The story's premise is that every five thousand years, in conjunction with a planetary alignment, a 'Great Evil' appears whose purpose is to destroy all life. In preparation for the next appearance in 2214, a group of aliens called the Mondoshawan (pronounced "Mon-do-SHEE-wan") arrive on Earth in 1914 at an ancient tomb that is being excavated, to extract the only weapon capable of defeating the Great Evil, a collection of four stones representing the Classical Elements and the eponymous Fifth Element that conjugates the other four into organic life.
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