1st Term Paper

The film The Fifth Element was released in 1997 and though it was not a huge hit it became very popular for all sci-fi fans and is one of my personal favorites. The film stars Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, a retired special forces soldier who now drives a taxi in twenty third century earth, it co-stars Milla Jovich as Leelu who is a supreme being engineered by aliens. Leelu is brought to earth by an alien race which is charged with protecting all life in the universe which arrives every 5,000 years in the form of a massive dark planet. The rules of physics and gravity appear to be of the same standards we are used to. The film is shot in live action and uses computer animation for structures, ships, aliens, and weapons. This paper will cover how some humans and aliens possess super abilities and how some basic laws of physics were broken or bent in the film.

Since the story line of the film takes place on Earth it makes sense that the laws of gravity would be the same as we are used to, and the film does a good job of following these basic laws. Throughout the film we see vessels flying in space and hovering around major cities on earth. These vessels still abide by the laws of gravity and momentum, with the use of thrust they are able to obtain new modes of flight such as hovering. They use thrust accordingly to gain the movement that they require. Throughout the film all the vessels have engines that make it seem that whatever movement they make can be accomplished at no time during the film does it seem unrealistic for a vessel to be able to fly or maneuver in the way that it does.

When Leelu first meets Korben she has just crashed through the roof of his taxi, shortly after he takes her for a wild ride through the skies of New York city. After Leelu crashes through Korben's cab he is pulled over but quickly decides to help Leelu to evade the police. Korben makes many dives and sharp turns in his cab and since Leelu is not wearing a seatbelt like Korben she is thrown up against the glass and is knocked all around the inside the cab. This demonstrates that Newton's laws are still in the norm in this futuristic sci-fi flick.

The most basic of these laws that is demonstrated is how objects fall in the film. When priest Vito Conelius is summoned to Mr. Zorg's office he is given a demonstration in how order comes from chaos when Zorg pushes a glass off his desk and allows it to smash on the ground in a realistic fashion. When Leelu jumps off a skyscraper in New York she is able to evade the police that follow after her since she started her fall before they did. Another example is when Korben opens a cupboard in his tiny apartment in New York and all matter of objects fall out items ranging from books to heavy medals which all hit the ground at the same time.

One of the big mistakes in the film is early on when a Mondoshawan spaceship on its way to earth to bring the fifth element so it can be used. On its approach it is attacked by a squadron of fighters and after being fired on it is destroyed. But instead of blowing up in space it is instead seen crashing into the surface of a planet that was nowhere to be seen earlier on. This is a obvious flaw since in our universe if the ship was damaged and was entering a planet's atmosphere it would be destroyed and never reach the ground. Also the ship was nowhere near the planet in its previous shot and in order for it to be pulled in for it to crash it would have needed to fly close enough to the planets gravitational pull to bring it in.

As part of the story In the film aliens are a common occurrence and many of them posses super human abilities. Even though Leelu is a being who is engineered to be a perfect being her body is the same as ours on the outside and so it must abide by the same rules of gravity as all humans do. Leelu falls hundreds of feet after jumping off a skyscraper only to crash through the roof of the taxi cab Korben Dallas is driving. Through the cab is made of metal Leelu is able to survive her long fall with minor scrapes and no broken bones. If any other person was to attempt this feat they would end up dead or in a hospital for months since their force upon impact would be so great. Since Leelu is able to survive this incredible blow to her body with minor scrapes she is superhuman at this point.

One of the main alien races that appear in the film are the Mangalores. The Mangalores are a race without a home since it was seized by the military so many of them serve as soldiers of fortune. One of the super abilities that makes them such great soldiers is the ability to shape shift at will. The fact they are able to change their face and body without having to displace mass to other parts of their body defies all our laws on energy and mass. Because they are able to do this so casually without repercussions gives them the status of super human.

Towards the end of the film Leelu enters into hand to hand combat against a group of Mangalorians in order to obtain the sacred stones that she needs to stop the great evil. Leelu is able to engage these aliens in hand to hand combat and knock them around the room without moving more than a foot or two. Since the Mangalorians appear to be at least twice her seize and weight she should have great difficulty inflicting harm upon them, instead she is able to easily knock them around. Since she is able to exert such a great force on these soldiers and not have any force exerted back onto her she is breaking Newton's third fundamental law. Because Leelu is able to do this she is demonstrating a super human strength.

Throughout the film a common mistake was made or ignored, this mistake was objects have a large force, be it gravity or manmade, exerted on them and having minimal to no reaction to these forces. There are many cases in the film where Newton's third law is ignored in order to impress viewers. In the first seen we see set in the 23rd century we view a federal army battle ship coming up on a dark mass. Not knowing what it is the decide to shoot first and ask questions later. After unloading volley after volley of nuclear warheads on the planet no damage is done to the objects surface. Because the dark object is "evil" it can break our basic rules of gravity and take a nuclear warhead size force and have no reaction to it.

In the futuristic city of New York the problem of over population has been solved by simply building even higher skyscrapers. These skyscrapers are so high the ground cannot be seen below due to clouds and traffic. These skyscrapers have no unusual base or extreme width to support the great force that gravity would exert upon them. In a realistic environment these buildings would collapse and come crashing back to the ground.

In one of the final scenes of the film the evil object that is the size of our moon is stopped very close to earth. Due to the large size of this object and its proximity to the earth it would have a affect on the earth's gravitation as the moon does such as tides or the climate. But no such effect takes place and everything on earth carries on. The fact that the earth has no reaction to this new object in its gravitational field shows that not all objects obey the basic laws of gravity and physics.

A exclusion to objects having a great force act on them with no reaction is in one of the last scenes when the evil object is racing towards earth to destroy it. Leelu is brought to the temple along with the sacred stones. After activating the other 4 elements she stands on a platform and releases a beam of light from within which is able to stop the great evil from destroying earth. It is impossible for a ray of light to stop anything let alone a speeding planetoid.

The Fifth Element did a great job of following basic laws of gravity when it suited the story line, but when they chose to ignore a rule they would consistently ignore it not switching back and forth which would have made it more noticeable. Since gravity appeared to be at its norm as demonstrated by objects falling and requiring thrust to maneuver, any action that could not be explained or seemed unusual would be classed as super human and was explained in the story line. Although Newton's third law was the most neglected of all it was usually explained why it was ignored so as not to leave the viewer puzzled. Before watching this film with a purpose other than to be entertained I had never noticed any flaws or mistakes in the physics and now that I have i can still enjoy the film without being annoyed by any of these mistakes.