The Fifth Element

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The Fifth Element
promotional poster
Directed by	Luc Besson
Produced by	Patrice Ledoux
Written by	Story: Luc Besson Screenplay: Robert Mark Kamen Luc Besson
Starring	Bruce Willis Gary Oldman Milla Jovovich Ian Holm Chris Tucker
Music by	Éric Serra
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Editing by	Sylvie Landra
Distributed by	Gaumont Film Company (France) Columbia Pictures (US) Pathé (UK)
Release date(s)	9 May 1997 (premiere)
Running time	126 minutes
Country	France
Language	English
Budget	$80,000,000
Gross revenue	$263,920,180 (worldwide)

The Fifth Element is a 1997 science fantasy, action-comedy, techno thriller film directed by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, and Chris Tucker. The production design for the film was developed by French comics creators Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Claude Mézières. The costume design was created by French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who produced 954 costumes for use in the film.

Mostly set during the twenty-third century, the film's central plot involves the survival of humanity, which becomes the duty of a taxicab driver (and former Special Forces member) named Korben Dallas (Willis) when a young woman named Leeloo (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. She is the Fifth Element, whose appearance was prophesied by Father Vito Cornelius (Holm). Korben's mission is to gather the other four elements (represented by four stones) before a dark planet that represents pure evil collides with Earth. Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Oldman), under the payroll of the Great Evil, hires the Mangalores, a slow-witted, shape-shifting, warrior-like alien race, who are assigned the task of obtaining the four stones.

Although largely set in a futuristic New York City, the film was a French production, with most of the principal photography filmed at Pinewood Studios in England. Some scenes were also shot on location in Mauritania. The concert scenes were filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, except for the special effect shots that show the Planet Fhloston through the ship's portholes. The Fifth Element was shot in Super 35 mm film format. Many scenes contain visual effects, and nearly all of visual effects scenes are hard-matted.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Script 2.2 Home release 2.3 Cast 2.3.1 Major roles 2.3.2 Minor roles and cameos 2.4 Cultural references 2.5 The Divine Language 3 Soundtrack 3.1 Track listing 4 Reception 5 Spin-offs 6 References 6.1 Notes 6.2 Bibliography 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The story's premise is that every five thousand years, in conjunction with a planetary alignment, a 'Great Evil' appears whose purpose is to destroy life. In preparation for the next appearance in 2263, a group of aliens called the Mondoshawan arrive on Earth in 1914 at an ancient tomb that is being excavated, to extract the only weapon capable of defeating the Great Evil, a collection of four stones representing the Classical Elements and the eponymous Fifth Element that conjugates the other four into organic life.^[1] After taking the weapons, the Mondoshawans present a key to a priest and tell him to pass the information provoking their mission through future generations in preparation for the Evil's arrival.

In 2263, the Great Evil appears and destroys a Federated Territory battleship. When the Mondoshawans attempt to deliver the Elements back to Earth, they are ambushed by another alien race, the shape-shifting Mangalores who were recently devastated in a conflict with Earth. Federal scientists are able to recover a portion of the Fifth Element and use a reconstitution device to recreate it, whereupon it takes the form of an apparently human woman named "Leeloo" described as "the perfect being". Leeloo, terrified of her unfamiliar environs, escapes the scientists and arrives in the care of taxi driver Korben Dallas, a former major in the Federated Army's Special Forces. Dallas then delivers her to Priest Vito Cornelius, the current holder of the Mondoshawans' knowledge. Dallas, Cornelius, and his acolyte David help Leeloo recover, though Dallas is forced out of Cornelius' apartment before learning her purpose. Cornelius learns from Leeloo that the four Elements were not carried by the Mondoshawans but instead entrusted to Diva Plavalaguna, a singer currently performing on a luxury space liner at Fhloston Paradise, and that Leeloo must recover the stones from her. Meanwhile, wealthy industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg has attempted to gain the stones as urged by communication with the Great Evil. After learning that the Mangalores' attack on the Mondoshawans was unsuccessful in recovering the stones, Zorg betrays and kills them, whereupon the surviving Mangalores decide to extract revenge and gain the stones for themselves.

Dallas is later met at his apartment by his former superior officer General Munro, who informs him that he has been drafted into the Army in order to travel to meet the Diva, having rigged the annual Gemini Croquette Contest to allow Dallas to win. Their meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Cornelius and Leeloo. Dallas, learning of Leeloo's need, offers to help, but is knocked out by Cornelius, who steals his winning transportation tickets and departs with Leeloo. Dallas accepts the job from General Munro and travels to John F. Kennedy International Airport, intercepting Cornelius, David, and Leeloo before they board their flight, and escorts Leeloo. The Mangalores and Zorg's assistant are rebuffed by the ticketing agent when they try to pose as Dallas. Cornelius instructs David to prepare the temple and then sneaks aboard the passenger spaceplane before it leaves.

On the flight, Dallas meets interstellar radio personality Ruby Rhod, who escorts him for being the contest winner. Upon arrival at Fhloston Paradise, Dallas is taken by Ruby to prepare for the show, while Leeloo waits near the Diva's quarters in order to retrieve the stones from her after her performance. The Diva's show is interrupted by the Mangalores, and the Diva is fatally shot. Dallas learns from her dying words that the Diva has hidden the stones inside her body; after she dies, Dallas extracts them, giving them to Ruby to hold as he defeats the Mangalores and saves the rest of the passengers and crew. Leeloo is able to defeat the Mangalores that attempted to ransack the Diva's quarters. Zorg, having flown himself to Fhloston, fights Leeloo at the Diva's quarters, injuring her and forcing her to retreat. This allows him to take the case he believes contains the stones while starting a time bomb. When Dallas goes to recover Leeloo, Zorg finds the case to be empty. Zorg re-enters the liner just as Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Ruby leave it on Zorg's ship. Zorg is able to stop his bomb; but the defeated Mangalores activate another bomb, destroying Zorg and the liner.

The four return to the temple on Earth as the Great Evil rushes towards the planet. There, Dallas finds Leeloo disillusioned and unwilling to perform her role, believing that humans will destroy themselves despite her rescue of them. As the protagonists arrange the stones in the temple to form their weapon, they are briefly baffled by their ignorance of the weapon's operation, but discover that each stone is triggered by the presence of the Classical element to which it corresponds. Dallas then convinces Leeloo to perform her role, embraces her, and kisses her. At this, Leeloo releases the weapon's "Divine Light", causing the Great Evil to become a new moon in Earth's orbit. Later, the President and General Munro go to the reconstitution lab to congratulate Dallas on his successful mission, but he and Leeloo are unavailable, despite the president's assertion that he is in a hurry. Viewers then see he and Leeloo are making love in the resurrection chamber.

[edit] Production

[edit] Script

Korben Dallas was originally intended to be a laborer in a rocket ship factory.^{[citation needed]} As the film went into development in the early 1990s, Besson went on to create Léon starring Jean Reno, while comic book artist Jean-Claude Mézières, who had been hired as a conceptual designer for The Fifth Element, returned to illustrating The Circles of Power, the fifteenth volume in the Valérian and Laureline series. This particular volume featured a character named S'Traks who drives a flying taxicab through the congested air traffic of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Besson read the book and was inspired to change the character of Dallas to a taxicab driver who flies through a futuristic New York City. The protagonist of the film, Korben Dallas, and the antagonist, Zorg, never meet or communicate, although Zorg owns the taxi company that employs Dallas and has him fired as part of one million layoffs to slow down economic growth at the request of the government.

The original name of the character Ruby Rhod was Loc Rhod. This name also appears in the novelization of the film.

[edit] Home release

The original home video release of The Fifth Element took place in North America on 10 December 1997, on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD. The original DVD was in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format, had English and Spanish audio and subtitling, and carried no special features.

The film was re-released in Sony's Superbit collection on 9 October 2001. The enhanced release, also pressed in its original 2.35:1 format, used a higher data rate for a better picture, and featured subtitling in six languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese and Thai) but only English audio and no special features.

A two-disc Ultimate Edition was released on 11 January 2005. Disc one contained the Superbit DVD with five languages of subtitles (all the Superbit subtitles except Thai) and added audio tracks in German and Swedish. The second disc provided special features, including deleted scenes and a production featurette, for the first time.

The first Blu-ray Disc release of the film occurred on 20 June 2006, and was widely criticized as having poor picture quality.^{[citation needed]} Sony subsequently made a remastered Blu-ray version available, released on 17 July 2007.^[2] The feature set of the original Blu-ray release matches Disc 1 of the Ultimate Collection, while the Remastered version contains only English and French audio. Neither release carried special features.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Major roles

Actor	Role
Bruce Willis	Korben Dallas
Gary Oldman	Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
Ian Holm	Father Vito Cornelius
Milla Jovovich	Leeloo (The Fifth Element)
Chris Tucker	Ruby Rhod

[edit] Minor roles and cameos

Actor	Role	Notes / Other well-known film roles
John Bluthal	Professor Pacoli	British comedy and film actor.
Luke Perry	Professor Pacoli's assistant, Billy	Formerly appeared as Dylan McKay on the original Beverly Hills 90210.
John Bennett	1914 priest	British television and film actor.
Charlie Creed-Miles	David (Cornelius' assistant)	Credited as "Charlie Creed Miles". British television and film actor.
Tom Lister, Jr.	President Lindberg	Professional wrestler turned actor.
John Neville	General Staedert	Played the title role in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and "the Well-Manicured Man" on The X-Files.
Brion James	General Munro, Dallas' former commanding officer	Played Leon in Blade Runner.
Sonita Henry	President Lindberg's aide	Played an alien doctor on the USS Kelvin in Star Trek.
Clifton Lloyd Bryan	Aknot, leader of the Mangalores	Vladimir McCrary plays the human Aknot.
Maïwenn Le Besco	The diva, Plavalaguna	French film director, actress, and writer, who made a short appearance, as the blond escort girl, in the first scene of Léon - The professional.
Al Matthews	General Tudor, who commands the squadron observing the Ultimate Evil	Played Sgt. Apone in Aliens.
Kim Chan	Mr. Kim, the Chinese fast-food vendor	the ancient master in the television show Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, played "Uncle Benny" Chan in Lethal Weapon 4.
Christopher Fairbank	Professor Mactilburgh, the chief scientist at the Nucleological Center	Played Moxey in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Murphy in Alien 3.
Mac McDonald	The driver of the flying police car parked at the drive-through window of McDonald's	Captain Frank Hollister in Red Dwarf.
Adrian Thaws	Zorg's assistant "Right Arm"	British musical artist Tricky.
Sybil Buck	Zorg's secretary	French-American fashion model.
Mathieu Kassovitz	The man who attempts to rob Korben on his doorstep	a French film director, actor, and friend of Besson.
Lee Evans	Fog, the cruise ship attendant	British comedian, who in 1998 went on to play Tucker in There's Something About Mary.

• Several fashion models, friends of Besson, appear; many of them, including Ève Salvail, Nicole Merry, and Stacey McKenzie play attendants on the cruise ship orbiting Fhloston.
• Although not recognizable, one of the Mondoshawans is played by British performer Jerome Blake, who performed four different alien characters in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, as well as an alien soldier in the film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Footballer Fitz Hall currently of Queens Park Rangers FC appears at the beginning of the film as a 12-year old boy.^[3]
• Lenny McLean has a minor role as "police chief", He is taken hostage by Mangalores when the space liner is hijacked and can be seen during the negotiation scene. His most acclaimed role was in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as 'Barry The Baptist'.

[edit] Cultural references

Several references are made to both real life and fictional sources throughout the film. When Korben is shown getting out of bed, the date on his bedroom wall is 18 March 2263; Besson's birthday is 18 March 1959. A number of manga volumes can be seen in Korben's apartment, including Adolf by Osamu Tezuka and Sanctuary by Sho Fumimura and Ryoichi Ikegami.

The diva's name, Plavalaguna, means "blue lagoon" in several Slavic languages. Return to the Blue Lagoon was Milla Jovovich's second starring role as an actress. Plavalaguna herself resembles a Twi'lek.^{[citation needed]}

Clever devices are used to mock certain aspects of modern culture. Korben Dallas' cigarettes are colored in such a way to imply that most of the cigarette is a filter, with only a small part actually smokable. Korben, in the course of meeting Leeloo, goes from 5 points on his license to 1 point on his license. This is inverted from the point system used in the US and UK, in which points are added, not subtracted for violations, but is in accordance with the point system used in France, where a fresh driving license has 12 points. There is also a type of national ID card in the film called a multipass, which is, evidently, easily forgeable. Additionally, the word "green" is used in the film as slang for "cool". In one scene, two police officers get their lunch from McDonald's and a crushed bottle of Coca-Cola can be seen in Korben's apartment. Lastly, during Ruby Rhod's reveal and "interview" with Korben Dallas, he sings a snippet of Lionel Richie's All Night Long (All Night).

[edit] The Divine Language

The "Divine Language" spoken in the film is a fictional language with only 400 words, invented by director Luc Besson and Milla Jovovich. Jovovich stated that she and Besson wrote letters to each other in the Divine Language as practice.^[4]

The first part of Leeloo's name, "Leeloominaï", means "precious stones", and the latter "Ekbat De Sebat" is an honorific that is never defined. No meaning is given for "Lekatariba" or "Lamina-Tchaï". "Leeloominaï" is the only word in her name that appears in Luc Besson's published dictionary. Other spellings of her name include "Leeloo mi naï", as well as "Leeloo Minai Lekatariba Lamin-atchai Ekbat Desebat", with "Lekarariba" being wrongly mistaken as the pronunciation of her "third" name. No formal declaration of the truth behind the spelling of Leeloo's name has ever come forth from Besson, but a post-production promotional poster of Leeloo leaping from a building is subtitled "Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat".

[edit] Soundtrack

The Fifth Element: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack by Various artists
Released	6 May 1997
Genre	Film score
Label	Virgin
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Musicfromthemovies link Soundtrack-express link

Much of the film's score, composed by Éric Serra, shows an influence of Middle Eastern music, particularly Raï. The music used for the taxicab chase scene, titled "Alech Taadi" by Algerian performer Khaled, is excluded from the film soundtrack, but it is available on Khaled's album N'ssi N'ssi.

In Plavalaguna's performance, the music and the vocalization abruptly shift from a classical to a pop style. This striking change is cross-cut with scenes of Leeloo's fight with the Mangalores in Plavalaguna's chamber, and the fight choreography is set to the music. In this sequence, the music is both diegetic and extra-diegetic, as the music is audible to the characters in the theater, but used as a dramatic score for the fight scene. This relationship between sound and image creates an unusual cinematic effect.

The Diva Dance opera performance featured music from Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor "Il dolce suono", the mad scene of Act III, Scene I, and was sung by Albanian soprano Inva Mula-Tchako, while the role of Plavalaguna was played by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco. Part One (titled Lucia di Lammermoor) and Part Two (titled The Diva Dance) of this piece are included as separate tracks on The Fifth Element soundtrack, but are sequenced to create the effect of the entire performance seen in the film. The end of Part One blends into the beginning of Part Two, creating a smooth transition between the two tracks.

Two versions of The Fifth Element score have been produced. In addition to the version released commercially, there is a two-disc set titled "The Fifth Element: The Complete Score", that was available exclusively as a promotional piece. The first disc in the set contains 46 tracks and the second contains 31 tracks. The tracks are sequenced in parallel to the film's narrative; although the set includes extended and alternate versions, as well as music used only in previews, and recordings not used in the final film. Tracks 5 through 31 on the second disc are the same tracks selected for commercial release. How many copies of the complete score are in circulation is not known.

In addition to the film's soundtracks, a 3-track remix CD of "The Diva Dance" was also available. The remixes were done by The Shooshoo's, and titled the following: Track 1: Radio Cosmos Mix; Track 2: Bubble Duck Mix; and Track 3: Astrobus Mix.

[edit] Track listing

All tracks composed by Éric Serra unless indicated otherwise.

1. "Little Light of Love" – 4:50
2. "Mondoshawan" – 4:01
3. "Timecrash" – 1:49
4. "Korben Dallas" – 1:43
5. "Koolen" – 0:55
6. "Akta" – 1:51
7. "Leeloo" – 4:56
8. "Five Millenia Later" – 3:13
9. "Plavalaguna" – 1:47
10. "Ruby Rap" (Serra/Luc Besson/Robert Kamen) – 1:55
11. "Heat" (Serra/Sebastien Cortella) – 2:54
12. "Badaboom" – 1:12
13. "Mangalores" – 1:06
14. "Il dolce suono" from the 3rd act of Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti/Salvadore Cammarano) – 3:10
    • Performed by Inva Mulla Tchako and the London Symphony Orchestra
15. "The Diva Dance" – 1:31
    • Performed by Inva Mulla Tchako
16. "Leeloominai" – 1:41
17. "A Bomb in the Hotel" – 2:14
18. "Mina Hinoo" – 0:54
19. "No Cash No Trash" – 1:04
20. "Radiowaves" – 2:32
21. "Human Nature" – 2:03
22. "Pictures of War" – 1:19
23. "Lakta Ligunai" – 4:14
24. "Protect Life" (Serra/Cortella) – 2:33
25. "Little Light of Love" (end titles version) – 3:29
    • Performed by RXRA
26. "Aknot! Wot?" (bonus track) (Serra/Besson/Kamen) – 3:35

[edit] Reception

The Fifth Element was generally well received by critics^[5] and the public.^[6] The film was selected as the opening film for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and became a major box office success, grossing over $263 million USD, more than three times its budget of $80 million USD. Notably, 76% of the receipts for The Fifth Element were from markets outside of the United States.^[7] The film is often cited as a cult classic.^[8][9][10]

The Fifth Element was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998 in the Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing category, losing to Titanic, but it won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects. It was nominated for seven César awards and won three for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design.

Visual Effects Society voted the visual effects of The Fifth Element to be the 50th most influential of all time.

[edit] Spin-offs

A video game adaptation based on the movie was also created by Activision for the PlayStation game console and PC. It was generally met with bad reviews and considered a failure.^[11][12]

There was also a novel adaptation by Terry Bisson and published by HarperPrism.^[13][14][15]

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Besson, Luc. (1997) The story of The fifth element: the adventure and discovery of a film, London: Titan. ISBN 1-85286-863-5
• Bizony, Piers. (2001) Digital Domain: the leading edge of visual effects, London: Aurum. ISBN 1-85410-707-0
• Hanson, Matt. (2005) "The Fifth Element", in Building sci-fi moviescapes: the science behind the fiction, Burlington, Massachusetts: Focal Press, pp. 60–66. ISBN 0-240-80772-3.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Fifth Element

• Official website
• The Fifth Element at the Internet Movie Database
• The Fifth Element at the TCM Movie Database
• The Fifth Element at Allmovie
• Sculptor Keith Short Images of set pieces sculpted for The Fifth Element
• Movie stills
• The Divine Language Complete support dictionary and reference guide

Preceded by Breakdown

Box office number-one films of 1997 (USA) 11 May, 1997 – 18 May, 1997

Succeeded by The Lost World: Jurassic Park

v • d • e Films directed by Luc Besson The Last Battle (1983) · Subway (1985) · The Big Blue (1988) · Nikita (1990) · Atlantis (1991) · Léon (1994) · The Fifth Element (1997) · The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) · Angel-A (2005) · Arthur and the Invisibles (2006)