The Fifth Element Trivia
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50 free The Fifth Element trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free The Fifth Element trivia questions with answers. Luc Besson started writing The Fifth Element at 16 and released it at 38, and every one of those years shows on screen. This quiz covers the film front to back: the Mondoshawans and the four stones, Korben Dallas's flying cab, Leeloo's 400-word Divine Language, Zorg and his Mangalore mercenaries, Ruby Rhod's name and the singer who nearly played him, Diva Plavalaguna and the Donizetti aria behind the Diva Dance, the Gaultier costumes, the Moebius and Mézières designs, the Pinewood shoot, the Cannes opening night and the plagiarism suit over The Incal. Easy questions ask who plays Korben and Zorg and what Leeloo lands in; the hard ones want the taxi-driver comic that inspired the cab, the sequel title that never happened, the soprano who actually sang the Diva's aria and which co-star cannot bear to watch the film. Written for sci-fi fans, pub quizzers and anyone who owns a multipass. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film and its cast and crew, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Luc Besson co-wrote The Fifth Element with which screenwriter, who also wrote The Karate Kid?
Robert Mark Kamen
Kamen later co-wrote the Taken and Transporter films with Besson.
Q 02How old was Luc Besson when he began writing the story that became The Fifth Element?
16
Besson was 16 when he began the story as a novel to relieve school boredom; he was 38 when the film reached cinemas in 1997.
Q 03Which actor plays cab driver Korben Dallas?
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis plays Korben Dallas; he took the part after the 1991 flops Hudson Hawk and Billy Bathgate, and wrapped his scenes in May 1996.
Q 04Which A-list actress was considered for Leeloo before Milla Jovovich was cast?
Julia Roberts
Besson considered Julia Roberts for Leeloo but her fee was too high; Milla Jovovich was picked from the 200 to 300 candidates he met in person.
Q 05What was Korben Dallas's job before he became a taxi driver?
A special forces major
Korben Dallas was a special forces major before driving a flying cab in 23rd-century New York; General Munro pulls him back in for the Fhloston mission.
Q 06What was Korben Dallas's name in Besson's original story?
Zaltman Bleros
In Besson's original story the hero was Zaltman Bleros, a nobody from a rocket-ship factory who won a trip to Fhloston Paradise and met Leeloo there.
Q 07How often does the great evil appear, according to the film's prologue?
Every 5,000 years
The prologue says the Great Evil returns every 5,000 years, and only the four elemental stones combined with the fifth element can stop it.
Q 08What are the aliens who guard the weapon called?
Mondoshawans
The Mondoshawans are the armoured aliens who guard the stones and the fifth element; Mangalore mercenaries hired by Zorg shoot down their ship.
Q 09How is Leeloo recreated by scientists in the 23rd century?
From a severed hand in metal armour
Scientists rebuild Leeloo from a severed hand in metal armour, the only remains recovered after the Mangalores ambush the Mondoshawan ship.
Q 10How does Leeloo first meet Korben?
She crashes through the roof of his flying taxi
Fleeing the lab, Leeloo leaps from a ledge and crashes through the roof of Korben's flying taxi, landing in his back seat.
Q 11What are the first names of the industrialist villain, surname Zorg?
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel
Gary Oldman's villain is Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, an arms dealer and industrialist who hires the Mangalores to steal the stones on behalf of the great evil.
Q 12Which planet hosts the flying luxury hotel where the Diva performs?
Fhloston Paradise
The Diva performs aboard the flying luxury hotel over the planet Fhloston Paradise; Korben gets there by 'winning' a rigged radio contest, with Ruby Rhod as host.
Q 13Where are the four elemental stones hidden?
Inside the Diva Plavalaguna's body
Q 21A flying-taxi character in which Mézières comic persuaded Besson to make Korben a cab driver?
The Circles of Power
In Mézières' 1994 Valérian album The Circles of Power, the cabbie S'Traks drives a flying taxi through the skies of Rubanis; Besson then made Korben a cab driver.
Q 22Roughly how many drawings did the design team produce in a year of pre-production?
8,000
Over a year of pre-production the team around Moebius and Mézières produced some 8,000 drawings; studios then baulked at a budget near $100 million.
Q 23Which Besson film, made while The Fifth Element was stalled, helped get it financed by Columbia?
Léon: The Professional
The Diva Plavalaguna hid the four stones inside her own body; Korben pulls them out after she is fatally wounded in the Mangalore attack, while Zorg flees with an empty case.
Q 14How does Zorg die?
A dying Mangalore's bomb blows up the hotel
He had gone back for the empty case and deactivated his own bomb, only to be caught by someone else's.
Q 15What finally makes Leeloo willing to unleash the weapon at the end?
Korben declaring his love and kissing her
She had given up after learning humanity's history of war. Besson wanted audiences to agree with her question about what life is worth saving for.
Q 16How many words are in the 'Divine Language' Besson invented for Leeloo?
400
The Divine Language had about 400 words; Besson and Jovovich practised it by writing each other letters and holding conversations, and married after the film.
Q 17Which musician was originally cast as Ruby Rhod but had to drop out because of a world tour?
Prince
Prince was the original choice for Ruby Rhod but pulled out over touring commitments; Jamie Foxx was also considered for the part.
Q 18What was Ruby Rhod's first name in the original script?
Loc
In the original script the character was Loc Rhod; he became Ruby Rhod, a name some read as a splice of the elements rubidium and rhodium.
Q 19Which fashion designer created the film's costumes?
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier designed all the film's costumes, from Zorg's suits to the Fhloston extras, and personally checked each extra's outfit every morning on set.
Q 20Which two French comic artists were hired for the film's production design?
Moebius and Jean-Claude Mézières
Besson hired Moebius (Jean Giraud) and Jean-Claude Mézières, whose comics inspired the futuristic New York; their drawings shaped the flying taxis and towering cityscape.
Production had shut down without warning in December 1992. Besson cut the budget to $90 million and Columbia, his partner on Léon, said yes.
Q 24Where was The Fifth Element mainly filmed, after Besson failed to find facilities in France?
Pinewood Studios, London
Shooting moved to Pinewood Studios outside London, where the film occupied seven soundstages including the giant 007 Stage.
Q 25In which African country were the 'Egyptian' desert scenes shot?
Mauritania
The first shot of the whole production was a desert background there on 5 January 1996.
Q 26What is unusual about the scenes featuring hero Korben and villain Zorg?
The two actors never share any screen time
Willis wrapped on 16 May and Oldman started the following week.
Q 27Why did Besson insist most action scenes happen in broad daylight?
He was sick of dark corridors and dim planets
He wanted a 'cheerfully crazy' look rather than a gloomy, realistic one.
Q 28At what scale were the New York skyscraper models built for the effects shots?
1/24
The New York miniatures were built at 1/24 scale: eighty workers spent five months on 25 skyscrapers, some 20 feet tall, with furniture behind the windows.
Q 29Who composed the film's score?
Éric Serra
Éric Serra, Besson's regular composer, mixed a Stalinist-style fanfare, reggae and hula music into a score that plays for about 90 per cent of the film.
Q 30The Diva Dance opera scene uses the mad-scene aria 'Il dolce suono' from which opera?
Lucia di Lammermoor
The Diva opens with 'Il dolce suono', Lucia's mad-scene aria from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, before sliding into Serra's techno 'Diva Dance'.