The Fifth Element

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 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.

Plot

The opening scene is set in 1914 in a ruined Egyptian temple, where an archaeologist (John Bluthal) and his assistant (Luke Perry) uncover ancient writings describing the arrival of a Great Evil every five millennia. The excavation is interrupted when an extraterrestrial ship lands in the area. Its occupants, the Mondoshawans, enter the temple and reveal a hidden chamber which contains four stones corresponding to the four essential elements of water, fire, earth, and air arranged around a statue, the eponymous Fifth Element, which conjugates the four into the organic life of the universe and the only means by which to stop the Great Evil.^[1] The Mondoshawans thank a priest (John Bennett) for preserving the temple and its knowledge through the generations, before taking the stones to keep them from being damaged in a forthcoming war. They pledge to return when the Great Evil reappears and charge the priest with the task of passing on his knowledge and preserving the temple.

Three centuries later, in the year 2263, a Federated Navy battleship witnesses a planetary eclipse, which gives birth to the Great Evil. On Earth, at the United Federation's headquarters in New York City, Priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) assures Federation President Lindberg that the Mondoshawan will deliver the weapon essential to Earth's survival. During their journey, however, the Mondoshawans' ship is shot down by Mangalores, a slow-witted, shape-shifting, warrior-like alien race that was recently devastated by a conflict with the Federation. From the wreckage of the ship, Federal scientists recover the severed fist of one of the crew members, from whose surviving cells they clone or regenerate Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), an apparently human woman observed on a physical and genetic level as a "perfect being." Leeloo, terrified by the scientists, escapes the laboratory and dives into the passing, flying taxicab driven by Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a recently-divorced former major in the Federated Army's Special Forces. Following an extensive air chase through the multi-level traffic by the NYPD, Dallas brings the insensate woman to Cornelius, who quickly rushes him out.

The Mangalores then rendezvous with Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman), a wealthy industrialist who is aiding the Great Evil and selling weapons to the Mangalores so they can have their revenge on the Federation. At Cornelius's apartment, Leeloo reveals that the four magical stones are safeguarded by renowned opera singer Diva Plavalaguna (Maïwenn Le Besco), whom Leeloo must meet. Zorg, upon learning that the Mangalores have brought him an empty case rather than the stones of power, leaves a single crate of his weapons for the Mangalores, deliberately not revealing the weapons' self-destruction mechanism, which is activated and kills its users. A few survivors decide to obtain the stones of power for themselves.

President Lindberg, learning about the stones and the Diva from General Munro, rigs a contest for tickets to Fhloston Paradise, a spaceliner where the Diva will be performing, and drafts Dallas back into the Federated Army to retrieve the stones. Cornelius, unaware of the President's plan, sends Leeloo and his acolyte David (Charlie Creed-Miles) to masquerade as Dallas and his newlywed wife, in which disguises they will infiltrate the shuttle flight to Fhloston. Dallas intercepts them at the JFK International Airport and boards the shuttle with Leeloo. Cornelius, learning about Dallas's sudden reappearance, hides aboard the shuttle, where Dallas is accosted by the talkative radio host Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker). The shuttle arrives at the Fhloston Paradise, followed by Zorg, while the Mangalores infiltrate the space liner. Rhod and Dallas attend the Diva's performance while Leeloo waits for the Diva in her quarters. The Mangalores storm Diva's quarters to take the briefcase that seems to hold the stones, and Leeloo remembers them from their attack on the Mondoshawan ship, gets angry and fights them single handedly. Zorg then enters and wounds her, steals the briefcase, and arranges for the liner to explode. While this occurs, the Mangalores hijack the space liner, fatally wounding the Diva, who reveals to Dallas that the stones are inside her body and cautions him to guard Leeloo. After extracting the stones, Dallas repels the Mangalores and gains control of the space liner before seeking and finding Leeloo. Here, the bomb alarm activates. As the passengers leave in lifeboats, Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Rhod hasten to the dock, narrowly missing Zorg who, having found that the captured case is empty, returns to deactivate his bomb. The Mangalores, however, destroy the liner themselves, killing Zorg.

As Dallas and company return to Earth in Zorg's fighter ship, the Great Evil solidifies into an asteroid and hurls itself at Earth. Leeloo, physically and emotionally wounded from the fighting, questions the validity of protecting life that is not worth protecting, referring to humanity's acts of intraspecies war and genocide. As they land at the temple which David has prepared for their arrival, Dallas tries to coax the workings of the weapon needed to fight the Great Evil from Leeloo. As the group slowly discovers the process and activates the stones by putting them into contact with their respective elements, Leeloo is hesitant to provide the Divine Light needed to complete the weapon, fearing that humans will inevitably destroy themselves. Dallas convinces Leeloo of humanity's hope and of his love for her, then gives her a passionate kiss, allowing Leeloo to release the fifth and final element. The Divine Light strikes the Great Evil seconds before it reaches Earth, neutralizing the Evil and changing it into a second moon. Amidst the worldwide jubilation, the President visits the facility where Leeloo was cloned to congratulate Leeloo and Dallas, who are unavailable as they evidently are busy making love in the privacy of the regeneration chamber.

Production

Script

Korben Dallas was originally intended to be a laborer in a rocket ship factory. 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.

Home release

The original home video release of The Fifth Element took place in North America on December 10, 1997, in VHS 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 October 9, 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 January 11, 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 June 20, 2006, and was widely criticized as having poor picture quality. Some have described it as barely on-par with the DVD release. Sony subsequently made a remastered Blu-ray version available, released on July 17, 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.

Cast

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

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 in 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.
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 Thai fast-food vendor	the ancient master in the television show Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
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

• 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]

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.

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).

The Divine Language

The "Divine Language" spoken in the film is an artificial language with only 400 words, invented by director Luc Besson and Milla Jovovich (the number of words in the English language is put at between 475,000 and 600,000. See Number of words in English. Special English uses a vocabulary of 1,500 words). 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".

The term "Senno Ekto Gamat" used by Leeloo after Dallas kisses her means "never without my permission".

• The Divine Language Complete dictionary and reference guide

Soundtrack

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.

When composer Eric Serra showed soprano 'Inva Mulla Tchako' (who dubs the voice of the Diva) the sheet music for the Diva Dance, she reportedly smiled and relayed to him that some of the notes written were not humanly possible to achieve because the human voice cannot change notes that fast. Hence, she performed the notes in isolation -- one by one, as opposed to consecutively singing them all together and they digitized the notes to fit the music. There are a few moments when you can hear the differences in the vocal tones of The Diva's voice.

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.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Éric Serra unless indicated otherwise.

1. "Little Light of Love" – 4:50
   • Performed by RXRA
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. "Lucia di Lammermoor" (Gaetano Donizetti/Salvatore 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

Reception

Young woman with a Leeloo costume during the Burning Man Festival.

The Fifth Element was generally well received by critics^[5] and film fans.^[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.

Spin-offs

A 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]

References

Notes

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.

External links

• 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 dictionary and reference guide

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