The fifth element
Year of release : 1997
Run time : 2h6m
Genre : Sci Fi / Action
Cast : Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Luke Perry
The movie was created and directed by Luc Besson, who also co-wrote the movie.
In 1914, Egypt, an archaeologist reads hieroglyphics about a prophecy happening every 5000 years, about an evil being defeated by good with the 4 forces of nature (water, fire, air, earth) powered by a fifth element.
A priest is trying to poison the archaeologist, but he doesn’t toast with water, and while trying to figure out how to end him, a space ship looking like a heart lands in front of the temple.
The aliens tell the priest he served them well, but they need to take the 4 stones, for they are not safe on earth anymore. They tell him they shall return in 300 years when evil shall return to earth.
In the 23d century, a fireball planet appears in space considered a great evil. It moves towards a space ship which it destroys and heads to earth.
In South Brooklyn, New York, former major Korben Dallas wakes up after a nightmare. He is asked to accept a new mission by his former superior, but he refuses, as he says he’s a taxi driver now, with only 5 points left on his driver’s licence.
Priest Vito Cornelius warns the president of the great evil which only wants to exterminate all forms of life, and which can be defeated with 4 elements protected by the fifth element, a supreme being created to protect life, bringing life to the universe.
The aliens who took the stones return, but their ship is destroyed by a crew of alien mercenaries.
Only a bit of one of the aliens was recovered from the destroyed ship. The scientists think this being is perfect, and are recreating it in the lab. The man they keep on talking about turns out to be a woman.
When threatened with learning their language, the woman breaks out of the box she was put into to be brought back to life. She breaks out through the ventilation system and lands from very high, onto Dallas’ flying car, leaving him with one point on his license.
The police follow her, and she asks Dallas for help, in English, seeing the poster on his door “Please Help”. Dallas decides to help her, losing the one point he had left on his license.
When they finally escape the police, and the taxi is crashed, the woman is asking for the priest Vito Cornelius before she blacks out.
When the priest sees Dallas with the woman in his arms he sends him to the wedding chapel, but when he realizes she’s the fifth element he collapses.
When Dallas wakes the woman up, she tells him her name is Leeloo. He leaves her with the priest where she learns the history of the world and English. She tells the priest the stones are safe.
Zorg,an evil industrialist on earth, sends for the priest, asking him where the stones are. He lets him go for saving his life when he choked on a cherry.
His men find out from the police they are spying on that the stones are in the possession of a diva, Plavalaguna.
So the police rigs a radio contest, having Dallas win 2 tickets to a flying hotel in space for 10 days. All of a sudden, everybody pretends to be him to get the tickets, and the priest with Leeloo make a comeback as they want the tickets.
I personally enjoyed the movie, it was fun to watch. It had action and comedy in perfect amounts, and even romance.
They speak in a made-up language called “the divine language” which doesn’t have subtitles.
I liked the world they created, the set design, but I didn’t like the costumes by Jean-Paul Gautier. It seems I don’t like his creations, as he also made costumes for Kylie Minogue and Madonna’s concerts and I hated the outfits. I find them hideous.
One thing that bothered me was that this was the supreme being, with superpowers, but it needed help from humans, and didn’t already know all the languages and so on.
The acting was good. Chris Tucker was hilarious, I loved him!
Rapper Tricky, from Massive Attack, has a small role in the movie, and I think I’ve seen other celebrities of the time making cameos.
Movie director Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika), makes a cameo appearance as the robber knocking on Bruce Willis’ door.
I didn’t like the soundtrack. They played songs which didn’t match whatever was on the screen. Like for example, they played a song which didn’t match in the car chasing scene, to the point I was wondering if the song was played on Dallas’ car radio. I liked the opera song with the remix.
The visual effects were good when it involved real crafts. When it involved CGI you could tell it was fake.
Luc Besson first wrote the story for the movie when he was 16 years old, and it took him more than that amount of time until the movie was made.
Luc Besson also considered Mel Gibson for the role of Dallas, and Julia Roberts for Leeloo. In the end, he chose Milla from over 200 auditions, which included actresses like Diane Kruger and Elizabeth Berkley.
The movie grossed almost 264 million dollars at the box office, against a 90 million dollars budget, being the 9th highest grossing movie on the year 1997. At the time of its release it was the most expensive European movie ever made. Until 2011, it was also the highest grossing French movie.
Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B. On IMBD it has a 7.6 rating.
The movie has an Oscar nomination, won a BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects, won the Cannes Film Festival Technical Grand Prize award, was nominated for 8 Cesar Awards, winning 3, among many other awards nominations, including for 2 Razzie Awards nominations (for Milla Jovovich and Chris Tucker) and 4 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards nominations.
You can watch the full movie for free, on the Ok.Ru platform.
Rating : Worth a watch !