A First Time Look at "The Fifth Element"
- Matt Palmer
- Jul 23
- 4 min read
Initial release date: May 9, 1997
Streaming: Netflix/YouTube/Tubi/various PVOD services (as of writing this review)
Plot: The Earth is about to be destroyed by a huge ball of fire racing towards the planet. Cornelius, an old monk, knows how to stop the burning sphere with the help of Korben Dallas, a taxi driver and a former secret agent and a woman named Leeloo.
MPA: Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi violence, some sexuality and brief nudity (runtime 126 minutes)
When Luc Besson's The Fifth Element burst into Theater's in 1997, it polarized some traditional critics who didn't know what to make of its manic energy. Audiences really got into it and over the years, it has secured a massive cult classic status. What made audiences love the movie is that it feels entirely unlike any other sci-fi blockbuster and it trades the gritty, sterile, or dystopian look of 90s sci-fi for something wildly vibrant and campy.
In the movie, we get to meet some really interesting characters. Initial audiences were captivated by Leeloo (Milla Jovovich's breakout role), the supreme being recreated in a lab. Jovovich perfectly balanced absolute physical vulnerability with jaw-dropping martial arts prowess. The character's child-like wonder. combined with her capacity for immense violence and deep grief over human history, made her the emotional anchor of the movie.
There are some other characters that are dialed up to an eleven (and maybe even more) and the cast committed to the bit completely. With his Southern accent, plastic head shield and limp, Jean Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) is one of the most bizarre and theatrical science fiction villains ever put on screen. As the hyper flamboyant, fast-talking radio host, Chris Tucker's high pitch screaming and relentless charisma, Rudy Rhod quickly became one of the most quoted and beloved parts of the movie.
And standing at the center of the madness is Bruce Willis playing the ultimate, "tired, everyday guy." His deadpan, straight man reaction to the chaos around him is the perfect foil to the cartoonist world.
The Fifth Element delivers some truly memorable and iconic moments that fans of the movie will surely remember. Leeloo's frantic, rapid-fire use of the world "multi-pass" to defend herself at the Fhloston Paradise checkpoint is probably the movie's most quotable moment. It perfectly sets up Korben's equally iconic and exhausted response when the authorities catch on.
There's also plenty of others, such as the opera scene featuring the alien Diva which is cut back and forth with Leeloo engaging in a frantic fight against the Mangalores, pretty much ever scene featuring Rudy Rhod, and the infamous "Anybody else want to negotiate."
The overall response to The Fifth Element (1997) is highly polarized but leans heavily positive, evolving from a critically divisive box-office success at launch into a beloved sci-fi cult classic today. While critics initially sparred over its chaotic pacing and campy tone, audiences embraced its vibrant, uncompromising originality.
The "Divine Language" spoken by Leeloo was invented by co-writer and director Luc Besson, and further refined by Milla Jovovich, who had little trouble learning and developing it, as she was already fluent in four languages. The language had only 400 words. He and Milla Jovovich held conversations and wrote letters to each other in the language as practice. By the end of filming, they were able to have full conversations in this language.
Luc Besson demanded that most of the action shots in the movie take place in broad daylight, as he was reportedly tired of the dark spaceship corridors and dimly lit planets common in science fiction movies, and wanted a brighter "cheerfully crazy" look as opposed to a gloomy, realistic one.
Luc Besson wrote the early screenplay during his high school year of 1975. He had conceived the story of this movie and invented its entire universe ever since he was a child, just so bringing his imagination into depiction can be an escapism away from his lonely childhood. He began writing the original script when he was only 16, though it was not released in theaters until he turned 38.
Many of the Mangalores aboard the Fhloston Paradise can be seen wearing "combat goggles." This was a practical solution to hide the actors' eyes (which were visible through the masks) and save money on make-up (contact lenses, adhesive, and coloring around the eyes).
The animatronic mechanisms used for the Mangalore masks were later recycled for the Neimodians in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).
It took a team of 80 workers five months to build the models used in this movie.
If you look closely when Ruby Rhod sings "All Night Long," Bruce Willis can be seen trying not to laugh.
Despite this movie's success and positive reviews from critics, Luc Besson decided not to make a sequel or otherwise expand the Fifth Element universe and pursued other interests.
Both Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman turned down Con Air (1997) to do this film instead.
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