Image: Lionsgate Unlocked

Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is set centuries in the future, in a time when beings from all across the galaxy live together as one. But that had to start somewhere, and in this clip from the movie, you’ll see just how that happened.


This is the opening four minutes of Valerian, which hits digital download on November 7, then 4K and Blu-ray November 21. In this scene, the movie shows how Earth’s various space programs seeded a whole new galaxy. You see the moment humans first encountered aliens, and how that relationship blossomed and evolved until, finally, it brought about Alpha, the titular City of the Thousand Planets where most of the movie takes place.

The clip is just stunning and the use of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” only enhances it. It’s the perfect way to suck you into Besson’s world, which itself is based on the Valerian and Laureline comics by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières. Valerian wasn’t a huge hit in the US but it did well overseas, and this clip shows the scope and potential Besson was going for. It’s worth checking out.