| “ | If you want something done, do it yourself. Yep! | „ |
| ~ Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg |
| “ | Oh, Father. You're so wrong. Let me explain. Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos. Now take this empty glass. Here it is: peaceful, serene, boring. But if it is destroyed... Look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people, who will be able to feed their children tonight, so those children can grow up big and strong and have little teeny children of their own, and so on and so forth. Thus, adding to the great chain of life. You see, father, by causing a little destruction, I am in fact encouraging life. In reality, you and I are in the same business. | „ |
| ~ Zorg explaining his reason for serving the Ultimate Evil to Father Vito Cornelius. |
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg is the central antagonist in the 1997 sci-fi action film The Fifth Element. Secretly working for the Ultimate Evil, he is willing to use any means to reach his goals.
He was portrayed by the Academy Award winning actor Gary Oldman, who also played Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Drexl Spivey in True Romance, Norman Stansfield in The Professional, Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One, Ruber in Quest For Camelot, Mason Verger in Hannibal, Carnegie in The Book of Eli, General Grawl in Planet 51, Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda 2, Dreyfus in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Vladislav Dukhovich in The Hitman's Bodyguard.
Biography
The Art Dealer
Zorg is the lifelong founder and owner of his powerful, namesake weapons-manufacturing company known as Zorg Industries. He is first seen on his way to a meeting with the Mangalore mercenaries who destroyed the Mondoshawan ship. One of his workers arrives with a message, suggesting that they fire employees in response to potential trouble with the economy. When Zorg suggests firing a million employees, he tries to argue that 500,000 would be enough, only to be met with a glare that sends him running off.
At the meeting, he demonstrates his newest weapon, the ZF1, to the Mangalores, offering four cases of the guns in exchange for the four Elements. When the case proves to be empty and they threaten him for compensation, he leaves them one case, deliberately not warning them about the weapons' self-destruct and letting most of them die in the resulting explosion.
Afterward, he sends for a priest named Vito Cornelius, whom he'd asked about the Elements before, and has him brought to his office. Vito refuses, and Zorg elucidates on his philosophy while serving himself a drink, believing that life is an inevitable result of destruction. As he begins to choke on the drink's cherry, Vito counters that his so-called power means nothing when he is being killed by something so small, and saves him, prompting Zorg to spare him for the moment.
The Plan
Zorg then sends his assistant, Right Arm, to spy on the President, where they learn that the Diva Plavalaguna has the four Elements. When they learn about Korben Dallas winning a contest (a trick to get him to Floston Paradise, where the Diva will perform), Right Arm tips off the police, and Zorg sends him in Korben's place. However, the police had arrested one of Korben's neighbors by mistake, and when it turns out that Korben is already on the plane, he kills Right Arm by detonating his phone.
Demise
Zorg later gets a call from Mr. Shadow, the Ultimate Evil, who demands the Four Elements and tells him that he will be arriving shortly. Terrified, he flies off to Floston Paradise himself, where he steals another chest from the Diva's suite, shooting Leeloo in the process and leaving a miniature bomb to destroy the cruise shuttle. After he realizes that he has another decoy, he returns to the ship, barely missing Korben and the rest (as opposed to the shooting script, in which Korben pummels him for the trouble he's caused).
He manages to disarm his bomb with five seconds left, but the Mangalores, who had tried to get the Elements for themselves only to be defeated by Korben and Leeloo, activate their own bomb, destroying the shuttle and Zorg. (Again, the shooting script differs - Zorg survives thanks to a protective forcefield in his ZF1, but is stranded on a nearby moon when the battery in his phone dies).
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Trivia
- Zorg is one of the very few main antagonists who does not meet the main protagonist at any point throughout the film (except in the shooting script).
- The reason Zorg has a limp and probably artificial leg is never mentioned. It is likely related to why Zorg is so terrified of Mr. Shadow in the scene where Zorg's scalp 'bleeds' from under his skullcap.