Inside, Ford and Arthur are horrified to discover they've been turned into sofas before they revert to their normal selves. At the command center the ship's computer (voice: Thomas Lennon) alerts none other than Trisha that it has picked up two hitchhikers. She informs the news to the blonde man who had picked her up at the costume party, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) and tells him that, once the ship emerged out of hyperspace using the Improbability Drive, they picked up hitchhikers in the same vector that she came from.
She then summons Marvin (Warwick Davis, voice: Alan Rickman), the ship's eternally depressed android whose condition is a result of a prototype personality program, and instructs him to bring the hitchhikers from the receiving bay to the command center. He does so begrudgingly and, as he ushers the guests through the halls, Trisha recognizes Arthur and runs off to put on some more conservative attire.
Zaphod is the first to greet them and recognizes Ford as his semi half-brother (they share three mothers) and reveals that he is the new president of the galaxy and commander of the ship, the prized Heart of Gold. However, it's revealed that the eccentric Zaphod kidnapped himself during his inauguration and stole the Heart of Gold immediately following its christening. A second head pops out from its nestled position under Zaphod's primary one, shouting insults and promptly slapping Arthur in the face with a third arm in Zaphod's chest.
Keeping his extra limbs in check, Zaphod tells Ford that you can't be president with a whole brain. Trisha appears and happily greets Arthur, to Zaphod's jealousy, and offers to show him around the ship. Zaphod, now privy to the fate of Earth and not wanting Trisha upset, takes Arthur to the side for a moment and threatens him with disembowelment if he reveals to her what happened to their planet.
Trisha, now having changed her name to Trillian to sound more cosmic, introduces Arthur to the wonders of the ship while Zaphod and Ford share a drink together. When getting Aspirin for Arthur, who can't seem to accept the fact that he's in outer space and that it's a good thing, she knocks over her purse and two white mice emerge from it and scurry off. Zaphod then calls everyone to the viewing deck where he plays a video recording.
It documents that, millions of years ago, a super computer named Deep Thought (voice: Helen Mirren) was constructed on the planet Magrathea by two pan-dimensional beings, Fook and Lunkwill (Dominique Jackson and Jack Stanley), to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. However, Deep Thought tells Fook and Lunkwill that to get the answer, they will need to come back in 7.5 million years.
Zaphod plays the reply video, showing Fook and Lunkwill coming up to Deep Thought on the red carpet in front of a large crowd, exactly 7.5 million years after the first video. Deep Thought reveals that the answer to the ultimate question is 42. Confused and irritated by the answer, Fook and Lunkwill are told that, to understand it, they must know what the ultimate question is, since they never properly asked it. To discover this, Deep Thought offers to construct a mind-bogglingly complex computer that will reveal the question.
However, the rest of the footage is cut off. Ford asks Zaphod why this is all so important and Zaphod responds that it is his goal to discover the ultimate question, thinking that it will bring him fame and fortune, and has been using the ship's Improbability Drive to travel to random locations through time and space since he doesn't know the exact coordinates for the planet Magrathea. Zaphod initiates the Drive again and the ship plummets into improbability, coming out at its destination as a ball of yarn.
As normality returns, Trillian notes that they have arrived at planet Viltvodle VI, the home of Zaphod's presidential opponent Humma Kavula (John Malkovich). Zaphod decides to pay a visit to his rival and the group leaves the ship to find Kavula presiding over a mass inside a church. The religious devotees pay respect to their beloved Arkleseizure, a deity from whom life sprang forth after a great sneeze. Kavula finishes his sermon with a 'bless you' as the congregation sneezes in unison.
Kavula invites Zaphod and the others into his office where he boasts himself as a supremely intelligent being and admits that, apparently, good looks and charm are superior in elections over the ability to govern. After casually exposing the fact that he is a being comprised of a torso walking on metallic legs with no real eyes; rather with glasses with eyes superimposed on them, he deduces that Zaphod seeks the ultimate question and tells him that he has coordinates to Magrathea.
He will give them to Zaphod on one condition; that Zaphod return with a special gun located on Magrathea at the base of Deep Thought. To ensure that Zaphod comes back, Kavula removes Zaphod's second head to keep. As they leave, the group is suddenly surrounded by Vogons who have been commissioned by Galactic Vice President Questular Rontok (Anna Chancellor) to rescue Zaphod from himself.
Trillian threatens to kill Zaphod but her bluff is called and she is promptly taken into Vogon custody while the rest of the group escapes onto the Heart of Gold. Ford takes command since Zaphod, running on half a brain and unable to think coherently without the aid of a helmet that converts lemon juice into brainwaves, is useless. They follow the Vogon fleet to their home planet of Vogosphere where Trillian is forced into incarceration.
Ford, Zaphod, Arthur, and Marvin dock the ship in the atmosphere before taking a pod ship to the planet surface. They crash land just a walk away from the Vogon ship's landing site and cross a wide expanse where they are tormented by shovel-like creatures that slap them in the face whenever they think of an idea. This proves conflicting since they need an idea to rescue Trillian so they decide on running for it.
Arthur attempts to lead the fray, storming into one of the Vogon facilities using Marvin's arm as a gun, but the Vogon representative there merely forwards them to a nearby office where they can fill out a prisoner release form. This proves excruciating in itself with long lines and a mess of forms to choose from.
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