In early January, if you’re looking for an incredibly fun, freaky, and familiar favorite to settle into the post-holiday winter with, turn no further than Tubi. The free streamer might have a sprawling catalog of some incredibly good films, but for action fans who grew up with Bruce Willis, it doesn’t get much better than this one. Beginning on January 1, the genre star’s iconic sci-fi flick, The Fifth Element, will blast its way onto the platform, giving audiences a chance to travel back in time and tune in for one of the ‘90s greatest movies. With a stacked ensemble cast, a unique vision and follow-through from its director, Luc Besson, and a legacy as impressive as its leading man, The Fifth Element deserves to be added to your must-watch list.
Set in a vibrant, hustling and bustling future, Besson’s sci-fi romp centers around Willis’ Korben Dallas, a New York cab driver who’s just trying to make it through his shift when an alien named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) literally falls into his life. Suddenly, the stakes of Korben’s everyday life have gotten a lot higher when he comes to discover that Leeloo is the final key that can prevent an otherworldly evil from making a mess of the Earth. With her power — and her power only — Leeloo will be able to join together with the elemental stones of earth, water, fire, and air to act as the trigger for a weapon that will ultimately stop the Earth from complete and total destruction.
By this point in his career, Willis was certainly not unused to playing the hero, with The Fifth Element further solidifying the actor’s status as a top name in the genre. In addition to his and Jovovich’s casting, the movie also features the immense talents of a standout group of actors that includes Chris Tucker (Rush Hour), Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Luke Perry (Riverdale), Lee Evans (There’s Something About Mary), and Brion James (Blade Runner).
Where ‘The Fifth Element’ Falls in Bruce Willis’ Career
As mentioned, The Fifth Element wasn’t necessarily a career-defining role for Willis, but it certainly helped secure his title as one of the decade’s greatest action heroes. The film came more than a decade after he landed his major breakthrough in Die Hard, with two more installments in the franchise exploding into cinemas before the arrival of the pulse-pounding sci-fi film in 1997. Later that year, he would chill audiences in Michael Caton-Jones’ The Jackal, while his performance in M. Night Shyamalan’s critically-acclaimed supernatural thriller, The Sixth Sense, was released two years later.
Head over to Tubi on January 1 to stream The Fifth Element.
- Release Date
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May 9, 1997
- Runtime
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126 minutes
- Director
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Luc Besson
- Writers
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Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
- Producers
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Patrice Ledoux