50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Douglas Adams is to British science fiction what Moses is to the Bible, and while adapting his iconic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book for the big screen was never going to be an easy task, the key to getting it right was to keep it looking and feeling decidedly British. And this is precisely what Garth Jennings managed in 2005, leaning into his and the book’s origins and letting the manners, sarcasm, and irony speak for themselves.

With the Earth set for demolition to make way for a hyperspace bypass by the immeasurably dull administrative-class alien race, the Vogons, everyman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) is caught up in a whirlwind adventure that takes him, his dressing gown, and his insatiable thirst for a good cup of tea, into outer space. Hitchhiking across the galaxy, Arthur encounters a squad of misfits that includes in their number Marvin the depressed android (Alan Rickman/Warwick Davis), planet builder Slartibartfast (Bill Nighy), and the two-headed, two-faced President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell).

The casting is immaculate, Jennings and his editor Niven Howie know precisely how to time a gag, and the extensive use of practical effects is admirable, especially at a time when CGI smash-fests were all the rage (released the same year as Revenge of the Sith). All in all, Hitchhiker’s Guide is a truly essential British sci-fi, in which the delightfully absurdist tone of the book seeps through every scene.