The Fifth Element is a 1997 French/American science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich. Mostly set during the twenty-third century, the film's central plot involves the survival of humanity which becomes the duty of a taxicab driver (and former special forces Major) named Korben Dallas (Willis) when a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. Upon learning of her significance, Dallas must join efforts with the girl to recover four mystical stones which are the key to defending Earth from an impending attack of pure evil and destruction.
In 1914 the Mondoshawans arrive at an ancient Egyptian temple and retrieve the only weapon capable of defeating the Great Evil which appears every five thousand years. The weapon consists of four stones, representing the four classical elements, and a sarcophagus that contains a Fifth Element in the form of a human, which combines the powers of the other four elements into a "Divine Light" that can stop the Great Evil. The Mondoshawans promise to return with the elements in time to stop the Great Evil. They give a key to their human contact, a priest, and instruct him to pass it on to future generations.
In 2263, the Great Evil appears in the form of a giant ball of black fire and destroys an Earth battleship as it heads to Earth. As the Mondoshawans return to Earth, they are ambushed by shape-shifting Mangalores, hired by wealthy industrialist and Great Evil ally Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman). Their spacecraft is destroyed and the only thing Earth scientists could recover was the hand of the Fifth Element. They reconstitute it to create a humanoid woman, "Leeloo" (Milla Jovovich), who is considered a perfect being. Terrified of her unfamiliar surroundings, she escapes and jumps off a ledge to land in the flying New York taxicab of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a former major in the Special Forces.
Dallas delivers Leeloo to the current priest with the Mondoshawan key, Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and his apprentice, David (Charlie Creed-Miles). Cornelius learns that the four Element stones were entrusted to Diva Plavalaguna, an opera singer. Because the Mangalores failed to obtain the stones, Zorg kills them, but their compatriots decide to obtain the Elements for themselves. General Munro (Brion James), Dallas' former superior, re-enlists Dallas and orders him to travel undercover, as a radio contest winner, to meet the Diva on a luxury cruise starliner. The publicity of the contest attracts the Mangalores and Zorg to the space liner as well. Dallas takes LeeLoo with him on the trip. Father Cornelius instructs David to prepare the temple and sneaks onto the spaceplane and hides in the cargo hold.
When he arrives at the starliner, Dallas meets media personality Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker), his escort. The Diva is killed when Mangalores attack the ship, but Dallas is able to retrieve the Element stones from the Diva's body. He then fights the Mangalores, killing their leader, to liberate the ship. Zorg arrives and searches for the Elements; he finds a carrying case, assumes the elements are in it, and leaves behind a time bomb that causes the liner's occupants to evacuate. Zorg departs on his spacecraft, but then discovers that the case is empty, so he returns to search for the real case with the Elements. He turns off his bomb to have time to search, but a dying Mangalore activates his own bomb, destroying the ship and killing Zorg and the remaining Mangalores. Dallas, Cornelius, Rhod, and Leeloo escape with the Elements just in time, using Zorg's spacecraft.
The four return to the Egyptian temple as the Great Evil approaches. The group arranges the stones and figure out how to activate them with the corresponding element that each stone represents, but Leeloo has become disillusioned and unwilling to perform her role because humans seem compelled to war. Dallas confesses his love for Leeloo and kisses her. Realizing that love is worth saving, Leeloo finds the inspiration to combine the powers of the Elements and release the "Divine Light", causing the Great Evil to become dormant as a new moon in Earth's orbit.
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©Copyrigth to Kalisto Entertainment
From The Fifth Element Soundtrack by Eric Serra.
