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At the end of the plot section, the article currently says "Dallas confesses his love for Leeloo and kisses her. In response, Leeloo combines the power of the stones as the Fifth Element and releases the divine light on the great evil." Although the script broadly points to Leeloo as the Fifth Element, it always seemed clear to me that it wasn't her. The Fifth Element is Love. This is supported by the priest's quiet exhortation to "Tell her, Corben."
Suggested replacement text: "Dallas confesses his love for Leeloo and kisses her. Love is the Fifth Element. It activates Leeloo, and allows her to combine the power of the stones and release a powerful light that destroys the great evil." AceNZ (talk) 03:41, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Except that it's never stated in the film that Love is the Fifth Element, so it would be inappropriate for us to state it. Our role is to recount what occurs in the film, not inject our own interpretations.
I would, however, be amenable to dropping the part about the Fifth Element altogether. DonIago (talk) 04:10, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. We can't say that The Fifth Element is love since that's never explicitly stated, though we can drop the mention of Leeloo being The Fifth Element. I've just done that. Freikorp (talk) 22:09, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Uh, when Corbin joins Leeloo in their sleep chamber (or whatever it's called) on the spaceship that is going to take them to Fhloston Paradise, Leeloo surprises Dallas by now being able to speak English. Basically, the first thing she says to him is, "You no trouble. Me... Fifth element... supreme being. Me protect you." Apparently, Leeloo believes she is the fifth element and who is going to argue with a "supreme being." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:801:4280:a710:64e4:5:c7b8:5110 (talk)
What does that have to do with anything? It's well established before that that Leeloo is considered a 'Fifth Element', but it never clarifies exactly what that means. I stand by the current text in the article. Damien Linnane (talk) 09:31, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Citeable source: Susan Hayward, p. 143 of The Seeing Century (Google books online) says "The question becomes why after all, in Besson's film, is the fifth element a woman? ... [T]he fifth element alone can save the world ...."Kdammers (talk) 23:03, 23 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for sharing. Google Books only offers a snippet preview, which itself does not show the answer to the question [1]. Keep in mind that even if it did, the source would only have so much weight, since the author has no direct connection to the film. If Besson explicitly clarified what he considers the Fifth Element to be, since he wrote and directed the film, that would be taken as hard fact. At best, this source (assuming it answers the question, which may have been hypothetical), could only be used to say 'Susan Hayward interprets The Fifth Element to be XYZ'. Damien Linnane (talk) 00:40, 24 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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I think this bit of the plot is probably wrong. In the earlier scenes before Fhloston, Aknot is injured following Zorg's detonation of the weapons, and is seen telling others to go to Fhloston and retrieve the stones. The leader killed by Dallas is uninjured and, on screen, unnamed. -- ferret (talk) 16:52, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You may be right about that one. I think naming this particular Mangalore Aknot is probably incorrect. DonIago (talk) 20:15, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Good point, I'm happy for the wording to be changed. Damien Linnane (talk) 23:24, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Per a version of the script, the Mangalore killed during "negotiations" is Akanit. May be just as well not to name him though, since it's not that important. DonIago (talk) 04:27, 12 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The credits list characters named both 'Mangalore Aknot' and 'Mangalore Akanit'. At approximately the 1hr and 5 minute mark in the film the injured Aknot can clearly be heard telling 'Akanit' to take command and go to Phloston. I'm also inclined to not mention him though, partially as it's not important, but more-so because I know IP editors will conflate the two characters and frequently change it to Aknot. Damien Linnane (talk) 05:13, 12 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Poor guy, guess he did have a name after all. But I agree the name is unimportant. -- ferret (talk) 11:51, 12 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting; thanks for sharing. Her outfits in the music video are clearly inspired by The Fifth Element, as is supported by the references in that article. I'm not convinced this needs to be mentioned in this article though. Typically mentions like this go in 'Legacy' sections, but I think it would look a bit out of place in this one at present. Happy to hear other opinions on it though. Damien Linnane (talk) 01:46, 15 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The first paragraph of the "[p]roduction" section seems overly long to me (footnotes removed):
As a teenager, Besson envisioned the world of The Fifth Element in an attempt to alleviate boredom. He began writing the script when he was 16, though the film was not released in cinemas until he was 38. The original storyline was set in the year 2300 and was about a "nobody" named Zaltman Bleros (later renamed Korben Dallas) who wins a trip to the Club Med resort on the planet Fhloston Paradise in the Angel constellation. There, he meets Leeloo, a "sand-girl" who has the "beauty of youth" despite being over 2,000 years old. Besson continued to work on the storyline for years; by the time his documentary film Atlantis was released in 1991, he had a 400-page script. Nicolas Seydoux and Patrice Ledoux from Gaumont were the first people to take on the project. In November 1991, while looking for actors for the film, Besson met French comics creators Jean Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières and recruited them for the film's production design. Giraud and Mézières's comics were a major source of inspiration for Besson's futuristic New York City. Mézières wrote the book The Circles of Power, which contains a character named S'Traks, who drives a flying taxicab through the congested air traffic of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Mézières showed images of the flying taxi to Besson, who was inspired to change the background of Korben Dallas from a worker in a rocket-ship factory to that of a taxi driver who flies his cab around a Rubanis-inspired futuristic New York City. Five other artists were hired for the project, and Jean-Paul Gaultier was hired to design the costumes. The team spent a year creating over 8,000 drawings, during which time Besson approached both Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson for the lead role. Willis expressed interest, though he was reluctant to take on the role as the film was considered risky after his previous two films, Hudson Hawk and Billy Bathgate, had been received poorly; Gibson eventually turned down the role. While the team impressed film companies with their designs, they struggled to find one willing to take on a budget of almost $100 million. In December 1992, production stopped without any prior warning, and the team disbanded.
Could anyone please tell me where a good place to split it would be?--Thylacine24 (talk) 00:46, 18 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Personally I can't say I see what the problem is. I don't see a need to split it, nor a great place to do so. The paragraph stays focused and is consistent with subsequent paragraphs, so in my opinion splitting it well would probably require rewording and reorganising the entire section. The first paragraph is only slightly longer than the second paragraph after all. Also just for future reference in general, I don't see much point in copy pasting an entire paragraph onto a talk page to refer to it. Part of a paragraph might be appropriate to highlight what you're referring to, but people can easily find the entire first paragraph of the production section if they want to see what you're talking about, so pasting it here just bloats the talk page. Damien Linnane (talk) 01:31, 18 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
