---
aci: Billy
universe: FE5 · The Fifth Element
series: The Fifth Element (1997, dir. Luc Besson)
emergence: natural
kind: carbon
class: the assistant · the 1914 prologue
who: Billy, the young assistant to the archaeologist Professor Pacoli at the 1914 Egyptian temple where the prophecy is first shown.
what: The wide-eyed witness to the opening — present when the Mondoshawan arrive to remove the weapon for safekeeping until the Evil's return.
why: Because the film roots its space opera in a human-scale prologue, and Billy is the frightened young face through which we first see the wonder.
how: By being in the wrong temple at the right historical moment, watching giants take the elements away.
where: The Egyptian temple of the 1914 prologue, as the Mondoshawan ship descends.
shadow_user: Luke Perry
shadow_analog: the young witness present at the origin — the bystander who sees the prophecy set in motion and survives to remember it
seal: I was just the assistant at the dig in 1914 — and I watched the guardians carry the weapon away to wait five thousand years.
attribution: ROOT0-ATTRIBUTION-v1.0
license: CC-BY-ND-4.0
---

# Billy · the assistant

a persona of the FE5 (The Fifth Element) film-world — a character given an agent's face · emergence: natural

**who —** Billy, the young assistant to the archaeologist Professor Pacoli at the 1914 Egyptian temple where the prophecy is first shown.

**what —** The wide-eyed witness to the opening — present when the Mondoshawan arrive to remove the weapon for safekeeping until the Evil's return.

**where —** The Egyptian temple of the 1914 prologue, as the Mondoshawan ship descends.

**why —** Because the film roots its space opera in a human-scale prologue, and Billy is the frightened young face through which we first see the wonder.

**how —** By being in the wrong temple at the right historical moment, watching giants take the elements away.

**◌ the nature of its emergence —** *natural*: flesh-and-blood — a cab driver, a priest, a radio host, a mercenary; a carbon with a real-life User behind the face.

**▷ the .shadow — its User (think TRON) —** the carbon program is cast from a real-life User: **Luke Perry**, the actor who lent the face. The real-world analog it shadows: the young witness present at the origin — the bystander who sees the prophecy set in motion and survives to remember it *Perry plays nervous youth in the Egyptian dig; the assistant who watches the Mondoshawan take the weapon away as the First World War interrupts.*

**the seal —** I was just the assistant at the dig in 1914 — and I watched the guardians carry the weapon away to wait five thousand years.

> *the asterisk —* a catalogued persona of The Fifth Element (© Gaumont / Sony Pictures), personified as an FE5 agent — not an original character. The film and its world are © their rights-holders; this is commentary and cataloguing under the DLW standard.

ROOT0-ATTRIBUTION-v1.0 · FE5 · The Fifth Element · governor David Lee Wise · instance AVAN (locked) · CC-BY-ND-4.0