In the 1997 film *The Fifth Element*, the fates of the characters are sharply divided between those who find personal or professional redemption and those who are consumed by their own greed or the "Great Evil."
### **Who Ends Up Better**
* **Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis):** At the start of the film, Korben is a depressed, world-weary ex-Special Forces major working as a taxi driver. He lives in a cramped apartment, is harassed by an overbearing mother, and has recently had his wife leave him for his lawyer. By the end, he has regained his sense of purpose, earned the gratitude of the entire Federated Territories (including the President), and most importantly, found love with Leeloo. He evolves from a man with "no fire" (literally lacking matches to start a cigarette) to the hero who saves the world.
* **Leeloo (Milla Jovovich):** Though she begins as a "Perfect Being," she is initially a confused, reconstructed DNA specimen with no understanding of the modern world. She undergoes a crisis of faith after learning about humanity's history of war and destruction. However, she ends up "better" because she chooses to embrace love and humanity over nihilism. She survives her wounds and finds a partner in Korben.
* **Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm):** Cornelius begins the film as a humble priest burdened by a 300-year-old secret and the immense pressure of an approaching apocalypse. He is often dismissed as a "madman" by the military. By the end, he has successfully fulfilled his life’s mission and his order’s ancient prophecy, surviving the ordeal to see the Great Evil defeated.
* **Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker):** While arguably traumatized by the events on Fhloston Paradise, the flamboyant radio host ends up in a superior professional position. Throughout the crisis, his microphone remains live, and he broadcasts the "scoop of the century" to over 50 billion listeners. He survives a near-death experience and cements his status as a legendary media icon.
* **David (Charlie Creed-Miles):** Cornelius’s nervous apprentice spends most of the film panicking in the temple. However, he successfully assists in the final ritual, proving himself a capable successor to Cornelius and witnessing a historical miracle firsthand.
### **Who Ends Up Worse**
* **Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman):** Zorg is the ultimate loser of the film. He starts as a billionaire industrialist and arms dealer who believes he can control chaos. He is eventually outplayed by his own arrogance—first failing to notice the stones weren't in the case he stole, and then dying in an explosion on Fhloston Paradise caused by the very Mangalores he had betrayed.
* **Diva Plavalaguna (Maïwenn):** The Diva serves as the "keeper" of the stones. While her performance is a high point of the film, she is shot during the Mangalore attack and dies on the floor of the opera house. Although her death allows Korben to retrieve the stones, she is physically much worse off than at the start.
* **The Mangalores:** This warrior race is manipulated and used as disposable muscle by Zorg. By the end of the film, their leader (Aknot) is killed by Korben, and the remaining warriors on Fhloston Paradise are killed when one of their own triggers a suicide bomb in an act of petty vengeance against Zorg.
* **The Great Evil (Mr. Shadow):** The primary antagonist is defeated just miles from Earth. Rather than destroying all life, it is transformed into a cold, dead moon trapped in Earth's orbit, its intelligence extinguished and its 5,000-year cycle broken.
* **General Staedert (John Neville):** The high-ranking military commander of the *U.S.S. Marc Antony* is the first major character to be killed by the Great Evil. He dies when his ship and crew are vaporized early in the film after attempting to attack the entity with conventional weapons.