FILM · 1997 · FRANCE
Le cinquième élément
- Directed by
- Luc Besson
- Runtime
- 126 min
- Studio
- Gaumont
132 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
In 2257, a taxi driver is unintentionally given the task of saving a young girl who is part of the key that will ensure the survival of humanity.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (132)
- #001
The "Divine Language" spoken by Leeloo was invented by co-writer and director Luc Besson and further developed by Milla Jovovich, who had little difficulty learning and expanding it since she was already fluent in four languages. The language contained only 400 words. Besson and Jovovich held practice conversations in it and wrote letters to each other, and by the end of shooting they could hold a full conversation in the language.
- #002
Contains a major spoiler — show
The explosion in Fhloston's main hall was the largest interior explosion ever filmed at the time. The resulting fire nearly got out of control and took 25 minutes to extinguish.
- #003
Luc Besson reportedly demanded that most of the film's action sequences be shot in broad daylight, as he was tired of the dark spaceship corridors and dimly lit planets common in science fiction films and wanted a brighter, "cheerfully crazy" look rather than a bleak, realistic one.
- #004
When composer Éric Serra showed soprano Inva Mula, who provided the voice of the Diva, the notes for the Diva Dance, she reportedly smiled and told him that some of the written notes were impossible to reach with the human voice, because it cannot change notes that quickly. She therefore performed the notes one by one rather than singing them all in succession, and they were digitized to fit the music. There are several moments where you can hear the differences in the Diva's vocal tones.
- #005
Luc Besson wrote the first script in 1975, during his high school years. He had conceived the story since childhood and invented its entire universe, so including his imagination in the depiction may have been an escape from his childhood. He began writing the original script when he was just 16, but it did not reach theaters until he was 38.
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hero Korben Dallas and villain Jean Baptiste Emanuel Zorg never meet and never communicate with each other in any way. They are aware of each other (Korben used to work for Zorg's company, and Zorg knows Korben won the contest), but neither is aware that the other is involved in the main plot (obtaining the stones). The only time they appear in the same scene together is when Korben flees toward the hangar of the Fhloston hotel just as Zorg has returned there. They pass each other but miss one another in the same shot for only a few frames.
- #007
At the time, it was the most expensive film made outside Hollywood, the most expensive production in Gaumont's history, and its visual effects budget of 80 million US dollars was the highest of its era.
- #008
Luc Besson wrote this story in high school and made his hero a taxi driver because his own father worked a second job as a taxi driver. He did this to support Luc's attending art school. In nearly all of Luc's films there is a taxi driver to honor his father.
- #009
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Korben first meets Leeloo and begins speaking to her in her own language, Luc Besson did not tell Bruce Willis what Milla Jovovich would say to him, so Bruce's reactions are genuine.
- #010
Contains a major spoiler — show
The flying traffic created by the visual effects team at Digital Domain allowed the artists to create personalized license plates. Although they are never visible in the film, all the plates bear the state slogan "New York, The F***-You State."
- #011
Contains a major spoiler — show
Bruce Willis improvised and delivered the line "Look, lady, I only speak two languages, English and bad English."
- #012
When shooting began, the production team decided to dye Milla Jovovich's hair from its natural brown to the orange that became her character's signature. However, because it had to be redyed regularly to maintain its bright color, Milla's hair was damaged and broke so quickly that it could not withstand the dye. Eventually a wig matching the color and style of Leeloo's hair was created and used for the rest of the production.
- #013
Diva Plavalaguna sings "Il dolce suono," an aria from the opera Lucia de Lammermoor. Because of its length, rising arpeggios and its high F above high C, it is one of the most difficult arias.
- #014
When the President tells Father Vito Cornelius that he has "20 seconds" to state his idea, Vito speaks for exactly 20 seconds.
- #015
The astonishment on Bruce Willis's face when the Diva sings was genuine. He was hearing it for the first time and seeing the performer in full makeup.
- #016
In most of Gary Oldman's shots there is a circle around his head. In fact, the circle in the center of the frame is an almost constant motif in this film. Bruce Willis, by contrast, is more often framed with a rectangle or a doorway behind him.
- #017
This film was meant to be a trilogy much like the first three Star Wars films. Luc Besson had three scripts that he gathered into a single screenplay. Stanley Kubrick had once done the same thing for A Clockwork Orange (1971); the story adapted from the film was turned from three books into a single novel.
- #018
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end of the film, when Korben's mother calls and the President hangs up the phone, you can hear her complaint: "I might as well throw myself into traffic, Saran Wrap myself to the bed and pretend my child is suffocating me." She is listing earlier scenes from the film.
- #019
Diva Plavalaguna is played by Maïwenn, who was Luc Besson's wife at the time. She took on the role after the original actress failed to show up.
- #020
Luc Besson said casting Bruce Willis was the easiest part of the film. "I came to New York City. He read the script. Two hours later, he said he'd do it." Because it was a French film, Willis's salary was lower than his usual Hollywood fee, but he made a deal with Besson that he would receive a percentage of the profits if the film succeeded at the box office, which it did internationally. In a 2017 interview, Besson revealed that Mel Gibson had actually been his first choice for Korben Dallas. "We became friends, and everyday for three months he said he was thinking about it. But eventually he passed," he said.
- #021
According to the Ultimate Edition DVD, Prince and Michael Jackson were the inspirations for the role of Ruby Rhod and both were even considered for it; Prince was the first choice. He reportedly turned it down because he found the costumes "outlandish," and Chris Tucker took the role instead. Tucker claimed that the secrecy around the script was so great that even he did not know how the character should be played, but that the bizarre costumes helped him get into character. As a result, most of the other actors' reactions to his performance were quite genuine.
- #022
Gary Oldman is such a good friend of Luc Besson that he took the role of Zorg without even bothering to read the script, to repay Besson, who partly financed his directorial project Nil by Mouth (1997). He did the role while taking an eight-week break from that film. After its 1997 release, Oldman attended the Cannes Film Festival and did all the press screenings to help promote the film out of loyalty to Besson. Asked in a 2014 interview whether he actually liked the film, Oldman had already stated in 2011, "Oh no. I can't bear it." and "It was me singing for my supper, because Luc had come in and partly financed my film". About the film's cult success, he commented with a laugh, "That's the wacky world we live in."
- #023
The animatronic mechanisms used for the Mangalore masks were later recycled for the Neimoidians in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).
- #024
Most of the Mangalores on Fhloston Paradise can be seen wearing "combat goggles." This was a practical solution to hide the actors' eyes (visible through the masks) and to save on makeup (contact lenses, adhesives and coloring around the eyes).
- #025
In the extensive shot of the spacecraft leaving New York City for Fhloston Paradise, the Statue of Liberty can be seen on the left, raised on a platform above the water level. Moreover, on closer inspection, New York is surrounded by mountains and its famous bridges hang over deep canyons. Writer/director Luc Besson explained the in-universe reason for this: in The Fifth Element, Earth's ocean levels dropped significantly because large amounts of water were sent off-world to make other planets habitable.
- #026
In the future New York City, Central Park is the same size and in the same location as the real park, but it sits 30 meters high.
- #027
Gary Oldman played Zorg as a mixture of then-presidential candidate Ross Perot and Bugs Bunny.
- #028
In a 1999 interview, Bruce Willis spoke positively about the film and concluded: "it was a real fun movie to make." Chris Tucker and Milla Jovovich also spoke positively about both the experience of making the film and of working with Luc Besson. In interviews for the Ultimate Edition DVD, Jovovich described Besson as "the first really amazing director I had worked with."
- #029
Zorg's monologue about destruction creating productivity is in fact a classic economic fallacy set out by French economist Frederic Bastiat in 1850 in "The Parable of the Broken Window." The full essay is titled "Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas" ("That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen").
- #030
Building the models used in the film took a team of 80 people five months.
- #031
The people filling the rooftops, terraces and windows during the visual effects scenes set in New York City are the artists and employees at Digital Domain who worked on the film.
- #032
When the Mondoshawan aliens appear in 1914 Egypt, the professor panics, stammers, "A… A… Are you German?" In the German version, he asks "Sind Sie… hier von der Erde?," which roughly translates as "Are you from here… Earth?"
- #033
If you look closely while Ruby Rhod sings "All Night Long," you can see Bruce Willis trying not to laugh.
- #034
Luc Besson wanted to show that the future is not dark and dangerous. "This future is very funny."
- #035
The model of Fhloston Paradise weighed over 500 pounds.
- #036
Jean-Paul Gaultier personally checked the costumes of the 500 extras used in one scene.
- #037
In the film, Maïwenn is actually lip-syncing to soprano Inva Mula. To be able to sing the song correctly, she practiced 30 times a day for three months.
- #038
Luc Besson cast Milla Jovovich as Leeloo because "Milla has a physical side; she could be from the past or the future. She could be Egyptian or Roman. She could be Nefertiti and she could come from space. That was one of the things I liked about her physically."
- #039
Contains a major spoiler — show
The alien who detonates the final bomb in the hotel is actually using a device that is a MasterLock with a timing lamp attached.
- #040
The parasites decontaminated by a team in sealed suits from the landing gear of the spacecraft heading to Fhloston Paradise are actually Boglins, the puppet toys from the 1980s. Beside them is the Bumble Ball, a battery-powered ball covered in rubber knobs that shakes and vibrates.
- #041
It was chosen as the opening film of the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.
- #042
As Korben and Leeloo approach an intersection in their taxi, the camera rushes forward to show the audience that six police cars are waiting for them. In the far background, behind the police cars, there is a chase between a police car and a long black car, complete with muzzle flashes representing gunfire between the two vehicles. Ever attentive to detail, Luc Besson noticed the embellishment when the visual effects shot was first reviewed, thought it was funny, and it stayed in the final film.
- #043
Nick Dudman's creature team created a group of scrawny, long-nosed alien garbage collectors that did not make it into the final film. In the spaceport scenes there is a large pile of garbage that has not been collected because the garbage collectors are on strike (as explained in some of the dialogue). Had these creatures made the final cut, they would have been seen among the trash holding sandwich-board signs reading "On strike."
- #044
Milla Jovovich beat out more than 3,000 women who auditioned for the role of Leeloo.
- #045
Bruce Willis was initially reluctant to take on the film, as he was considered a risk after the poor reception of his previous films Hudson Hawk (1991) and Billy Bathgate (1991). Later, while Luc Besson was in Barry Josephson's office, Willis called about a different film. Besson wanted to speak with Willis "just to say hello" and told him the project was finally moving forward, explaining the decision to proceed with a cheaper actor. After a brief silence, Willis said, "If I like the film, we can maybe come to an arrangement," and agreed to take the role after reading the script.
- #046
Luc Besson expressed interest in making a sequel.
- #047
The stars in the background were created by punching holes in a layer of black cloth.
- #048
The Diva's name, Plavalaguna, is actually made up of two words: Plava and Laguna. "Plava" means blue in Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Bosnian (feminine; the masculine form is "plav"). "Laguna" means lagoon in the same languages. So her name is Blue Lagoon. (Milla Jovovich also played Lilli in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991).) The Diva's name was inspired by the Plava Laguna resort in Porec, Croatia, where Luc Besson holidayed several times.
- #049
The only phrases of Leeloo's alien language that appear in the subtitles are: "mlarta," "big ba-dah big boom," "akta," "seno akta gamat," "san agamat chay bet. Envolet," "danko," "domo danko," and "apipoulai." Everything else appears as Unknown Language or, once specified, as Divine Language.
- #050
The actors in the Mondoshawan suits used mini television monitors to see where they were going. Dressing one Mondoshawan took three people 20 minutes.
- #051
In "My Fifth Element," cartoonist Jean-Claude Mézières also says that Luc Besson approached him for ideas and told him: "I want to make a movie based on your visuals. But I am ready to pay you for the work." The subtlety here is that many elements of the Star Wars saga (several aliens, Darth Vader's costume, Leia's gold bikini, Han Solo in carbonite) are known to have appeared in several original editions of Valerian (particularly 'L'Empire des Mille Planètes', especially 1971), as seen in interviews about George Lucas's work. Besson not only drew inspiration from Valerian with Mézières's permission, he later directed the film adaptation Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017).
- #052
Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud sued Luc Besson after the film was released, claiming it was stolen from their comic book The Incal. Giraud sued for 13.1 million euros for unfair competition, nine million euros in damages and interest, and two to five percent of the film's net operating revenue. Jodorowsky sued for 700,000 euros. The case was dismissed in 2004 on the grounds that only "tiny fragments" of the comic book were used and that Giraud had been hired by Besson to work on the film before the claims were made.
- #053
Contains a major spoiler — show
Zorg leaves the Mangalores behind with a crate full of weapons, readying them to kill themselves with self-destruct buttons he did not tell them about, while his Right Arm tells him how much he dislikes warriors like the Mangalores for fighting for hopeless causes. The Right Arm says they fight for "Honor." Zorg's reply is "Honor's killed millions of people, hasn't saved a single one." Later, on Fhloston Paradise, the Mangalores detonate the bomb that kills Zorg after saying, "For the honor."
- #054
The buildings in the New York City miniature were 20 feet tall and the street was 80 feet long, and its construction took nine months.
- #055
One of the Mondoshawan suits can be found at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida.
- #056
The visual effects team said that figuring out how "evil" should look was the hardest part of their job.
- #057
The boys seen outside the Egyptian temple are different from those seen inside. The exterior scene was shot in Mauritania and the interior scenes in the United Kingdom. Local children appeared in each location.
- #058
Milla Jovovich was covered in bruises throughout the shoot. According to Luc Besson, even Bruce Willis told her: "C'mon, it's fake… don't break your head over it."
- #059
Although Luc Besson went far over budget, he did not have to let the financiers onto the set or show them any footage.
- #060
When the ship leaves Earth for Fhloston Paradise, in the lower left, just above the edge of the Earth, there is a "constellation" cat walking with its tail up.
- #061
The scrolling text along the frame of the Times Square theater as Korben dives into traffic is actually an excerpt from an email argument among several artists at Digital Domain. Other signs on the digital and practical miniature buildings contain similar jokes and references, and the large cylindrical tanker truck that Korben's cab nearly hits at the end of the landing is decorated with the logo of a pizza parlor in Venice, California, a favorite of the Digital Domain artists.
- #062
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the original draft of the script, Zorg was to confront Korben during the hotel evacuation, where Korben beat him for firing him and for attacking Leeloo before stealing his ship (the ZF-1 had run out of ammunition, which caused Zorg to collapse). Zorg then survives the destruction of the hotel with the ZF-1's personal shield, but lands inside a giant iceberg. He later calls his secretary to send another ship, but the battery of the ZF-1 phone fails.
- #063
Among the scale models built for the film are buildings seen in New York. Dozens of apartment blocks and about 25 skyscrapers standing roughly 6.1 metres tall were constructed at 1/24 scale.
- #064
Ruby Rhod was not the original name of Chris Tucker's character; it was Loc Rhod. The original name appears in the script and in the film's novelisation.
- #065
Luc Besson described Zorg with the words "dandy," "nouveau riche," and "Hitler."
- #066
Jean Reno was the original choice for the role of Korben Dallas.
- #067
The fast-paced song the troupe plays on Fhloston is the music of the traditional Tahitian tamure (TAH-moo-ray) dance.
- #068
Mrs. Dallas (Korben's mother) was uncredited. She was performed by Jill Mullan with a single acting credit. Her name appears in the thank-you list.
- #069
Luc Besson, who is acknowledged to be a comic book fan, had two famous French comic artists in mind for the film's visual style when he began writing it in high school: Jean 'Moebius' Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Claude Mézières. Both artists have long-running comic series in France. Moebius is best known for "Blueberry" and for the (French) magazine and the (US) film Heavy Metal (1981). Mézières is best known for the "Valerian" series. Both series are still in production today. Moebius and Mézières, who attended art school together but had never collaborated on a project until this film, began the visualisations for it in the early 1990s and are responsible for much of its overall look, including vehicles, spacecraft, buildings, human characters and aliens. However, only Giraud is credited, and even then he had not been paid a bonus by the time the film was shot.
- #070
Part of the song the Diva sings is from the opera "Lucia Di Lammermoor," and is often called "The Mad Song" as sung by Lucia immediately after she kills Arturo (whom she was forced to marry) on their wedding day. Lucia is hallucinating that she has married the man she truly loves, Edgardo, her brother's enemy.
- #071
Leeloo's full name is "Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat," taken from various media sources including Luc Besson's film diary (The Adventure and Discovery of a Film: The Story of The Fifth Element), a French promotional poster used to advertise the film in the metro, and the video game manual. "Lekarariba" is a script-based misspelling and was thus carried over into the video subtitles. Leeloo pronounces the name "second" with a hard "T" sound.
- #072
In the taxi scene, after Leeloo crashes onto the roof, the police appear to bring the taxi closer to the police car. Before and after attaching the taxi's winch cable, the policeman speaking through the megaphone can be seen saying "thank you for your help." In post-production this was re-dubbed as "thank you for your cooperation."
- #073
Elizabeth Berkley auditioned for the role of Leeloo, but after the failure of Showgirls (1995) the studios were reluctant to hire her.
- #074
When Leeloo is first introduced, only one arm is visible, her right hand. Later, the case taken from the Mangalores is missing its right arm.
- #075
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film is set in the years 1914 and 2263.
- #076
All the social elites Ruby points out at the opera actually had more to do during the hotel shoot.
- #077
Although Luke Perry is billed sixth, he says fewer than 100 words.
- #078
Luc Besson continued working on and changing the story for more than 20 years. By the time Atlantis (1991) was released, he had a 400-page script.
- #079
On the shelf in Korben Dallas's apartment, among various other trophies, a framed Medal of Honor certificate is also visible.
- #080
Korben's termination notice reads in part: "Notice of termination of your contract, effective today. Due to violation of codes HFGY56, 74HVB, 00JGHY, MNH356585, MCNH485757, 0478N - your relationship with this company is immediately terminated. On behalf of ZORG and on behalf of ZORG." So Korben Dallas turns out to have worked for Zorg while driving his taxi, although this would already have been implied, since in the previous scene Zorg orders the firing of one million of his workers.
- #081
It is one of the few films released in the short-lived Superbit format.
- #082
Contains a major spoiler — show
The number 5 appears several times in the film: there are five elements; Korben Dallas has five points left on his license; Zorg stops his bomb with five seconds left on the timer, and the Mangalore bomb starts on the same five-second timer. Near the end of the film, Ruby Rhod says, "There's a bomb going off every five minutes!" after the alien planet is stopped, and at the film's end a doctor says Leeloo and Korben need five more minutes. Ruby Rhod's show is at 5 o'clock.
- #083
Immediately after Zorg says he admires a cold, clean, methodical killer, an explosion occurs, just as in an opening about such a killer in Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional (1994), which Besson wrote with Sir Gary Oldman.
- #084
All the Mondoshawan suits were to be destroyed after production. The surviving Mondoshawan suit ended up at the Prop Store in London. Other single pieces, such as the arms and heads of the other suits, were also saved and sold to private collectors. Nick Dudman recalled: "The Mondoshawans were gonna be destroyed," he said, "and in fact, more than that, the destruction process was going to be videotaped - so there would be video evidence that these things had been destroyed. That upset me quite understandably, so I went to the executive producers Patrice Ledoux and Iain Smith and said, 'look, please, you know, can't we keep these?' And he said 'No!'; 'Can we keep one? You know, it's your property, you can sell them, but can I keep one? And Patrice said yes -- so I have a Mondo. It was lovely because when they were finished they became beautiful objects and it seemed a shame. Because we had such a good time on the film that we really grew to love these things. But I'm glad we could save one."
- #085
The buildings in New York City were derived both from modular apartment stacks inspired by the 1960s Metabolists and from architect Antonio Sant'Elia's futuristic designs of the 1910s.
- #086
Contains a major spoiler — show
In various sources, including his own production diary, Luc Besson stated that The Fifth Element is "a representation of life, love, and art," and that "The Fifth Element is a symbol of life." (Tele Rapide, 28 February - 6 March 1998).
- #087
WILHELM SCREAM: It can be heard when Zorg blows up his Right Arm at the airport and when Leeloo throws two Mangalores out of Diva's room.
- #088
Terry Pratchett parodied the title in his Discworld novel "The Fifth Elephant."
- #089
In every New York City visual effects scene with flying traffic, there is a flying bus with the Digital Domain (the facility responsible for most of the visual effects) internal reference or the shot name written on its roof. The visual effects team's instruction was to include a bus bearing the shot name, but other buses and traffic could carry personal references such as birthdays, initials and so on. The front destination frame and side advertising panels of one bus were customized by artists at Digital Domain to refer to some personal stamp or message, invisibly or subliminally.
- #090
Mac McDonald, who plays a New York policeman in the film, is known for the role of Captain Frank Hollister in the long-running BBC science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf (1988). He reprised the role in 1999 and again in 2017. He also played the mining station manager on the planet LV-426 in Aliens (1986).
- #091
Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Luke Perry, Chris Tucker and Tom Lister Jr. are all left-handed.
- #092
Both Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman turned down Con Air (1997) to make this film.
- #093
The grappa bottle in the opening scene bears a vintage 1929 label designed by the artist Sante Cancian. The Marcati brand was cut from the top of the label for use on the propeller bottle.
- #094
The case in which the stones were placed in 1914 is the same case Zorg later takes, but it is missing one of its handles. The missing handle is inside the glove used to resurrect Leeloo.
- #095
Because of the shape of the Mangalore masks, the actors had to have sloped foreheads in order to play them.
- #096
Volumes of two manga series can briefly be seen in Korben Dallas's apartment: "Sanctuary," written by Ryoichi Ikegami and Sho Fumimura (Buronson), and Osamu Tezuka's "Adolf."
- #097
On the set at Pinewood studios, the actual shooting of the Mondoshawans was no less demanding than before. Each Mondoshawan was puppeteered by 4 crew members. Because of the severe heat inside the suits, only short sequences could be shot single-handedly. The most complex scene to film was the Mondoshawan's arrival at the ancient temple. Dudman recalled: "When we shot the scene they were all walking down the corridor - there were 6 of them, they all had radios and were saying 'left, left, slow down, slow down.'" As seen in the final film, finally achieving the coordination of all the performers was extremely complex.
- #098
The makeup device David gives to Leeloo is black and bears the iconic Chanel CC logo. Milla Jovovich appeared in Chanel advertisements.
- #099
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film begins in Egypt in 1914. When the Mondoshawans arrive at the temple, one of them tells the priest that they will return when evil returns 300 years later. The next scene shows the future and "300 Years Later" appears on screen. However, when Korben suddenly wakes up after destroying the Dark Planet military spaceship, there is a pale yellow ticket on his bed showing the date and time of 18 March 2263, 2:00 a.m. This corresponds to 349 years after 1914 and does not match the "300 Years Later" displayed on screen for the present future year.
- #100
Although cartoonist Jean-Claude Mézières is not named directly in the film, he is the confirmed author of most of the sets, since his album "The Extras of Mezieres v.2: My Fifth Element Sets for the Film by Luc Besson" (Les Extras De Mezieres n.2: Mon cinquième élément decours pour le film du Luc Besson) was published in France around the film's release, reusing the film's logo on its cover. Similarly, while the film was being shot, Christin and Mézières published "Les cercles du pouvoir," which included a flying taxi vehicle (this led Luc Besson to rewrite the film's opening scenes) and a cartoon of Besson.
- #101
The Zorg Industries ZF-1 Pod Weapon System was actually based on the AKSU-74 compact assault rifle.
- #102
This was the last film pairing of Bruce Willis and Brion James, after The Player (1992) and Striking Distance (1993). Brion died of a heart attack on 7 August 1999.
- #103
According to Gary Oldman, who disliked his own hair and wardrobe, Bruce Willis hated his iconic orange shirt/vest. Oldman was less enthusiastic about The Fifth Element than fans are, remembering it mostly as "Jean Paul Gaultier and rubber."
- #104
Triangles appear frequently in this film. They are seen in the Egyptian ruins, in the planet alignment indicators and in the formation of the missiles launched from the cruiser. The stones are also prisms.
- #105
Kevin Costner was reportedly considered for the role of General Munro.
- #106
The Mondoshawans were built as creature costumes; however, their production process was unlike anything Nick Dudman and his team had done before. The Mondoshawans were designed by illustrator Jacques Rey. According to animatronic designer Monique Brown, much of the complexity stemmed from the design's elliptical shape. The full-size sculpture of the Mondoshawan was undertaken by a team of sculptors including Mark Godderidge and Mark Coulier, who designed and produced the arms and articulated hand mechanisms for the creatures.
- #107
Jamie Foxx was considered for the role of Ruby Rhod.
- #108
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the final scene, a scientist says that "one minute" refers to the time before the Great Evil enters Earth's atmosphere. In fact, from that moment it takes one minute and 49 seconds for the Fifth Element to kick in and stop it.
- #109
Contains a major spoiler — show
In her death scene, Diva Plavalaguna tells Korben that Leeloo needs his help and his love, or she will die. This foreshadows the ending, where Korben tells the gravely wounded Leeloo that he loves her and kisses her; this combines the stones' powers with his own and spreads divine light over the Great Evil, destroying it.
- #110
This is one of two science fiction films featuring a character named Dallas in which Ian Holm appears. The other is Alien (1979), in which Tom Skerritt plays Captain Dallas.
- #111
This was Sonny Caldinez's (Emperor Kodar Japhet) last film.
- #112
In 2006, the rock band Ever We Fall released a song whose title comes from a line of dialogue in this film: "Welcome to Fhloston Paradise."
- #113
According to an article published in the New York Times in October 1996, while working on The Fifth Element, Luc Besson was also working with screenwriter John Pogue on a script for a remake of Walter Hill's cult car-chase film The Driver (1978), about a notorious, unstoppable getaway driver who is always evading the police and the tough detective obsessed with catching him. At that time 20th Century Fox was developing this remake, but it was never made.
- #114
During the fight aboard the Fhloston Paradise cruise liner, a synthesized bell sound can occasionally be heard amid the music. This bell resembles (though is not identical to) the synthesized bell heard throughout the previous year's Goldeneye. Eric Serra worked on the music department of both films, which explains why it appears here.
- #115
Korben Dallas is a former space commando turned taxi driver. Frank Martin, the protagonist of Luc Besson's The Transporter (2002), is a man who goes from former soldier to hired driver.
- #116
Tom Lister Jr. (President Lindberg) and Chris Tucker (Ruby Rhod) both appeared in Friday (1995).
- #117
After working on this film, Lenny McLean (Police Chief) took a role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), his final acting part. He died on 28 July 1998 at the age of 49. Lock was the first acting experience of Jason Statham, who starred in The Transporter (2002), written by Luc Besson.
- #118
The cast includes one Oscar winner, Gary Oldman, and one Oscar nominee, Ian Holm.
- #119
Gary Oldman and Tom Lister Jr. both appeared in The Dark Knight (2008).
- #120
The understructure of the final suit included a harness that held a cage-like steel frame designed to support the Mondoshawan's upper half. This method transferred the weight of the upper structure to the performer's hips, making movement easier. Monique Brown said: "When the artists agreed to do it, they had no idea what they were getting into. Some artists were great about it, others said 'I can't do this.' And in fact, we had to replace some artists because they couldn't do it." The suits had a separate section for the head, including the head itself, the neck and the base. Alongside a fully mechanized hero head, several 'standard' heads with basic movements were built. Thanks to a simple sliding plate, the heads could be swapped easily. The hero head was first made by John Coppinger and later developed by Steve Wright. The animatronic mechanisms were created by Chris Barton and included full neck movement and 'illuminated' eyes. Vent holes or vent-like structures on the nose could move to simulate speech and breathing. The performer's view inside was completely blacked out; to solve this problem, small monitors were placed just behind the head and neck mechanisms. The performer could see what was happening on set via an external camera mounted in the middle of the costume. The camera fed the image to the monitor inside, allowing more precise coordination. Getting the performers ready on a shooting day was an impressive process. Nick Dudman said, "It took a C-shaped platform like a docking bay to get the man inside, into the suit. There were about three steps for my crew to stand on." The performers first had to put on the leg sections of the costume; a safety bar prevented the legs from spreading too far apart or moving too quickly. The performer then had to enter the 'docking bay,' where the crew would place the understructure and other suit pieces on them. Three crew members were needed to prepare each artist, and the process took about 20 minutes per unit.
- #121
The film appears to have been inspired by a segment of the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal. The segment follows a futuristic New York taxi driver named Harry Cannon who accepts a beautiful woman as his fare; the demonic Loc-Nar sphere is the link between all the animated segments in the film.
- #122
Mel Gibson was considered for the role of Korben Dallas.
- #123
Charlie Creed-Miles (David) also appeared in Nil by Mouth (1997), which Gary Oldman directed and Luc Besson produced.
- #124
Julia Roberts was considered for the role of Leeloo.
- #125
Before having sex with the flight attendant (before the spaceship takes off), Ruby tells her, "I never felt this way before with a human," indicating that he is either an alien humanoid not from Earth or that he has had sex with an alien before.
- #126
Early in the film, Zorg (Gary Oldman) quotes Friedrich Nietzsche: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Oldman's co-star Bruce Willis released an album with that title on Motown Records in the 1980s. Heath Ledger spoke a variation of the famous line in The Dark Knight (2008), which also starred Gary Oldman.
- #127
The film features many actors who had appeared in the Alien series up to that point: Ian Holm from Alien (1979); Al Matthews and Mac McDonald from Aliens (1986); and Christopher Fairbank from Alien³ (1992). Diva Plavalaguna, with her elongated head, may be a visual reference to the series' titular creature.
- #128
Zorg is also the name of another character in a famous French film; it is the lead character in Betty Blue (1986).
- #129
This marks the second time actor Mac McDonald has had a secondary role in a world full of aliens. The first was as a Weyland-Yutani terraforming employee in Aliens (1986), in a scene that appears only in the special edition.
- #130
Brion James and Tom Lister Jr. both appeared in Armed and Dangerous (1986).
- #131
The original Multipass that Milla Jovovich carried surfaced years later at a film prop auction. The Multipass was noted to contain a very critical error. It identified Leeloo (Jovovich) as a Male and listed her vital information as follows: Sex: M Hr: BWN/F Eyes: Bl/S Ht: 5'10", WT: 152, DOB: 05-24-2311 Blood Type: AB+ Viral Status: LOW This would be quite a red flag on a security screen.
- #132
Contains a major spoiler — show
Corben Dallas (Bruce Willis) and Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) wear orange, with Bruce Willis's character in a tank top and Leeloo's character sporting the iconic hairstyle.
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