Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Everyone has bad mornings. You wake up late, you stub your toe, you burn the toast...but for a man named Arthur Dent, this goes far beyond a bad day. When he learns that a friend of his is actually an alien with advanced knowledge of Earth's impending destruction, he is transported off the Earth seconds before it is exploded to make way for a new hyperspace motorway. And as if that's not enough, throw in being wanted by the police, Earth II, an insane electronic encyclopedia, no tea whatsoever, a chronically depressed robot and the search for the meaning of life, and you've got the greatest adventure off Earth.Written by
radioactive
Jack Davenport was considered for the role of Arthur Dent, but in the end it was decided he was simply too good-looking for the role of the ultimate everyman Dent. Douglas Adams had originally wanted Hugh Grant to also play Arthur, but the idea was nixed. See more »
Goofs
When the mice say "To business!" (in the last scene at Arthur's house), the teacup is not in the saucer. Although Arthur drinks from it once more and puts it down, it never appears in the saucer again. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
The Book:
It's an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, Man had always assumed that he was the most intelligent species occupying the planet, instead of the *third* most intelligent. The second most intelligent creatures were of course dolphins who, curiously enough, had long known of the impending destruction of the planet earth. They had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger, but most of their communications ...
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Crazy Credits
"For Douglas" -- precedes the closing credits, after the final action sequence. See more »
Having never read, heard or seen anything to do with the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", I was prepared for this film to be anything. There has been a lot of talk about the movie resembling the Monty Python sense of humour and comedy. Whilst there were obvious similarities, I don't believe it was quite strong enough nor contain frequent enough laughs to totally warrant this comparison.
What I did like was the not too serious attempt to bring an almost impossible galaxy to the big screen. The lighthearted approach allowed the viewer to relax into the characters and imagine the possibilities of such a life and existence. The casting was pretty good, with Martin Freeman, Stephen Fry, John Malkovich and Alan Rickman spot on. Perhaps only Zooey Deschanel appeared to struggle a little with the role.
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Having never read, heard or seen anything to do with the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", I was prepared for this film to be anything. There has been a lot of talk about the movie resembling the Monty Python sense of humour and comedy. Whilst there were obvious similarities, I don't believe it was quite strong enough nor contain frequent enough laughs to totally warrant this comparison.
What I did like was the not too serious attempt to bring an almost impossible galaxy to the big screen. The lighthearted approach allowed the viewer to relax into the characters and imagine the possibilities of such a life and existence. The casting was pretty good, with Martin Freeman, Stephen Fry, John Malkovich and Alan Rickman spot on. Perhaps only Zooey Deschanel appeared to struggle a little with the role.