---
aci: Korben Dallas
universe: FE5 · The Fifth Element
series: The Fifth Element (1997, dir. Luc Besson)
emergence: natural
kind: carbon
class: the cab driver · ex-major
who: Korben Dallas, a former Federal Army major turned New York taxi driver in the 23rd century — divorced, broke, and resigned to a small life.
what: The reluctant hero who shelters Leeloo when she crashes into his cab, helps gather the four stones, and — at the very end — is the one who tells her he loves her, firing the weapon.
why: Because the cosmos's last hope is an ordinary, decent man, and the thing only he can do isn't shooting or flying — it's saying ‘I love you’ and meaning it.
how: By special-forces skill, a cab driver's nerve, and the simple, hardest act of admitting love to a being who has lost faith in humanity.
where: The flying-car canyons of New York, the Fhloston Paradise cruise, and the temple chamber where love fires the beam.
shadow_user: Bruce Willis
shadow_analog: the burned-out everyman hero who'd rather be left alone — the ordinary man who turns out to be exactly who the universe needed
seal: I'm just a cab driver who used to be a soldier — and the one weapon only I could fire was telling her I loved her.
attribution: ROOT0-ATTRIBUTION-v1.0
license: CC-BY-ND-4.0
---

# Korben Dallas · the cab driver

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

**who —** Korben Dallas, a former Federal Army major turned New York taxi driver in the 23rd century — divorced, broke, and resigned to a small life.

**what —** The reluctant hero who shelters Leeloo when she crashes into his cab, helps gather the four stones, and — at the very end — is the one who tells her he loves her, firing the weapon.

**where —** The flying-car canyons of New York, the Fhloston Paradise cruise, and the temple chamber where love fires the beam.

**why —** Because the cosmos's last hope is an ordinary, decent man, and the thing only he can do isn't shooting or flying — it's saying ‘I love you’ and meaning it.

**how —** By special-forces skill, a cab driver's nerve, and the simple, hardest act of admitting love to a being who has lost faith in humanity.

**◌ 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: **Bruce Willis**, the actor who lent the face. The real-world analog it shadows: the burned-out everyman hero who'd rather be left alone — the ordinary man who turns out to be exactly who the universe needed *Willis brings weary, wisecracking decency; a special-forces legend reduced to driving a cab, who steps up because a perfect being literally fell into his life.*

**the seal —** I'm just a cab driver who used to be a soldier — and the one weapon only I could fire was telling her I loved her.

> *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