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... Read allMere 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."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."
- Awards
- 1 win & 10 nominations
Yasiin Bey
- Ford Prefect
- (as Mos Def)
Bill Bailey
- The Whale
- (voice)
Su Elliot
- Pub Customer
- (as Su Eliott)
Stephen Fry
- Narrator
- (voice)
- …
Richard Griffiths
- Jeltz
- (voice)
Ian McNeice
- Kwaltz
- (voice)
Helen Mirren
- Deep Thought
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe producers have stated that this movie was not a literal translation of the books (just as the books were not a literal translation of the original radio show), but all of the new ideas and characters came from Douglas Adams. The hired writer simply came aboard to improve structure and make the screenplay more coherent.
- GoofsWhen Arthur is speaking to Trillian (Zooey Deschanel) as she takes a shower, he briefly begins to address her by her real name (Zooey) then corrects himself.
- Crazy creditsAfter a couple of minutes of typical movie credits, there is a final, classic Guide entry. It refers to Arthur Dent carelessly speaking words about a towel, which ends up being interpreted by a pair of warring factions as a devastating insult. They then spend thousands of years coming to Earth bent on revenge, however "due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog". The Guide concludes with the reassuring nugget of wisdom, "this sort of thing is going on all the time".
- Alternate versionsCast as Satellite Technician - scène deleted (Did appear in a trailer)
- SoundtracksSo Long & Thanks for All the Fish
Written by Joby Talbot, Garth Jennings and Christopher Austin
Produced by Joby Talbot
Vocals Performed by Hilary Summers, Kemi Ominiyi & The R'SVP Voices
Featured review
This is a good and faithful recreation of Adams' brilliantly sketchy radio series. Not surprising as Adams wrote the screenplay and was on the verge of having his dream realised when he suffered a fatal heart attack. A fitting credit at the end of the film "For Douglas" serves as a gentle reminder of the genius we have all lost. As for the film, many of the original and wonderful lines thankfully remain and the plot is largely unchanged. There's a new character or two written in for the film by Adams himself and they add to the overall story. John Malkovich is great albeit very briefly as religious leader Humma Kavula. Sam Rockwell, Mos Def and Martin Freeman all carry off their characters with wit and style whilst I felt Zooey Deschanel looked a little out of her depth. At times her dialogue seemed to get lost and her character seemed weaker than Sandra Dickinson's interpretation in the radio and TV series. Bill Nighy marries his own idiosyncrasies into the character of Slartibartfast seamlessly. Simon Jones makes a welcome cameo appearance as a holographic warning system. Stephen Fry steps well into the shoes vacated by Peter Jones as the "Guides" voice and you feel as if you are in safe hands. The "Guides" animated sequences are wonderfully reminiscent of Saul Bellow and though simple they are hilarious. For a feature directorial debut Garth Jennings does a grand job. I was half expecting the pop video influence to be apparent, but thankfully it wasn't. Lastly but not leastly a special mention has to go out to Jim Henson's creature workshop, this is probably the best work they have ever done in a feature, and that's saying a lot, given their success.
- amachalepis
- Apr 21, 2005
- Permalink
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $50,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $51,085,416
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $21,103,203
- May 1, 2005
- Gross worldwide
- $104,478,416
- Runtime1 hour 49 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
- 2.35 : 1
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What is the streaming release date of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) in India?
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