| Director | J Blakeson |
|---|---|
| Budget | $38 million |
| Box office | $109.9 million |
Ohio high schooler Cassie Sullivan, armed with an M4 carbine, emerges from the woods to raid an abandoned gas station. Upon entering, she hears a voice calling for help. She finds a wounded man who points a gun at her, and then each of them asks the other to put their weapon down. When he pulls his other hand out from under his jacket, she mistakes the metallic glint of a cross for that of a gun, so she kills him: the screen then cuts to black, and her backstory begins.
A colossal alien spaceship is circling Earth, guided by extraterrestrial life referred to as "the Others." Ten days later, The Others unleash their 'First Wave,' an EMP that disables all electrical power and communications worldwide and shuts off the engines of moving vehicles, including planes in mid-flight. The 'Second Wave' gives the Others power to manipulate the planet's geology and fault lines, causing earthquakes and megatsunamis that destroy coastal cities and islands, including Miami, London, Bangkok and NYC. In Ohio, Lake Erie floods; Cassie and her younger brother Sam escape by climbing a tree. For the 'Third Wave,' the Others modify a strain of bird flu and spread it across the planet. The population is decimated, with Cassie's mother, Lisa, one of the victims. In the 'Fourth Wave,' the Others control humans and have them kill other humans.
Cassie, Sam, and their father, Oliver, find a summer camp in the woods that serves as a refuge for about 300 survivors. A few days later, a US Army unit with working vehicles rolls into the camp. The unit's commander, Colonel Alexander Vosch, claims there is an imminent threat of a 'Fifth Wave.' He states that the Army will take the children to safety at Wright-Patterson AFB, and will bring the buses back for the adults. Cassie is separated from Sam and witnesses the Army unit massacre all the adults, including Oliver. Cassie makes her way toward the base but is shot in the leg by a sniper and passes out.
A week or so later, she wakes up in the farmhouse of a young man named Evan Walker, who tells her that he saved her life. Cassie leaves with Evan for the base, but she learns that he is an Other, sent years ago as a sleeper agent. He merged his consciousness into a human host. The sleepers roam their designated zones, killing human survivors. Evan admits that his humanity was reactivated when he saw her, and that he is unwilling to cooperate with his training or the invasion; he lets her leave. He warns that Vosch and the military are possessed by the consciousness of individual Others.
At the base, the military has used deception and technology to convince the rescued children that all humans outside the base have been possessed. They provide military training to the children, forming them into squads to go on killing missions outside the base. Sam has been placed into a squad led by Ben Parish, a boy Cassie had a crush on, along with Ringer, a tough teenage girl, Dumbo, a teenage boy who survived the 'Second Wave,' and Teacup. While on their kill mission, Ringer removes her military implant, causing her to register as an Other-possessed human on the squad's scopes. The squad deduces that the plan is to have them kill any non-possessed humans: i.e., they are the 'Fifth Wave.' Ben sends his squad into the woods and returns to base, claiming his squad was killed, in order to retrieve Sam, who was left behind. Ben confronts Vosch about child warriors being the 'Fifth Wave.' Cassie kills Sergeant Reznik during her one-on-one indoctrination. Ben and Cassie find each other and leave to find Sam. Evan sets off numerous bombs and advises them to find Sam before the destruction of the entire facility. Vosch and the surviving military Others evacuate with the human children by military aircraft. Cassie, Ben, and Sam escape, with help from Ringer, just as Evan completes the base's destruction. Ben's squad is reunited, and Cassie ponders the strength of hope as humanity's driving force for survival.