The 5th Wave (2016)
- Before Chloë Grace Moretz was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing J Blakeson's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- The original script for The 5th Wave was written over a decade before production finally began in 2016.
The 5th Wave is a 2016 American science fiction action film directed by J Blakeson, based on Rick Yancey's 2013 novel. Chloe Grace Moretz stars as Cassie Sullivan, a teenager surviving in the aftermath of an alien invasion that has systematically decimated humanity through five escalating waves of destruction: an electromagnetic pulse, tsunamis, a modified avian flu pandemic, parasitic body snatching, and a final wave using human children as soldiers. Separated from her younger brother when he is taken by the military, Cassie must traverse a dangerous landscape where any human could be an alien infiltrator.
The film was positioned as the next major young adult franchise following The Hunger Games and Divergent but arrived as audience appetite for the genre was waning. The 5th Wave earned $109 million worldwide on a $38 million budget, insufficient to justify the planned sequels. Despite its commercial underperformance, the film contained effective set pieces depicting the systematic collapse of human civilization through the aliens' escalating attack waves.
