European cinema used to be a very niche market, with foreign language movies struggling to find audiences in the U.S. and globally. However, there have always been exceptions to the rule with movies such as Das Boot, La Femme Nikita, and Leon: The Professional all proving that movies from Europe could be a sleeper hit globally. The later two of these had one thing in common, controversial director Luc Besson, who went some way to proving that French cinema in particular had something to say on a global cinema screen. In 1994, his colorful and flamboyant sci-fi epic The Fifth Element became a record-breaking worldwide hit and although it could have had a sequel, the follow-up never happened. Now, The Fifth Element is finding a whole new audience – and some returning old timers – at the top of the free streaming chart on Tubi.
The Fifth Element is set in the year 2263 – one of the few movies from several decades ago where time has not caught up to the vision – where flying-cab taxi driver Kroben Dallas, played by an on form Bruce Willis, finds himself on a mission to save humanity after an enigmatic young woman called Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) crashes through the roof of his cab. The film pivots on Leeloo being the embodiment of a “fifth element” that has the capability of uniting the four elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water to save the planet from an imminent apocalypse. With stunning visuals designed by comic artists Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières, and costumes by high-fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, The Fifth Element became one of the most striking movies of the decade and once scene is not easily forgotten.
While many sci-fi movies of the 80s and early 90s, including the likes of The Terminator, Blade Runner, Total Recall and more, were all very dour, dark, and miserable in their appearance (as well as all being amazing movies). The Fifth Element therefore stood out among the crowd with its full color palette on display for the world to see and larger than life characters that made this almost like the sci-fi genre’s Wizard of Oz after so many bleak offerings in the two decades prior. The film turned its $90 million production budget into a healthy $263 million box office, and landed itself a decent 71% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes and substantially higher 87% on the audience Popcornmeter. While it seemed like this would all lead to a sequel, the written script Besson created never saw light of day.
Besson came up with the original story for The Fifth Element when he was a teenager. For years after the movie’s release, it was said that he had completed a 400-page script for the movie and only the first half had been used, meaning there was a lot more story out there. While Besson has claimed that a sequel was never in development, co-writer Robert Mark Kamen has said that the basis for the sequel did exist but the idea was canceled due to a combination of a lower than hoped U.S. box office, Besson’s eventual belief that the ending of the movie was the end of the story, and his personal history with Jovovich following their divorce just two years after being married soon after the premiere of The Fifth Element. Now, it is clear that there will not be a live-action continuation of the film, but there has been a tease that Jovovich’s character could return in an animated project. Based on the knowledge that only half of Besson’s original screenplay was used makes it sad, but if the animated movie does happen then it could potentially draw from Besson’s unused script.
Would you have liked to see a sequel to The Fifth Element? Let us know in the comments.
