The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)

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 Sam Rockwell, Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey), Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman, 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 but Adams died in 2001, before production began, therefore the film is dedicated to him. The film received mainly positive reviews and grossed over $100 million worldwide.
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 in orbit to destroy Earth, Ford rescues Arthur by stowing them aboard one of the Vogon ships. The pair are promptly discovered and tortured with Vogon poetry, before being ejected from the vessel and left for dead. However, the two 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 robot.
Zaphod seeks the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything to match the disappointing answer given by the supercomputer Deep Thought: "42". He believes that the answer lies on the planet Magrathea, which is only accessible using the Heart of Gold's improbability drives through trial and error.
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 gun created by Deep Thought that enables the target to temporarily empathize with the shooter. Trillian is captured by the Vogons as they depart, and the others mount a rescue effort on the Vogon homeworld of Vogsphere. Before her rescue, Trillian learns that Zaphod personally signed the order for the destruction of Earth, while assuming that the Vogon with the relevant permission form was a fan who wanted his autograph.
The group escapes Vogsphere with Galactic Vice-president Questular Rontok and the Vogons in pursuit. The Heart of Gold arrives at Magrathea, triggering its automated missile defense systems in the process; 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 on the planet. Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian enter a portal that leads 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", its creators had Deep Thought design another computer to come up with the Question, that being Earth. The group recovers the Point-of-View gun, though Trillian uses it on Zaphod to show him her resentment for his accidental destruction of the Earth. They are thereafter captured by unknown entities.
Meanwhile, on Magrathea, Arthur is met by Slartibartfast, one of the planet builders. 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 pan-dimensional beings who commissioned Arthur's original Earth, and who resemble a pair of mice. 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; they disappear without trace.
Questular and the Vogons arrive outside the home and open fire; during the barrage, a shot hits Marvin. 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, while 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.
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.
Bringing The Hitchhiker's Guide to a theatrical version started as early as the 1970s, as documented in The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes. 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 was eventually becoming Spyglass Entertainment, with Disney planning on to release under its Hollywood Pictures label, but it was soon transferred 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.
In an interview with Slashdot, Stamp stated the following about the cast:
Stamp also commented on how large a role the studio and screenwriters other than Adams played in making the film:
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.
The film trailer featured voice over work by Stephen Fry as the Guide, describing the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's entry on movie trailers.
An audio collection called "Additional Guide Entries", read by Fry, was released to iTunes to promote the film. The entries were set to music by Joby Talbot and written by Tim Browse and Sean Sollé (with the exception of the How to be Cool entry, which was also co-written by Yoz Grahame).
The "Hitchhiker's Guide to Technology" claims that if you make yourself a cup of tea and attempt to get an object working and the tea goes cold before you finish, you are dealing with technology. Other guides include the Hitchhiker's Guide to Blogging, the Hitchhiker's Guide to Deadlines, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to How to be Cool which discusses how an individual can truly be cool, instead of by following crowds, but concludes by suggesting the listener attend a showing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The Guide to Websites, which only appeared on the official UK movie website, described a website as "a wonderful new invention that allows people you neither know nor care about to inform you what they had for breakfast this morning, without all that tedious mucking about in the postal system". The Guide to Fanboys, written by Touchstone Pictures' copywriters as part of their promotion, only ever appeared as website text. Though released at the same time as the iTunes entries, it was never intended to be recorded and is otherwise unconnected with the Fry/Talbot/Browse works.
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:
Manohla Dargis called it "hugely likable" with a story arc structured "more or less" as "a long beginning and then an ending"; she calls Jim Henson's Creature Shop's Vogons "beautifully constructed" and noted that Sam Rockwell's performance is "sensational, ... riffing on Elvis and the current President George Bush". Peter Bradshaw gave the film three stars out of five, and said: "The film is no disgrace, and honours the Guide's gentle, low-tech BBC origins. But it doesn't do justice to the open-ended inventiveness of the original. The inevitable Anglo-American accommodations of casting have muddled its identity and the performances of the new American stars can be uneasy. It somehow seems heavier-footed and slower-moving than Adams's concept; the gravity is stronger... The savour and flavour of the Adams original, its playfully ruminative feel, has been downgraded in favour of a jolly but less interesting outerspace romp."
Philip French, after describing the Vogons as "a species resembling Laughton's version of Quasimodo" and writing it is "not, except in its financing, anything resembling a standard Hollywood production", and called the film "slightly old-fashioned (few things date as rapidly as science fiction and our view of the future) and somewhat commonplace through its embracing familiar special effects. The jokes have to compete with the hardware and the actors executing them often exude a feeling of desperation... It's funnier, and obviously cleverer, than Spaceballs, Mel Brooks's puerile spoof on Star Wars, but a good bit less engaging than Galaxy Quest."
The film was released on 28 April 2005 in the United Kingdom making £4,200,000 (equivalent to £7,921,068 in 2023) in its first week. It was released a day later in North America, making US$21,103,203 (equivalent to $33,975,833 in 2024) in its opening weekend, opening in first place. In the United States, the movie remained in the box office top ten for its first four weeks of release. The total box office gross was $104,478,416 worldwide. According to Freeman, Jennings told him the film did not perform well enough for a sequel to be made.
The film was nominated for seven different awards and won one. It won the Golden Trailer Award under the category Most Original. It was nominated for: the Artios award from Casting Society of America, United States under the category Best Featured Film Casting-Comedy in 2005; the Empire Awards from Empire Awards, UK under the categories Best British Film and Best Comedy in 2006; the Golden Trailer from Golden Trailer Awards under the category Best Voice Over; and Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Action and Choice Rap Artist in a Movie: Mos Def).
The complete motion picture soundtrack was released as an iTunes Music Store exclusive (in the United States and the United Kingdom) on 12 April 2005, two weeks before the scheduled CD release. The iTunes Music Store also has two further exclusive sets of tracks related to the movie:
The track "Humma's Hymn" on the soundtrack was sung in St Michael's Church in Highgate, London by members of local church choirs along with a congregation consisting of members of the public. The recording was open to anyone wishing to attend, and was publicised on the internet, including in a post to the Usenet group alt.fan.douglas-adams.
The first version of the song "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" is a Broadway-style, lively version sung by the dolphins before they leave Earth. The second plays over the end credits and is in the style of smooth jazz. The song was written by English composer Joby Talbot, conductor Christopher Austin, and director Garth Jennings and performed by the Tenebrae Choir. Neil Hannon, founder and frontman of the Irish pop group The Divine Comedy, of which Talbot is a former member, lent his vocals to the version of the song played during the ending credits. The song, in its "bouncy", opening version, was translated into and performed in Spanish for the Latin-American Region 4 DVD release.
A reworked version of the theme from the 1981 television adaptation was also included in the score, used to introduce the Guide itself just after Earth's destruction.
The movie was released on DVD (Region 2, PAL) in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2005. Both a standard double disc edition and a UK-exclusive "Gift Set" edition were released on this date. The standard double disc edition features:
The "Gift Set" edition includes a copy of the novel with a "movie tie-in" cover, and collectible prints from the film, packaged in a replica of the film's version of the Hitchhiker's Guide prop.
Single disc widescreen (2.35:1) and full-screen (1.33:1) editions (Region 1, NTSC) were released in the United States and Canada on 13 September 2005. They have a different cover, but contain the same special features (except the Don't Crash documentary) as the UK version.
Single disc releases in the UMD format for the PlayStation Portable were also released on the respective dates in these three countries.
The movie was made available as a paid download in the iTunes Store starting in September 2006, for the American market only. A region-free Blu-ray Disc version was released in January 2007.