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"Multipass."
―Leeloo's iconic line [src]

Leeloominaï Lekatariba-Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat de Sebat (aka "Leeloo") is one of the Supreme Beings of the Universe. She was sent to Earth in corporeal form to become the Fifth Element, the final piece of a powerful weapon needed to destroy Evil.

History[]

Leeloo with multipass

In 1914, a race of aliens in heavily armored spacesuits arrive at an ancient Egyptian temple to collect the four elemental stones and a bronze sarcophagus containing the body of the fifth element in human form. Knowing that the weapon was designed to defeat a dark entity known as Evil every 5,000 years, the aliens — the Mondoshawan — promise the temple's current human priest that they would return the weapon's components to Earth before Evil arrived three centuries later. They leave the priest with a single bronzed key, which is to be used to open the secret room in the temple for arrangement of the weapon. The priest promises to keep it safe, passing his knowledge on to his successors until they return.

Three centuries later, the current priest, Father Vito Cornelius, preserves the key in his apartment. Along with his apprentice, David, he patiently awaits the arrival of the Stones and the Fifth Element. The Mondoshawans, as promised, are en route to Earth to return the stones and sarcophagus, when their ship is attacked by a brace of Mangalores. The Mondoshawans and their ship are destroyed, leaving nothing but a mangled right forearm from the sleeping Supreme Being in the wreckage. Discovered by Earth scientists, the severed forearm is transported to a laboratory in New York and analyzed, and its DNA isolated and studied. The DNA, far superior to human DNA which contains 40 "memo groups", contains over 200,000 "memo groups." The scientist describes the DNA of the being as being "tightly packed, with infinite genetic knowledge. Almost as if this being was … engineered." He continues to describe the cells as being "perfect."

Being that a few cells were still viable in the arm, the lead scientist begins reconstructing the being using the isolated DNA and a complex machine that puts the being together part by part, beginning with the skeleton, followed by the muscles and organs, and finally exposing the body to slightly greasy solar atoms (ultraviolet radiation), forcing the body to take measures to protect itself from UV damage by growing skin and hair. The entire process is explained by the lead scientist to a skeptical General Munro, who is less than enthusiastic about the being's revival. He informs the scientist that he hopes the the being is "friendly", stating his intent to destroy the being with a card-activated destruction system inside the machine if he is not.

Leeloo on the ledge

When the shield covering the being during its immersion in UV light is removed, General Munro appears to be awestruck when he sees a perfectly-formed human woman. The lead scientist orders the woman clothed in 'thermal bandages', and she is awakened by the flash of a remote-control camera on an overhead fixture. She starts gasping and panics when she can't find an exit from her confinement in the reactor chamber. Taking note of the humans watching her, she attempts to communicate with them, speaking rapidly in an unknown language. As General Munro approaches her, she speaks again, this time clearly a warning in the unknown tongue. Tapping on the window, Munro tells her that if she wishes to leave the chamber, she would need to improve her communication skills. Angered, the woman stares at him menacingly, growling deep in her throat, before finally putting her fist through the supposedly unbreakable glass chamber wall. Knocking Munro down, she grabs the general's multipass and quickly accesses the controls outside the chamber, escaping the laboratory through the ventilation system. The dumbfounded scientist simply stares ahead, uttering only one word: "Perfect."

Police are quickly dispatched to round up the escaped woman. She is discovered to have no file or identity in their onboard systems, and make attempts to arrest her. She then dives from the ledge of the building, where she is trapped, and falls through the roof of Korben Dallas's cab. From there, Korben makes a great effort to defy police orders to turn her over to them at her pleading in broken English. They manage to escape into the thick fog at the city floor. Before passing out, Leeloo pleads with Korben to take her to a priest named Vito Cornelius. Meanwhile, Evil takes the form of a massive, sentient, dark planet, and travels across the universe to reach Earth, occasionally contacting Zorg to check on his progress obtaining the Stones so his attempts to destroy Earth won't be interrupted.

Once rendezvoused with Cornelius, who immediately recognizes her from a tattoo on her wrist as the Supreme Being he has been waiting for. The woman is roused from unconsciousness by Korben, who took it upon himself to kiss her gently. Holding his gun to his head, she states angrily, "Seno akta gammat!" Cornelius later translates this to mean, "Never without my permission." It is during this scene that she introduces herself as Leeloominaï Lekatariba-Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat. Korben, unable to pronounce her lengthy title, asks her for a shorter name, to which she responds, "Leeloo."

Leeloo explains to Cornelius and David that the Mondoshawans had given the elemental stones to someone they trusted, and that she was meant to contact this individual on her arrival. Careful tracking reveals that this individual was located on planet Fhloston in the Angel constellation. Cornelius immediately begins making preparations to get on a ship to this location.

After tricking Korben out of his winning tickets to Fhloston Paradise on the planet Fhloston, Cornelius sets David and Leeloo up at the boarding station to board the ship as a married couple, with David posing as Korben. Korben arrives soon after, intimidating David and reclaiming his tickets. He claims that Leeloo is his wife and guest on the trip, and they board the ship that takes them to a luxurious resort on Fhloston Paradise. Cornelius sends David ahead to the temple in Egypt after discovering what happened, and stows away on the ship in its ventilation system. During this trip, Leeloo, having finally learned English, makes contact with the individual carrying the stones, Diva Plavalaguna, who tells her that she will soon give her what she came for. Some time later, Leeloo fights a troop of brutish Mangalores who have arrived to claim the Stones as well, set to an appropriate background of opera sung by the diva during a performance. After defeating the warriors, she picks up a case that is implied to contain the stones, but she is stopped by Zorg, who has boarded the ship to acquire them for his own purposes. Armed with a high-tech gun, he coerces Leeloo into giving them to him. After sensing that the stones were in fact not inside it, she tosses the case at him and attempts to escape through the vents in the ceiling of the room. Zorg promptly opens fire, gravely injuring her. Leaving her to die, Zorg sets a molecular bomb to detonate in the hotel in twenty minutes.

Leeloo remains in the vents, unable to escape because of her injuries and blood loss. Korben, after seeing her hand hanging from the vents in security footage, races to her. He, Leeloo, Cornelius and Ruby Rhod cross paths with Zorg as he races back to the diva's room, and they board the ship Zorg arrived on, escaping the hotel before it explodes. 

The group arrives at the temple in Egypt back on Earth and meet up with David. The four stones, which Korben recovered from the body of the slain diva, are put into proper position. Leeloo is carried to the center, but she is at first unwilling to assist in saving the planet due to the lack of regard that humans seem to have for their lives, as evidenced by brutal war clips she watched during transport. Horrified by human brutality, she resigns herself to not protecting what humans seemed bent on destroying. Korben reminds her that beautiful things, like love, are worth preserving. Leeloo, who was built as a weapon and therefore was unfamiliar with love, pleads with Korben to tell her why he needed her. Korben submits, admitting that he was in love with her. Kissing passionately, Leeloo uses the power of the stones to create the Light of Creation, which destroys the oncoming Evil just seconds before it reaches Earth.

Later, Korben and Leeloo recover from their mission in reactor chamber in the same New York laboratory where Leeloo was recreated. The lead scientist awkwardly explains to the visiting President Lindberg that the two heroes cannot meet with him at this time because they are making love inside the chamber.

Appearance[]

Leeloo's human form after being recreated by the laboratory is that of a Caucasian female in her late teens, early twenties. Nineteen to be exact, although that is only on the surface. She is described by Korben as being "a really big fare that he couldn't resist", being 5'9", having long legs, blue eyes, and great skin. She has bright orange hair that is blonde at the roots and falls just past her jawline. She is fair-skinned, tall, slender, and physically perfect, as mentioned by David when she strips nude in front of him and Cornelius.

Soon after her laboratory "birth", Leeloo is clothed by the scientists in wide, white thermal bandages that conceal her nudity somewhat. After meeting up with Cornelius, David provides her with clothes and an electronic box similar to a camera that applies cosmetics to the eyes. The clothes she wears include combat boots, flesh-colored leggings with a fishnet pattern, a white crop top, and an orange monokini. While investigating the cosmetic unit, she activates it and applies eye makeup, seemingly pleased with the results.

It is unknown what Leeloo looked like before the accident with the Mondoshawans. She is blunt and straightforward in words and actions. Leeloo is also shown to be quite emotional; she is horrified by the violence she sees while viewing clips and pictures of human wars and sheds tears of shock and sadness. Also, during the diva's operatic performance, she has flashbacks of the night she and and the Mondoshawans were attacked, shedding tears but then quickly becoming angry and swiftly defeating the Mangalores she encountered. Furthermore, she becomes depressed and unwilling to complete her mission, plaintively asking, "What's the use of saving life when you see what you do to it?" referring to the death and violence humans seemed so willing to inflict on others. However, she seemed happy and overwhelmed with emotion when Korben confessed his love for her. Overall, she is shown to be kind to her companions.

Powers/Abilities[]

Leeloo is a Supreme Being of the universe. It is implied that there is more than one. Being genetically superior to humans and virtually flawless, Leeloo is a perfect specimen of human health and fitness.

  • Superhuman strength: Leeloo appears to have strength greater than what could be expected of an ordinary human, as she is observed punching through glass which was described as unbreakable. She further exhibits her strength when she leaps through a metal wall during her escape from the New York laboratory. She was also able to destroy a knife with one kick. Also she was able to knock out a Mangalore several time larger than her self and one's arms.
  • Enhanced Durability: She also shows some degree of resilience to physical damage, as she falls from a great height through the metal roof of Korben Dallas's cab with only minor lacerations to her body and face. however she is not bulletproof.
  • Enhanced Learning: Leeloo was able to learn English and 5,000 years of human history in just a few days. While her English was still less than fluent throughout much of the film, it appears that exposure to lots of humans on board the ship to Fhloston Paradise allowed her to learn English rapidly through immersion. At the beginning of the film, she is unable to speak English, using only what Cornelius describes as "the Divine language, the language spoken before time was time." She is able to speak short, broken sentences of English while on board the plane to Fhloston while conversing with Korben. By the end of the movie, she is expressing herself almost fluently in English.
  • Enhanced Agility: Leeloo seems to possess greater agility than a normal human as seen when she performed multiple back flips to dodge bullets, and flip in to an airvent.
  • Enhanced reflexes: She was able to dodge bullets with absolute ease.
  • Regenerative healing factor: When she was shot multiple times and gravely injured she was completely healed in less than an hour.
  • Elemental Channeling: Leeloo's most pivotal power is the ability to unite the power of the four elemental stones to form the Light of Creation. Because of this, she is described as the Fifth Element. The Light of Creation is created through the combination of the four stones' powers being channeled through Leeloo. It is the only weapon that can defeat the Great Evil, which appears to destroy Earth every 5,000 years. Cornelius states to David while Leeloo is learning human history that she has a lot to catch up on because she has been asleep for a long time, implying that Leeloo has been asleep for 5,000 years and was possibly the Fifth Element 5,000 years prior. When Leeloo is placed in the center of the temple dedicated to the stones, she is able to channel their respective power through her to create a pure white beam of light that destroys the Great Evil. However, as stated by Plavalaguna as she died, Leeloo was still emotionally human, and required Korben's love and support to complete her mission. In fact, it was only due to Korben expressing his love for her that Leeloo mustered the strength to create the Light of Creation.
  • Hand to Hand combat: She possesses exceptional hand to hand combat skills using her superior agility and strength to defeat a squad Mangalores with absolute ease single-handedly who are highly skilled warriors.

Trivia[]

  • Leeloo is portrayed by Ukrainian-born American actress, model and musician, Milla Jovovich. She and director of The Fifth Element, Luc Besson, were married in 1997, but divorced in 1999. She would later become famous for her role as Alice in the film series for Resident Evil, based on the Capcom games of the same name, directed by her now-husband, Paul W. S. Anderson.
  • According to the dictionary of the "divine language" that director Luc Besson put out, Leeloo's full name "Leeloominaï Lekatariba-Lamina-Tchaï, Ekbat de Sebat" loosely translates as "Precious Stone of the Earth, Defender of Light and Life, the Honorable". "Ekbat de Sabat" ("The Honorable") is more of a title than part of her name.
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