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THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Besson’s Multi-Layered Sci-Fi Explained
The plot of The Fifth Element revolves around the ancient motif of a chosen one by the gods, who is forced to leave their comfort zone and save Earth from evil.
People are trained from a young age in messianic themes, revealing that we are all products of belief systems centered around the story of one of us, who is not quite like the rest. From the martyrdom-imbued “forty and four” to whispers about a king returning from a mythical island, humanity always keeps an ultimate instance ready, one who wields a bow and rushes into the fire with a scream. The chosen one, as an abstract value, is embodied in a specific person with divine traits. Luc Besson also adheres to this vision, inviting the viewer into the crafted world of his film.
The Fifth Element: Prologue
The prologue of The Fifth Element begins in the Egyptian desert. Its first minute looks like a fragment of a documentary film: the same slightly grainy film tape, camels led by young boys enthusiastically shouting something in an incomprehensible language.
The image, by similarity, influences the viewer, wanting them to believe in the authenticity of the depicted events. From the sun-drenched desert, one of the boys runs into the interior of a stone structure, where early 20th-century Egyptologists work on a prophecy written in hieroglyphs. The reference to this particular civilization seems to be a deliberate move. Although the beginnings of agricultural human culture are located further east, Egypt remains a symbol of the oldest civilization.
The desert space possesses a timeless and spaceless category. The landscape seemingly doesn’t change; the loose sand remains the same for humans, unable to grow and die like grasses or mountain vegetation. Only night and day remain, which say little about the passing years. The space is undefined, without points of reference except for the temple, which remains the desert’s center, tasked with information exchange and communication. It is also a place for storing weapons that protect against periodically recurring evil. Here, priests meet with divine beings from whom they receive instructions—the temple is a link between heaven and earth, an axis mundi.
Hieroglyphic signs, the sacred writing of Egypt once used by priests, are widely known. To this day, forum participants debate whether the hieroglyph images from Abydos, popularized by UFO and New Age enthusiasts, depict extraterrestrial machines.
In Luc Besson’s film, these suspicions turn out to be a truth known only to ancient priests. Beings with golden, smooth surfaces resembling robot armor arrive on Earth. The golden color remains in syntagmatic relation with the Sun, associated with divinity. Gold also indicates a precious metal, transferring this value from the golden color to the being bearing it. The Mondoshawans are valuable to the planet because of the knowledge they impart. Humans believe these beings to be divine, thus ambivalent—they help but won’t hesitate to kill (as evidenced by the death of an Egyptologist who could harm their cause). The concept of time is irrelevant to them. One Mondoshawan states, Time is of no importance, only life.
Egyptologists try to explain the meaning of the triangle, the serpent, and the small figures carved on the temple walls. The biggest surprise is that the surroundings and the shape in which the writing is arranged blur the truth: hieroglyphs are a frame for the signs the Egyptologist speaks of. The prophecy itself is written in something aspiring to the less ornamental hieratic script.
The triangle is associated with light, divinity, fire and water, and balance. It is equilateral and symbolizes perfection, forming cosmic foundations, a symbol of knowledge utilized by the Catholic religion in depictions of God. There is an allusion to the Pythagorean tetraktys, whose triangular number is ten. Pythagoreans considered it sacred. Sextus Empiricus explained this belief: By the relations of these four numbers, one comprehends both body and incorporeal things, and from these everything arises. Aristotle, commenting on the problem of ten, wrote that it is a principle both as matter for things and as properties and states. In the film, the triangle legitimizes the legend of the five elements, referring to actual ancient symbolism.
The serpent, in its primary sense, is connected with the element of water and emergence, as well as a shield, as confirmed by Medusa’s head placed on Aegis by Athena or Ophion coiling around the circular shape—the “shield” of the universe. The serpent may also be associated with the caduceus, the staff of healers, entwined with two serpents. Conversely, the reptilian nature of the animal places it on the opposite axiological pole, condemning it to eternal damnation.
A triangle of inverted human figures can be seen as a herald of chaos and destruction. The prophecy predestines humanity to a recurring fight against evil, leaving no choice but to prepare for the battle. The prophecy that dooms Earth to an attack by evil every 5,000 years exemplifies strong magic, with the viewer realizing its effect in the depicted world.
The prologue concludes with the Mondoshawans fleeing the temple with the stones and the fifth element sealed in a sarcophagus. They promise to return when Earth faces extinction again. Until then, priests must pass on the knowledge and memory of what is certain to happen.
The Fifth Element: Characters
Father Vito Cornelius is a representative of the order in the times when the main protagonist, Korben Dallas, lives.
He embodies divine wisdom. He explains to the president the origin of the fiery planet that consumes everything in its path. Initially, the president does not believe Father Vito, but a conventional attack on the planet makes him realize his powerlessness. The priest’s story borders on fantasy. He can only support his thesis with an old book, but the authorities are lost and helpless, so they do not demand scientifically proven evidence. Everyone, including the viewers, believes his words. The priest legitimizes the information with himself, being a metonymic representative of divine knowledge to which humans turn when all else fails.
The main character of the film is Korben Dallas, a former commando now working as a taxi driver in 23rd century New York. He lives with a white cat since his beloved left him. He declares his search for the perfect girl or solitude. Thus, he is a romantic hero, a modern-day knight ready to stand for good and love.
Besson’s story revolves around the theme of five elements—four elements and a human, completing this natural order.
The titular fifth element is a perfect woman. After a spaceship crash, only her hand remains, but modern technology reconstructs her genetic code, rebuilding her body and bringing her back to life. A scientist explains the reactor’s operation, saying: It’s the last phase.
Solar atoms bombard cells, forcing the body to react defensively, producing skin
The scientist is identified as such because he uses specialized language, guides through the laboratory, and, most importantly, wears a white lab coat. These standards seem unchanged in the future. The coat, associated with experiments and scientific fields, transfers its meaning to the person wearing it.
The reactor appears again in the epilogue. Naked, kissing inside it, Korben and Leeloo herald a rebirth, this time as a couple. Love is a sign of well-being, healing the soul. The soul, in turn, directly interacts with the body. Physical wounds from the battle are healed because a healthy soul is perceived as a sign of a healthy body. The metaphor is wrapped around a scientific creation—the reactor.
Leeloo, as the fifth element, an additional force, resembles the idea of Umberto Eco—likening the human body to the world. She is an element of Earth. Together with the other elements, she forms a weapon that will protect humanity. However, society has cemented another image of a person—as a half seeking its other part. The myth of love as wholeness influenced the story’s conclusion. Leeloo will defeat evil if she becomes whole, thus restoring order within herself. The weapon only activates when she hears a declaration of love and kisses Korben. Love is defined in their conversation as one of the good things on Earth worth saving. Essentially, love remains an icon of goodness. For Leeloo, it is the end of doubt caused by war images. Goodness, intertwined with awakened love in the heroine, radiates brightness and, with the help of the four elements, defeats evil.
The main heroine is not an Earthling descendant but a perfect being created by the Mondoshawans. She does not speak a human language, using what the priest calls a divine language, incomprehensible to modern people. When Leeloo wakes up in the NucleoLab in New York, General Staedert approaches her and says, If you want to get out, learn to communicate first. Language is identified with humans, distinguishing them from other beings. This is most evident in the scene where Korben introduces himself and asks the girl’s name. She responds with a long, unintelligible string of sounds.
– Nice. Is that all your name? Do you have… any nickname?
– Leeloo
– Very nice. Korben – Leeloo. Leeloo – Korben
Only a shortened form, one that can be spoken and remembered, thus having a chance to exist in the dictionary of natural language, allows Leeloo to be born. For society, she now functions as a fully-fledged person. People use language to understand each other, and the name Leeloo is similar in construction to other grammatical forms, thus resembling words. As Leeloo learns the language, she begins to understand the world and becomes more human.
The stones themselves can be mentioned during the sequence taking place in the Paradise on Fhloston in the Angel Constellation. The heroes go to a ship hovering over the ocean to meet the famous singer Plavalaguna, who is also the guardian of the stones. Plavalaguna is a representative of a race with blue skin; she is not human, but her beautiful voice indicates her beautiful interior – she is a positive character. The celestial hue of her voice is an icon of goodness, leaving no doubt about the singer’s intentions. This interpretation is enriched when Plavalaguna, wounded in the abdomen, reveals where she hid the stones – they are inside her. Korben has to reach into the dead body and extract the contents, as precious as her voice was during her life.
The stones, placed in the correct location in the temple, open through the element they represent. The wind blows, the rain falls… this clue leads Korben, the priest, the priest’s assistant, and Ruby to solve the puzzle: by contact of the element with its representation (a kind of likeness carved in the form of a graphic sign on the stone’s surface), the weapon is activated.
The prototype of the city in The Fifth Element is the future New York.
New Yorkers will feel proud and connected to the city shown on the screen, Americans will associate the setting with America. Others, however, will experience Luc Besson’s vision on several levels. Firstly, the prototype of a super-modern city corresponds to common notions of urbanity, allowing the viewer to perceive the planet as the actual center of an advanced civilization. Numerous examples of similar future visions in popular culture of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries suggest that the viewer can easily be convinced that this model is real, that it is only a matter of time. The city metaphorically represents the planet, creating an impression of a cosmic future.
Even the temple where the action concludes does not spoil the impression, as it serves as an ancient relic and cannot be associated with the rest of life on Earth. Thanks to the temple, the film comes full circle, in line with the script’s concept describing cyclical struggles against evil from prophecy.
The second interpretative layer of New York stems from the belief in America’s wonder, held by people who have never been there. Regardless of their awareness, popular history has left a mark on the popular image of the United States as a modern, economically and culturally superior country where anything can happen.
The dark planet (resembling solidified lava) moves like a ship, growing through the effect of hatred. Missiles fired at it double its diameter. The viewer’s first encounter with the planet shows its destructive power – it engulfs a spaceship with fire shaped like a skull. The skull, often seen in vanitas artworks, symbolizes death, life’s transience, uncertainty, and instability. The planet-sphere can change states – from solid to liquid, and even (the skull form from a cloud of fire) seemingly volatile. Its indeterminate state points to an amorphous existence. Midway through the film, the planet sends signals, which turn out to be a phone call to its human ally – Zorg. The evil planet gains a human trait – a voice, as well as a name – Mr.
Shadow. The voice is an iconic index of the planet or Mr. Shadow, who is the planet’s soul, as there is no indication anyone lives on the planet. The phone call is enough for thick, sticky ooze to start dripping from Zorg’s head in a dirty, maroon color. The ooze is triggered by contact with the voice, but more importantly, it is a marker of the evil the planet represents.
Zorg is like the wicked stepmother in Snow White – operating through henchmen, firing Snow White, and chasing something precious (there life, youth, and beauty, here Leeloo).
Korben Dallas works in a corporation owned by Zorg. Zorg is his highest superior, in a sense, his caretaker. If not for the strong cultural associations of a boss with a father figure, their relationship could resemble that of a child and a stepmother. The stepmother is not the child’s natural mother, just as a boss becomes a caretaker of his employee through the institution of the company. He has power over the employee but also obligations towards him. When he becomes a wicked stepmother, he begins to exploit people, disregarding their feelings and working conditions. Eventually, Zorg fires Korben through his “foreman”, who sends a dismissal letter to employees. Korben (Snow White) is left alone without a salary but possesses something Zorg desires.
This precedence in history, originally represented by beauty, is replaced by Leeloo, who grants power over the world through the weapon she is part of. The wicked stepmother, driven by greed, chases Korben through her people. The classic story is enriched by Zorg’s superior – pure evil, identifiable in the stepmother as the feeling of hatred.
The bomb is a harbinger of inevitable destruction. Even the main hero, usually a beacon of hope in such moments, is powerless against the unfolding chain of events. Korben decides to flee with the rest of the team. Meanwhile, Zorg, in pursuit, inserts a card to deactivate the bomb. However, the negative character cannot stop the symbol of destruction, as there is a second bomb planted by a group of warriors in the building. Zorg’s death (and the simultaneous destruction of the story’s strategic location) is inevitable. This is evidenced by both bomb timers. The first stops at five seconds. The second detonator is set for five seconds, causing the explosion to occur as planned.
The conversations (or more accurately, monologues) between Korben and his mother are amusing to the viewer. Initially, the hero tries to argue with her, but over time, her voice, full of complaints and grievances, fails to impress him. These phone calls humorously mark the stages of adulthood reached by the main character. His relationship with his mother is portrayed irritatingly, as nature itself demands that a child become independent from parents.
Ruby Rhod, played by Chris Tucker, is distinctly different from other characters. From the beginning, the viewer may feel that Ruby Rhod lives in a different world, not understanding what is happening around him and not trying to find out. He lives in a media world and should be associated with the media. Media, in common perception, are unrealistically real, meaning they are immaterial, although a medium, such as a TV, can be a tangible object. Ruby is unreal in the story he participates in. He represents the grand world known from everyday life, part of our reality, not the film’s characters. His style clashes with the fairy-tale convention, simply not fitting in. He introduces a comedic element to the film through his loudness, literalness, and naivety when discussing the elemental stones.
He neither helps nor harms, existing in another dimension. He carries no message, simply entertaining the viewer. His mismatch confirms that we are dealing with a fairy tale, which follows its own rules.
Story Construction
The story’s structure can be outlined as follows:
Prologue – prophecy – the appearance of evil – the appearance of hope to defeat evil – the hero’s journey and his companions (stages of acquiring knowledge needed to save the world and fighting the negative character) – punishment for negative characters – the main character’s moment of maturation – saving the world, restoring order – reward for positive characters.
The story reflects the rules governing a fairy tale: a knight rescuing his princess, a mage-priest assisting him, evil being punished.
How do we know everything ended well? The heroes restored order to the world. Evil was destroyed before our eyes. Evil, iconically represented as darkness, is the opposite of light, which is connected to the day through contact. Human experience suggests that after night comes dawn; this is the law of the solar cycle.
A keen observer who thinks reflectively during the viewing may fall into a magical trap. Another example of magic in Luc Besson’s film would never have found its way here if not for the previously noted example of the color of the jerseys of the soccer team we support, as that color becomes dear to the initially indifferent viewer.
Similarly, the hair color of the main female character affected me. Leeloo is a character I particularly rooted for. It was easy to say that her sense of alienation and extraordinary origin influenced my assessment of her, but it was only her hair color that unconsciously allowed me to identify with her. Like me, Leeloo is red-haired, and this trait made us similar, allowing me to become emotionally involved with the character created by the screenwriter and actress. The character played by Milla Jovovich, however immodest it may sound, was briefly my icon.
Words: Patrycja Bulska
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