Part I; The Fifth Element; Sequence

Earth in 1914

In 1914, the Mondoshawan aliens visit earth to extract stones (four stones and a fifth element that brings the other four into power) in anticipation of needing them to defeat the ‘Great Evil’ in 2263. After acquiring the weapons, the Mondoshowans offer a priest a key with the information about this impending evil so this knowledge can be passed on into the future.

Earth in 2263

The film fast forwards into 2263 when the Great Evil has manifested in the form of a fiery planet. The president attempts to destroy the planet, but the use of his artillery makes the force grow larger. After the loss of fleet, a priest tells the President that the Great Evil can only be destroyed by the stones currently possessed by the Mondoshawans.

 

Mondoshawans Ambushed

The Mondoshawans attempt to deliver the Elements to Earth but are ambushed by another race, the Managalores. Their ship crashes, leaving traces of their possession scattered.

 

Reincarnation of the Fifth Element

Scientists are able to recover the 5th element in the form of a human woman, Leeloo. Terrified, Leeloo escapes the lab and crosses path with Korben Dallas, a taxi driver who used to be in the Special Forces.

 

Korben Dallas brings LeeLoo to Cornelius

Dallas delivers Leeloo to the priest, Cornelius. Leeloo than informs Cornelius that the Mondoshawans did not actually have the other four elements and that they were given to Diva Plavalaguna, a singer currently aboard a luxury ship in Fhloston Paradise. Cornelius tells Leeloo that they must recover those stones.  

 

Zorg introduced

Under the directive of the ‘Great Evil’, a individual called Zorg is also attempting recover the stones. He learns the ambush on the Mondoshawans did not recover the stones and kills some of the Mangalores he commissioned. This puts him at odds with the last surviving Mangalores who then decide to go after the stones to ultimately get revenge on Zorg. At the end of this sequence, Zorg’s assistant and the remaining Mangalores are headed to the airport to Fhloston in order to recover the stones from the Diva.

 

The Airport

Dallas is asked to join the army once again to aid in the recovery of the stones by General Munro. Dallas is the rigged winner of the Annual Gemini Croquette contest and is granted access to travel and meet the Diva. After accepting the mission, Dallas heads to the airport where he intercepts the Leeloo and Cornelius. Dallas escorts Leeloo aboard while the Mangalores and Zorg’s assistant are caught at the airport.

 

Fhloston Paradise

At the Diva’s performance in Fhloston, she is shot by a Mangalore ambush. The Diva informs Dallas that she has the stones in her body and he extracts them. Dallas gives the stones to Ruby Rhod while he and Leeloo fight the Mangalores. Zorg arrives at Fhloston and re-enters the spaceliner in search for the stones. Meanwhile, Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius and Ruby escape with the actual stones on Zorg’s ship. The Managalores activate another bomb on the liner and destroy Zorg.

 

The Temple

Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius and Ruby return to the temple. Leeloo releases the weapons ‘Divine Light’ and transforms the ‘Great Evil’ into a moon neutralizing the threat for next 5000 years.

Part II; The Fifth Element; 1:14:50

This shot is a medium close-up where the camera is at a low angle giving the audience a perspective similar to Korben as he holds Ruby Rhod up against the wall with his hand clenched around Ruby’s throat. The focus is on Ruby in this shot and the camera’s positioning behind Korben’s shoulder intensifies this emphasis. Our eyes are drawn towards the outline of Ruby’s jugular vein as Korben forcefully pushes his thumb upon it right at the center of the shot. The use of color in this frame also adds to the emphasis on Ruby. The whiteness of Korben’s skin and the dark grey backdrop serve as a muted canvas contrasting strikingly with Ruby’s cheetah print shoulder crown and blonde, phallically styled hair. At first glance, Ruby’s gaze and expression suggest fear and discomfort. However, it is important to note the subtle curvature at the corner of Ruby’s mouth that resembles a slight smile. The notion that Ruby may be welcoming submission in this shot invites the audience to relate blackness to forms of radical sexual pleasure and queerness.

Throughout the film, Ruby Rhod is utilized as a vessel for racialized sexuality and I chose this shot because it serves not just as another example of his sexual elusivity, but also demonstrates the filmmakers constant reassertion of it. This shot, among others, forces the audience to question Ruby’s sexuality and gender. This occurs so often and to such an extent that Ruby’s role in the film cannot be defined outside of this portrayal. Ruby’s sexual and gender fluidity is always presented to the audience in contrast with the normative, rigid portrayal of Korben’s cis, white, masculine identity. Their spectacle of difference and Ruby’s otherness is pronounced unwaveringly.

The treatment of Ruby’s sexuality in this film exemplifies a shift in the genre that allows for more complex black characters on-screen. However, the reductive tokenism of the genre’s ‘past’ is still very much present in this film. In many ways, the rise of blackness as being “cool” in the 1990s became the new token end to justify the new means of giving black characters multidimensionality in films. As Nama writes, “Will smith became part film trailblazer, part comic relief, and pure pop sci-fi cool. He laid the groundwork in the 1990s for a more central, defiant, and charismatic version of black cool to enter the SF film genre” (Nama 39). The notion of “black cool” is compelling in films such as the Fifth Element (Nama 39). Ruby Rhod’s mysterious, layered portrayal is both a positive development for black characters in the genre and, at the same time, a reductive, archetypal tokenism of “black cool” (Nama 39).

Source: Adilifu Nama, Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film