Question
In The Fifth Element, why did the Mondoshawan carry the statue placed in the center of the stones into their ship?
Was it the fifth element? Are there several "fifth elements"?
Answer
Here's the whole story of the elements and stones, etc.:
There are five elements that make up the weapon against evil: Earth, air, fire, water, and love. Each element must have a physical representation in the world to actually make up the weapon, because you can't just put the actual elements into a pile to make a weapon. You especially can't do that with love because it is an abstract concept.
So for each element of the weapon, there is a thing that can be touched and held that channels the element into the weapon. For the first four elements, those objects are the stones. For the fifth element, the object is a supreme being.
The supreme being, also known as "the fifth element" for short, doesn't "live" a life for 5,000 years between the times that evil comes. Instead, it is held in a kind of stasis inside the statue and it "wakes up" when evil is near and then helps with the process of setting up the stones and forming the weapon to fight evil.
Both the good and evil sides have their servants, who are just normal creatures in the universe. The good side has a priesthood on earth that passes down through the generations the understanding of evil and the weapon, and they also keep it all very secret. The reason why they keep it secret is because the evil side also has people who will try to prevent the weapon from being used.
Since the weapon requires the four stones and the supreme being to be in the temple and the stones to be activated and someone to fall in love with the supreme being, all evil has to do is prevent one of those things and evil will win. This is why it all has to remain a deep secret and also why there is a special key to open the temple.
At the beginning of the movie, the four stones and the supreme being (in stasis) are secured in the temple. But there are two problems: First, great wars are coming to Earth. World War I and World War II are coming in the next 50 years and during those events, the temple, stones, and supreme being might be damaged, destroyed, or lost. The second problem is that an archeologist has found the temple and might be about to figure out a way to open the secret room without the key. Either way, the agents of evil will learn about the temple if the archeologist is allowed to study it and write about it, and that means evil may be able to take the stones and the supreme being and prevent the weapon from being used when evil returns.
The Mondoshawans know about all of this (it's not clear how - they seem to be some kind of non-human priesthood for good), and they realize the stones and supreme being (in stasis inside the statue) are at risk if they leave them in the temple on earth. So, they come to Earth to take the stones and the supreme being someplace else, with the plan to return when evil returns so the weapon can be assembled. That is what's happening when the movie begins.
That is also why Zorg is enlisted by evil to get the four stones. Evil promises Zorg power if Zorg helps and evil wants the stones so that the weapon cannot be assembled. Zorg hires the Bangalores to do his dirty work.
The Mondoshawans hide the stones inside the diva Plavalaguna (not sure why, but it all works out in the end so maybe they knew something) and then start the journey with the supreme being (I think now out of stasis?) back to Earth. On this journey, they are shot down by the Bangalores who are working for evil/Zorg, and the supreme being is the only "survivor" (in the future, you "survive" if you can be rebuilt from an intact part of your body, I guess).
I think the biggest point of confusion for you might be that you missed that the statue is Leeloo. Or at least she is inert inside the statue. Notice that the statue itself looks like a person with their head tilted back and their mouth wide open. This is exactly the pose that Leeloo has when the weapon fires.
The fifth element itself is love, but just like the other four elements with the stones, there has to be a physical "anchor" in the world for the element in order to make a weapon from the elements. Leeloo is the anchor for the fifth element. But no one wants to walk around saying "It's the physical embodiment of the fifth element which has come out of stasis!" so they just call her "the fifth element".
Answered By - Todd Wilcox
