The Fifth Element
1997 · Directed by Luc Besson
Bruce Willis is a flying-cab driver who saves the universe from a glowing ball of evil with help from a genetically perfect redhead in bandages. It's French. It shows.
Why It's Cult
The Fifth Element is Luc Besson on a blockbuster budget and he uses every dollar. Jean Paul Gaultier costumes. Milla Jovovich inventing a language. Gary Oldman's accent. Chris Tucker's Ruby Rhod is a full-body commitment the film never recovers from. Maximalist sci-fi that aged weirdly well.
The Plot, Officially
In the twenty-third century, the universe is threatened by evil. The only hope for mankind is the Fifth Element, who comes to Earth every five thousand years to protect the humans with four stones of the four elements: fire, water, Earth and air. A Mondoshawan spacecraft is bringing The Fifth Element back to Earth but it is destroyed by the evil Mangalores. However, a team of scientists use the DNA of the remains of the Fifth Element to rebuild the perfect being called Leeloo. She escapes from the laboratory and stumbles upon the taxi driver and former elite commando Major Korben Dallas that helps her to escape from the police. Leeloo tells him that she must meet Father Vito Cornelius to accomplish her mission. Meanwhile, the Evil uses the greedy and cruel Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg and a team of mercenary Mangalores to retrieve the stones and avoid the protection of Leeloo. But the skilled Korben Dallas has fallen in love with Leeloo and decides to help her to retrieve the stones.
Starring
Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman
Where to Watch
via JustWatch →
