Heavy Metal (1981) vs Fifth Element (1997) Comparison

My grandfather was the lead editor for heavy metal. Sadly he passed away from brain cancer when his daughter (my mother) was 16. We still have the dark room in our house where some of the film was processed.

Moebius worked as a designer on Fifth Element and was also an artist for Heavy Metal. The publishers of his comic Incal tried to sue Luc Besson, but it fell through partly because Moebius collaborated with Besson on his project.

This is so insane that this video exists. Many years ago my girlfriend (now wife) and I watched the Fifth Element together. Later that night I watched Heavy Metal, because I had just got it from the $5 bin at Walmart earlier that day. Being that the Fifth Element was still fresh in my head, I was blown away by the similarity.

I always thought The Fifth Element was a rip-off of Heavy Metal, until I learned two of the creators of Heavy Metal actually worked on it. And basically guided the end result of the movie quite a bit.

Heavy metal should be way more popular

"Hey man, let me copy your homework." "Okay but don't copy it exactly!"

My dad took me to see Heavy Metal when it was released. He probably shouldn't have taken me. I was way too young to appreciate it back then.

Heavy Metal was legendary when it came out... for those of us lucky enough to have gotten a copy when it was released in the early 1980's... Pure gold.

I just noticed this when watching Heavy Metal again and went to the internet to see if someone else connected these two movies. Yes, whoever wrote Fifth Element was definitely a Heavy Metal fan.

I am glad you did this, because I saw the parallels between the two stories for years, but every time I mentioned it to someone, they looked at me like I was nuts.

I have a vivid memory of watching Heavy Metal for the first time. I planned for it and it was a Friday night. The Heavy Metal cover was all over the cable t.v guide. First showing was of course after 10:30 due to the adult content. This was the 80s not today where its content on demand. To prepare for this night I froze some O.J and made rice crispy treats. The first issue with watching it was that the only t.v in the house that had cable was in my parents bedroom. Normally not a issue on a Friday night due to my folks owning a small tavern and usually worked Friday night. Well, this night she was off and getting dress to go somewhere around the start of Heavy Metal. So, now I am ready with my frozen O.J and my homemade rice krispy treats. Everything is good at the beginning and my mom is in and out of her bedroom while I am looking at Heavy Metal while eating frozen O.J and krispy treats. Then, the Den sex scene started and I can picture it vividly and my mom slows down while putting earrings in while looking at the scene. I sit there perfectly still without making a sound and then the scene ended. Then I heard my mom say quietly while continuing to get ready "at least its cartoons".

Brilliant. Back when Fifth Element was being worked on, Besson was really secretive about it. I remember the very vague "giant 5" previews shown in theaters, etc. But I read in a film magazine (don't recall which one) that it had a cabbie that saves a girl from trouble in a Bladerunner-esque city and they go on a big adventure together and I was like "hey that kind of sounds like the first part of Heavy Metal!" Well, lo and behold, it wasn't just that commonality!

Both of these movies are true classics!

Well... Heavy Metal the American variant of Metal Hurlant, a French Sci-Fi publication, and Harry Canyon (I think) was a Moebius story. Luc Besson is French, and was likely very well acquainted with this type of story telling and aesthetic (especially Valerian), and so it makes loads of sense that there is a tonne of crossover! *edit* One other thought: The Fifth Element was more Valerian than the movie Valerian, but I didn't realize how much T5E was influenced by Heavy Metal until now. While George Lucas was influenced more by the WWII movies that he had grown up on, the artistic styling and "used space" aesthetic was entirely based on the French stylings of the time. Cloud City is a great example of the Valerian influence.

He mixed heavy metal and star wars. Then stylized it like a Terry Gilliam movie.

I remember when The Fifth Element came out, I was 12. Pretty much every kid I knew had went and seen it. I was trying to convince all the kids at school it was basically a live action version of an American Anime from 80s called Heavy Metal. No one believed me, and kids tried to make fun of me for making it up.

I've always thought of 5th Element as a Heavy Metal movie. Same with Chronicles of Riddick (not all of them, just the second one). They both have that weird euro-sf sensibility that just feels like it's straight from the pages of Metal Hurlant.

Iirc, Besson said that the 5th Element was based on a story he thought up when he was young he'd always dreamed of making into a film one day. He'd have been around 22 in 81, and we all know how derivative our stories can be when youthful. It makes sense that he might have used it as a starting base, but he certainly lut his own unique spin on things, which is really what most storytelling is.

I remember being a kid and stayed the night at a buddy's house. This friend always had access to the coolest video games , movies and cartoons. We were about 9 or 10 still in elementary school, his parents were divorced so he was spoiled by both mom and dad. It's not that we were allowed to watch it at that age but once grandma would disappear in the room for hours. She only come out to feed us at the same times , so he knew when he could get away with it, lol. Heavy Metal was an amazing cartoon for it's time, thanks for the nostalgia. I never knew the fifth element had so many things in common to the cartoon Heavy Metal. No wonder the fifth element is one of my favorite movies , I've seen it hundreds of times.

Heavy Metal is like your college thesis love letter and 5h element is when you get some real financing under your belt.