Before the Fall

Before the Fall (2016) by Noah Hawley details the effects of a plane crash on its survivors. Part mystery, part procedural, and part character study, the narrative examines the lives of the victims—their relationships, their flaws, and their histories—giving the tragedy a human face beyond the sensational headlines. Along the way, it explores themes of celebrity, invasion of privacy, and the difficulty of reconstructing traumatic memories. Hawley, a screenwriter as well as a novelist, is a producer and showrunner for the FX series, Fargo, for which he has won the Emmy, PEN, Peabody, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe Awards.

This guide refers to the Grand Central Publishing 2016 hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide contain brief depictions of physical abuse.

Plot Summary

Before the Fall charts the attempts of the news media, government agents, family members, and survivors to make sense of a deadly—and mysterious—plane crash. The novel alternates between present-tense narration of the event and its aftermath and past-tense accounts of the lives of the passengers and other key characters, including their movements just before the crash.

David Bateman, head of the ALC News network, boards a private plane from Martha’s Vineyard to New York with his wife, Maggie, and their children, Rachel and JJ. Also on board are soon-to-be-indicted lawyer Ben Kipling and his wife Sarah; artist Scott Burroughs; and the Batemans’ bodyguard, Gil Baruch. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashes into the Atlantic, and Scott and JJ are the only survivors. Scott, an accomplished swimmer in his youth, swims through the choppy ocean for eight hours, pulling JJ to shore. They are treated at a local hospital and released.

While still in the hospital, Scott is questioned by government investigators. He doesn’t remember much, and the various agencies each pursue their own line of investigation: mechanical failure, terrorism, or an attempt to silence Kipling’s potential testimony. Scott is released, but an army of media outside the hospital prompts him to sneak out a back door with his friend, Magnus. The media firestorm has already begun, with every news outlet clamoring for a piece of the newly-minted “hero.” Magnus tells Scott that heiress and philanthropist Layla Mueller has offered him a room in her brownstone to escape the media attention. He accepts.

Meanwhile, ALC on-air personality Bill Cunningham uses his show to spin conspiracy theories about the crash and about Scott. He discovers Scott’s whereabouts, and soon the press is camped outside Layla’s brownstone. JJ, now living in upstate New York with Maggie’s sister, Eleanor, and her husband, Doug, stands to inherit his father’s vast wealth, over $100 million. Eleanor insists on placing the money in a trust, but Doug, dazzled by the idea of wealth, wants it for himself. When Scott visits JJ, who hasn’t spoken since the crash, the boy responds to him immediately. Doug, however, sees Scott as an interloper trying to steal the money. Eleanor, fed up with Doug’s anger and drinking, kicks him out of the house just as she invites Scott to stay a few days. Feeling marginalized, Doug appears on Cunningham’s show to air his grievances, but he is nervous and distracted.

As the investigation continues, Gus and his team find bodies and, eventually, the submerged fuselage and the black box data recorder. They rule out mechanical failure and terrorism, but when they find bullet holes in the cockpit door and the captain’s body is discovered in the cabin, the mystery deepens. As they probe the lives and histories of the victims, they learn that Charlie Busch, the co-pilot, and Emma Lightner, the flight attendant, had a prior relationship. Following his desire for ratings and scandal, Cunningham insinuates that Scott is after JJ’s inheritance. As a “failed painter,” he suggests, Scott has ample motivation to pursue the money. After days of Cunningham’s slanderous implications, Scott finally agrees to an interview. On air, Cunningham plays recorded phone conversations between Scott and Layla and Scott and Gus. The snippets sound damning on the surface, absent context, and Scott refuses to answer questions about his relationships. Instead, he chastises Cunningham over his insensitivity to the victims and the illegal means by which he acquired the recording.

As Gus and his team assemble the final pieces of the puzzle, they realize that Busch, angry over Emma’s rejection of him, had locked the captain out of the cockpit and crashed the plane on purpose. Having cleared his name, Scott leaves the ALC studios, focused on his art, his recovery, and helping JJ process his trauma.