The Weekly Planet - The Fifth Element (Extended) - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

To conclude our look at classic 90s sci-fi we've hit The Fifth Element! A wonderful action adventure movie starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman sporting three of the most insane hairstyles every commited to film. Wonderful special effects, great world building, action scenes that pack a punch all under the direction of a really crook bloke. Thanks for watching our Caravan Of Garbage reviewSUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back everybody to another episode of the weekly planet where we're wrapping up our look at classic 90s unstoppable sci-fi. Love it. Do you? Have you had a good time on this journey so far? I love doing content. That was not my question. I don't believe you and that's not my question. Well, that's the only answer you're going to get from both me and my lawyer.

Wow. That's right. Anyways, of course, we're looking at the fifth element. Yes. From 1997. Much requested. Once again, buy one guy. and once again, this is not for them.

And what are you going to do now? Yeah, oh, that's a great point. It's a real, as the Dark Knight said in the movie The Dark Night, the dog catches the car, what happens to the car? Car gets it back up again. Flying car. Correct. Fifth element.

Chitty, shitty bang bang. No. That's not sci-fi, that's magic or something. Anyway, we just chose to do this. It makes sense. Please leave a like. Now, because ordinarily, if somebody demands you do something, you will out of spite not do it.

And that's not just in this. This is in my real life. In every aspect of your life. That's why you haven't brushed your teeth in 20 years. Why now? Why this one now? I think it's just time to talk about the fifth element. It was either this or soldier or Stargate,

but I feel like that's going to go in some other category. This is more fun. This is a fun film. And it's a fun film. This is maybe the true successor to Star Wars. That's interesting you say that because it is that kind of... It's colourful. It's Muppety.

Yeah. It's got a charismatic. It's a big weird guy movie where there's like big weird alien guys but just big weird guys It's got people getting kissed against their will Sometimes we make notes for these videos I mean you always do I sometimes don't

I have one note And it just says the fifth element And then it says Hey maybe don't kiss a barely conscious woman Great point And then I've had some time to think about it Definitely don't do that She also might have brain damage

You don't know Well she's she's also the trope we know were born sexy yesterday, as they say. Oh, okay, yeah. Although, was she always Miller Jovovich? And when she's in the big suit? Yeah, okay.

Is that a suit or a sarcophagus? Is that the mummy 2017, that situation? Did she look like that and they made her new and fresh? Oh, great question. Don't know. Is she ageless? Maybe that weird, horny scientist made her like that. But he seemed surprised.

Yeah, he didn't, yeah, that's true. Anyway, what this has that Star Wars doesn't have is horny. Yeah, that's probably true. Also, Star Wars doesn't have a big evil son that's visiting Earth and it has a terrible attitude. And that's the main villain, I guess. Gordon, you say the Death Star is a terrible attitude? It's a big dude with a terrible dude.

I think it's neutral and the people inside of bring the terrible attitude. You could do good things with the Death Star. I think there's probably enough people in the Death Star that you couldn't possibly judge what their attitude is. I don't think they're a monolith. Could you use the Death Star for good? Like trimming a hedge? Absolutely you could.

Digging a trench. Yeah, sure. Right through a planet. Yes. Anyway, the evil side is called Mr. Shadow. and he can speed through space at light speed and he can make telephone calls. What is he exactly?

We don't know some kind of ancient evil. What's his plan when he gets to Earth? Just crash into it, I guess. It's lucky that in the future of Earth they were still using telephones. I know. Like maybe he'd go there and maybe his initial plan was like, I'll go there and I'll send a fax.

I'll send a fax to tell people my intentions of destroying the Earth. Oh, it's not connecting. It's going on. We don't use faxes anymore, Mr. Evil planet. Come on, man. Yeah. They went out with Luke Perry.

That's right. Who's in this movie for some reason. He sure is. RIP. RIP, yeah. Looking handsome in his vest. Incredible. Irreappropriate clothing. Great cast.

Bruce Willis, killing it, loving it. I love his hair cut as well, which is also based on director Luke Bisson's real haircut. But that is a wig. That is a frosted tip toupee. Because it looks like his real hair. Because they didn't overdo it. Yes. The best Bruce Willis wigs, if you don't mind me saying so, they keep the recession.

Luper. Here it is. That's, no. Are we looking at young Joseph Gordon Leavitt when he starts to lose his hair? Oh, I don't know, man. Sometimes I just say these things. So this is in the future, right? Because we know there's an ancient evil coming and they need to bring all the four elements together,

which are stones and then also a woman and they get activated. You shoot a laser and you kill the big planet, the evil sun, which is also made of antimatter. It's in the books. Don't worry about it. It's a little cigarette future as well. I love the future in this. Great. Again, like Star Wars, lived in.

Real, gross, strange, weird guys. It's like weird neighbours who wear hats. Some stuff that would never happen and some stuff that has already happened. Yeah. You know, where we've got Ruby Rod, played by Chris Tucker, who's just constantly streaming, basically. He's streaming his life, and that's come to pass way sooner than 300 years. Yeah, just very annoying live streamer. Mailed it, perfect.

Originally offered to Prince, who turned it down. That makes sense. Yeah, and he told Chris Tucker that didn't like the outfits, they were too outlandish. But I guess he means not his style. That's not what he meant. This is his... Yeah. Come on, man.

Right. Come on. What are we talking about? They're the same picture meme. Yeah. There it is. Yeah. I love the kind of ruined-ish world where it's kind of like now, where it's like

it's barely functioning, but it's overbuilt. Yeah. There's a moment also where you see the whole of New York and all the water has been stripped away. And apparently the backstory of that is that the water got taken off world for terraforming. Okay. So there's little, there's like bits of information like that. Like you mentioned, the cigarettes that are more filter than cigarettes.

Yeah, exactly. Digital domain did the effects on this, a lot of model work as well, and a lot of compositing and all of that. But it's also the kind of movie that was impossible to make like even two or three years earlier, just budgetary-wise. Because this was actually, I don't know if you know this, if you had, if Luke Besson had a Pinterest. Oh, yes. It would be... I wouldn't look at it. No, you shouldn't look at it. Maybe the police should look at it. The gendarmes. Yeah, okay, well, fine, let's talk about this now. That's got to come up eventually. I mean, at the very least, Lelu does pull a gun on Bruce Willis when he kisses her without her permission while she's unconscious.

Yes. You know, but the vibe was like, yeah, but maybe under different circumstances, that would be fine. His idea for this movie started when he was a teenager. Uh-huh. And the idea was that this would also be multiple movies potentially, which obviously never happened because it did make money, but it wasn't a huge hit in the US, in particular at first. Yes.

But, you know, he's got a lot of ideas. One of his ideas, for example, was to meet his first wife when she was 15. and he was 33 when they got together. That's one of his ideas. What an idea. Another idea is all... Interesting. Not usual. Not entirely usual.

But not without precedent, I suppose. Sure. Another idea is all the multiple allegations that have been against him. There are a few ideas. Yeah, and look, none of those have stuck, so I'm sure people will make that argument. Also, probably shouldn't put any of those in a movie.

Oh, wait, he did already. It was called The Professional. Yeah, well, the professional was also the relationship with that of Natalie Portman and Jean Reno was based on his relationship. with his girlfriend and then wife, who we had a kid with when she was 16. Interesting.

So, you know, anyway, he drew other inspirations. Oh, yes, go ahead. Specifically from the cartoonist, Jean-Claude Mizier, in particular, the circles of power. Oh, yes. And Luke Besson actually went to him and said, look, I've done a lot of things, but what I want from you is...

Look Bison, he said. He said, I want to make a movie based off your visuals, but I want to pay you for your work. In particular, there's things like the flying taxis, which was from work he did in 1994. He also used inspiration from Valerian. Yes. That was also, again, with permission,

which he ended up directing in 2017. I know if you've seen that movie. I have seen it. It's got some cool stuff in it. I think it's also quite fun, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah. It's not as good as this. Also, Jean-Claude Miserieu,

he also is, some people say, the uncredited inspiration behind Star Wars. Ah, makes sense. I mean, George Lucas grabbed a whole lot of stuff from this. There's also a little bit of Mobius in this, right? Absolutely, yeah. There is. There's that. There's a bit of heavy metal. Oh, yes.

There's a particular... The French do it different. In a lot of ways. In a lot of very negative ways. But sometimes it looks pretty cool. Yeah. It's Star Wars, but it's Star Wars, but it's got that particular French sensibility to it. Absolutely. Also, the idea of the protagonist, Corbyn Dallas, being a taxi driver that was partially based on his own father. It was a taxi driver. Helped put him through art school.

Again, from heavy metal in 1981, there is a taxi driver rescues a woman's segment of. That, which again plays into this. Again, it feels like it's like a grab bag of ideas tied together really well in a nice, lived-in, nice. It's a lived-in universe. Anyway, Gary Oldman is also in this. He sure is with the tiniest soul patch imaginable. Oh, I didn't even realize he had a soul patch, Mason. It was just a bit of food.

Yeah. So he apparently did this as a favour to Luke Besant because he financed his film Nill by Mouth. Oh, yeah, right. He was also in the professional. He was in the professional. He's a different. He's a different flavour of insane. A different screaming lunatic.

Correct, yes. That's the one where he's the ice tremor. Yeah. Love that. Everyone! It's that one. Exactly. When he was asked in 2014 if he liked the fifth element, this is Gary Oldman, he said, oh no, I can't bear it.

And previously said, it was me singing for my supper because Luke had come in and partially financed my film. Yeah, I think he's more or less since then kind of, he's come around on the idea that, yes, this is a good movie. But he just remembers the plastic and the hair cut. Oh, yeah. and all of that. But yeah, I remember the weird guns as well. Me too. It's a weird gun movie.

It's very much a weird gun movie. Yeah. Also, I don't know if this is her first appearance. Milo Jovovich is a great find. Uh-huh, absolutely. As an action star, and obviously she's gone on to starring a bunch of action movies in particular, Resident Evil movies.

I think she's better than what she has been in. Correct, yes. Yeah. Does that make, I mean, she's in like one of the newer Hellboys and she's like good in that. She's in one of the monster hunter movies At least one. The one monster hunter movie.

Yeah, but again, I feel like as an action star, she's better than this. Is she better than this? She's good in this and I feel like she should be kind of respected more for our work. And maybe she is. You're saying she should be in an expendable sequel. Maybe in Girl Spendables. Oh, they are doing Girl Spendables again.

Girl Spendables was off the table, but now it's back on the table. The last one was sort of Girl Spendables, right? Megan Fox was in it? There was one Girl Spendables. Okay, well, let's do another Girl Spendables. All girl spendables. Milojovich, Linda Hamilton, etc. Yeah.

Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney Weaver. Wesley Snipes in a wig again. He can do that. We've seen him do it. From Tuong Fu. Exactly. Exactly.

Also, this movie looks amazing. And it's one of those movies that people refer to when they go, well, movies just looked better back then. And I think there is sometimes some truth to that because you're limited by budget. And especially if you come in at the end of the run of a particular type of technology and you merge it with the new technology you can create something that looks like this if you have the money and time.

But if you look at also movies from this era, they don't all look like this. Correct. Very few movies look like this. Yeah. Again, I don't even think that movies necessarily look better now because often they don't. But there are also examples of movies that came out recently

and you're like, yeah, that looks good too, you know? So I think it's kind of unfair to be like movies look better. But yeah, again, great special effects. And even things like there's 3D. printing a person in this and we hadn't really seen anything like that before, I feel. It's also, this is Corrassant as well.

George Lucas clearly looked at this and went, well, I'm going to use this for... It's the lanes in the type of futuristic city. But had he come up with a concept of Corrassant before that? I think so, but I mean, because look at the chase in this compared to like the chase in attack of the clones. But I would also say like, you know, the concept of the overgrown city planet is probably...

Yeah, it's not unique to anybody. Blade Runner did it. Speaking of Blade Runner, of course, I was going to say rest of the cast, Brian James from Leon from Blade Runner The leg great is in this I think he's terrific

You get left in a fridge At one point He does Who do we have in this Tiny Lister as the president Yeah Incredible

I mean this is He's in Friday And of course Chris Tucker is in Friday That's exactly right Chris Tucker is also He's doing crook stuff On a plane

And maybe he did in real life Who's to say Ian Holm There's a few alien people in this Or alien aliens people in this That's exactly Lee Evans has a brief Lee Evans is in this

As a sort of Space Hotel supporter and tricky. Tricky is in this. Tripop Pioneer Tricky is in this. God, I was like, is that tricky? It is tricky. And I looked it up and it was tricky.

He did a song with the lead singer of live. That's true. That is true. It's undeniable. I also think there are some beautiful moments in this, in particular the opera scene. Yes. It's a weird soundtrack, isn't it?

There's a really weird soundtrack. There's a lot of reggae in it. Yeah. What's going on with this soundtrack? Like remixing. Yeah. You'd think, you know, looking at the visuals. If you looked at the visuals of this with no soundtrack,

you'd assume it was like that sweeping Star Wars epic orchestral stuff, but it's all. Doong do do do do do do get, etc. And then Chris Tucker does a carwheel through the scene or whatever. He sure does. So that opera scene is apparently impossible to sing because the way it's laid out, like certain notes cannot go next to each other. Well, she's an alien.

Well, that's the thing. So they ended up recording them separately and like bringing it together. Also, she did that with four heavy rectangles. in her. That's true. Which is incredible, by the way. Okay, so Zerg, he's after the four heavy rectangles. That's right, he needs them rectangles. Zorg?

Zorg? Zorg is from Toy Story. This is Zorg, yes. This is Zorg. Because the big scary planet is coming to Earth, to crash into it or whatever. That's correct, yes. To bring eternal darkness. And so he's basically, he's outsourced his...

The big scary planet has outsourced his work to Zerg. Yes, Zorg. Zorg. And then he also outsources his work. to various alien shape-shifting guys and... And tricky and so forth. Exactly, yeah. And it's also one of those movies

where the protagonist and antagonist and a lot of people are pointing this out, they don't meet. They never meet. They're also barely aware of each other's existence. Yeah, they cross paths, like, they're getting in and out of elevators,

but they never even lock eyes. I guess that's what would happen in an enormous world of, you know, this galaxy spanning adventure. Maybe they never would meet. They just don't. It just doesn't happen. Yeah.

Even though, you know, Bruce Willis... Oh, Darth Vader was there, was he? Oh. I didn't see him. I didn't see him. Big black suit, no, I didn't see him. I'm mostly wearing white. Yeah.

Does he have two outfits? He just has the one outfit. No, I didn't see him. I didn't see him. I guess Bruce Willis is more aware of him because he gets fired by him at one point. Ah, right, uh-huh. But they don't know that they're working against each other.

They are completely oblivious to that. And Zerg dies, Zorg. I've written Zerg here at all of my notes. Uh-huh. And they never meet, which is wonderful. What's the significance of that? I guess it is just the big universe thing. I think it's just like stuff happens, you know?

Stuff happens. But there is also like elements of fate to this. There seems to be forces of good and evil at work here, right? In the production of the film, yeah. The production of film, but I mean, as in the universe, like, there is a destiny to things. Like, she was supposed to fall into his cab and all of these. There are a series of just massive coincidences that happen in this movie. Well, that's a movie.

isn't it? That's right. That is a movie. And you might also be like, what's the fifth element? Is it love or whatever? Because you can kiss her or whatever at the end? In a tube. No, the fifth element is the symbol of life, Mason. You don't even have to kiss the fifth element. It's not part of it. Wow, that's optional. Yeah, that's optional. It should ultimately be up to the fifth element, shouldn't it? I think so. Yeah. Whether you kiss her or not. Yeah. So you at the end, all the, you bring the five elements together. And then at the end, it blast the evil moon. Correct. And I guess now we have a second moon. A second, but evil, moon. Why not, eh? Well, that's the beauty of this universe, I think.

Yeah. Is there's no status quo, so you don't have to keep going back to it. Yeah. You know, there's a moment in this where they stuff Brian James in the fridge. And the door gets reopened and it looks like he's dead. And I'm like, I guess he's dead. And they close it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bruce Willis is like, I guess I did three frozen murders there. Oh, well. But then they're all back at the end. They had a nice time. I love his little apartment as well. Right. Like the use of space and the fact it opens up and you get a little lunch from a dude on a flying ship and whatever.

Yes. That's all good stuff, man. Door dash. Door dash. Door dash. Ahead of their time in many ways. Yeah. I don't know.

I feel like having like an evil moon or more evil than our regular moon, I assume. You'd always wonder if it was going to go evil again, wouldn't you? And you know someone's going to tap into that evil moon, aren't they? Right. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go mine the evil moon. Hey, how about you don't.

Don't mind the evil moon. We don't know how many more blast this fifth element's got left in it, you know what I mean? What if the evil moon? comes to life again? What if Miller Jovovich has fallen out a window on a taxi hasn't caught her? Exactly. And she just splattered on it. What are we going to scrape up Miller Jovovich off the road and then smear on the rocks and hope it works again? Maybe it won't. We don't know that. We don't know. I'd like to see the evil moon from this fight the moon with a computer in it from moonfall. Wow. I'd like the evil moon from this to fight the moon from other mighty bush.

I'd like the evil moon from this to fight the moon that gets the rocket into it. Oh, that old movie or whatever. From that old movie or whatever. All the Smashing Pumpkins video clip, yeah. Smashing pumpkins. Go on? Yeah, that's, I know him. Okay. Do you know this had an original ending this is different than the original ending? No. In the original draft. But I'm getting an inkling it does. There is and I'm going to tell you about it. You don't need to do anything here. In the original, you don't even need to riff. This can be a moment of you, maybe some self-reflection. Quiet contemplation. I don't think so. I'm ready to riff. But if I can't think, if I don't say anything at the end of this, it's not because I couldn't think of a riff. It's because I've decided to do the quiet contemplation thing. Okay, all right, cool. So in the original draft, Zorg would have faced Corbyn during the hotel evacuation. Okay.

By the way, there's not really a lot of action in this, and then there's just an incredible shootout. Absolutely. And you'd think also by the end you'd be bored and like, where's the action? Uh-huh. But you're not. Because you're just looking at a freaky stuff. Just look at weird stuff. And there was like moments of action and blasting or whatever.

And Miller, Jobovich has a few action sequences. But just Bruce Willis running into a room with a gun and just kind of bumbling his way through sort of and, you know, tricking people and using all these. I love the... Tricky's being tricked. Yes, he gets blown up. He was the trick and now he's the trickie. He got tricky.

You know the moment where he pulls the spike grenade and you see them vibrate all the little... Just like little design elements of this, which is so good. Anyway, so during the hotel evacuation, Zorg gets beaten up in the attack, but he survives the destruction of the hotel because he's got a personal shield. And he lands on a massive glacier and he goes to call his secretary to get another ship, but the battery on his phone fails. And he's like, gosh, damn it. And he throws down his plastic head hat.

I assume and jumps up and down. This is better where he just dies in an explosion. And then he'd say... Okay, that's right. Then he'd say... Maybe someone should have been quite contemplating. Then he'd say, man, I should have...

Should have gone with Euracelle. Wait, no, I'm going with quiet contemplation. Cut it out. He'll this out. I'm the quiet contemplation guy. No. Anyways, you know what's time for? What's it time for?

The trivia. El trivia. I think you changed that on the fly. I'm actually going to go with quiet contemplation. Good call. My first bit of trivia is the trickies in this, but we did that already. Yeah, we did that song with the guy from live. Trickvia.

Yeah. Jean-Paul Gaultierre, he personally checked something like 500 extras in that one opera scene. Yeah, wow. Individually was like, looking good next, looking good next. He's the fashion designer. He's not just a French guy who's hired to check outfits. He designed all the outfits. He wouldn't even have to be hired.

The French guy would love to check out all these outfits, no doubt. You're a fan of his work? I mean, just look at my outfit. You're wearing the Zorg outfit. I am wearing the Zorg outfit. The animatronic mechanisms used for the Mangalore mask, you know the aliens. Dog guys. They were later recycled for the Nemoids in Star Wars Episode 1, The Phantom Menace.

Interesting. Mel Gibson was the first one. choice for Corbin Dallas. Interesting. I mean, payback era Mel Gibson, sure. Sure, okay, right. Modern day Mel Gibson, no thank you. He died in expendables, three or four.

Or two, I don't know. The parasites that are disinfected off the landing gear of the spaceship, they're actually boglins. Do you remember boglins? Blah blabblah, blah, blah, blah. With, like, motors in them. Oh. Remember those puppets?

Not really. Boglins. I'm familiar with the name, but I couldn't draw you a boglin. Oh. And one of the Mondo. Sharwan suits, you know, the big clunky aliens. Yeah, yeah. Guys in those suits, by the way.

Yes. Wild stuff. Okay. Incredible design. Adam Savage has got a great video on it if you do want to check it out. At one point, they were found in Planet Hollywood restaurants, specifically Disney Orlando, Florida. Wow.

Yeah. So sometimes you'd go into Planet Hollywood, you wouldn't know if you were going to get a Fifth Element robot coffin suit or a nude Sylvester Stallone. Why not both? Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, box office on a budget of $90 million, it may

263.9. 75% of this was outside of the US. Makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense. And Bruce Willis, when he signed on for this, he took a lesser fee but did receive a higher box office percentage. This was also in the era where Bruce Willis was like, I've got to mix it up, man.

Sure, yeah. I've had some Hudson Hawks and the like. I need to do something outside of die hard. And then after this, he had a pretty good run. Or at least those two moves. But can I do a die hard within the fifth element? You can do a bit of a diehard. That's your diehard and butter.

You're allowed to do that. It certainly is, yeah. Yeah, I don't mind that they don't go back to this. I feel like there was brief talk of a sequel, but again, it didn't make enough money because also Luke Besan had so many ideas that he would like to put on screen. And off screen.

We don't need to see all of those ideas, though, do we? Absolutely not. Keep a lot of those to yourself, Luke Vasson. But, yeah, it is a movie that I liked. I liked it too. Yeah, and I wish less directors were pedophiles. If I had one wish, if it was Hollywood specific, it would be that. Sure.

Yeah. You're very noble in that one. I am, aren't I? Yeah. Anyways. Yes. That one guy. Was this worth it?

Was this what you wanted? Do we not like it to the same level that you like it? Do you even like it at all? We don't even know. We don't know. We don't know anything about you. We don't. Anyways, do you want to hint towards next week?

Yes. If you want to say that earlier, there's a couple of ways you can. You can go to big sandwich.com. Oh, yes. Or patreon. Patreon.com slash Mr. Sunday movies. Very good. We're not only, there's early videos.

there's so much bonus stuff. There's video game let's plays. There's other bonus videos where we do a clickbait podcast where we look at terrible clickbait and tut our heads, don't we? We tut our heads. Can't stop tutting our heads. We do movie commentaries. And there's a podcast that's just quiet contemplation.

Yeah. We usually record that last once we're out of cool riffs. And ideas. Yes. Which we don't often are. You might have seen it happen in this video, but we did that as a joke. That's right. We never run out of cool riffs, do we?

More cool, all the time. Also, we have a podcast that's called The Weekly Planet, where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. That comes out every Monday if you are interested. That's right. We talk the news of the week, we talk big movie, and just whatever else is going on, don't we? We love big movie.

And this was one of the biggest big movie of the mall. It was a medium-sized big movie. Medium-sized big movie, but big movie in our hearts. Great. Thank you so much to Lawrence for the edit. Thank you, Lawrence. We'll see you on the next one. Grab that jammy guys.

We'll see you next week. Fifth Element. Fifth Element.