seconds before the earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway arthur dent is plucked off the planet by his friend ford prefect a researcher for the revised edition of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy who for the last fifteen years has been posing as an outofwork actortogether this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from the hitchhikers guide a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have and a galaxyfull of fellow travelers zaphod beeblebroxthe twoheaded threearmed exhippie and totally outtolunch president of the galaxy trillian zaphods girlfriend formally tricia mcmillan whom arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone marvin a paranoid brilliant and chronically depressed robot veet voojagig a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years