The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Yasiin Bey (credited as Mos Def), Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, and John Malkovich, and the voices of Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Richard Griffiths, Thomas Lennon, Ian McNeice, and Alan Rickman. Adams co-wrote the screenplay with Karey Kirkpatrick, and the film is dedicated to Adams, who died in 2001 before production began. The film received mainly positive reviews and grossed over $100 million worldwide.

Plot One Thursday morning, Arthur Dent discovers that his house is to be immediately demolished to make way for a bypass. He tries delaying the bulldozers by lying down in front of them; however, Arthur's friend Ford Prefect convinces him to go to the nearby pub. While there, Ford explains that he is an alien from the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and a journalist working on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a universal guide book. Ford warns that the Earth is to be demolished later that day by the extraterrestrial Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

As the Vogon fleet arrives, Ford rescues Arthur by stowing them aboard one of the alien ships. The Earth is then destroyed. Arthur and Ford are promptly discovered and tortured with Vogon poetry before being ejected from the vessel and left for dead. However, they are picked up by the starship Heart of Gold, aboard which they meet Ford's "semi-cousin" Zaphod Beeblebrox, the newly elected President of the Galaxy. He has stolen the ship along with Tricia "Trillian" McMillan, an Earth woman whom Arthur had met previously, and Marvin, a clinically depressed android.

Zaphod seeks the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything to match the disappointing answer once given by the ancient supercomputer Deep Thought: "42". He believes the answer lies on the planet Magrathea, which is only accessible through trial and error using the Heart of Gold improbability drives.

During one attempt, the ship arrives at Viltvodle VI, where Zaphod's opponent, Humma Kavula, resides. Kavula offers the coordinates for Magrathea in exchange for Zaphod recovering the Point-of-View gun, a weapon created by Deep Thought that enables the target to temporarily empathize with the shooter. Believing she is responsible for Zaphod's kidnapping, the Vogons abduct Trillian. Arthur spearheads a rescue mission with the others, journeying to the Vogon homeworld, Vogsphere. Before her rescue, Trillian learns that Zaphod personally signed the order for Earth's destruction, mistakenly assuming he was giving a fan his autograph.

The group escapes Vogsphere with Galactic Vice-president Questular Rontok and the Vogons in pursuit. The Heart of Gold arrives in Magrathea's orbit, triggering the planet's missile defense systems. Before they can strike, Arthur re-activates the improbability drive, which transforms the missiles into a bowl of petunias and a whale, allowing the Heart of Gold to land safely. Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian enter a portal leading to Deep Thought; however, Arthur and Marvin are stranded outside. Zaphod's party learns from Deep Thought that, after coming up with the Answer "42", Deep Thought's creators had it design another computer to come up with the Question: Earth. The group recovers the Point-of-View gun, and Trillian uses it on Zaphod to show him her resentment for his accidental destruction of the Earth. They are then captured by unknown entities.

Meanwhile, on Magrathea, Arthur is met by Slartibartfast, a planet builder. Slartibartfast takes Arthur to a pocket dimension, where he shows that a new version of Earth is near completion. Slartibartfast takes Arthur to his recreated home. Inside, the others are enjoying a feast provided by the mice: hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings who created Deep Thought and commissioned the original Earth. With Arthur, who was on Earth up until its last minutes, the mice surmise that they can discover the Question by removing his brain. Arthur manages to escape and crush the mice under a teapot.

Questular and the Vogons arrive outside the home and open fire; during the barrage, Marvin is shot. While Arthur and his companions take cover, Marvin reboots and uses the Point-of-View gun to force the Vogons into a crippling state of depression. The Vogons are taken away, and Zaphod reunites with Questular. Arthur decides to explore the galaxy with Ford and Trillian, allowing Slartibartfast to finalize the new Earth without him. The Heart of Gold crew decides to visit the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Cast

Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, the last surviving Earth man Yasiin Bey (credited as Mos Def) as Ford Prefect Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the President of the Galaxy, Ford's "semi-cousin" Zooey Deschanel as Trillian, an Earth woman Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, a planet builder Anna Chancellor as Questular, the vice-president of the Galaxy John Malkovich as Humma Kavula, Zaphod's opponent from the planet Vildvodle Warwick Davis as Marvin, an android who is clinically depressed Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin Helen Mirren as the voice of Deep Thought, a super-computer Stephen Fry as The Narrator

In addition, Bill Bailey voices the whale, Ian McNeice voices Kwaltz, Richard Griffiths voices Jeltz and Thomas Lennon voices Eddie the computer. Simon Jones, who portrayed Arthur Dent in both the BBC radio and BBC television adaptations of Hitchhiker's, makes a cameo appearance as the Ghostly Image. Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, and Steve Pemberton voice the additional Vogons, with Pemberton also appearing as Mr. Prosser. Kelly MacDonald makes a cameo as a reporter. Edgar Wright, Garth Jennings, and Jason Schwartzman appear uncredited as a Deep Thought technician, the voice of Frankie Mouse, and Gag Halfrunt, respectively.

Production Development

Bringing The Hitchhiker's Guide to a theatrical version started as early as the 1970s. Douglas Adams had been approached by one unnamed producer and separately by the ABC network during the 1970s to turn the book into a film, but Adams refused both offers, as he feared they wanted to turn the work into "Star Wars with jokes". In 1982, Adams signed an option for the film with producers Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck and Michael C. Gross, and completed three scripts for them. As part of the rewrites, Medjuck and Gross offered the idea of bringing in either Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd to play Ford Prefect. However, Aykroyd separately proposed a different story to Reitman, which led to this project becoming the basis for Ghostbusters. This left Adams flustered about the film's development in making sure there was the necessary commitment to the project. However, the event did generate the idea of making Prefect an American as to better draw in that audience. The project was sold in 1997 to Caravan Pictures, which eventually became Spyglass Entertainment. Disney had planned to release it under its Hollywood Pictures label, but soon transferred it to the Walt Disney Pictures label, and finally to its Touchstone Pictures label.

Movement on the film was quiet until around 2001, when director Jay Roach, using the clout he had gained from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Meet the Parents, secured a new deal with Adams and production through Disney. Adams wrote a new script, and Roach sought talent like Spike Jonze to direct, Hugh Laurie to play Arthur, and Jim Carrey as Zaphod, but then Adams died on 11 May 2001. Neither Roach nor the film's executive producer Robbie Stamp wanted to see their work go for naught after Adams' death. Roach brought in Karey Kirkpatrick to complete the screenplay based on Adams' final draft, submitted just before his death. Kirkpatrick used what notes Adams had left, finding that Adams was willing to go off the book's narrative to adapt to the film. He considered his screenplay something in the spirit that Adams had set out based on the whole of Adams' work.

Some time after Adams' death, Roach decided to drop out of the project, and, on recommendation from Jonze – one of several directors asked to do the film – Roach turned to director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, collectively known as Hammer & Tongs, to take up the work.

Casting When casting the characters, the studio tried to include American actors to attract an American audience. In doing so, they also made a conscious effort to limit the influence of American culture on the movie to keep the interest of the original British audience.

In an interview with Slashdot, Stamp stated the following about the cast: The hardest character to cast was "the voice of the Guide itself and in the end came back to somebody who was one of the people Douglas himself had wanted, namely Stephen Fry." "Douglas himself is on record as saying that as far as he was concerned the only character who had to be British, indeed English, was Arthur Dent." Stamp also commented on how large a role the studio and screenwriters other than Adams played in making the film: "I think that a lot of fans would be surprised to know just how much of a free hand we have been given in the making of this movie. I know how easy it is to see every decision to cut a scene as 'studio' pressure but it was always much more to do with pacing and rhythm in the film itself." "The script we shot was very much based on the last draft that Douglas wrote... All the substantive new ideas in the movie... are brand new Douglas ideas written especially for the movie by him... Douglas was always up for reinventing HHGG in each of its different incarnations and he knew that working harder on some character development and some of the key relationships was an integral part of turning HHGG into a movie."

Filming Shooting was completed in August 2004, and the film was released on 28 April 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United States. The pre-title sequence was shot in Loro Parque, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife.

Reception

Pre-release reception After the movie was announced, many of the book's fans worried that it would not be as high of quality as the book. This was due in part to the death of the author a few years prior to the movie's release.

Critical reaction Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 61% of 195 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.09/10. The site's consensus reads: "A frantic and occasional funny adaptation of Douglas Adams' novel. However, it may have those unfamiliar with the source material scratching their heads." Metacritic gives it 63/100, indicating "generally favourable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "B−" on an A+ to F scale. Empire rated the film four stars out of five and said it was a "very British, very funny sci-fi misadventure that's guaranteed to win converts".

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, remarking that viewers would either enjoy its "whimsical and quirky" sense of humor; or: