The Fifth Element is a 1997 English-language French Science FictionFilm. The brainchild of director Luc Besson, it stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker and Ian Holm.The movie opens in 1914, in an Egyptian temple, where an archaeologist, assisted by a reporter, discovers hieroglyphs that report about a Great Evil that is unleashed and tries to destroy all life every five millennia and the weapons to defeat it: four stones representing water, fire, air and earth and a "perfect being" representing a fifth element sealed in a sarcophagus. A priest on site seems incredibly disturbed that the discovery is being made, going so far as to (unsuccessfully) poison the archaeologist to prevent the discovery. Just as the discovery is made, the Sufficiently Advanced Aliens who made the temple in the first place (and whom the priest, and all those who have come before him, have secretly served) arrive in a giant spaceship and take away the stones and the sarcophagus, explaining that they are unsafe with the imminent war on Earth. The aliens also order the priest to continue to take care of the temple and to pass on his knowledge, as it was passed on to him, to prepare for the Great Evil's incoming. The priest points out that they're leaving Earth defenseless, and the aliens reply that when the Great Evil returns, so shall they. Cut to...2263, where the Great Evil is starting to form itself. On their way to deliver the five elements back, the aliens are shot down by a ship of another race of proud warrior aliens, who steal the box which would contain the stones. The remains of the "fifth element" are found and Earth scientists reconstruct it, generating an orange-hairedMysterious Waif named Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat, or "Leeloo" for short, who breaks out of the lab and dives into a taxi driven by ex-soldier Korben Dallas. With the Great Evil getting closer, Korben has to help Leeloo save the planet.As shown by the outline above, part of the fun comes from taking basically every sci-fi\action cliché possible, and not using them all seriously. The stylized visuals resembling sci-fi comics also help.
The Fifth Element provides examples of the following tropes:
2-D Space: The border of the Federated Territories is a massive line of buoys (presumably scanners) which detect incoming ships and turn green to indicate that they may pass. There's not even multiple lines.
At least, not in sight. It's at least possible that the range to the next line of buoys is quite large.
It's apparently a symbolic border... there's nothing to stop the Mangalore ships from zooming right across it, but the Mondochiwan approach there and stop at it because they're being diplomatic.
Air Vent Passageway: Played straight when Leeloo escapes the lab in the beginning. Subverted when she tries it against Zorg; he has a machine gun and the vent is noisy, so he does eventually hit her.
Almost always. The last words any of them speak are, "for the honor", so YMMV.
Ancient Order Of Protectors: The Mondoshawan's Earth followers seem to have elements of this. One was willing to kill an archaeologist who was on the verge of discovering the elemental weapon.
Arc Number: The number 5 appears throughout the movie.
Attack Backfire: The big dark planet of evil is attacked by Earth's military with several missiles. Instead of the missiles hurting it, they cause it to get bigger.
At The Opera Tonight: One of the most entertaining opera scenes on film, intercut with a fight scene for Leeloo. Actually an opera in space in a Space Opera. How appropriate!
And also a stunningly beautiful song, in front of an amazing view- the planet from orbit!
Autodoc: The machine used to "repair" Leeloo. It actually reconstructs her from what is essentially a bone fragment containing living cells.
Awesome Yet Practical: The Replay feature on the ZF-1 is cool. If you can hit your target once, you can proceed to send another few dozen at them with very little effort. Extremely practical. The first hit in a gunfight is often decisive, but armour can often stop a bullet, or you might graze them or not actually damage them badly enough to stop them. Or they could be a giant alien who needs more than one hit to take them down. That first hit will be even more decisive when it turns into 30 more hits while the shooter is behind cover.
Badass Adorable: Leeloo is cute, innocent, has No Social Skills, No Nudity Taboo and is perfectly capable of breaking every bone in your body without breaking a sweat. Which she will do if you cross her.
Bald Black Leader Guy: Lindberg, the President of Earth, played by former professional wrestler Tom "Tiny" Lister, Jr.
Ballistic Discount: Subverted, where Zorg shows the Mangalores all the fancy special features of the consignment of assault rifles they've ordered, and they walk off with them without completing their side of the bargain. Turns out his insurance policy was to show them all the fancy special features except explaining What That Little Red Button Does — it's a high-explosive self-destruct.
Big Applesauce: Of all the places to bring a Supreme Being, it's of course New York City.
Birthmark of Destiny: Leeloo carries the symbols of the four elements as a marking her wrist most identify as a tattoo.
When the Mangalores fail to deliver the stones to Zorg, he tricks them into blowing themselves up with the ZF-1's self-destruct function. Guess what happens to Zorg on the ship later? (See Karmic Death below.).
During one of the phone calls with Korben's mother (specifically, to the President because her son saves the Earth), she can be briefly heard alluding to previous scenes:
Korben's mother: I might as well throw myself into trafficnote (Happens to Leeloo during her lab escape.) or Saran Wrap myself to the bednote (Happens to Cornelius in Korben's apartment.) and pretend my child is suffocating me...
Rhod: They're warriors, and they're ugly. They got big teeth, big foreheads, big ears, and they stink. Munro: Mangalores.
Bullethole Door: Ruby Rhod gets an oval floor exit from Korben Dallas and the opportunity to ride the piece down one level.
Camera Spoofing: A thief at the beginning of the film does this to Korben's apartment camera by wearing a hat with a picture of the background on it. Thus, by tilting his head at the camera, it looks like everything's clear. Then he pops up and tries to mug Korben. Korben tricks him into turning the gun safety on, takes his gun, then compliments the hat.
Ruby Rhod and his entourage play every camp stereotype to the hilt, even though they're not gay. Just because Ruby's fabulous doesn't mean he doesn't love the ladies. A lot. According to the DVD Commentary, Ruby (originally named "Loc") is a combination of Prince and Lenny Kravitz. Ruby even oddly uses the female pronoun when referring to himself on radio calling himself Miss Ruby Rhod.
Also applies to Baby Ray, the deaf "star of stage and screen", who is surrounded by a gaggle of admiring ladies when we first meet him. If anything, it seems like this is the fashion of the future and Korben is the aberration as a manly man.
Car Cushion: Leeloo jumps from a building and falls into Korben Dallas' taxi.
Chekhov's Gun: If you want an example of how to use this trope well, look no further. Almost everything important in this movie is introduced in a previous scene. A partial list includes Korben's matchbook, Leeloo reading about martial arts, and the Mangalores being able to shapechange.
Clone Jesus: Leeloo, though she isn't really cloned per se.
Closet Shuffle: A rather spectacular example involving multiple people and a truly improbable selection of hiding places (including a freezer and a self-making pull-out bed). None of the people Korben hid enjoyed their hiding places very much. Leelo got wet and cold when the shower began its self-clean, the military guys got frozen, and the priest nearly suffocated under the plastic that the bed wraps itself in.
Coitus Uninterruptus: At the end, Korben and Leeloo are making love in the regeneration chamber when the President comes in to congratulate Korben.
Colony Drop: Well, a huge moon-like thing, anyway.
Concealment Equals Cover: A snooker table somehow provides protection; although they're usually floored by a big slab of slate, it would be unlikely to stop high-powered rifle rounds.
Cosmic Keystone: Leeloo, who acts as a superweapon against evil.
Costume Porn: Literally. Costumes by Jean-Paul Gaultier! (At the time, hands down the single most sought-after fashion designer in the world.)
Crapsack World: New York City is an overcrowded and polluted Police State. Implied that Zorg's influence may spread this beyond the borders.
Crash into Hello: Leeloo literally crashes through the roof of Dallas's car.
Creepy Monotone: The attendant who introduces Korben to his room. Except when she talks about Ruby Rhod, then she gets all excited.
Deadpan Snarker: Korben, as any Bruce Willis action hero requires.
Down To The Last Match: Needed for the activation of the fourth element at the climax of the movie.
Dude Shes Like In A Coma: Dallas kisses an unconscious Leeloo. He realizes this is a bad idea when in the next moment she's woken up and is pointing his own gun at his head while angrily saying something in an alien language. Fittingly, what she says is translated by the priest as, "Never without my permission."
Dulcinea Effect: Korben is moved enough by the shaky pleading of the unintelligible redhead that just fell through the roof of his cab, to get into a high-speed chase with the police. He's at least Genre Savvy enough to realize that he's getting into far more trouble than he can really afford.
Dye Hard: Milla Jovovich's hair was to be dyed from its natural brown color to her character's signature orange color. However, due to the fact that her hair had to be re-dyed regularly to maintain the bright color, Milla's hair quickly became too damaged and broken to withstand the dye. Eventually a wig was created to match the color and style of Leeloo's hair, and was used for the remainder of the production.
Element Number Five: We would have just called it The Fifth Element if this movie hadn't beaten us there.
Eureka Moment: After David's Chance Activation of the Air Stone, it takes the others a few minutes to work out that he did so by breathing on it; from there it's a short step to "use each Element to activate its respective Stone".
Excessive Steam Syndrome: The airlock of the Mondoshawans' ship hisses steam and drips condensation when it first opens up at the Egyptian temple.
Evil Laugh: Zorg gets one, then breaks down in tears.
Evil Only Has to Win Once: Mr. Shadow comes back and attacks again every five thousand years. If he wins once, it's all over.
Evil Overlord List: Zorg practically quotes Number 68 as he lets Cornelius go after Cornelius saves his life.
Evil Sounds Deep: "Mr. Shadow" appears only as a voice on the telephone, and it's about as deep as you can get and still be comprehensible.
Fake American: British actor Gary Oldman plays Zorg, a character who speaks with an extremely exaggerated southern US twang (illustrated by the line "Leave them one crate. For the cause." which is so heavily accented it comes out sounding like "For the course.")
Also counts for Christopher Fairbank playing Professor Mactilburgh in an early scene. He's generally more well known as Moxey, a Scouser, in British comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Fanservice with a Smile: The female staff of every non-governmental organization shown onscreen. Note the McDonald's drive-thru girls....
Food Pills: Leeloo pours a small amount of food pellets into a bowl, puts the bowl in a microwave-like device, closes the door, presses a button, and opens the door again, pulling out an instant roast chicken with all the trimmings. Forget faster-than-light travel; that is clearly the pinnacle of human achievement.
For Science!: Professor Mactilburgh sure does love the prospect of regrowing the supreme being in his lab.
Munro: Sounds like a freak of nature to me. Mactilburgh: Yeah, can't wait to meet 'im!
Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny when the light changes during the above dialog, and the (extremely numerous) artificial implants in both characters glow.
Freeze Frame Bonus: When Korben receives his letter telling him he's fired, you'd see the company he'd been working for was Zorg's.
Glass Cannon: As described by the Diva, Leeloo is more fragile than she seems; she can fight, but she can be hurt, and her heart is even more vulnerable than her body.
Going by the Matchbook: Surprisingly, searching for and not finding matches is a repeated in-joke.
Good Needs Evil: Zorg's perfect example of the Broken Window Fallacy:
Zorg: Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos. Now take this empty glass. Here it is: peaceful, serene, boring. But if it is destroyed... (pushes the glass off the table; it shatters on the floor, and several small machines come out to clean it up) ...Look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people, who will be able to feed their children tonight, so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain of life. You see, father, by causing a little destruction, I am in fact encouraging life. In reality, you and I are in the same business.
Harmless Freezing: General Munro and two of his men were stuffed in the freezer by Korben Dallas to hide them from the cops. He freed them after a couple of minutes when they were already frozen still. But later on the General seems to be OK again. note In the novelization, it's not so harmless: the General is later described to have had a couple of fingers amputated as a result.
Heroic BSOD: Leeloo descends into despair as she sees humans' inhumanity to their fellow humans, almost losing it completely when Diva is killed, and then decides to read up on the "WAR" section of the encyclopedia. This becomes an important plot point almost immediately afterward, as she initially refuses to save the Earth if war and violence are all it has to offer.
Much of the futuristic New York and the character of Korben Dallas pay homage to the Harry Canyon story from Heavy Metal.
The French comic series Valerian by Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin features a near-identical flying taxi in the album Circles of Power, though with driver whose personality has little in common with Korben's. Much of the costume inspirations also comes from this comic. Mézières was one of the film's Production Designers. The other was Jean Giraud, a.k.a. Moebius).
Honor Before Reason: The Mangarlores may have their own skewed concept of what is and isn't honorable, but they otherwise abide by this trope in spades.
Informed Attractiveness: The only way you could believe that Chris Tucker dressing like RuPaul is one of the sexiest media personalities in the universe is to have one or more of the female extras explicitly tell you they find him sexy.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Leeloo, who at first doesn't bother to hide her nudity when changing clothes.
Instant Expert: Leeloo learns English in the space of about a day, by speed-reading the 23rd century equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In the novelization, she learns all the languages of humanity.
Justified by the fact that her DNA contains 200,000 memo strands, which probably explains her inordinately fast learning time for everything, not just languages.
Interscene Diegetic: The Diva's aria is heard continuously over shots of her singing and of a fight scene happening elsewhere at the same time.
Zorg, who is bombed when one of his own mercenaries sets one off, mere seconds after disabling the one he himself triggered earlier. Further emphasized by the fact that earlier in the movie Zorg mocked the Mangalore's moral code of dying for honor only to become a victim of one of their "honorable" deaths.
Magic Countdown: Subverted when Zorg stops the bomb with 5 seconds to spare, and then the Not Quite Dead Mangalore sets off his own bomb with a 5 second countdown.
Mayfly December Romance: Leeloo and Korben. Hard to tell for sure though, it's possibly subverted. They never say if Leeloo is immortal or was just kept in stasis.
Mechanistic Alien Culture: The Mondoshawan. Are they beings wearing powered suits of armor, or are they Mechanical Lifeforms? It's pretty ambiguous. Then again, some of the dialog during Leeloo's reconstruction scene implies that the Mondoshawan have DNA (it's also implied that Leeloo, the titular "Fifth Element" and Living MacGuffin, had a form similar to a Mondoshawan prior to being reconstructed in human form, since the piece of her that they used to reconstruct her appeared to be a Mondoshawan hand).
Mood Whiplash: All in the space of a single opera song, we go from aching melancholy, to a fightscene overlaid with much happier (and rockier) music... and then suddenly Leeluu is in mortal danger, the Diva gets shot and all Hell breaks loose.
Nothing Can Save Us Now: "We're never gonna make it." Cue a clever action that does lead to them being saved
Nothing Can Stop Us Now: Munro is assured that Leeloo's containment vessel is unbreakable. Thirty seconds later, she breaks through the glass with her bare hands., no less! Also counts as Special Effects Failure, as the obviously whole glass has quite clearly been replaced with a visible breakaway circle for Leeloo to punch, and the timing is slow enough that you'll probably notice it without having to pause.
Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Dallas helpfully tells someone trying to rob him that the gun isn't loaded, and even gives him time to push the button, turning the safety on.
Done by Leeloo after brawling with a Mangalore strike force
And earlier, (accidentally) by Ruby Rhod to a flight attendant with his mic/pimp-cane.
Oh Crap: Zorg has one of these in the form of a Little No when he realizes that the Proud Warrior Race is going to manually detonate the bomb anyway.
One Riot, One Ranger: Korben Dallas is sent to retrieve the elemental stones, rather than, say, intercepting the Diva with the Navy and avoiding the whole public-place hand-off thing. The movie Handwaves this with the President saying he wants the operation to be as discreet as possible. Not that it works out that way...
Leeloo: What's the use of saving life when you see what you do with it?... I don't know love. I was built to protect, not to love, so there's no other use for me.
Outrun the Fireball: Korben in the ship as the Mangalore bomb blows up the ship above Fhloston.
Overly-Long Name: Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat; she goes by "Leeloo Dallas" (Multipass) a few scenes later. "Ekbat De Sebat" is actually her title.
Police State: The Federated Territories, or at the very least New York, are like this. "This is not an exercise. This is a police control." You have to live with that in your own home, to say nothing of the spaceport. The police are extremely well-armed and can put hundreds of holes in your vehicle just based on suspicion of you being a car thief.
Poor Communication Kills: Or almost does, anyway. When Leeloo escapes, it seems that no one informs them of who or what she is. They even lose sight of this halfway through and just start shooting at the car she's in because they've deemed the occupant a car thief. "We made this chick in a lab, she's kinda important, retrieve her alive and unharmed" would have been a simple enough order to give.
Popcultural Osmosis: Flying cars in canyons from Blade Runner, but possibly also from the Métal Hurlant comics of which Luc Besson is inordinately fond. To the point of hiring Métal Hurlant artists as designers, as noted above.
Post Historical Trauma: Leeloo's breakdown towards the end, once reading about the dreaded W for War in the encyclopedia.
The Power of Love: What with the discussion between Leeloo and Korben near the end, people thought this was what the title referred to. Word of God from director Luc Besson has clarified in an interview that the Fifth Element is actually sex.
Product Placement: McDonald's. Could that sign be any bigger? Maybe if the camera crashed into... oh nevermind.
Rubber Forehead Aliens: Both played somewhat straight with Plava Laguna and averted impressively with the Mondoshawans. The Mangalores are a bit of a subversion, in that they appear to be inspired by Star Trek-type humanoid aliens but have high-tec anamatronic complete facial prosthetics that make them seem very authentic.
According to the DVD trivia track, the makers required that any actor hired to play them actually have sloped foreheads in real life in order for the masks to work.
Rule of Fun: The movie is an intentionally over-the-top, off-the-wall pop epic, cheerfully embracing every sci-fi staple it can get its hands on and running with it.
Which is why things such as the passage of time in this film fall into the "don't think about it too much" category.
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale / Artistic License - Physics: If a planetary body the size of "Mr. Shadow" got as close to Earth as it does in the film, it would have caused catastrophic damage to the planet just through its gravity and the resulting tidal forces without even needing to impact the surface (remember, even as weak as its gravity is and as far as it is from Earth, the moon causes quite a bit of distortion to Earth's surface). And that's ignoring the fact that at the distance stated, the remains of Shadow would have actually already been partially inside Earth's atmosphere! Unless they took efforts to get rid of it, it would absolutely have hit Earth anyway, just a lot slower than it had been going at first.
Shoot The Hostage Taker: After Korben takes out a few of his men, the lead Mangalore holds priest Cornelius hostage and threatens "One more shot, we start killing hostages! Send someone in to negotiate!" Korben's method of "negotiating" is to calmly walk in, Boom, Headshot the leader, then ask "anyone else want to negotiate?" while waving his gun around at the rest.
Korben Dallas' unusual first name has to be a reference to Heavy Metal artist Richard Corben, given the many other references to European science-fiction comic books found in the film.
The rather terrifying lieutenant the Military planned to send with Korben, played by Julie T. Wallace, has Leia's Hairstyle from A New Hope, only cranked Up to Eleven. Possibly also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
Earth's military spaceships look a lot like bloated Star Destroyers.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Priest Vito Cornelius delivers an absolutely brilliant one to the choking Zorg after his villainous speech (see Good Needs Evil), by pointing out that his grand empire will come tumbling down all because of one... little... cherry. Vito smacks him on the back, of course. The look on Vito's face as he Saves The Villain is practically audible: Being Good Sucks.
Skyscraper City: Manhattan is so high it seems bottomless. We barely get to see its ground, except when Korben escapes the police. In one shot of the spaceport we see why: the Hudson and East rivers have been completely drained◊.
Space Clothes: The film has a plethora of clothing made out of plastic and rubber.
Space Fighter: Fighters make a brief appearance, shooting down the friendly alien ship carrying the MacGuffin Girl protagonist.
The uniforms worn by the stewardesses, and McDonald's waitresses.
Zorg's male guards get in on the act, with tiny biker shorts.
The woman a Mangalore disguises as in the airport. She is wearing a see-through plastic skirt, over fishnet hose and a thong. In public. She fits right in.
Summer Blockbuster: Whatever else the film has to offer, it was very successful as an exercise in spectacle and light entertainment.
Korben as he's funneled into the VIP lounge to appear on Ruby Rhod's radio show.
Korben:(to flight attendant fangirl) Yes, I'm sure you're very excited, but I'm on my vacation, and I don't want to be bothered. I'd like to remain anonymous. (cue massive fanfare, followed by Ruby Rhod sliding into the scene wearing a mic/headset) Ruby Rhod: KORBENDALLAAAAAAAAAAAAS!!! Here he is, the one and only winner of the Gemini Croquette contest!
Later, when Cornelius and Ruby Rhod find the bomb left by Zorg...
Cornelius: It's a — it's a — it's a — it's a — it's a — it's a... Ruby Rhod: No no no no no no. 'Cuz if it was a bomb, the alarms would go off 'cuz all these hotels have bomb detectors, right? (the alarms go off)
Trash of the Titans: The airport has a mountain ridge of trash running through it due to the janitorial staff being on strike.
Traveling at the Speed of Plot: The movie as a whole doesn't pay a lot of attention to logical progression of time. When the 22nd century sequences begin, it's said that the "Evil" will arrive in only 48 hours, yet far more than 24 hours worth of activities take place (not the least of which is the recovery of Leeloo's remains) before Korben Dallas is assigned to go to Fhloston Paradise several hours after it is mentioned that the Diva will be performing "in four hours". Yet Fhloston is located in another solar system, so to travel there requires the passengers to be put to sleep for an unknown length of time, and it's later indicated that the actual concert takes place about a day after the flight. Oh, and we also have to factor in the flight back to Egypt and getting to the chamber. Did I mention all of this is supposed to have taken place in less than 48 hours?
It makes slightly more sense if you take the practice of putting passengers to sleep for a 20 second flight as a nested bundle of bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Treasure Chest Cavity: Plava Laguna keeps the stones inside her chest for safe keeping. Well, OK, not her chest, her stomach. There's a couple of things in the way for them to be in her chest.
Unflinching Walk: Though he actually stops just prior to the explosion, Zorg qualifies when he tricks the Mangalores into blowing themselves up. He doesn't even flinch at the big boom in the tunnels, while his assistant freaks out.
Updated Rerelease: This movie has been re-released more than once because it is great for showing off new high-end TVs. It's nearly always kept prominently displayed as a result.
Vicious Cycle: An evil planet that comes to life every five thousand years attempts to collide with the Earth, causing a chain reaction that would destroy all life in the universe. This can only be prevented by the use of an ancient superweapon and, in the film, The Power of Love. The shot at the end when we see how close the planet got to colliding with Earth also has our eerily similarly-sized moon lingering in view as well, implying that its origins were from the last time this happened (and that it was also a very close call).
Villainous Breakdown: Zorg has one surprisingly early when the Mangalores fail to deliver the stones. He then has an even bigger one when he himself fails, though this is justified as he knows what will happen if he fails Mr. Shadow.
The Voice: Korben Dallas's mother is heard but never seen.
Ditto for Finger.
Waif-Fu: And another Leeloo trope. We are not at home to Mr. Newton, no sir.
Wasn't That Fun?: Ruby Rhod proclaims the attack of Phloston Paradise as the "best show I ever did."
Zorg also gives such an ultimatum to one of his underlings.
This second one is erroneous. Due to the extremely thick southern accent Oldman employs, the actual line spoken is "You have one hour" but it's hard to decipher without the DVD subtitles.
You Have Failed Me: Used by Zorg on the poor underling who failed to impersonate Dallas.
Right-Arm: Sorry, sir, this will never happen again. Zorg:I know. BOOM!
You Monster!: Priest Vito Cornelius tells Zorg "You're a monster", to which Zorg replies "I know."
You Were Trying Too Hard: After trying numerous ways to activate the four elemental stones, they all give up. David laments "We're not going to make it..." and sighs, inadvertently activating the wind stone. Turns out the stones need their classical element to activate (wind for wind, earth for earth, water for water, fire for fire).
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