The Fifth Element Essay

Luc Besson’s 1997 “The Fifth Element,” is a comedic science fiction movie about good versus evil in the distant future set in New York City, while making fun of sci-fi clichés. Although much credit to the film’s success can be attributed to the plot itself, however, the film’s use of mise-en-scène was the real show-stopper. Scenes with flying cars, grotesque monsters, and female heroine all combine to create an entertaining, action-packed film. In the opening scene, Besson opens on an ancient Egyptian temple, where a professor is attempting to decode the hieroglyphics to learn about the four stones that are used to defeat a great evil every 5,000 years. Soon after, aliens known as Mondoshawans arrive to collect the stones and the “fifth element” which is the only weapon to defeat the great evil. What makes this scene particularly important is that, this is where the audience gets its first glimpse at the sci-fi part of the film. The Mondoshawans are shown in heavy, round metal suits. Ironically, the suits convey that
The scientists discovered a lone hand of the fifth element and use it to rebuild the element in a female human body. The scene spends much time on the construction of Leeloo, the fifth element. They show her being constructed solely by tissue and bone marrow left in the hand and re-create a whole body. They start by showing the bone structure, then the muscle, and finally the finished product, albeit naked, but finished. Besson spends so much time on the construction of Leeloo that it makes the audience ask the question “Why?” “Is there some deeper meaning to her other than the fact that she is a living representation of an ancient weapon that awakens every 5,000 years?” The question has no real answer, but a thing to note is the setting where Leeloo “starts” and the story ends creates a “full-circle” effect, and thus solving all