The Fifth Element

"There is no future without it."

1997 2h 6m FR

🙌

7.6

BANGER

🍅

70%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.6

IMDB

★7.6TMDB · 12,215🍅70%Rotten Tomatoes●52Metacritic★7.6IMDB · 539,521

Science FictionActionAdventure

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“There is no future without it.”

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Cast

Bruce Willis
Korben Dallas
Milla Jovovich
Leeloo
Gary Oldman
Zorg
Ian Holm
Cornelius
Chris Tucker
Ruby Rhod
Luke Perry
Billy
Brion James
General Munro
Tommy Lister Jr.
President Lindberg

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Luc Besson
Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen, Luc Besson
Languages: English, Swedish, German
Countries: France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $90M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Swedish, German.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

470+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Luc Besson, shot by Thierry Arbogast. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Éric Serra. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sylvie Landra shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Luc Besson directs. Thierry Arbogast behind the camera. Éric Serra scores. Sylvie Landra cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in France. Dialogue in English, Swedish, German.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $90M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
229 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Swedish, German.
4470+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Luc Besson, shot by Thierry Arbogast. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Éric Serra. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Sylvie Landra shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "There is no future without it.".
10IMDB entry: tt0119116 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1112,215 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
12Classified under 32 themes, including "new york city", "flying car", "taxi", "egypt".

The technical file

Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast
Original score: Éric Serra
Editing: Sylvie Landra
Production design: Dan Weil
Costume design: Jean-Paul Gaultier
Makeup / hair: Lois Burwell
VFX supervisor: Bill Kent
Sound: Ron Bartlett
Stunt coordinator: Marc Boyle
Runtime: 126 min · 2h 6m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $90,000,000
Box office: $263,920,180
Return: 293% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Fifth Element (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes: 70% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 52/100
IMDB rating: 7.6/10 · 539,521 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 10 wins & 39 nominations total

César Award for Best Production Design
BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects
César Award for Best Cinematography
César Award for Best Director

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Luc Besson

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Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

GeekMasher2013-03-15
★ 9.5/10
This movie is one of the best movies of all time! It has a great story lines and graphics of it's time and even to today's standards it is brilliant. The world is well though out and well demonstrated. Zorg is a great bad guy, played by Gary Oldman and Bruce Willis plays his role very well. All in all a excellent movie.
Matt Golden2013-07-21
A simple enough concept: Guy must save a World (in the Future!) from Evil! by protecting a Magical Macguffin, only in this case it’s a Girl! instead of a Thing. There’s really not a lot of story here. Not a lot of character either. Why waste valuable screen time with such paltry concerns when you can instead have Chris Tucker prancing around as a flamboyant radio host in the most annoying cinematic sci-fi supporting character not created by George Lucas? Instead, the film casts actors who do a fair job of acting simply by being themselves: Bruce Wills is Korben Dallas, a brawny, shoot-first hero who, when the chips are down, is brawny and shoot-firsty. The Magical Girlfriend MacGuffin, Leeloo, is played by Mila Jovovich (in her breakout performance) and some strategically-placed wrappings (the wrappings have had a harder time breaking into more mainstream roles). Ian Holm turns up as the Old Mentor, and filling out the cast is Gary Oldman as the antagonist Zord (in his hammiest role ever). The film seriously rises to the level of made-for-SciFi Channel-original and no higher. The plot is nonsensical, the acting committed but laughable, and the dialogue so stiff you’d think the script pages had been starched. So where does the film go legitimately wrong? Two main places: first, Besson carries on the proud tradition of French filmmakers doing weird things solely for the sake of being weird. The entire film is filled to the brim with the kind of idiosyncratic touches that I’ve come to expect from that region. Most of the bits don’t work, but I’ll give them credit for keeping things interesting. The second, more serious issue is another that seems to plague genre French directors, and that’s the whole matter being played (largely) for farce. The most successful (creatively) American (sci-fi/)action films are defined in very large part by their villain. This film, like so many other sci-fi/action films I’ve seen from French directors, never establish or maintain an element of power for the villains over the heroes. The villains are painted as clueless, moronic, out of their depth, or outright incompetent. That tradition continues here. What would Star Wars be without Darth Vader? Die Hard without Hans Gruber? Aliens without…uh, aliens? Lacking a strong (or even memorable) central villain (we have two: a Gary Oldman so hammy I’m pretty sure Muslims couldn’t work on the film, and the other being a giant planet-size ball of…Pure!Evil! No joke.), the film sacrifices the one shot it had at having some kind of weight or dimension. There’s no sense of danger or peril, no chance that the Hero won’t triumph, and [spoilers!] the day is essentially saved by a Care Bear stare. So, does what I’ve just said make it bad? Well, yes. Let’s try again. Does that made it unenjoyable? No, and it’s an important distinction to make. The film is an interesting curiosity. After a half-hour of the bizarre, if you can let yourself be swept into its idiosyncratic world you’ll find a perfectly watchable B (or C)-movie. It rankles a bit to think about how much was wasted making dreck this dreck-y, but it’s entertaining dreck.
Gimly2017-05-13
★ 7/10
Ever since I first watched The Fifth Element in the late 90s, I've been inspired by Gary Oldman's Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. Final rating:★★★½ - I strongly recommend you make the time.