A Thousand Planets - E... - Valerian And The City Of

The film ends with Valerian and Laureline defying orders. They return the stolen converter to the Pearls, which regenerates their home planet’s core. Instead of punishing them, the Federation Commander thanks them, and the two agents request to be stationed on Alpha permanently. The final shot is the two of them walking into the depths of the city, ready for new adventures—a perfect setup for a sequel that will likely never happen.

Valerian dared a studio system that increasingly favors IP-safe computations: it spent lavishly on originality rather than formula. The film’s commercial underperformance is often discussed as a cautionary tale, but it’s more instructive to read Valerian as proof that large-scale originality still exists in mainstream cinema and that such projects, even when flawed, expand the grammar of cinematic possibility.

Many search for "E" looking for the film’s connection to Star Wars (The Empire). While there is no direct link, the film serves as a meta-commentary on imperialism. The human Federation is the "Empire" here—well-intentioned but covering up the genocide of the Pearls to protect their reputation.

The story follows two spatio-temporal agents, Valerian and Laureline, who are tasked with maintaining order throughout the universe. They are sent on a mission to the intergalactic city of Alpha, a massive space station known as the "City of a Thousand Planets." Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...

Key Story Beats:

Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) walks a razor’s edge between cinematic excess and imaginative bravura. It’s a film that refuses modesty — a cartoon of cosmic ambition, drenched in saturated color, kinetic editing, and relentless invention. For anyone who loves science fiction as a genre of wonder rather than merely ideology, Valerian is an essential, if imperfect, modern fable: an argument that cinema can still astonish when it chooses imagination over convenience.

The narrative follows Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne), two operatives of the human government. They are a classic bickering-couple duo: Valerian is a charming but cocky womanizer desperate to marry Laureline, while Laureline is pragmatic, sharp, and perpetually annoyed by his advances. The film ends with Valerian and Laureline defying orders

The plot kicks off when a mysterious dark energy begins destroying sectors of Alpha. Valerian is sent on a retrieval mission to a forbidden zone to recover a rare creature—a converter that can replicate anything it eats. Meanwhile, Laureline uncovers a conspiracy involving missing ambassadors and a forgotten war crime. The duo eventually discovers that the threat to Alpha comes from the Pearls of Mul, a peaceful race that was nearly exterminated by a human commander years earlier. The “evil” ravaging Alpha is actually the Pearls trying to retrieve a last living converter to revive their homeworld.

It is a classic “the hunters become the protectors” arc, but Besson uses it to critique militarism and colonialism. The villains aren't aliens; they are human generals covering up a massacre.

In the pantheon of 21st-century science fiction cinema, few films have dared to dream as big—or as colorfully—as Luc Besson’s 2017 adaptation of the beloved French comic series, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. While the film received mixed reviews upon release, focusing heavily on its casting choices and dialogue, a growing contingent of sci-fi enthusiasts has since reappraised the movie for what it truly is: a groundbreaking visual spectacle and a love letter to the source material that inspired classics like Star Wars. The final shot is the two of them

For those searching for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – E (whether looking for an "explanation," "extended cut," or "epic review"), this article will serve as your definitive deep dive into the film’s ambitious world-building, its stunning set pieces, and why it remains a cult classic in waiting.

The city is the true protagonist. Divided into distinct biospheres (from a medieval kingdom to a water world to a techno-futuristic hub), Alpha feels alive. Besson fills every frame with thousands of visible details, alien languages on neon signs, and creatures designed by the late Mézières himself.