A severed hand in metal armor from the wreckage of the spacecraft is brought to New York City.

On their way to Earth, a Mondoshawan spacecraft carrying the weapon is ambushed and destroyed by a crew of Mangalores, alien mercenaries hired by Earth industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, who is working for the great evil. The Mondoshawans' current human contact on Earth, priest Vito Cornelius, informs the President of the Federated Territories of the great evil's history and of the weapon that can stop it. It destroys an armed Earth spaceship as it heads to Earth. In 2263, the great evil appears in deep space as a giant living fireball. The weapon consists of the four classical elements, as four engraved stones, plus a sarcophagus containing a 'fifth element'. They promise to return the weapon before the great evil's re-emergence. They take the only weapon capable of defeating a great evil which appears every 5,000 years. In 1914, aliens known as Mondoshawans meet their human contact, a priest of a secret order, at an ancient Egyptian temple.

At the time of its release, it was the most expensive European film ever made, and it remained the highest-grossing French film at the international box office until the release of The Intouchables in 2011. The Fifth Element was a strong financial success, earning more than $263 million at the box office on a $90 million budget. The film won in categories at the British Academy Film Awards, the César Awards, the Cannes Film Festival, and the Lumières Awards, but also received nominations at the Golden Raspberry and Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. The Fifth Element received mainly positive reviews, although some critics were highly negative. Costume design was by Jean-Paul Gaultier. He hired comic artists Jean 'Moebius' Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières, whose books inspired parts of the film, for production design. Besson wanted to shoot the film in France, but suitable facilities could not be found filming took place in London and Mauritania instead. To accomplish this, Dallas joins forces with her to recover four mystical stones essential for the defence of Earth against the impending attack of a malevolent cosmic entity.īesson started writing the story that was developed as The Fifth Element when he was 16 years old he was 38 when the film opened in cinemas. Primarily set in the 23rd century, the film's central plot involves the survival of planet Earth, which becomes the responsibility of Korben Dallas (Willis), a taxicab driver and former special forces major, after a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his cab. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich. The Fifth Element is a 1997 English-language French science fiction action film directed by Luc Besson and co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen from a story by Besson.

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