Sci-Fi Comedy Based On The Funniest Book Of All Time Is Being Lost To New Fans

For those who have never seen The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the film’s plot centers on a perpetually anxious British man named Arthur Dent, expertly portrayed by Fargo‘s Martin Freeman. One morning, Arthur is accosted by his eccentric friend, Ford Prefect, and taken to a local pub, where Ford explains with great urgency that the planet Earth is in the demolition path for an intergalactic highway. While Arthur and the other patrons of the bar alike laugh this off as the ramblings of a mad man, Ford proves his hypothesis by hitching a ride on a passing star ship as the planet crumbles to bits beneath their feet.

Needless to say, Arthur is shocked to see that aliens are real, intergalactic travel is commonplace outside the scope of human knowledge, and everyone he’s ever known or loved has been vaporized in favor of a convenient space HOV lane.

Still, the disintegration of Earth is just the beginning of Arthur’s problems, as he and Ford attempt to navigate the stars using a guide book handily titled The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As the film builds to its bizarre and introspective conclusion, the duo interact with plenty of wacky characters, including the president of the galaxy, who has kidnapped himself in a complex ransom plot, a severely depressed robot voiced by the inimitable Alan Rickman, and even a pair of mice who set out to architect a new Earth from scratch.

If that description sounds fascinating to you, there’s plenty more to look forward to in the film, as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy contains volumes of hilarious insanity from start to finish. I didn’t even mention the opening musical number which sees dolphins escaping into space, or the supercomputer that calculates the answer to life, the universe, and everything, which ultimately turns out to simply be “42.”

Unfortunately, the film received mixed reviews upon release, and some hardcore fans of the original book series feel that it fails to capture the essence of Adams’ writing. Today, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy touts a middling 60 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Still, I think that the 2005 movie is a masterpiece of filmmaking, especially for its time. In fact, I’ve been saying for years that I wish Hollywood would have committed to adapting the Hitchhiker’s Guide sequel books into films of their own, as the series spans half a dozen installations.

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Those interested in catching The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy today may be fully out of luck, unless you happen to have a DVD copy lying around somewhere. With any luck, the film will wind up back on streaming again soon, though in the meantime, you can always check out the original novel.