The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1980 film)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 1980 American made-for-television science fiction comedy film directed by and  with a screenplay by James Snider, and based on the  by.

Produced by Belisarius Productions and Glen Larson Productions for, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was broadcast in the United States on on April 15, 1980.

Plot
The film opens with an introduction describing the human race as a primitive and deeply unhappy species, while also introducing the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which provides information on every planet in the galaxy. Earthman and Englishman Arthur Dent awakes in his home in the West Country to discover that the local planning council is trying to demolish his house to build a bypass: he lies down in front of the bulldozer to stop it. His friend Ford Prefect convinces the lead bureaucrat Mr. Prosser to lie down in front of the bulldozer for Arthur so that he can take Arthur to the local pub. The construction crew begin demolishing the house anyway, but stop when a fleet of alien spaceships arrives on Earth undetected by human space agencies. The Vogons, a callous race of civil servants running the fleet, announce that they have come to demolish Earth to make way for a hyperspace expressway, and promptly destroy the planet. Ford and Arthur survive by hitching a ride on the spaceship, much to Arthur's amazement. Ford reveals to Arthur he is an alien researcher for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who has been posing as an out-of-work actor from Guildford for 15 years, and this was why they were able to hitch a ride on the alien ship. They are quickly discovered by the Vogons, who torture them by forcing them to listen to their poetry and then toss them out of an airlock.

Meanwhile Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's "semi-cousin" and the President of the Galaxy, steals the spaceship Heart of Gold at its unveiling with his human companion, Trillian. The Heart of Gold is enabled with an "Infinite Improbability Drive" that allows it to travel instantaneously to any point in space by simultaneously passing through every point in the universe at once. However, the Infinite Improbability Drive has a side effect of causing impossible coincidences to occur in the physical universe. One of these improbable events happens when Arthur and Ford are rescued by the Heart of Gold as it travels using the Infinite Improbability Drive. Zaphod takes his passengers — Arthur, Ford, a depressed robot named Marvin, and Trillian — to a legendary planet named Magrathea. Its inhabitants were said to have specialized in custom-building planets for others and to have vanished after becoming so rich that the rest of the galaxy became poor. Although Ford initially doubts that the planet is Magrathea, the planet's computers send them warning messages to leave before firing two nuclear missiles at the Heart of Gold. Arthur inadvertently saves them by activating the Infinite Improbability Drive improperly, causing the Heart of Gold to remain in Magrathea and for the missiles to transform into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias. The whale, which unsuccessfully tries to make sense of its existence as it falls to the surface, opens a passage underground on its impact. As the ship lands, Trillian's pet mice Frankie and Benjy escape.

On Magrathea, Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian venture down to the planet's interior while leaving Arthur and Marvin outside. Arthur is met by a resident of Magrathea, a man named Slartibartfast, who explains that the Magratheans have been in stasis to wait out an economic recession. The Magratheans temporarily reawakened to reconstruct a second version of Earth commissioned by mice, who were in fact the most intelligent species on Earth. Slartibartfast brings Arthur to Magrathea's planet construction facility, and shows Arthur that in the distant past, a race of "hyperintelligent, pan-dimensional beings" created a supercomputer named Deep Thought to determine the answer to the "Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything." Two philosophers representing a trade association, Majikthise and Vroomfondel, arrived and complained that the computer would remove uncertainty and end their jobs and demanded its deactivation. However, Deep Thought revealed that it would take 7.5 million years to complete its calculations and reasoned that during that time they could argue over what the computer's answer will be. 7.5 million years later the philosophers' descendants asked Deep Thought for the answer, which it announced was the number 42 -- an answer which made no sense. Deep Thought then explained to its creators that the answer made no sense to them because they didn't know what the "Ultimate Question" had been in the first place, so he suggested designing an even greater computer to determine what the Ultimate Question was. This computer was actually the planet Earth, which was constructed by the Magratheans, and it was five minutes away from finishing its task and figuring out the Ultimate Question when the Vogons destroyed it. The hyperintelligent superbeings participated in the program as mice, performing experiments on humans while pretending to be experimented on.

Slartibartfast takes Arthur to see his friends, who are at a feast hosted by Trillian's pet mice. They reject the idea of building a new Earth to start the process over, because they have decided Arthur's brain likely contains the Ultimate Question, and so a new Earth would not be needed. They offer to buy Arthur's brain, leading to a fight when he declines. Zaphod saves Arthur from having his brain removed as police from the planet Blagulon Kappa arrive to arrest Zaphod. The police corner Zaphod, Arthur, Ford and Trillian, and the situation seems desperate as they are trapped behind a computer bank that is about to explode from the officers' weapons firing. However, the police officers suddenly die when their life-support systems short-circuit. Suspicious, Ford discovers on the surface that Marvin became bored and explained his view of the universe to the police officers' spaceship, causing it to commit suicide. The five leave Magrathea and decide to go to.

Cast

 * as, the President of the Galaxy
 * as, the "semi-cousin" of Zaphod
 * Isla Wood as, an Earth woman
 * as, a man who gets roped into Zaphod's quest
 * as, a planet builder
 * as the voice of, an android who is clinically depressed
 * as Questular, the Vice-President of the Galaxy
 * as the voice of Deep Thought, a super-computer
 * as Humma Kavula, Zaphod's opponent from the planet Vildvodle VI
 * as the Narrator
 * Edward Wadsworth as the voice of the whale
 * as the voice of Eddie the Shipboard Computer
 * as the voice of Kwaltz
 * as the voice of Jeltz

, who portrayed Arthur Dent in the BBC radio adaptation of Hitchhiker's, makes a cameo appearance as the Ghostly Image.