Jen 0:00

The 2005 adaptation takes a book famously built on passive nihilism and frantic deadlines and attempts to give it a heart, a hero, and a romance, proving that even at the end of the universe, Hollywood still thinks we need a meet cute to care about planetary demolition. It's a visually stunning tribute that somehow managed to replace dry British wit with a Sam Rockwell dance number.

Tom 0:46

Yeah.

Joe 0:47

Yeah. I don't know what was going on there, but I was saying I listened to this book, the audiobook, very quickly. It's just very sh it's a short book. I forgot how short it was. So I was like, oh, I can knock this out really quick. Um and get a jump start on reading The Lord of the Rings for the next three weeks. Uh, because those are not quick books.

Tom 1:05

No.

Joe 1:06

Um, and I want to reread them, but I'm doing audiobook again. I'm doing audiobooks since I've read them multiple times before, and it I've never done the audiobook for them. So and it's an old school audiobook, it's like 1990 version.

unknown 1:19

Oh.

Joe 1:20

Um, yeah.

Jen 1:21

Read by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Joe 1:23

That's very old.

Jen 1:24

Incredibly old recording device.

Joe 1:27

I'm pretty sure. Yes, it's from like the 1970s, 60s.

Tom 1:30

He was alive in the 50s. In the 60s.

Joe 1:32

No, I'm trying to remember he died in what, the seven sixties or seventies? No, when did he die? I feel like he lived like through the 70s.

Tom 1:41

I'm not sure, but he was he was around for relatively modern years.

Joe 1:46

73, he died.

Tom 1:47

Okay, so yeah.

Joe 1:48

He was born in 1892. So he was alive when War of the Worlds was published. He was a he was a wee boy. Um, but he did not write this book. Douglas Adams wrote this book.

Tom 2:01

That's correct. So very different sensibility. Yes.

Joe 2:04

Ah, I wonder if the two of them uh if they would have gotten along.

Tom 2:07

Uh I will tell you the answer is no. I don't think J.R. O'Toke would have gotten along with many people.

Joe 2:13

No, probably not. I believe he was, he did know H. G. Wells, though, I think, when they were older.

Tom 2:19

Yeah, and he did have other friends in the writing community. But I think uh he wasn't one for irreverence.

Joe 2:27

No. You know? And this book is full of irreverence and uh exposition.

Tom 2:34

Gerardok is one for reverence, just regular reverence.

Joe 2:38

Yes. Without the IR in front of it.

Tom 2:42

I was like, like um, every once in a while you you you you rank things, or at least if you're like me, you do. And I would always um say this is this is probably one of my top five books of all time. Uh and I haven't read it in a really long time. Um really yeah, like probably like ten years, maybe more. And I was so I was rereading it again for this and just like re-remembering why it's one of my favorite books. Like literally just like pretty much on every page loving at least one line.

Joe 3:12

Yeah. When when I was listening to this book, it reminded me of um the show 30 Rock, where it's just joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. Like it's like a there's probably like five jokes every page of this book.

Tom 3:28

Yeah.

Joe 3:28

Just like there's about five jokes every minute in the show 30 Rock.

Tom 3:32

30 Rock is like nonstop, yes. Yes. I I I like that, I like that comparison.

Joe 3:37

And um I and I could because I felt the same way as I did listening to this book as I did watching 30 Rock, which I enjoy, I just don't have time to enjoy the joke. I don't like I like to like settle into the joke and really like explore it and let it roll over me and get that wave of emotions and feelings with it, but there's no time in 30 Rock or this book to do that because there's another joke, right? It's another joke.

Jen 4:04

You could stop reading behind it and let the joke wash over you and then move on to the next line.

Joe 4:09

That's true. I could do that with a book, but I was doing audiobooks, so I didn't want to keep pausing it because I believe I was mowing the lawn for at least half of this book.

Jen 4:18

Okay.

Joe 4:19

Um, so I wasn't gonna stop and pause it. This is Jump to Screen, the podcast where we discussed sci-fi fantasy literary adaptations to the big andor small screen. I'm Joe Beeblebrox.

Tom 4:29

I'm Jen Prefect, and I'm Dent Arthur Dent.

Joe 4:34

Uh, today we're talking about the uh novel radio, radio play novel, slash movie, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, written by the late Douglas Adams. We are going to discuss all of the absurdly whimsical points uh in this book and somewhat in the movie. And I know I was talking about like listening to this book making me think of other things like 30 rock. And I was also thinking of this book is very like Python-esque. Um very much so. Like I could I could see Douglas Adams being in Monty Python or hanging out with those guys and coming up with absurd sketches.

Tom 5:14

He was friends with a lot of the Monty Python crew, went to school with them. Was was I was some of their earlier writing groups before they became Python. Um, but yeah, I that's that's a hundred percent sp spot on. Like, was definitely of that generation of that of that social circle. Uh, and the version that I was rereading this time is my uh 25th anniversary edition here with where uh Michael Palin writes the foreword.

Joe 5:43

Well, there you go. Look at that. See, I didn't even know that, and I could just sense it, I could tell it. I I I was able to uh decipher that just from the tone. And and the version I was listening to, Douglas Adams himself read. So I was like, oh, this is great, because then I know all these pronunciations are correct because they're his characters. Um and he did voices too, he did voices for them, so he all I was like, okay, so this is how he pictured this character sounded. And it wasn't like he wasn't, you know, uh Nick Kroll or anything like that, with his you know awesome range of voices. Sorry. Um, but he did do voices for the different characters, which was fun as well. I like when uh the book, the audiobook uh readers do different voices and good voices for the characters, it it's much more enjoyable. Um so, Tom, since this is like your top five favorite book, give us give us the story of your introduction to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Tom 6:41

Um, I I I've gotta say it's gotta be like mid to late 80s. We had a copy of the original book in paper back in the house. And I remember my older brother was reading it. It's kind of and I'm thinking it's probably 88, 89, somewhere in there. Um my older brother was reading it. He was talking to my dad about it, about how funny it was. Um, so I said, let me give it a try. And I read it. So the first time I read it was probably around nine years old, and there's a lot of it I didn't get, but I did find it very funny. And then maybe like a few years later, I reread it, and like that's when I I really I would say it became like it became like a formative book for me.

Joe 7:22

I'm sorry, I missed all that, Tom. I was off I was off the uh camera. Can you say that all again? It was the best thing he ever said. Thank you. Okay. I'll just go back when I'll listen to it when I edit the podcast.

Tom 7:32

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for two nations. No, um, so yeah, I I I I would say, you know, I grew up with the book. We had uh very soon after that. I think we had all the we bought the new ones when they came out, etc. We had the text game that that's that was available. Oh, so you know, we you talked about the book, right? And you talked about the uh the radio show where it originated. Uh-huh. So there was a radio, it was it was it was originally a radio series, right? Then it became an album where they re-edited the the radio series and the episodes were not in exactly the same order, things were changed. Uh they did the book, changed the storylines around again for that. Then the TV show, uh again, completely rearranging what happens in what order. They did a text adventure video game, no graphics, just text. So there's a line, you have to type in what to do next. And it was absolutely impossible.

Joe 8:29

Um what was the what was the goal of the goal?

Tom 8:32

It's the plot, it's it's generally the plot of the book, generally, but again, in every instance of this, Adams changed things around, move things around, whatever. So, like I remember you have to get like it's a little but I think you have to get the you had to get down to the basement to see the plans before you can even get so it's like you have to like go down the basement stairs. Right, in a in an unused lavatory with a sign saying beware the tiger on it. Yeah, you had to like and you had to like find yeah, yeah. So um yes, but we had we had all that stuff. So uh yeah, just uh an ever-present part of my life. In rereading it again, I remember how many uh lines I just completely stole from this book and just say without realizing that they're not mine.

Joe 9:18

Yes. Well, they're yours now. That's how it works. Uh Tom, would for those people who are not watching, can you please tell us what you're wearing today?

Tom 9:28

Sure. So um I'm wearing my uh I got this when I turned 42 a number of years ago. My Life, the Universe, and Everything t-shirt that has uh the number 42, it's got a dolphin, some mice on it, a whale, a bowl of petunias. Uh over that I'm wearing, of course, my uh bathrobe, and I have my nice striped towel given to me as a gift by a friend of the show and occasional co-host Brent T. Johnston, specifically so I would always know where my towel was. This was a a hit uh hitchhiker's themed gift. He just bought me a g uh towel for Christmas one year.

Joe 10:06

So didn't you and him go as Ford and Arthur for Halloween one year?

Tom 10:10

Yes, he was Arthur, I was poor, yeah.

Joe 10:12

Yeah. Jen, tell us your story.

Jen 10:17

Is it as my story begins long ago? Now, um I read this probably in college at some point when Tom and Brendan suggested it to me. Or maybe I saw what they were wearing at Halloween and was like, what is this? Can't exactly remember the order of events, but I read it and I really like I gotta get in on this. I really liked it.

Joe 10:37

It must have been the costumes.

Jen 10:39

Um, I really enjoyed it. I think I read the second one because I remember reading about them talking to the cow before they order the cow at the restaurant. But I don't remember much more about it, but I remember that part. So I definitely read at least the second one too. And um yeah, I really I remember really liking it. And then I saw the movie. I'm not sure if I saw it in the theater or not, but I've definitely seen it before. Um and I was gonna reread it, but didn't get a chance this time, so I read a I read a summary since I already had read it. I can't share it? Why? I've read it before. I just had to refresh myself before I watch the movie again. So yeah, um I like it a lot. It's good. I like uh this kind of humor with the tangents and all that.

Joe 11:23

Yes. I enjoy that. In the movie or the book?

Jen 11:27

The book. Well, I like it in the movie. I I we'll get to it later. I like it in the movie too, but I I'm talking about the book and other books like that.

Joe 11:36

Yeah. I um I'd heard of this book. Uh and you know, I think I read it probably after you, Jen. I don't remember exactly when I read this book, but it was definitely either it was probably after college. Um and I'd heard about the book beforehand, and Tom, obviously it's one of your favorite books, and you and Brendan would talk about it often. Oh, this movie, but after watching it again today, I'm not sure I did. Um I might have seen I think I might have seen parts of the movie, like when it was on regular TV or something, like flipping through the channels and just turning it on for a bit. And yeah, as I was re-listening to this book, I was trying to remember who's in the movie. And I I knew Martin Freeman played Arthur, and I remember Zoe De Chanel being in it, and I was like, Well, this is not how Trillion's described at all in the book. There he says she's like Arabic looking. Um, and I'm like, Zoe De Chanel definitely does not fit that.

Tom 12:26

Tall, thin, willowy, yeah.

Joe 12:28

I think is not um any other and then I just kind of vaguely I remember Mo's Def being somebody I couldn't remember who he was. Um, and I vaguely remember Sam Rockwell being, but again, I couldn't remember who anybody was, and then like as I'm watching this movie, the the credits are streaming, and I'm like, holy shit, there's like a lot of people in this movie.

Tom 12:47

Yeah, yeah.

Joe 12:48

And then, you know, I enjoyed those those parts. Um and then it was over.

Jen 12:54

There you go.

Joe 12:55

All the parts came together, all the parts came together and into a nice uh Hollywood narrative three-arc story, unlike the book.

Tom 13:04

Yes. Yes.

Joe 13:06

Um, which I remember when I listened to this book again that this book just kind of abruptly ends.

Tom 13:12

Just over.

Joe 13:13

And I was I was waiting for it this time. I was like, I think we're getting to the end. I think this is the end because it just ends. Like it just stops.

Tom 13:20

It has, I mean, there's there's a there's a narrative climax, I guess. Like you find out I guess enough information to have an ending. Um, but yes, they just it it it literally is just like, hey, we're gonna just keep doing stuff, but we'll stop the book here.

Joe 13:36

Yeah, it was just like you were waiting for the next chapter, which I guess is kind of how like you mentioned, I don't know if you want to tell us a little bit more about it, but how it was like a radio uh series before it was even a novel. Um Yeah.

Tom 13:49

And um yeah, so it was a radio show, and I think a lot I if memory serves, a lot of the people who ended up on like the 1980, 80 w 82-ish uh BBC television adaptation were were also in the radio um in the radio play. But like uh Douglas Adams was very famous for uh missing every deadline given to him. So a lot of the radio play was kind of written as they were doing it. It was written in basically three chunks. I think there were six episodes to start. Uh-huh. Then they had the Christmas episode, which was not about Christmas, nor did it air on Christmas, but it was called the Christmas episode anyway. And then five more episodes aired uh the next year that kind of wrapped it up. And the story in those twelve episodes are basically the story in the first two books, again, kind of rewritten in in and and moved around in different orders. But the general concepts that are in the first book and in the first movie of Earth, uh you know, Arthur's house is getting knocked down to make a bypass, and the earth gets destroyed for the same reason. Heart of gold, uh Magrathea, mice, deep thought, all that. Um we never, you know. This uh we'll get into it more detail. This movie made a profit, but I guess not enough of a profit for them to want to do the restaurant at the end of the universe.

Joe 15:06

But I think what happened was it started strong and then just kind of fell off the earth. Um there was no like longevity for it, and I guess people I guess that's that's kind of like a sign of like people saw it and were like, meh.

Tom 15:17

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Joe 15:19

So from the research that I have, uh the conceptual spark for this book or story, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, occurred in 71. That's 1971, uh, when a 19-year-old Douglas Adams was backpacking across Europe uh while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, staring at the night sky and clutching a copy of Ken Welsh's Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe. Adams was struck by the whimsical idea uh that someone should write a similar guide for the entire galaxy. He actually wound up in 1981 sending a letter to Ken Welsh telling him about this and noting that stars simply look more inviting than his immediate surroundings in that field in Austria.

Tom 16:06

Yeah, I I love that he had the idea for it as just a general concept that I think again, uh as in much of his creative process, it took years and years for him to actually turn that into something that was concrete.

Joe 16:21

I mean, the the the the radio broadcast wasn't until 1978, so that's seven years later before that that actually came out. And then it was the year after that in 79 that the novelization, because of the success of the the the broadcast, the novelization came out, uh, which was a condensed modified transcript of the first four radio episodes, according to this.

Tom 16:43

Some other stuff too. But yeah, yeah.

Joe 16:45

Adams initially struggled with the transition of the uh audio into the page, like trying to guess get the same, I guess, tone out of it since it can't make funny voices and stuff. Um now that but there's audiobooks now you can. Uh became a bestseller and it sparked a big franchise that was translated into over 30 languages and you know, became a big hit.

Tom 17:08

Yeah. I I so it was the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, and then there were five of them, and then like a sixth one came out after he died, like kind of collecting like unwritten bits and putting it together and trying to figure out what the plot of the of the of the last book would be. Um the first four of the five are really, really they're good books. Fifth one's a little uh a little a little weak, but that's all right.

Joe 17:30

Yeah, I mean, with a little bit of uh uh irony in that the actual field that he conceived the story in, right? The field in Innsbruck, Austria, uh was eventually paved over to make way for a stretch of the Audubon.

Tom 17:45

Awesome.

Joe 17:45

Yes, unbelievable, yeah, galactic irony. I don't know. Um, but yes, you couldn't have written that. Um, so the the adaptation of the movie, right? That that was a long and arduous process. Um in '82, uh Ivan Reitman and a bunch of other people optioned the rights, uh, but development stalled when Dan Aykroyd pitched an original idea to Reitman that took priority. Uh it was a little movie I like to call Ghostbusters.

Tom 18:16

It's a good change, good pivot, good pivot by Reitman.

Joe 18:19

Uh then the project went over to Disney Touchstone Pictures in the late 1990s. Jay Roach was attached to direct it, but then stepped down after Douglas Adams' sudden death from a heart attack in 2001. And then it was on the recommendation of Spike Jones that the studio eventually hired Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith to make this. Uh I I I knew I knew that name, Garth Jennings, when doing the research, and I was like, oh, he's the guy who did sing.

Jen 18:46

Oh, okay.

Joe 18:47

Yeah. And he's he's a character in it.

Tom 18:51

Yeah, he's the the direct like the stage manager with the the the lady, yeah, yeah.

Joe 18:57

The lady. Yeah, the iguana. What's his name? Matthew McConaughey's like assistant or whatever. Oh, okay. She plays the piano and everything. Yeah, that's him. He plays that character. Yeah, so he also did that. Otherwise, he did a lot of music videos. A lot of music videos, right? Yeah, yeah. I think like um Radio Head, Vampire Weekend, uh some REM in there, Fat Boy Slim. Um, so a lot of yeah, a lot of uh music videos, really. Um, I don't think he had done an actual movie at this point. Interesting. Yeah. Uh casting was was a bit of a significant debate there. Douglas Adams had long maintained that Arthur Dent was the only one that had to be English. That was all the that was the only person, right? And that's obviously a lot of reference to him being English, and he brings it up many times, and it's a big part of the book.

Tom 19:49

I mean, I guess the British humor and the British culture is is really a huge part of this book, and I guess that kind of oh, I don't know, what would you call it, like self-deprecating, dry Yes, the the dryness, the the like uh the rhiness, the the polite when polite is inappropriate, kind of that whole vibe. Yeah. Um yeah, I don't think and it's funny, I never as a I never pictured Zafon as as British when I was reading the books.

Joe 20:22

Well, he's an alien with two heads, he's an alien, right?

Tom 20:25

But um I also didn't picture him as like a country hillbilly-esque character, which is how country hillbilly, uh Elvisy uh Elvisy. But I always pictured him very like like a 1980s rocker kind of a vibe.

Joe 20:43

Like was what like I I always just pictured him as very alien looking, like really weird.

Tom 20:48

He has two heads and three arms.

Joe 20:49

He's not like a human type face. I don't know why. Oh, because he does go to Earth, right?

Tom 20:56

In the book, he does he goes on to Earth, yeah, and he's and he's cousins or semi-cousins with Ford, who get passed for human. So I pictured him humanoid, but um, yeah, I always pictured him looking like like he might be the guitarist in Led Zeppelin or something. Jimmy Jimmy Page. Um no, not Led Zeppelin, uh Def Leopard, rather. Um Steve Clark. I do not you could say any name, I have no idea.

Joe 21:20

Um I'm pretty sure that's one of the guitarists in Def Leopard, Steve Clark.

Tom 21:23

Yeah, but just like that kind of but um yeah, I I I remember thinking that Martin Freeman was like perfect casting, and I didn't really know who he was, but just like from the trailers and and and watching the movie, I thought this guy is like terrific. And um the other three leads are just I did not think were particularly well cast. It was very much cat like let's try and get Americans to let's actually trick Americans to watch this movie.

Joe 21:55

Yes. Let's let's make a movie that's clearly targeted for the British people. People just I mean the book at least. I mean obviously you don't need to be British to enjoy it, but um, but it's very of like their that culture, yeah. Yeah, but but they that type of comedy obviously had success in America anyway.

Tom 22:15

So yeah, that's my point. Like, yeah, it's not like British comedy is unsuccessful in America. I don't know.

Joe 22:21

Um and Mart Martin Freeman wasn't like a nobody at that time. I mean, he had done a bunch of movies, right? He was in Love Actually, he was in the office, the British office, Shauna the Dead. Oh, Shauna the Dead, it was a small part. This was probably maybe one of his first his probably his biggest starring role, I guess, right? At the until this point, up until that point, yeah. Um, but I agree, he was definitely he fits the character. Like if you could just look at him and be like, yeah, that's that's pretty much how I pictured Ford. I mean, uh, Arthur, sorry, right. Arthur Dent. He plays that kind of like Joe Schmoe type character pretty well.

Tom 22:58

Yes, just your ordinary average British guy. Yeah. Um yeah, I I was very surprised by uh like with most deaf. I think he's I I actually really like him in the movie. Like I think he's good. I just think that he's not he is, he's fine, and he has a lot of fun with it. And I think the vibe of the movie's different than the book, clearly, but like he's got the vibe, you know, and like I just think what was off for me so much about him was like there's times in the book where like Ford is very much clearly an alien, just he's so like he's so weird, yes, and like most deaf is never weird, yeah.

Joe 23:38

He's a little weird sometimes, like it's not he's not he's a little weird, but he does and says weird things very like matter-of-factly, which is which is you know, that's the part I think he gets of Ford.

Tom 23:52

Um I I again I think he he does a good job with it. It's just uh not um yeah, I don't know. It's just I I it's it doesn't match my head canon, is is is what I I would say.

Joe 24:04

Yeah. So Adams' personal choice, Douglas Adams' personal choice for Arthur Dent was Hugh Laurie. But at that point, I think the producers were like, Hugh Laurie's a little too old to be this guy, this character, so they got that's when they got Martin Freeman. Um back when Ivan Reitman was attached to this. Uh he uh he wanted Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd to be Ford, which that would have been two very different portrayals.

Tom 24:31

Either one very different energies.

Joe 24:33

Yes. I don't know which one I would have liked more.

Tom 24:36

See, and here's the interesting thing. Bill Murray, maybe just I would have Harold Ramus is as Ford. Like I think that's the guy. Oh I think he has like the he's got the weird energy, you know?

Joe 24:50

Yeah, yes.

Jen 24:51

What about Bill Murray as Zephod in the 80s?

Joe 24:55

Yes, yes, just put all three of them in it. Uh uh Dan Acker.

Jen 24:58

Speaking of Ghostbusters, yeah. Yeah, just gets to Gordy Weaver and we're done.

Joe 25:02

Yeah. There we go. That's it. Just move those in move those over there. Rick Morales is Marvin. Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say Ernie Ernie Hudson is Marvin, but I like Rick Moratus as Marvin as well. Um yeah, we could fit him in there for sure. And then uh Zayfod Beetlerocks, we mentioned Sam Rockwell, beat out other he beat out other potential candidates like Jim Carrey and Bruce Willis.

Jen 25:30

No, Bruce Willis What? I don't know.

Tom 25:34

I mean First of all, the amount of money that they that this movie cost, which is not a lot, they couldn't afford Jim Carrey. He's like a third of their budget.

Jen 25:43

What year did this come out?

Joe 25:44

2005. So I guess it was quiet for um it was probably a quiet time for uh Bruce Willis at this point. But I think Jim Carrey was still you think was still pretty hot at this point, right?

Jen 25:57

Let let's see what 94 is when he first heard when did uh Eternal Sunshine come out?

Joe 26:03

Oh, probably so Sin City came out in 2005. That's what Bruce Willis was doing.

Tom 26:09

All right, well, he was still pretty big then.

Joe 26:11

After that, he did a slew of like these like lucky number 7, Alpha Dog, 16 Blocks.

Tom 26:17

16 Blocks with most F. That's a good movie.

Joe 26:20

Yeah, I've seen that movie. Uh The Grindhouse a couple years later. So he was still pretty, he was still pretty big, you know. He's drawing. Yeah. Uh Jim Carrey at that time. I don't know. Does anyone have Jim Carrey's uh page up?

Tom 26:36

Yeah, it's I think that's around Eternal Sunshine post number 23.

Jen 26:40

Eternal Sunshine was 04, Bruce Almighty was 03, you're right.

Joe 26:43

So he was still uh this is right after yeah, he was still big then. But I guess he was moving into his more of like serious type uh stuff, so maybe he would he wouldn't do something like this. Or or Tom, like you said, it would have cost too much. He just would have cost too damn much.

Jen 26:55

Well, he did Lemony Snicket in 2004, also, so yeah.

Joe 27:02

I don't know who I like Dan Ackroyd, Zephod Bebabs.

Tom 27:06

I don't know who I would cast as Zafod, like in that era, but someone from Monty Python, Michael Palin or Eric Idol.

Joe 27:13

Eric Idol.

Tom 27:14

Yeah, I guess he doesn't again, he doesn't have to be British, but like I feel like No no, I just think he has that kind of energy. Yeah. Like I would want somebody who's like there's a part in the book where they describe him, uh Trillion's thinking of like how she has a hard time telling whether he's acting stupid because he hasn't bothered to pay attention to what people are talking about, or he's acting stupid because he doesn't know what's going on, but he doesn't want people to know that, or he's acting stupid because he actually doesn't understand what's happening, or because he's not paying attention, or because he's just being stupid. And like the fact that this is a person who has that many levels of pretending not to know what's happening. That's a very particular vibe. I don't know.

Joe 27:57

Yeah, and I mean he's got that whole part where he talks about how he tries not to think about something too much. There's a whole part about that where he he goes, he kind of tells you how his brain works and how it's basically like trying not to do all these things and they just work out for him.

Tom 28:14

Like he's like, I just you know, things usually happen and it works, yeah. Right.

Joe 28:20

But he's gotta have like and he says, like if he tries to focus on something, then things don't work well, so he just doesn't do it because when he doesn't, things work out. Thinking just makes things worse, I guess.

Tom 28:30

It's like a it's a there there needs to be a level of chaotic energy to him, I guess.

Joe 28:35

Yeah, okay, and I mean Sam Rockwell brings that, it's a little different type of chaotic energy, though, because like the whole second half of the movie, Sam Rockwell. I I feel like he got like brain damaged at some in in the movie. Yeah, I don't remember that.

Jen 28:48

He literally did get brain. He they take his head over his head.

Joe 28:51

Oh, when they take oh, is that I didn't make the correlation that that's when he starts acting even stranger.

Tom 28:56

Yeah, and like they don't so they don't address exactly what happens to him, right? Right. The the book talks about how like he starts to realize like something is actually wrong with him because he also didn't even remember like why he wanted to be president or anything like that, and then he realizes like he did brain surgery on himself to f to block out the reasons what like whatever he's trying to do, he doesn't know. And like the movie implies that, but doesn't go down that path. But yeah, he just loses half his brains. Also, I don't understand why, like, why his second head was under his first head.

Jen 29:31

So they don't have to make him have two heads for the whole movie. Yes, that's just don't make him have two heads. Well, I guess they wouldn't.

Joe 29:43

Yeah, I was surprised when the second head popped up because I thought they just weren't doing the two heads. Um it's weird.

Jen 29:48

It doesn't really make sense. Yeah, it doesn't look like they go underneath his first head, cut the little head off, take it out, and then like Yeah, that's why he's wearing like a scarf around the screen. Yeah, he's like, yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Joe 29:58

Yeah, uh, but that's exactly the reason, Jen. It's just because, like you said, it's we can we don't want to pay for all that CGI and it's a pain in the ass to have uh much easier to do it this way. Um finally the voice of the guy, Douglas Adams, had long wish Stephen Fry to be that voice, and he got his wish. And uh Stephen Fry also did the audiobooks, too, as well.

Tom 30:20

Stephen Fry is terrific. Marvin is uh Alan Rickman.

Joe 30:23

Alan Rickman, that's right.

Tom 30:24

We got a huge unbelievable. He's perfect.

Joe 30:28

We've got Alan Rickman as the voice of the robot and Warwick Davis as the Marvin the robot. Now Marvin is not at all how I pictured in the in the book. He was way too cute. Um there's mention in the movie.

Tom 30:42

There's a brief scene. Sorry, I told you I just I won't stop. Okay. Um in the movie, there's a brief scene where they're where he's like, Arthur goes, I'm British, I know how to cue. And they're like going through the line. Oh, right? Yeah. And one of the like they're going through the line, and they briefly pass a robot in the line. That's Marvin from the TV show. Okay. Oh. And if you look, that's much more what I think Marvin looks like.

Joe 31:06

Like as he says, I know the robot you're talking about, and yeah, I agree with you. Yeah.

Jen 31:11

Can you explain why they would bother getting Warwick Davis to be inside that suit?

Joe 31:17

I have no idea.

Jen 31:17

I think he did the part and they didn't like it, so they oh no.

Tom 31:22

He he's he's I think he often does performances like that.

Joe 31:27

Well, he does a lot of stuff in the Star Wars movies where, right? He's a lot of those characters, but he'll be like three characters in the m in like one of those movies, and two of them won't say anything, and one of them will have like one line.

Tom 31:37

Yeah, I think he I think he's done that before where it's it's basically it's you know, it's like a mind performance. I don't know why I don't know why Marvin had to be small that Warwick Davis would play him.

Joe 31:48

Yeah, I I don't know. But maybe Warwick Davis really wanted to be in this movie.

Tom 31:53

I actually think it might just be that. It was literally like it's such a British institution that he's like, I'll be in it. And like, uh you can be the robot. Yeah, can you fit me in?

Jen 32:03

You're not doing the voice. Okay.

Joe 32:06

I don't know. Yeah, we've got we've got a bunch of right Helen Miren does the voice of Deep Thought.

Tom 32:13

Yeah.

Joe 32:14

And then we've got John Malkovich showing up as a character I don't think was in the book.

Tom 32:18

No.

Joe 32:19

Okay. I was like, I don't remember this part or this character.

Tom 32:23

And I at this point, I just want to like, for those of people who are fans of the book and don't like all the changes from the movie, like Douglas Adams wrote most of this. Yeah, this is his screenplay. He didn't finish it, and there were tweaks to it done after his his passing. But all of these plot changes that we're talking about, that the three-act structure, the changing of the characters, adding these characters, that's all him. He's the one who said, Let's give it a traditional Hollywood three-act structure, let's add a romance subplot, let's make the emotion gun, which I whatever.

Joe 32:55

Yeah, that was his concept. 100%. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I mean, obviously, he's he did did that already, right? Every time he redid this book, he he changed it. Like when it was a when it was a TV show, when it was a novel, when it was the radio show, it was he changed it around. So he was constantly doing that. And I'm sure he was just like, okay, I'm gonna change this too, since I've done it so much and uh I want to. It's mine.

Tom 33:20

That's it. And and and he said it, it's like uh it's um very akin to a story that we're you know that we're familiar with. Like it's a wheel, right? And every iteration's a different iteration of the same story, right? So like he was comfortable with that, and he would ask you as fans to be comfortable with that as well.

Joe 33:41

Yeah. So it was uh, you know, I think the biggest challenge was losing Douglas Adams during the development of this. Um, they had to bring in screenwriter Carrie Kirkpatrick to finish up the script that as uh that Adams had started and using his notes. Um there was a shift in the budget in the budgeting for this movie, uh, eventually settled on a 45 to 50 million dollar budget, and then of course, just reconciling the nature of this story, how um non-linear formatted kind of it's just kind of it doesn't have a lot of structure to it, and we all know that that's not gonna fly in a movie um where they're trying to make a lot of money.

Tom 34:26

Yeah, it's kind of an omniscient narrator, though, story that talks to the that talks to the audience. Like the like the but in the book, the narrat there's a whatever, like for those of you who've only seen the movie and not seen the book, there's a part in the book where like where they're at Magrathea and um the Magrathean for courting is very insistent that they leave and then shoots two nuclear missiles at them, right? And the book stops and says, We know that stress is really a problem for a lot of people, and it's really dangerous to your health. So, like, we're just gonna tell you right now, everyone's fine. Nobody, nobody gets killed, right? The worst thing that happens is somebody gets a bruise on his arm, and for the purpose of suspense, we won't tell you who. Like, that's like so it's like a little brief chapter where it's just like don't worry about any of this stuff.

Joe 35:15

Like, you're yeah, so I obviously he uh you know Douglas Adams had a big hand in this, so people don't like it. It's also Douglas Adams saying, I don't care, I'm dead.

Tom 35:31

That's yes. I have to say, for a 45 to 50 million dollars budget with not huge stars, but stars in this movie, right?

Joe 35:41

Yeah, I mean we didn't even finish uh right, we've got Bill Nye who also has uh Slarty Bartfast. Uh best character name ever. Yeah. Uh Kelly McDonald shows up as the reporter. I was like, is it nobody?

Tom 35:56

Yeah, yeah.

Joe 35:57

Well, this was after um it was after train spotting, yeah. Yeah, right.

Tom 36:00

Yeah, and like this movie looks great for that much money.

Joe 36:04

Yeah, like it really does look like that. Special effects are good. The the uh the Vorgons are clearly practical.

Tom 36:09

Yeah, Zara Huntson's uh creature shop did all the all everything's practical. The no alien races is they're all practical.

Joe 36:17

Yeah, and I I the the the Vogons are funny because when I saw them, they reminded me of uh Monty Python, like the uh animated stuff that that what's his name does.

Tom 36:30

Yeah, it's very yeah, it's very Terry Gilliam kind of.

Joe 36:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, like they kind of look like hunched over old ladies with like uh with like furnace.

Jen 36:39

You know what they reminded me of too from I I really like the Vogon design. I thought it was cool, but um the Bergens from the Trolls movie are very similar to them.

Joe 36:49

Yes, that's right. Oh, that's awesome. I actually didn't take a lot of notes during this movie, probably partially because I wasn't feeling well, but also because I just didn't take a lot of notes because I didn't have a lot to say about this. I love the intro, though, a lot to the story about the dolphins, which is in which is in the book, and I love how the whole opening credit sequence is just over dolphins and I thought that was crazy.

Tom 37:16

The musical number is terrific.

Joe 37:18

Um I wasn't like and the song, right? It's the song, yeah.

Tom 37:22

Yeah, yeah. So long, so long, so long, so long, so yeah, which is great. Um I I was very happy because I watched this with the whole fam uh Wednesday night, and I prefaced it and had to pause the movie like three times because I was just going like 20-minute dietribe about like this, that, or the other thing. Not like why are they doing it, but just like background information or whatever. Teddy loved it, watched it again the next day when I wasn't around.

Jen 37:48

Very good.

Tom 37:49

So I was like, yes, good, good. And then he started reading the book tonight, so I was very happy.

Joe 37:53

Oh, awesome.

Tom 37:54

Um, yeah.

Joe 37:55

You know, we you mentioned the narration. I like when adaptations I made a note of this too. I like when adaptations use narration. I think it's a very powerful tool to use to make the the movie better by just having someone tell you some things that you need to know instead of trying to to either cram them in in an organic way or just cut them out. Um and in a book, in a you know, story like this, it works perfectly, I think. So, and there's so this this book is probably about 75% exposition.

Tom 38:28

Okay, yeah.

Joe 38:30

If not, if not more, it's just exposition. Everything he's explaining to you, what this is and what that is, and what this is, and what happens with this thing. And if you go there, this is what they do, and that's like and the rest of it is an awkward conversation.

Tom 38:42

It's great. Um, and like, I mean, the structure of it and the and the concept of the guide as a book that exists, right? It it allowed Adams to just indulge any interesting whim that he had, and it it's like a perfect way for you to just this is what this is, and this is where this is, and this is how this works, and this is like it's just um it's a really great tool. I enjoyed the little animations that they did, and that was definitely a throwback. They did the same thing in the uh the 1980 uh in the 1980 series, except for the 1980 series, they didn't have computer animation yet. So they just did hand-drawn animation to look like computer animation. It was very, very cool. So it's a lot of like uh I'm gonna have an example of it here for those of us who are uh who are watching this, but we can we can describe it for those Tom is holding up a book, um it's an animation uh uh a drawing of a person and some other things.

Joe 39:41

There you go.

Tom 39:41

Right. So that's that's that's Ford. That's a computer animation, quote unquote, uh Ford prefect from the series, and it was just done uh with hand-drawn animation that tried to look like a computer was doing it. I like the animations, I like the little stories that they did. Uh I wish there was more of them. I that's I guess uh my biggest wish for this was that there was just more book stuff and less not book stuff.

Joe 40:06

Like what non-book stuff less of? Um John Malkovich.

Tom 40:11

Yeah, even though actually I like that whole bit, like they didn't need to do that. I understand like he's like, well, it's all exposition, and when it's not, there are people thinking about how they feel, and you can't do that on TV either or in movies either. So I'll just create a device that makes people tell you what other people are feeling so that you know what the subtext is for these scenes. But like I it's not even like okay, so there's a scene early on after you know Ford and Arthur uh they wake up on the Vogon ship. Arthur asks, Is it safe? Right? And Ford says, Yes. And then they turn on the lights and they see where they're at. And the line in the book that follows it is one of my favorite lines in any book any ever, where he goes, Ah, this must be some previously unused version of the word safe that I'm not yet aware of. And like, it's such a great line, and like they just don't do it, they just move on to the next bit. I'm like, no, just like take a second to like give the like that's the humor.

Joe 41:12

Give me the damn line. Just I want that one line. Um like uh how did you feel about the the the bigger romantic story, which I guess that's a Hollywood thing right there as well.

unknown 41:25

Yeah.

Jen 41:26

Oh, Jane, I feel like I've um yeah, I don't I don't remember it's okay. It's a Tom show today, it's fine. Um I don't remember they don't like kiss in the book, right? They don't Do they are they even I know that the beginning is the same where like he meets her at a party and Zayvod steals her away and then he sees her on the ship, but there's nothing more than that. Like I really remember a hundred.

Tom 41:50

Yeah, they I think the way they put it in the book was like he was trying to he was trying to like he met her at a party and he was trying to hit on her and it wasn't working out. Yeah. That was it.

Jen 42:01

And then Zeph Zafod came and said, like But in the movie he has this like I don't know if it's his screensaver on his phone, but like the bat the wallpaper, I mean.

Tom 42:10

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Jen 42:11

Or if he's just constantly looking at the photo. But it's like you literally met this girl, you didn't even like end the night with her and you're a picture of you guys, like a selfie of you guys.

Joe 42:22

I kept wondering about the cell phone too. I was like, well, this is I know this isn't in the book, having a cell phone, but it never really played a part except to show you a picture of him and her. And that was it. He would like look at it a couple of times and then he would just put it away. And I'm like, What's with the cell phone? Why is it even in the book? Why is it even in this movie?

Jen 42:39

He loses it at that one part where you see it like floating through space, and that's it, and they see the photo of them.

Joe 42:44

Yeah, it was just an interesting choice. Uh, I did like the uh when they go to the bar, um, the woman who's just sitting next to them, just staring at them the whole time in the background, and she's just like, I was like, what's going on with this lady? Like, I know she's doing what she's supposed to do, the actress is doing what she's supposed to be doing, but it's such an odd choice to just have another woman in the shot in prayer and just staring at them while they're talking.

Tom 43:12

That whole part of this is great. He's like, when the person is like, are we supposed to put a bang over our head? Yeah.

Joe 43:20

No. No. Yeah.

Jen 43:23

And then they're all doing it.

Tom 43:24

Yeah, they're all doing it anyway. Oh, yeah.

Joe 43:27

And I love the uh the you know, when they b when the earth gets destroyed, the overly dramatic zoom out that keeps going on for like five minutes and just jumps out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, and it keeps going. It was very like it reminded me of um the beginning of uh space balls. Spaceballs, yeah, very much going across. How giant it is. It just takes like three minutes of the spaceship going by. I remember watching that movie like a while ago, and I hadn't seen It in so long, and I forgot about that whole scene. Oh, this is a good idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm just like, oh my god, it's still going. This is ridiculous.

Tom 44:07

And I couldn't stop when it's like it tapers and then it gets bigger again. Yes. You think it's gonna be the end of the show? Um, yeah, I think the beginning of this is really good. Uh like all the all the absurdity about the the plans and where they are, and like the for everything at the bar is very good. The Vogons I think are terrific. The Vogon poetry bit I really like. Yeah.

Joe 44:28

Yes. Um, I love that they kept that in there, the the Vogon poetry. Um, even the like when they when they appear, is it when they first appear on the Heart of Gold when they're couches?

Tom 44:40

Yeah, yeah.

Joe 44:41

I love that. I was like, I need more of this.

Tom 44:44

Yes. Yes.

Joe 44:46

Like, and then every time they would go somewhere, like you'd see, like they were they were like little stuffy puppet things. Yeah, he throws up yard. Yeah. Yes. I like those things. Those things were fun and it was funny. Yeah. So there's good things I like about this movie.

Jen 45:01

Um wait, are we just talking about things we like in the movie now?

Joe 45:04

Yeah, that's what I'm just talking about things I like in the movie.

Jen 45:06

I think my favorite part in the whole movie is when they're they're they just got like Trillion out, but they're waiting for her to come out, and Zayfa says, Who are we waiting for again? Before just puts his hand on Arthur's knee. So funny.

Tom 45:28

Okay.

Joe 45:29

No, I was just gonna say it's weird, just some like weird things like when we first meet Trillion and Zayfa, they're in hot pants for one.

Jen 45:37

Well, they're just like it's just the two of them on the ship, so I guess like they I don't know, it's just a weird in their underwear. I don't know.

Joe 45:43

I don't think those were underwear. I think those were those were outerwear.

Jen 45:49

The little shorts that they're yeah, I think they're just both like in the house and nobody else is like in the house, like nobody else is there, so you're just wearing whatever, like you're not really dressed. That's what how I took it. Like she's wearing like a big shirt and just like a little pair of shorts.

Joe 46:02

Like she's just Oh, because like the spaceship is their home and they're just kind of like, yeah, it's just the two of them and the robot. I also like how she's uh like looking in the manual when she's she you should be constantly like looking in the ship's manual to figure out how to do stuff.

Tom 46:17

Yeah.

Joe 46:18

Right.

Tom 46:18

Well, they like they don't like they'd say they stole the ship, but like they don't address that like that just happened.

Joe 46:24

Like, no, they don't see all the backstory. I mean, you get a quick flashback of Zay Fod, you know, as when he leaves, but that's about it. They don't really go into as much detail as they do in the book. Right. And you get all the detail before before in the book. You get it early in the book, like they just cut to Zay Faud, tell you his whole backstory, and then they and then you get to the part where they all meet. So you already have like a backstory about him as opposed to in the movie where you meet him and then you learn a little bit about him, but not much.

Tom 46:51

Not much. Um so I like they're on Vogue Sphere and you know they're walking, they're walking to go to the place, and Arthur realizes every time they think he says something about like he thinks this or he has an idea that the like the planet setups just smack him in the face. I love that like he realizes it and then he just sets Zephan up to say just so he gets smacked. Um like the pettiness is good. Yeah, you know, honestly, I I think it's funny, I think it's structured well. I think Bill Nye is another one who I pictured Slardy Bartfest looking like Moses.

Joe 47:28

Yule Brenner Moses or no, Yule Brenner is oh no, Yul Brenner was uh pharaoh, sorry. Uh Charlton Heston Moses.

Tom 47:35

Charlton Heston like Moses Moses in the desert, Moses, big white beard, very old looking. Um not but I think Bill Nye is I think is very, very good in there.

Joe 47:46

I do I liked all of the stuff with Bill Nye. I thought it was really good as yeah uh in his role.

Tom 47:51

Yeah, I just I didn't like I didn't like that like not only in this movie. This happens in a lot of things. Like Arthur has been in space for like an hour and everyone's like, you're such a coward. Yeah. I'm like, dude, give him a second. Yeah. Like give him a second.

Joe 48:08

I will say this, he he adjusts pretty well to it. That's my point in the movie, in the movie, and I feel like in the book, he's still he's like, it's more of him like, you know, what the fuck is going on, type of thing. Whereas he kind of accepts it more in the movie, and you're right, it's very quick. He's just like very accepting of the circumstances. Like, you just found out that A, not only are you on a spaceship in outer space and there's aliens and all this stuff, but your the earth was just destroyed. Well, you're taking it pretty damn well, and I mean I guess he takes it pretty well in the book, too. He's kind of like I don't know. It it kind of yeah, it kind of felt I felt it didn't feel earned, I guess, as much in the movie.

Tom 48:48

Yeah, I I I think his character development, not the romance part of it so much, but like they have to make him they have to make him cowardly, so he has to like learn to be brave. I'm like, come on, like he just, you know, I don't know. I felt that was not needed. And he wasn't even like that cowardly. He just wasn't, I'm gonna run in front of laser guns.

Joe 49:08

Yeah.

Tom 49:09

There's very little, like there's odd, weird things that I don't like. Like Marvin gets shot in the back of the head. Yeah. And like, I guess to make you think that he's dead, but then he just gets up and he's fine, and like it's never addressed at all.

Joe 49:21

Well, I think that's a that's a joke because they say, right, uh Ford says, or is it Zay Fod says that don't worry, Vogons have the worst aim in the universe, and then they hit Marvin. Yeah. I thought I thought that was just for a joke.

Tom 49:34

Oh, maybe it is, yeah. Like, yeah, that's how so within the concept of the movie, like in the bo, in the book, he he talks like it's not the Vogons, it's just some a bunch of LAPD, 1990s LAPD space cops who are just awful and want to like shoot and abuse everybody. Uh, but the cops were the only thing when I first read that book that I'm like, oh, these guys are clearly American.

Joe 49:58

Um and they kind of changed, well, they they did the book. The Vogons, a whole group of Vogons, instead of Mar Well, they changed the parts. In the book, it's funnier because it's Marvin's like, they're like, what happened? They're they're trying to figure out what the hell happened. The spaceship just died, and and the these two cops, space cops just died, and it's like it's a big chunk of the not a big chunk, but it's like a whole chapter where they're just the dramatic climax. Like they're gonna get shot, and then these guys they just die, and then they sense and they're like, What happened? And then like Marvin's like, well, I I hooked up to the computer and started talking to it, the ship, and it's the ship committed suicide.

Tom 50:44

It's so that's true. I said anyone.

Joe 50:49

No, the suicide is funny, but the fact that his character is just that he's that depressing.

Tom 50:55

Yeah. And so, like, he just you know makes all the Vogons feel his feelings and they collapse. Yeah. But which works, you know.

Joe 51:03

Yeah, I was a little upset that they you didn't get that part, but it was still a clever way to do it. And I mean, they had to add this whole like a trillion capture and this and rescue scene in there for the movie, um, to get to make it a little bit more, you know, to I guess beef up the climax of the movie.

Jen 51:21

So exciting that they have to fill out a paper to get to save that's that's it. The weak rescue guy filling out the proper documentation.

Tom 51:32

All right, she's good.

Joe 51:34

Oh, and he's referring to the the guide uh on what boxes to check. Right. Yeah, he's referring to the guide to help fill out that form.

Tom 51:42

Um this is not a presidential pardon request form. Uh that one's blue. Like, I I was surprised right, because the Vogons are in the beginning of the book and then they're not around. And like to just make them a constant presence and have like their their level of bureaucracy. Uh that worked. It worked for me. Uh I didn't mind it.

Jen 52:05

I guess if you're gonna spend all that money on making the those costumes or whatever, you want to use them as much as possible.

Tom 52:12

But they what they didn't have is one of my favorite Vogons in the book, which is the young Vogon officer who takes them to the airlock, uh just keeps saying resistance is useless, and then like they try and convince him.

Joe 52:24

He starts yelling at him, yeah.

Tom 52:26

Yeah, and like they're desperate, and like Ford doesn't know what to say, so he just goes bum boom boom boom. Doesn't that mean anything to you?

Joe 52:35

That guy, right? He starts yelling at him and he's like, Well, you know, I have a tough job or whatever, and I gotta do blah blah blah. And he's it's more like just like a disgruntled employee.

Tom 52:44

Right.

Joe 52:46

That part's very funny, and yeah, they kind of they do the poetry reading, though, they kind of cut it down into the poetry reading, which is which is funny.

Tom 52:53

Um it is, and they have a little bit where they're in the airlock, and like four Arthur's like, Yeah, waiting, we're gonna die.

Joe 52:59

Oh, he's like, What's this? He's like, Oh, yeah, this is nothing that's funny. That was funny. That was a funny joke, too. Yeah, there were some good jokes in this movie.

Tom 53:11

There are.

Joe 53:12

Yeah. I go ahead.

Tom 53:15

Sorry. Uh I'm just going at the thing, like other minor things that I don't like. The Heart of Gold is very specifically described as looking like a running shoe.

Joe 53:23

Not an eyeball?

Jen 53:25

A little sphere.

Tom 53:26

Yeah, I don't know why they change whatever.

Jen 53:28

Sphere.

Tom 53:29

Fine. It bothers me.

Joe 53:31

Can we make it look a little bit like a sneaker?

Jen 53:33

Did it ever flip into a sneaker when it was cycling through different things?

Joe 53:38

Um, it might have. I think it did.

unknown 53:42

Yeah.

Joe 53:43

I think it did. I mean, they could have gotten Nike or Reebok on board with this and gotten some money out of it.

Tom 53:48

That's awesome.

Joe 53:48

Had them just had them work on the design, you know, designing it. Uh that would have been some that would have been fun.

Tom 53:56

And then and again, it's fine. But um Is it? It is, it's fine. But uh before I had read the second book, and but at that point, you know, I didn't know anything else about it, and their second book is the restaurant at the end of the universe. And it the movie ends with the same line as the book, where it's like, are you hungry? I know a good restaurant at the end of the universe. And then they do a bit where like he goes to the right and it's like, oops, it's to the left. Yeah. But the restaurant is not at the edge of the universe, it's at the chronological end of the universe. It's at the it's like when the universe ends, and it's like a restaurant in a time bubble that you can watch the universe destroyed, yeah, and then you can just go back to your own time.

Joe 54:39

So we know when it is, but where is it, Tom?

Tom 54:41

But my point is like the joke at the end of the movie is that it's at the other edge of the universe. Yes. But it's not what it means. That's not what it means.

Joe 54:49

Yeah. It's also a I'm I'm I'm very sick of that joke. Like that joke where like go one way and then oops, that's not the right way, go back the other way. That's it's a that might be one of the most used bits in the entire history of mankind, and it's kind of gotten old. Um, and I don't really like it anymore. You gotta come up with something really clever with it for to for me to not get angry at it.

Tom 55:16

So on our show, I think Dunk does it twice.

Joe 55:20

I know, right? He did it. Well, I remember he did it the one time, and I feel like I thought he did it again. Uh he might have done it more than once, but I feel like the one time when he goes to speak to um to what's his face?

Tom 55:30

Uh when he tries to leave and he doesn't know which way to go, yeah.

Joe 55:33

Yes. I feel like I I I liked it a bit there. I didn't mind it there. I didn't think it was great, but I didn't mind it there because it I was totally wasn't expecting it. Like it was it didn't it didn't seem like the right moment for that. Um, but a lot of these other times, like in the end of this movie, it's like such an obvious, like, okay, yeah, yeah, it's great, very funny. Very, very original. Douglas Adams definitely didn't put that in there.

unknown 55:56

No.

Tom 55:56

No.

Joe 55:56

I mean, it was 2005.

Jen 55:58

He would know where the restaurant was.

Joe 55:59

Yeah. I mean, in 2005, maybe this was more funny. Or funnier.

Jen 56:04

20 years ago. Humor was different back then.

Tom 56:07

It kind of was, but you know.

Joe 56:10

You know, I I'd say the my biggest dislike in the movie is the is the romance. It just it doesn't, and not only because of the it's not on the book, it just doesn't fit. It does I don't know, it's not it's not interwoven into the story very well. It kind of feels forced, and it's gotta it's gotta it's kind of depressing, the love story in this. I don't feel uplifted and happy by this love story. I feel sad and depressed and kind of.

Jen 56:37

I mean what's the lesson is that like she wanted to she wanted to explore, so Zay Fod came and he kind of like turned her down on exploring Arthur. So then she went to space with Zay Fod, but she should have just stuck with the nice guy and not tried to like explore.

Tom 56:56

And he's the one who learns. Like, she doesn't change, he's the one who like they rebuild Earth with all the people on it, everyone's alive again. Okay, fine, whatever. And he's like, the only thing that's like I I need to be missing because I gotta go see like he changes.

Joe 57:09

He's like, I'm gonna now explore and be an I don't know, but I feel like they they never establish him as a person who's not that, you know what I'm saying? Like you don't get like the the the backstory or his like uh monotonous kind of routine in daily life. You get you get literally the morning and then he lies in front of a like right after that. So you don't really get that feeling or that that character. And I guess there's the scene with him and her, the flashback scene, but I don't really get that from him there either. Yeah, except maybe his choice of costume.

Jen 57:42

It's funny because he's like, I can't go to Madagascar. I have you know, I have a job. And he and it's just like what a what a boring loser. Like he doesn't really just like leave his job, quit, and go to Madagascar with this girl he just met. He's like, Why don't we like go out somewhere closer to home and we'll see what happens? And she's like, No, no, we've known each other for two hours and you have to leave the country with me immediately.

Joe 58:06

There's also like a reference, I think, later on to um her not being able to find a guy that understands her. And I think back to that scene, I was like, Well, yeah, it's probably pretty pretty hard to find a guy who's just who who's willing to, after a woman he just met, go to Madagascar with her.

Jen 58:23

Yeah, like give it a little time.

Joe 58:24

Is that their fault?

Tom 58:28

Yes.

Joe 58:29

You're looking for a very particular type of person.

Tom 58:32

So that's not many other things. That's why I think, other than the fact that it's really unnecessary, the romance doesn't work for me because it's one of those Hollywood romances where the girl is not a real person and the guy is flawed because he's not whimsical enough.

Jen 58:49

Yeah. Romanic pixie dream girl.

Tom 58:52

Right. He's like, I'll go away with you this weekend to a different city that's not far enough away for you to I don't know, really love me after meeting me for two hours. And this is a fatal flaw of this character that he needs to go on a univ like a planet hopping journey to overcome.

Joe 59:13

Yeah, and I mean he he he doesn't go on the planet hopping journey because of her. He doesn't have really much of a choice in the matter, really.

Jen 59:20

Yeah, she's like, did you follow me? He's like, no, I I literally didn't follow you. I just ended up here.

Joe 59:26

How would I even know you're on another planet?

Jen 59:28

Yeah, I'm not sure.

Joe 59:30

I didn't even know the spaceships existed about 30 seconds ago.

Tom 59:34

Yeah. Right.

Joe 59:35

Um yeah, I felt like that kind of brought the movie down a little bit. And like I said, not necessarily that the romance, like that there was a romance, but I the way it kind of played out. I didn't I wasn't feeling it. Um which maybe is why Douglas Adams didn't put it in the original book. He wasn't good at writing that stuff. I don't know. Does did he write any stuff like did any of the other books have any romance in themselves?

Tom 59:56

Yeah, the f the fourth book, Arthur um Arthur falls in love. And like he has a uh uh like that is actually a fairly well-developed romance. Uh because that's what the book is about. It's a like but it's not with Trillion, right? Who like in the book, I think it's something like there's like a joke like she's like uh she's got like she's an astrophysicist with like two PhDs and she's got no job. So what else was she gonna do? Like when she found out he was a real alien, she's like, Yeah, I'll go to space. It was that, or go to the dole light again on Monday.

Joe 1:00:28

Yeah, right. Um, you know, we have no idea what does she say, even say what she does, like what her deal is in the in the movie? I don't think so, right? Yeah, the impression that I have is that she doesn't have a job because she's just yeah, but I guess it's independently wealthy because she can travel to Madagascar on I don't know, maybe she's like one of those, you know, backpacker types who's just like, you know, I just need enough for a plane ticket and I'll figure the rest out. I'll pick up odd jobs along the way to food and shelter.

Jen 1:00:57

Like, is she traveling from America to get to this party?

Joe 1:01:01

I don't know. Maybe she just lives in England. I mean, there's people from America who live in England, who live in England. But she could be one of them. I mean, I assume that her character, just because she wants to go to Madagascar, probably, you know, was it lived in America and was like, I'm gonna leave because I can't stay in one place for a very long time, or I just feel the need to move, so I'm gonna go to England, or maybe she went somewhere else and then went to England after that. I don't know. She would be the only other character I would say could be like would be British if I had to cast um, you know, another character. I mean, there's no mention of Ford in the book not being British, and I would figure that it would have been something that would have been pointed out because he lit he's a friend of his for the last 12, 13, whatever it is, years.

Tom 1:01:45

Yeah, specifically, like he said he's from Guildford, like from somewhere in New England. But like, so like he passes for British, you know, but that's true. Uh but like again, like it it it works fine. He's like, hey, I live there now, but you know, I'm an actor. And the it shows but doesn't tell the fact that his name is Ford Prefect because he thought cars were the dominant form of life. Yes, and a four a prord prefect is like a British Ford model, and so he just thought that that's what he should be called, it should be called.

Joe 1:02:18

Do they do they ever say in the movie that right? Because they start they open it up with the dolphin thing and they talk about like it's the second of the three smartest life forms. Humans are the third smartest life forms, dolphins are the second. Do they ever say what the first the smartest life form is? They do say it's the mice.

Tom 1:02:36

They say it's the mice, yeah. Okay, they do say I I don't I actually you know I don't know if they say the mice were who we were talking about when we said this but like they say the mice and yeah.

Joe 1:02:47

Um I like how the kids, the kid, right they the the um right, the two philosophers or whatever are kids, and then 7.5 million years later they come back and they're still kids just with like white hair and white hair and black eyes.

Tom 1:03:01

I don't know how that what that happened, but um I guess they were looking more mice-like.

Joe 1:03:07

And I was when we got to that point, I looked at the time left in the movie because I was like, oh wow. They they moved up that part where you find out about the computers and the deep thought. I feel like I think they moved it up in the movie. It's you find that out a little bit later in the book. It's not it's not through um I don't think you find out until you get to Magothea, right?

Tom 1:03:26

Yeah, yeah. Slaudi Barfars uh tells Arthur all this stuff.

Joe 1:03:30

Yeah, so they moved that part up. So I'm like, I look at the time and I'm like, wow, there's still like a good almost an hour left in this movie. I was like, this is is this another one of those instances where they they cram through like the first three quarters of the book in like less than half the movie time and then they're gonna spend all of it. But no, they just moved they just moved that part up. So it tripped me.

Tom 1:03:49

They do have the the whale and the petunias, which is one of my favorite pits.

Joe 1:03:53

Yes. Um, although you don't really get to see the whale carcass at no imagine it. Who was doing the voice? Did the whale have a name? No. I don't know.

Jen 1:04:04

I was drawing like a fate is the person credited as being the whale.

Joe 1:04:07

Is there?

Jen 1:04:08

Yeah.

Joe 1:04:09

What well I I couldn't find it because I thought it sounded a bit like Ricky Gervaise.

Jen 1:04:15

It's not Ricky Gervais. Okay.

Joe 1:04:16

I was like, is that oh wait, here we are, the whale. Oh, Bill Bailey.

Jen 1:04:21

Okay, he's like the first one on the Bailey.

Joe 1:04:24

Oh, he's in Hot Fuzz. Yeah, he's in uh Okay, I know who he is.

Tom 1:04:30

Yeah, his voice does sound a little bit like uh Ricky Gervais then, so Thomas Lennon from uh Reno 911 was the computer.

Joe 1:04:38

Oh, I knew I recognized that voice. Okay, I was trying to place it and I never I never went back to look it up, but yeah, he has a very distinct voice for sure. Yeah, there's a lot of people in this movie. A lot of people in this movie. Yeah, Thomas and Eddie the computer. And Ian McN McNeese was uh the Vogon, right? The um No, go ahead. You go. Nope, nope. You want me to go?

Tom 1:05:10

Yes.

Joe 1:05:11

Okay. Um I think we talked about the biggest changes in the right we the point of view gun, which was actually a creation of Douglas Adams, which I thought was kind of fun. I thought it uh uh it was a it was a good way to kind of also move the plot along.

Tom 1:05:26

Right.

Joe 1:05:27

And I guess with that gun, they had to create the Hama Kavula John Malkovich part. Because I was when we got to that, I was like, I don't remember them going to a church. Let's see, does what is where is this going? And I was like, I don't remember any of this. And then when they get to the gun, I'm like, oh yeah, this is just all made up. Um the romance we just talked about, and then the the rescue mission of Trillion, we also talked about a little bit as well, which was you know, to give it that that ending, the uh the

Tom 1:06:00

completion the complete arc of story that people just need because they can't they they can't live without it they will not go and see movies they will riot we cannot understand it as humans so that's what we got uh what else we've got to big changes I think that's that's those are the biggest ones yeah talk about the expansion of of the Vogon uh presence in the in there um yeah I think everything else was relatively like I said smaller changes and and and I did other than the romance bit not really landing well for me I didn't mind any of the other additions.

Joe 1:06:40

I just wish they had like this was uh it's a very quick movie the movie's like an hour and a half yeah which is an hour 40 something minutes I think an hour and forty five or a forty eight or something like that.

Tom 1:06:51

Maybe but like it doesn't overstay its welcome at all. I wouldn't have minded like three more minutes with just a few extra jokes in there.

Joe 1:06:59

Yeah that's all yeah I agree I thought I think so too it it kind of there were parts where this movie where it lagged and and you would they would they would do this thing a few of the time a few times where they did this where like you're getting into a flow and then they stopped and did like an exposition uh Stephen Fry narration thing and I was like you just got into a flow and then you just totally killed it with that and then you go back into the movie and that happened a couple of times where I felt like it kind of killed the pacing but I that was probably closer to the beginning in the first half and then they kind of got away from it or at least I don't know it felt like the plot flowed a little bit better after that but yeah Tom you mentioned this uh the movie was successful. Yeah it it uh it grossed 104 uh point five million dollars worldwide against this 40 uh 50 million dollar budget um it debuted as number one when it came out it had a pretty good opening weekend at 32.7 million but sharp drop off after you know after the first week so it looked like it was gonna do really well and then it kind of just lost steam but it's got positive reviews from uh film crit critics uh like the visuals but a little bit tonally inconsistent which I think we all kind of touched on and agreed on as well um in terms of the fandom uh general audience enjoyed enjoyed it uh you know there's always the hardcore fans were critical of the disnification of the story focusing on the romance of course and kind of simplifying and I guess maybe minimizing the cynical tone in that in the book they did put some cameos though of the original BBC cast in this yeah uh you mentioned the robot you mentioned the robot and I think Simon Jones who was in it was uh who was in the original BBC cast was also in this uh in like a quick shot yeah I gotta go back and find him I gotta see where where he is uh he was in uh he was a Magrathian defense as the Magraan defense system oh that's him okay yeah okay I like that um and then Douglas Adams's head is one of the things the heart of gold transforms oh at the very end right yeah the live shot yep oh oh I didn't realize that I was saying I think Adams would have appreciated this you know the final product he did I have a quote here from him um he said uh I like to think of them as different ways of telling the same story none of which is definitely right that's it yeah you can enjoy them all yeah uh the other thing I would notice that when I saw this movie came out in 2005 I was like we've done a lot of movies around the in that came out around this time yeah yes that's our sweet spot for remembering films yeah the War of the Worlds came out in 2005 um I think Nar Narnia was around that time right it was around and Stardust 2 was also around that time wow wow all right well we're going we're going all the way back to 2001 for the next one we're going way way back way way back way back oh one oh two and oh three yeah um are you we ready to give your ratings or Tom do you have any more fun facts for us um no but I I I would say if if any of you uh see me at at Wachon this year and want to talk about this you you now know that uh I'll probably buy you a beer because I love to talk about this book. He will buy you three beers.

Tom 1:10:38

Today that's it and some peanuts. Gotta have peanuts um I will say this in the in that television series that I referenced a few times here the way that they did uh Zayfod I'll see if I again have a picture here for those of you who are watching um is posted on social media I can here we go right so here's Zafod with like a a fake head fake head here has an eye pouch and they just would move the fake head to one side or the other from scene to scene okay so that both of them appear to talk. Oh okay that's clever yeah it doesn't look good it's completely fake it looks fake all the time but like I do think it has a clever way to go about it. That m that that television show was made for zero dollars.

Joe 1:11:27

I feel like I might have seen that because I feel like I distinctly remember that that happening like with the head moving back and forth. It's very it just becomes like a part like a joke.

Tom 1:11:38

Yeah exactly like look how stupid this is right like you gotta lean into it when that's what you've got yeah like you know coconuts using coconuts for hoss for horses for horses yes yeah it's very much in that vibe yeah yeah um ready for ratings all right Tom I'm gonna let you go first um I like this movie it's not great but I think it's pretty good um and it I actually thought I would like it less I hadn't seen it since it came into that in the theaters and I was like ah it's probably gonna disappoint me. But I I enjoyed it I thought it was funny. Um and the things that were nitpicky about it uh with the exception of the romance bit I most of my complaints are nitpicks. I'm gonna give it three point five stars.

Joe 1:12:25

Alright Jen, would you like to go next?

Jen 1:12:28

Sure. Um I feel kind of the same way. I don't remember like totally loving it the first time I saw it but I liked it a lot more now. I would I'm also gonna give it a 3.5 I was gonna say something else but I'm gonna hold it off until the next question.

Joe 1:12:41

I will also give it a 3.5 Alright um the movie was okay it had its funny moments which I enjoyed I don't I don't know I'm I'm not sure though that I really enjoyed it that much and I wouldn't watch it again probably unless I had to um maybe just like a maybe just clips of the funny parts cut those out for me and I watch those over and over again.

Tom 1:13:05

I'm gonna give this uh 2.75 Okay um I didn't enjoy it as much as you both did it's fine uh in our uh Discord chat light minded fool gave Marvin's rating to the clip from the film where Marvin says it's even worse than I think even worse than I thought it would be just like Eeyore basically a British version of Eeyore well Eeyore is British we just Americanized him for for Disney purposes a successful adaptation so I I think it was I think it's just I think they did a good job with the tangents and with the animations of the the guide.

Jen 1:14:02

I just think it's really hard to capture the feel of reading it. So this was like a fun movie but there's just there's no way to really like and and either you like books like this or you don't. Like some people will be like just give me the story and stop going off in all directions. I really like it and I just feel like when I even heard they were gonna make a movie I've never seen the TV show or or anything but it's I couldn't imagine how they would make a movie out of this because it's so crazy. But it's so good. TM so I I want to say it was a it was like a cromulant adaptation. That's like it they did the best they could with what they had but I still think if you like this movie it's definitely worth reading the book because the book is just crazy and good.

Joe 1:14:53

The book is like this turned up like fivefold anything that happens in the movie that you think is absurd or like whimsical the book is like five times that maybe even more yeah the movie doesn't even get into uh the the format of the construction crew and its ancestry like why would it yeah like why would it like you feel I wanted to see the guy with the little furry hat.

Jen 1:15:22

Like you're reading the book and then you're just like what's even happening like what is what am I reading what page am I on like what's going on the book is just a lot of tan a lot of tangents and exposition.

Joe 1:15:34

Um the st if you've like if you really took all of that out of this book the story is probably 10 pages the act of actual story. I was just gonna say I I'm gonna count it as a successful adaptation. I think it it did a pretty decent job of capturing the the the story um and it did make money um and the changes weren't too drastic where they they the changes that they added to it didn't really pull too much away from the story except for the romance.

Tom 1:16:04

Right.

Joe 1:16:04

So I think you know I think I think they did a good job.

Tom 1:16:07

And the fact that Douglas Adams kind of did a lot of it himself I can I can't really go against that so I don't know if I would have said last night that it was a successful adaptation just because like I think it I think it's a fun movie but I think it's so much less than the book. But then when my son started reading the book this today just because he had seen the movie I was like I how can you not say it's success a a successful adaptation when it gets somebody to go I gotta read this book.

Joe 1:16:38

So I uh blended fool put also put in one of my favorite lines from the book um I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young why what did she tell you I don't know I didn't listen like that's the book's full of stuff like that.

Tom 1:16:59

Right.

Joe 1:17:00

Um reading and he goes what's so bad about hyperspace it's unpleasantly like being drunk what's so bad about being drunk go ask a glass of water yeah uh there's a lot of silly things in there the you know that yes the tangents that he goes up like you're learning you're learning he'll go into backstory about something that doesn't matter at all to the story whatsoever. And it's quick though but the good thing is like most of the time it's very quick. Like you just get a little yeah like a page half a page a paragraph or something and then it's back to the story. He just put in everything that popped into his head he put in the yes put it in the book.

Tom 1:17:40

I've got something funny I'll just do this little funny bit yeah and then I'll just set it on a different planet and now it's a story.

Joe 1:17:47

Yeah you could probably write turn these some of these little tangents into sketches like standalone sketches and then they'd be funny.

Jen 1:17:57

Um all right any final thoughts before we close it out I can't wait to find out what Jen's gonna uh close us out with so there's a lot of good quotes but I I'm not gonna say it right now but I picked one that from the movie that I just that made me laugh a lot. It's not really like deep in any way it just I just really liked it just made me laugh. The delay was good.

Joe 1:18:19

Tom when you started off your uh your uh explanation about was this a successful adaptation and you said last night I probably wouldn't have said it and I I was thinking like did watching did watching the War of the Worlds adaptation change of mind is is that what influenced it maybe that maybe that also helps I don't know um yeah uh go become a patron of ours uh oh my god for this month's bonus content which will be coming out shortly where we watched uh the 2005 Ice Cube War of the Worlds movie 2025 2025 sorry 20 2025 uh yeah that was a movie um i i normally am not but yes i think it's worth it to join our patron just to listen to this bonus content episode when it when it comes out it should be out soon yeah in the next few days i want to remind everyone to follow us on social media you can follow us on twitter instagram all those places come in discord uh go to youtube rate and review us whatever you listen to podcasts check out the aforementioned patreon page because links to all the information are included in the show notes to this episode tom any final words you have about this book what does this book mean to you tom?

Tom 1:19:32

What does the number 42 mean to you um I was I opened up my question I I I I do like how many roads must a man walk down but I opened up my my my uh my t-shirt drawer today and on the top maybe subconsciously but I do think randomly was not only this shirt but uh a 42 uh baseball Dodgers shirt that I have and a different 42 baseball shirt that I have um was it a Brooklyn Dodgers or a LA Dodgers? Um it was a Brooklyn Dodgers and this was it was just like a uh the other one was just a gray shirt with like 42 in baseball uh all of which were gifted to me on my 42nd birthday but just they were all at the top of the drawer and uh I don't know it seems very improbable but it's true.

Joe 1:20:23

Well that fits with this story the improbability drive they didn't really get too much into that they got into it a little bit but not really into it.

Jen 1:20:31

Jen, you want to take us out guys I'm delighted to tell you that there are two thermonuclear missiles heading right for us. If you don't mind I'm gonna go ahead and take evasive action Tom Lennon right