道格拉斯·亚当斯（Douglas Adams,1952—2001），英国著名的科幻小说作家，也是幽默讽刺文学的代表人物、第一个成功结合喜剧和科幻的作家，同时他也是一位广播剧作家和音乐家。他以《银河系搭车客指南》系列出名，这部作品以广播剧起家，后来发展成包括五本书的“三部曲”，拍成电视连续剧。这个系列被西方科幻读者奉为“科幻圣经”之一。由于《银河系搭车客指南》系列小说的突出成就，国际小行星管理委员会甚至还将一颗小行星命名为亚瑟·邓特——该系列的主人公。

2001年，亚当斯因心脏病猝发离世——此前正在与好莱坞制片商合作，共同将《银河系搭车客指南》搬上银幕。2005年4月29日，由迪斯尼公司拍摄的《银河系搭车客指南》正式公映。首映周便获得二千一百七十多万美元，成为当周北美票房冠军。

It’s easy to get disheartened when your planet has been blown up, the woman you love has vanished due to a misunderstanding about space/time, the spaceship you are on crashes on a remote and Bob-fearing planet, and all you have to fall back on are a few simple sandwich-making skills. However, instead of being disheartened, Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life a bit–and immediately all hell breaks loose.

Hell takes a number of forms: there’s the standard Ford Prefect version, in the shape of an all-new edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , and a totally unexpected manifestation in the form of a teenage girl who startles Arthur Dent by being his daughter when he didn’t even know he had one.

Can Arthur save the Earth from total multidimensional obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter, Random, from herself? Of course not. He never works out exactly what is going on. Will you?