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
He was 38 when it reached cinemas. He first imagined it as a novel to relieve teenage boredom.
Q 03Which actor plays cab driver Korben Dallas?
Bruce Willis
Besson had also approached Mel Gibson, who turned it down. Willis had just come off flops Hudson Hawk and Billy Bathgate.
Q 04Which A-list actress was considered for Leeloo before Milla Jovovich was cast?
Julia Roberts
Jovovich beat 200 to 300 applicants Besson met in person, including Elizabeth Berkley and Diane Kruger.
Q 05What was Korben Dallas's job before he became a taxi driver?
A special forces major
In Besson's original draft the hero, then called Zaltman Bleros, worked in a rocket-ship factory.
Q 06What was Korben Dallas's name in Besson's original story?
Zaltman Bleros
He was a 'nobody' who won a trip to a Club Med on Fhloston Paradise, where he met a 2,000-year-old 'sand-girl' called Leeloo.
Q 07How often does the great evil appear, according to the film's prologue?
Every 5,000 years
The Mondoshawans collect the weapon from an Egyptian temple in 1914 and promise to bring it back in time.
Q 08What are the aliens who guard the weapon called?
Mondoshawans
The Mangalores are the mercenaries who shoot down their ship on Zorg's orders.
Q 09How is Leeloo recreated by scientists in the 23rd century?
From a severed hand in metal armour
It is all that survives the Mangalore ambush of the Mondoshawan ship. She wakes up remembering her previous life and escapes.
Q 10How does Leeloo first meet Korben?
She crashes through the roof of his flying taxi
She jumps off a ledge to escape the lab and lands in the traffic below.
Q 11What are the first names of the industrialist villain, surname Zorg?
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel
Besson called Oldman one of the top five actors in the world. Oldman later admitted he did it as a favour because Besson had helped finance Nil by Mouth.
Q 12Which planet hosts the flying luxury hotel where the Diva performs?
Fhloston Paradise
Korben 'wins' the trip in a rigged radio contest, with Ruby Rhod along as host.
Q 13Where are the four elemental stones hidden?
Inside the Diva Plavalaguna's body
Korben extracts them after she is killed in the Mangalore attack. Zorg flees with an empty case.
Q 21A flying-taxi character in which Mézières comic persuaded Besson to make Korben a cab driver?
The Circles of Power
S'Traks drives his cab through the congested skies of the planet Rubanis. Korben had previously been a rocket-factory worker in the script.
Q 22Roughly how many drawings did the design team produce in a year of pre-production?
8,000
Besson had a 400-page script by 1991 and shopped the designs around studios who baulked at the near-$100 million budget.
Q 23Which Besson film, made while The Fifth Element was stalled, helped get it financed by Columbia?
Léon: The Professional
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
He and Jovovich practised by writing letters and holding conversations in it. They married after the film and divorced in 1999.
Q 17Which musician was originally cast as Ruby Rhod but had to drop out because of a world tour?
Prince
Jamie Foxx was also considered; Besson liked him but felt Chris Tucker's smaller frame suited the character.
Q 18What was Ruby Rhod's first name in the original script?
Loc
One theory says the new name splices rubidium and rhodium from the periodic table; another that it pairs a feminine first name with a phallic surname.
Q 19Which fashion designer created the film's costumes?
Jean Paul Gaultier
He designed all 900 extras' costumes for the Fhloston scenes and checked each one every morning. One jacket cost $5,000.
Q 20Which two French comic artists were hired for the film's production design?
Moebius and Jean-Claude Mézières
Their comics inspired the look of the futuristic New York. Moebius (Jean Giraud) later sued, unsuccessfully, over similarities to The Incal.
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
It used seven soundstages including the 007 Stage. The desert scenes were shot in Mauritania.
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
Eighty workers spent five months on them; some of the 25 skyscrapers stood 20 feet tall, complete with furniture behind the windows.
Q 29Who composed the film's score?
Éric Serra
Besson's regular composer, he mixed a Stalinist fanfare, reggae and hula music into the score. Music 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
Donizetti's aria is one of the few pieces of diegetic music in the film. The scene was filmed at the Royal Opera House.