carbon dioxide levels have risen globally in the 20th century, but suggests that because there has not been a uniform global uptick in temperatures, that it is erroneous to attribute global warming to an increase in carbon monoxide.
Part 5 (Pages 307-395) Analysis
In the events preceding the attack at McKinley State Park, few cared to question why deposits for park rentals were mysteriously paid on their behalf. The explanation provided—that there were simply some logistical mix-ups—works for the innocent public. Yet it also alludes to a running theme in State of Fear, which suggests that many people are complicit in the misinformation about climate change, either by promoting it, or by accepting it without question. Sanjong and Kenner have figured out the plan of ELF’s attack as well as what they assert is the truth about global warming, positioning them as the truth-tellers.
Undoubtedly, while State of Fear continues to lay out serious ideas about climate change and global warming denial, it does not overlook chances to increase thrill and drama. In the first several chapters of “Snake,” the back-and-forth pursuit of ELF members and the protagonists provides this element. Between the rocket blasts, shootouts, lightning attacks, scorpions, and flash floods, there is hardly a moment of downtime throughout the section, so that State of Fear’s polemics momentarily go backstage.
The lightning motif also reemerges in “Snake,” echoing its significance for the novel as a whole. As foreshadowed in the attack on Nat and the attempted killing of Kenner and Sarah in the third part of the novel, artificial lightning becomes a weapon used by ELF. The group succeeds in generating a storm with super lightning by using charge amplification, though the resulting flash flood they had planned on does not cause the large-scale loss of innocent life that they’d hoped for. This foreshadows their next plot (a tsunami that also fails) and underscores the terrorists’ general ineptitude.
As in previous sections of the novel, the dramatic elements serve as opportunities to explore characterization. For example, on the run from ELF lightning attacks with Sarah, a fearful Evans initially refuses to leave their car, even when it seems to be attracting the lightning; his “knuckles were white, gripping the wheel” (327). Yet when he saves Sarah, Evans shows his growth to be fully realized. Sarah’s shocked response about Evans resuscitating her underscores his evolution, albeit in a backhanded way.
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