The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element
Promotional poster for The Fifth Element.
Directed by	Luc Besson
Written by	Luc Besson
Produced by	Patrice Ledoux
Starring	Bruce Willis Gary Oldman Ian Holm Chris Tucker and Milla Jovovich
Music by	Eric Serra
Distributed by	USA, Spain, Australia Columbia Pictures UK Theatrical Pathé Distribution France Gaumont-Buena Vista International Germany Tobis Filmkunst Italy Filmauro Distribuzione Japan Herald Film Company Portugal Filmes Lusomundo
Release dates	May 9, 1997 (premiere)
Running time	126 min.
Language	English
Budget	$90,000,000

The Fifth Element (1997) is a science fiction, action comedy movie, written and directed by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker and Luke Perry in a cameo role, The aesthetics of the movie were designed by Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Claude Mézières and it has a strong, European comic book-like look and feel. Costumes for the film were designed by French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.

The movie places the survival of mankind on the shoulders of Korben Dallas (Willis) after "the Fifth Element" (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. His mission is to find the other four elements, represented by stones, and to gather them all before a black evil planet collides with the Earth. Mangalores, blockheaded warrior aliens, together with Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Oldman), a corporate villain, are bent on thwarting his efforts.

Although filmed in English and set in a futuristic New York City, the movie is a British/French production, mostly filmed at Pinewood Studios in England, with some scenes shot in Mauritania.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler Every five millennia, when three planets are in eclipse, evil is embodied and attempts to turn light to dark, life to death. The weapon against this evil is in a temple in Egypt. To succeed in its goal, the evil has to consume the location of the weapon. The weapon is activated by bringing together the five elements of the universe: the first four are water, fire, earth and air, which are embodied in the form of small triangular-prism stones, and the fifth element is a "Supreme Being", resembling a human except genetically superior, encased in a sarcophagus in the shape of a person with head back and mouth widely open. Another interpretation is that the fifth element is love, which is used by the Supreme Being (or Protector of Life) to activate the weapon. These five elements together produce the Divine Light, which vanquishes the Ultimate Evil for another five thousand years. This weapon was placed on Earth by the Mondoshawan (pronounced mon-dough-chee-wan), an old and mysterious race, and the knowledge of the evil and the weapon is passed down generation to generation by a line of priests who serve the Mondoshawan.

In 1914, the Mondoshawan guardians took the elements away because they were no longer safe on Earth, due to the soon-to-begin World War I. Three hundred years later, when the Ultimate Evil formed again, a Federated Army battleship arrives at its location. The ship's commander is then ordered to fire on it, but the Evil only gets larger and engulfs the ship with all hands on board. The government allows the Mondoshawan to return and help defeat the Evil. The Mondoshawan attempt to bring the elements back to Earth. However, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Oldman) (referred to as "Zorg"), a powerful weapons manufacturer who was asked to obtain the stones by the Ultimate Evil (who Zorg only knows as "Mister Shadow"), orders the Orc-like Mangalores to destroy the Mondoshawan spaceship transporting the elements. All of the Mondoshawan crew die when the crippled ship crashes on a moon, but the Earthlings are able to retrieve a severed hand within a glove clutching a case handle from the crash site. This is regenerated to bring the Supreme Being back to life; she turns out to be an orange-haired and amazingly strong, smart, and beautiful woman (Jovovich), and the last hope of all life in the universe. The woman, however, immediately escapes the regenerator and subsequently, the Nucleo Lab, and dives into the flying taxi cab of Korben Dallas (Willis).

Korben, a former major in the Federated Army's elite special forces unit, takes the woman to a priest with the knowledge of the Evil, Vito Cornelius (Holm), and finds out that her name is Leeloo Minai Lekatariba-Laminai-Tchaii Ekbat De Sebat (Leeloo for short). Leeloo tells Cornelius that, as it turned out, the first four elements were not on board the crashed ship. Instead, the Mondochiwan gave them for safekeeping to an alien opera singer, the Diva Plavalaguna (the diva's name is a joking reference to Milla Jovovich's second film, Return to the Blue Lagoon: plava laguna means "blue lagoon" in Serbo-Croatian). Leeloo is meant to contact the Diva in a hotel on the planet Fhloston, where the Diva is performing at a charity ball.

When the Mangalores fail to return with four elements, Zorg refuses to give them anything in return for their efforts. Persuaded by their threats of violence, he leaves them one crate of ZF1 weapons. However, a curious Mangalore presses a button that turns out to trigger a bomb built into his ZF1, leaving the surviving Mangalores out for revenge.

The government also finds out about the Diva from the Mondoshawan, and they decide to reactivate Korben and send him to retrieve the stones from the Diva. In order to get him to Fhloston, they rig a contest where the winner gets tickets to Fhloston. Four different people end up trying to get onto the flight as Korben: the real Korben, Cornelius's novice David along with Leeloo, Zorg's assistant Right Arm (who is blown up shortly afterwards while he is telling Zorg he failed), and two shapeshifted Mangalore warriors (who intend to get the stones to make Zorg negotiate for them). Eventually Korben and Leeloo get on the flight together, along with the contest's flamboyant radio DJ, Ruby Rhod (Tucker). Cornelius also stows away in the ventilation system after sending David to Egypt to prepare for their arrival.

Immediately after a concert on a spaceship orbiting Fhloston, Plavalaguna is shot and killed by Mangalores who try to take over the ship. Zorg arrives, with the intent of getting the stones himself. He plants a nuclear bomb in the hotel on the spaceship and steals a wooden chest from the Diva's suite, believing the elemental stones to be inside. On his way out, he finds Leeloo (who had spent the evening fighting and killing Mangalores). She jumps into a ventilator shaft, but Zorg shoots at her through the ceiling and injures her. Once he has departed, he is enraged upon discovering the stones are not inside the chest.

After retrieving the four stones from their actual hiding place—inside the Diva's abdomen—Korben manages to defeat the Mangalores by killing their leader. Afterwards the hotel's bomb detectors detect Zorg's bomb, and everyone evacuates the hotel/ship. A furious Zorg returns to the hotel just as everyone is leaving and deactivates his bomb in the nick of time, but is killed as another, unforeseen bomb is detonated by a surviving Mangalore.

Meanwhile, President Lindberg of the Federated Territories is celebrating with his staff the success of Korben's mission. However, their party is broken up when a scientist says that the Evil (now a fireball 1200 miles in diameter) has shifted position and is heading straight for Earth. Korben has only two hours to get the weapon ready.

As Korben, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Ruby Rhod are on their way back to Earth in Zorg's ship, the Ultimate Evil continues moving towards Earth. Leeloo also researches "war" on the ship's computer and learns about the cruelty of man.

With only fifteen minutes left before everyone will die, they arrive back on Earth and set up the weapon. But Leeloo doesn't want to create the Divine Light: "What is the point of saving life if all you do is destroy it?" Korben convinces her there are some things worth saving, like love, and tells her that he loves her. They kiss, and the Divine Light forms and stops the Ultimate Evil a mere 62 miles from impact. It crusts over, goes into a harmless orbit, and becomes a second moon.

The next morning, President Lindberg and his staff go to the Nucleo Lab to thank Korben. However, Korben can not be interviewed because he and Leeloo are making love in the regeneration chamber.

Music

Two versions of the soundtrack exist; a commercially released version and a two-disc set, "The Fifth Element: The Complete Score." The complete score is not available to purchase, as it was a "promotional" set. What little is known about this set is that it was (rumored) probably the pre-commercial release mix of tracks that were evaluated to determine which tracks were to be put on the commercial release. The first disc boasts 46 tracks, with the second hailing in at 31 tracks. What accounts for the massive playlist is the shortness of most tracks. Many of them clock in under a minute. The CD is in sequential order to the film; "Alech Taadi" included. "Alech Taadi" is not a pure track; it is littered with sound effects from the film but no dialogue. Ruby Rap is the same way--no Chris Tucker, just the music. Many of the tracks are, of course, featured on the commercial soundtrack, but are longer. Some tracks are from the trailers, and some are listed as "unused edits". The last 27 tracks on the 2nd disc are the chosen tracks for the commercial release. The number of copies in circulation for the complete score is not known.

Some pieces in the score, composed by Eric Serra, have a Middle Eastern flavour to them. The popular taxicab chase scene music, "Alech Taadi", by Khaled, is excluded from the movie soundtrack, however it is available on Khaled's album N'ssi N'ssi.

In the second half of Plavalaguna's performance, the music as well as the singing suddenly and dramatically turns from classical to techno style. This change is accompanied by scenes alternating between the performance and Leeloo's fight with a dozen aliens (Mangalores) in Plavalaguna's chamber, with the fight moves and film editing choreographed to the music. Both Part One (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Part Two (The Diva Dance) are found as individual songs on The Fifth Element official soundtrack, but are situated one after the other to create the entire performance. The end of Part One actually runs into the start of Part Two for a smooth transition between the two songs.

The Diva Dance opera performance featured music from Lucia di Lammermoor Part Two, Act Two, N. 14 Scena ed aria, "O giusto cielo!" and was voiced by Inva Mula-Tchako. However, Plavalaguna was played by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco. As Plavalaguna is an alien, the music was scored with some vocalisations that have been rumoured to be physically impossible, but in the documentary on the Special Edition version of the film it is stated that Inva Mula-Tchako's voice wasn't digitally altered. Nevertheless, several notes are clearly digitally shifted or recombined. (most striking examples at 3:49, 3:56, and 4:05 from the first sung note of the Lucia scena.) However, Canadian vocalist Marie-Ève Munger is known to have performed the complete diva dance sequence in front of a live audience, and her performance was later aired on Québec television as part of a promotion for a televised boxing event.

The concert scenes were actually filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, except for the scenes showing the spaceship window with its view of Planet Fhloston behind the Diva.

Trivia

• The film may have been influenced by the short story 'Harry Canyon' in the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal. There are a number of parallels between the two stories.
• The Divine Language spoken in the film was invented by director Luc Besson and the multi-lingual Milla Jovovich. Both were rumored to be able to converse in the language. In an interview with Jovovich, from the extras in The Fifth Element(Ultimate Edition), Jovovich stated she and Luc Besson wrote letters to each other in the Divine Language as practice. The glossary is only 400 words long. Incidentally, the first part of Leeloo's name, "Leeloo mi nai" means "precious stones", and the latter "Ekbat De Sebat" is an honorific, though never defined. No meaning is given for Lamina-Tchai. Beyond "Leeloo mi nai", none of the words in her name appear in the glossary! "The Adventure and Discovery of a Film: The Story of the Fifth Element", Luc Besson, 1997.
• In one scene, Zorg quotes Nietzsche: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Incidentally, this was also the title of an album recorded by Bruce Willis in the mid-1980s.
• We see in a brief shot of New York Harbor, that there is much less water left (the island containing the Statue of Liberty is now connected directly to the mainland). This suggests that either there was extensive land reclamation, or the surface of the ocean is considerably lower. There are, however, still oceans left, as we can see the Earth from space in a few scenes. However, pollution is so widespread that no one can walk or live anywhere on the actual ground; this is seen in a police chase where Korben Dallas flies his car down to ground level, where there is so much smoke and fog that the police cannot see him - indeed, they drive their car right past where he is hiding.
• Interestingly enough, Korben (the main character) and Zorg (the main villain) never encounter one another in person, or even learn about each other directly. Korben was employed by a taxi company owned by Zorg and was subsequently sacked during a massive downsizing. They are briefly in the same shot in an elevator bank on the Fhloston Paradise cruise ship.
• As a visual motif, Korben usually has a large rectangle behind him and Zorg has a large circle behind him.
• When ABC first broadcast The Fifth Element, they digitally removed all the Golden Arches since McDonald's was a sponsor.
• Korben Dallas was originally supposed to be a worker in a rocket ship factory. When the film went into development hell in the early 1990s and Besson went on to make Léon starring Jean Reno, comic book artist Jean-Claude Mézières, who had been hired as a conceptual designer, returned to drawing The Circles of Power, the 15th volume in the Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series. This featured S'Traks, a character who drives a flying cab through the congested air traffic of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Besson read the album and subsequently changed the character of Dallas to a cab driver whose taxi flies through the Rubanis-inspired metropolis of the future New York.
• The Fifth Element shares several major elements with the French comic book series Valérian, which takes place in a highly stylized envisioning of the near future and features an ultra-masculine weapons expert assigned to protect the seemingly vulnerable Laureline (who is depicted with bright red hair, as is Jovovich in the film). It is ultimately Laureline, however, who saves her protector from the evil plans of the comic's primary villain, also named Zorg.
• In an original version of the script, Zorg confronts Korben aboard the hotel. Zorg then fails to kill them when he discovers he used all of the ammo in his ZF1 (which Korben points out, intentionally resembling the would-be mugging earlier in the film). Korben and company escape, and Zorg activates a shield in his ZF1. He then survives and lands on Planet Fhloston. Zorg tries to call his secretary to send another spaceship, but the batteries in his ZF1 phone die. This version is reflected in the novelization.
• On the DVD closed captioning, the phrases that Leeloo says that are included are "Mlarta", "Big Ba-Dah Boom", "Akta", "Seno Akta Gamat", "San agamat chay bet. Envolet", "Danko", "Domo Danko" and "Apipoulai". The rest is called "unknown language" and when it is specified, "divine language". As it happens, "badaboum" is a French Onomatopoeia depicting a big explosion.
• References to Star Wars abound in the film. The opening scene mimics the scene in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back where Imperial Troops are helping Boba Fett carry Han Solo's frozen body out of Cloud City. A female major has hair similar to Princess Leia's iconic hairstyle from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The priest's costume is heavily reminiscent of Obi-Wan Kenobi's outfit in Episode IV. The monk Vito Cornelius also mimics Obi-Wan Kenobi as a deus ex machina for the protagonist of the film, as well as one of the last repositories of an ancient monastic code. The design of the federal battleships is similar to Imperial Star Destroyers. Mangalores bring to mind the word Mandalore and Mandalorians. Plavalaguna resembles a Twi'lek. Also, the futuristic New York City has a setting very similar to Coruscant.
• The scene in which a nervous would-be mugger attacks Dallas as he leaves his apartment is a direct parody of a similar incident in the television show Seinfeld (complete with the distinctive bass riffs which in Seinfeld mark transitions from scene to scene). The mugger is played by Mathieu Kassovitz, a French film director and actor who is a close friend of Luc Besson.
• The Fifth Element was shot in Super 35 mm film format. Most of the scenes contain visual effects, including futuristic elements. Scenes containing visual effects are almost always hard-matted.
• As a digital in-joke, the license plates on the flying cars say "New York, the fuck you state". Of course, the slogan is too small to be read on screen.
• A number of manga volumes can be seen in Dallas' apartment, including Osamu Tezuka's Adolf and Sanctuary by Fumimura Sho and Ikegami Ryoichi.
• The cop in the driver's seat of the flying police car parked at the drive-through of the McDonald's is played by American actor Mac McDonald, who also played Captain Frank Hollister in the British series Red Dwarf, as well as appearing briefly in the extended scenes at the beginning of Aliens (Special edition).
• When the film was released, it was rumored to be the first of a two-part series, the second of which would be called Mr. Shadow (named after the Ultimate Evil character). However, no such sequel is currently planned.
• The film's heavy use of neon colors (particularly orange) inspired a brief resurgence in the popularity of brightly colored clothing, a trend which had been waning after the initial thrust of rave culture faded.
• A small reference to the original James Bond novel Casino Royale exists within Fifth Element, at the New York "Spaceport" when Zorg causes the phone booth to explode via remote control following his conversation with his assistant Right Arm.
• The name Mondoshawan may be related to the word Manichaean, a person who practices Manichaeism. This ancient religion posits that the universe is, and always has been, dualistically composed solely of Light and Dark (or Good and Evil) which are in continual battle, in a similar way to the Fifth Element storyline.

References to and parodies of "The Fifth Element"

• In Miss Dynamite XIX, the intro shows main character Eva Sirkowski in a variety of different outfits that can be selected by the viewers. One of those outfits is a replica of Leeloo's from the film. Also, in this design, Eva's hairstyle changes from a blonde to a redhead.
• Comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson recorded an audio commentary for the film in 2006 for the RiffTrax website.
• In the video for the TLC song "No Scrubs", singer T-Boz wears a slightly modified version of the outfit that Cornelius gives Leeloo in the film.
• In the episode The Mansion Family of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns has a disposable, self-replacing bed.
• The title of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel 'The Fifth Elephant' is a parody of The Fifth Element.

External links

• The Fifth Element at IMDb
• Information about the "divine language"
• Keith Short - Film Sculptor Images of set pieces sculpted for this film
• Fhloston Paradise - A group devoted to the movie on the Flickr photo website. (collection of people in costume, movie stills, and things that are reminiscent of the film)